Chapter 7
1851, the second week of May Tuesday Bright sunny day to start. Must have been quite a frost last night. Could still see it on the roofs where the sun hadn’t reached first thing. Vegetables don’t seem to have taken any harm except for some more nibbling. The wife was more concerned with her few flowers by the gate. She takes these things personally. There was a hell of a lot of banging yesterday, what with the rook shooting. Shots were echoing in the tall trees. Old Jim wondered if the French had come back. Old John Walker came past with a bag of young branchers. He was very pleased to show off his old rook rifle. He said that his father had owned it and perhaps his father before him. I heard that Young George Allen was seen taking a bag back into Manor Farm. You don’t tend to think of the Brown family sitting around the table ready to eat the young rooks in a pie. I saw Old Henry today. He said that he has had a run on pigs’ trotters for the rook pies. He said that from now on, he was going to ask his son-in-law to look out for six-legged pigs at Bicester market. He was cock-a-hoop about selling the Parish Clerk some of Old Jim’s “special lamb”. He wondered why I wasn’t at the Stars Saturday night. He said it wasn’t much of a night and nobody knew anything about what the Browns had been at up in London. I walked back down the village with Mary Parrott. She had been up to the smithy. She was carrying a great bag of nails on her shoulder. She had that great big grin on her face that never seems to go away. She was getting really excited about her sister’s wedding next week. I asked her if she had also been looking around Ludgershall for another blacksmith’s son. She blushed like a great red beetroot. She said that there was no chance of that! Mary said that she had got her white bridesmaid’s dress ready. It had been hanging up on the beam in the bedroom next to Sarah’s wedding dress for a few days now. I told the wife about Mary and her bridesmaid’s dress. She smiled. We all know that there is nothing that pleases Mary more than to go to a family wedding. By rights she is getting a bit old to be a bridesmaid at a youngens’ wedding. Old William and Sarah aren’t worried by what other folk might say. Mary may not be the smartest Parrott but she has the nicest nature. It’s a shame, but everyone reckons that Mary is now past the marrying age. Thursday Another hard frost last night. The wife couldn’t face looking out to see if the frost had gone with any more of her flowers. My young cabbages took a bashing. They looked sad little fellows all flopped over. Folk will be worried about the apples as well. Two days running we have had a cold wind coming from Marsh. I was chatting with Billy Bottle outside his farm for a while. I could see he wanted to chat. I thought I would try out some of my new listening skills I have been picking up. He said he and Mary Ann have been in a bit of a quandary for some time. They were concerned that they were both getting on a bit now and they didn’t know what would happen to the girls and the farm. He said that he was also worried about dying before too long and leaving Mary Ann with the girls and the farm to look after. Apparently Mary Ann didn’t like him to talk about that eventuality. I can clearly remember a few years back when they lost their infant boys within a couple of years of each other. It had taken them a while to get over that and then they went and lost their daughter Ann, just twelve years old, perhaps ten years ago. I remember that Ann had started to play the flute just before she died. Young Elizabeth has it now. Old William said that he knows that their girls have brought them much laughter and joy but without any sons he doesn’t know what will happen to the farm and his family. Young Thomas Gibbons walked past us. His mind seemed to be on other things as normal. He went into the Bottrell farmhouse with his violin. William said that Thursday mornings have become regular music practice sessions for Tom and his daughters and the rest of the musicians. Sarah is away at present so I though it must have been Elizabeth with her flute and Martha with her clar’net that we could hear getting warmed up. Old Billy said that young Emma Marlow had arrived ages ago with her violin. He said that he likes to get out of the house when the racket starts. As I came away I saw Old “Grocer” Horwood struggling towards the farm with his oboe. I heard Billy Bottle greet him with “late as always, Thomas!” He replied that he had been up since dawn trying to scrape a new reed for his instrument. Didn’t quite catch what Billy’s reply was. The Parson’s Pet came scuttling down past the Church. We could see from a way off that he was a bursting with something he wanted to tell us. He had just come from Manor Farm with news that the whole Brown family had been to see a great exhibition in Hide Park. They said it was the biggest building that anyone could ever imagine. Thomas Brown reckoned that a good half of Piddington could easily fit inside. Not only that, it was built of glass! Some of the visitors called it a palace made of crystal. It has trees and birds inside and full of treasures from around the world. Thomas had told him that all the ladies were in a long queue to spend a penny! We asked the clerk what he meant by that remark. He said that he didn’t like to ask in front of the family. He will try and find out if the vicar’s wife has heard the same tale. Old William Turvey arrived even later for the practice with his bass viol. Billy greeted him with “Afternoon Topsy, what time a day do you call this?” Old Henry called this evening, just as it were turning dark. He asked me to give him a hand with some rabbit skinning. He had a whole heap of rabbits hidden under a sack in his yard. Must have been twenty or more. He said that some of the lads had been out last night and had made a special delivery before dawn. He said he would only be hanging one up in the shop at a time. He didn’t want anyone to get suspicious. He said he would use his “Launton Rabbit” sign again. He didn’t want any of the Piddington farmers thinking they were buying back their own rabbits. He reckoned trade wasn’t too bad. Those that can buy, seem to be buying still. He said that despite the Parson’s sermons banging on about Lent, the orders for the vicarage were as good as ever. Sources & Inspiration The rook shoot! Old Zach and Graham Burchell reminiscing about rook shoots and rook pies; “You don’t want to go eating the old rooks!” The young birds were known a “branchers”. Zach told me about the special rook rifles they used in the olden days! Zach’s recipe for rook pie: See under “Pyder’s Pieces”; hence the run on pigs’ trotters. Studying William Bottrell’s situation and, of course, an awareness of how things unfurl. A big thank you to Hazel for her choice of musical instruments for each of the characters. The clar’net isn’t too difficult to recognise. Hazel suggested that the oboe could have been described as a “hautbois” at the time. I don’t think many would have got that one! Topsy Turvey’s “bass viol”, to the layman seems to be similar to a double bass, and played with a bow, but having frets, like a guitar. For a more informed description, see Wikipedia and if you would like to hear it played, visit some excellent video clips on YouTube. The musicians must have an important performance coming up! Mary Parrott acting as witness at several of her brothers’ and sisters’ weddings. They have all signed the register with beautiful flowing signatures. Mary always marked her cross. Hanging her dress on the beam. There would have been a few to choose from in the smaller of the two bedrooms in the Parrotts’ cottage. The Great Exhibition, Hyde Park, 1st May to 15th October 1851. This remarkable structure and the exhibition inside, regarded by many as the pinnacle of the Victorian age. A showpiece, attempting to demonstrate Britain as a leader in the new industrial age. Not admired by all, perhaps a bit bling! It was nicknamed the Crystal Palace. It was moved and re-erected at Sydenham Hill in 1854. When I first read about this as a young lad, I was most taken by the problems they had catching all of the small birds that got inside. Their initial solution was to introduce sparrow hawks. They then had a problem getting the sparrow hawks out! I only read in Wikipedia this week that the first modern pay toilets were installed there, with 827,280 visitors paying the 1 penny fee to use them. The toilets remained even after the exhibition was dismantled. "Spending a penny" became a euphemism for using a toilet. Only the “well off” would have been able to visit when the exhibition first opened. The Brown family would have been able to afford to make this trip at the time. I have no evidence that they did attend. There is a probability that if they heard that any of their friends from “The Hunt” had visited, they would be seeking every opportunity to take the train from Oxford. Rabbit skinning. My nephew, Young William Cook and his great pile of rabbits outside the back door when he lived in Poundon. He was seriously in to ferreting until one morning he found that one of his ferrets was in fact a pole cat, having eaten the rest of his ferreting team. Vegetables, flowers and Jack Frost: Gwith Cottage 2020 Author's Notes I had a very positive start to the research this week. However, I have been hit by a couple of glitches and a blizzard of new historical clues toward the weekend. I think I have moved some way towards my objective of spending more time undertaking research and less time on the “diary.” I established that Billy Bottle (William Bottrell) and family were living at Laurel Farm in the mid-19th Century. I am now not too far away from establishing a fairly complete picture of ownership and occupation of Laurel Farm for 150 years. I have also built the key parts of the Bottrell family tree and know how this family became related to two other families in the village in the later 1850’s. Both fascinating routes to follow in quite different ways. I have also established that the Walker family were living in the Walker’s house (Fir Tree House) in the mid-19th Century. Not as easy as it seems because I was aware that they had sold the property in the 1840s. In 1851 they would have been tenant farmers, as were many in the village. I have made good progress on building the Brown family tree. Not easy but essential to understanding Piddington in the 19th and early 20th Centuries. I plan to spend more time on this next week. The book “Piddington Postscript” has provided me with many clues. The book is quite rambling as it recounts how the author, Colin Matson, revisits Piddington on several different occasions. I had virtually finished writing this week’s chapter when I thought it would be appropriate to mention some visitors to the Seven Stars. On the day of the census we have Thomas Greaves, a farmer and his wife and young son from Caulcott. This is the same village that James and Mary Ann were born in. I had excluded the Greaves family from “Characters” when I started the diary in 1850, assuming they were visitors to Piddington as stated. I had assumed that they had just arrived before the 1851 census. Before I added a paragraph, I thought I had better check to see if I could find both couples in Caulcott at an earlier date. The story I was expecting to write was that they were successful farmers from Caulcott and the Maycocks had suggested they come to Piddington. I was aware that Thomas Greaves was a farmer in Piddington from 1853 onwards from directory listings and the 1861 census. I had imagined Old Henry welcoming them to the village! Nothing that simple! I could not find them in Caulcott in 1841 and started to look more deeply. I noticed their two-year-old son, Albert was born in Piddington. I then searched for a baptism record:
On the positive side, we now have yet another publican running the Seven Stars: Thomas and Sarah Greaves, probably from 1848 until late 1850. Hannah Woode was recorded in the 1847 directory. The downside: I had the wrong couple behind the bar in early 1850 (Chapters 1 to 4). I subsequently found Thomas Greaves in Piddington in 1841, disguised as Thomas Graves in a household headed by George Graves! I then assumed that Thomas may have invited the Maycocks to Piddington from Caulcott! Again, not that simple. It took me a long time to find the Maycocks’ wedding: Ambrosden 15th August 1840. The marriage record shows that Mary Ann was in fact Mary Ann Graves, daughter of George Graves. We can see her brother, Thomas Graves, acting as witness! To add insult to injury I subsequently found Jim “Half-Cock” Maycock’s brother in 1851, running a sizeable farm in Ludgershall! I need to draw a line under this week’s activities. I have another publican to check out as well as a fish and chip shop and some images of the 1847 map! David Cook 16th May 2020 |