The middle of the village 1851
The map below showing a small part of Piddington has taken me many years to complete. The layout of the houses, cottages and outhouses has been the easy part. I have taken the detail from the 1898 Land Registry map shown here.
This shows the properties surrounding the junction between Thame Road, Lower End and the Arncott Road. Back in the 19th century these would be tracks rather than roads. Note that the map appears to show that the lane leading towards Arncott was gated. The map shows the layout of the wheelwrights’ yard that is very similar to earlier drawings that are attached to indentures for the cottage. The layout of the bakehouse and yard will be very familiar to those of us who can remember it forty or more years ago. The map provides us with something else, the location and size of the property that previously occupied the land where Michael Phillips now lives, the site of the last Post Office. |
The difficult part has been to establish with a reasonably level of confidence who was living in which of these properties. The map below shows my understanding of this part of the village in 1851
Michael’s father believed that there used to be an old pub on the site and found evidence to support this view. Michael let me examine the deeds a few years ago. These showed that in 1832 John Jorden took possession of the shop and house from William and Elizabeth Wiggins. At this time, he took out a mortgage of £50 from Richard Hadland, a baker from Bicester.
John Jorden, 1762 to 1843 was Henry’s father and in 1841 is recorded as 80 years old, shopkeeper living on his own. Henry is recorded in the next listed household as 51 and a “Retailer Beer”. He is shown with his wife Phoebe and three daughters. Their first child Jane was buried in Launton one day after being baptised. At the time of the baptism of his daughter Ruth in 1832 Henry is recorded as a publican. I am convinced that there was a pub on this site between 1832 and sometime between 1841 and 1851 when Henry is recorded as a butcher. I now know that the butcher's shop was next to the Seven Stars. I have portrayed Henry as a jovial character. Most butchers are. I was somewhat taken aback this week to establish that his two brothers and younger sister died at 8 months, 8 months and 10 months respectively. I could go back to earlier dates to describe John Jorden’s life in this part of Piddington. Perhaps in a few weeks' time? We know that the bakery was here before this date and we know the name of the baker 1861. That name doesn’t appear in the 1851 census. There is no mention of a baker in the 1851 census or in trade directories A name may be mentioned in deeds. The village bakery may not have been open at the time of the census. I have a few clues to follow and will try to pursue these one day. If you have kept up with the Diary you will already be familiar with the Parrott family living in the wheelwrights. What you may not have appreciated is that the Parrott’s home at that time was just part of the current Gwith Cottage. They will have occupied a fairly sizeable “two-up-two-down” cottage close to the track. They may never have made the long journey across the road and over the brook to the bakers’ as they had their own domed bread oven. Henry Jordan’s daughter Sarah, husband Richard Sulstan and two children lived in the reasonably sized “one-up-one-down” cottage further from the track. Evidence of the position of their front door remains today. Both cottages had only one door! The Sulstan family also had their own domed bread oven. The 1847 directory shows Edward Parrott as shopkeeper. He will have been nineteen at the time. Richard and Sarah will have moved in sometime between 1847 and early 1851. They were William Parrotts tenants. In my mind, Sarah may have been the shopkeeper, with husband Richard mainly busy with “the carrying.” The 1861 census describes this operation as “cottage cum shop.” One room downstairs: functioning as living room, kitchen and the shop. They will almost certainly have had to queue for the privy alongside the Parrotts. And what did they sell? This is difficult to answer. Elsewhere in the village we have “Horwoods the Grocer”, “Dumbletons the Grocer” and “Rogers the Shopkeeper” plus the shoemakers and the tailor. I expect that “The Sulstans” would sell anything that Richard could buy on his weekly trips to Bicester and Aylesbury that his competition were yet to stock. The wheelwrights at around 1910, showing the open door to the separate shop on the right hand side.
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