Feniton History Group 34th Meeting

Feniton History Group held the 34th meeting at Feniton Church on 11th Oct. 2012

Sadly due to the poor weather only ten people came for a talk given by Chris Wakefield from Ottery St Mary.

I would like to thank Chris and our Group members for their help in making the evening a success. A total of £52 will be passed to Feniton Church.

Using excellent maps and graphics Chris explained his research using a wonderful document dated 1061 detailing the Ottery St Mary boundary of the time. 

The talk looked at how you can read the landscape using old maps and visual features, how the boundaries followed ancient hedgerows and rivers, it was interesting to see how the River Otter has changed course. The River Tale too has changed leading to Sir John Kennaway having concern over the Feniton / Talaton parish line.

Mentioned by John Leland in his tour of East Devon in 1542, we find the following:

“A(bout) 5 Miles farther (from Clyst St Mary Bridge) I passid by a forde over a Riveret caullid Tale, that a mile dim. lower above S. Mari Oterey Toun goith into Oterey Water. Ther is a Bridge of Stone by the Ford of Tale, From this Ford of Tale I rode about 2. Miles farher to Veniton Bridge, where Oterey Water is devidid into 4. Armes by Pollicy to serve Grist and Tukking Milles.  Apon 3. of these Streames I roode by fair Stone Bridges. The First Arme of the 4. was on the lefte, and had no Bridge that I markid. On the North side of the first Bridge was a Chapelle now prophanid. [spelling as written]

Many of the long hedgerows would very old even iron age to mark land ownership, the Domesday Book

Robert Count of Mortain Domes day to Drogo Exon Domesday  shows that Feniton was worth £4 then  dropped to 40 shillings.

The old land measurements were quite variable, a Hide being equal t the amount of land an ox  could work in a day. and also enough land to maintain one family. 

 Many place names are very early Christian and Saxon meanings, the grapic showed that in 620 AD land to west is Christian and to east Saxon.

There is an area called Little England in Wales, seeming people from the North Devon Coast crossed the Channel to settle there.

As well has the land boundaries changing the homesteads evolved to from one large open room to portioned homes with a Buttery where  wines butts stored and from the open fire in the centre to a hearth with a chimney in the mid 1500s

Field names reflect the landscape features or trades and industry, words like Boo means by the street, a

Brake  would be marginal land

Even some areas were thought to be homes of pixies and demons, the name Beowulf  was mentioned.

One of the early land owners was Mr. Sweet Esq of  Alfington, you can use these details to speculate the name origins, perhaps   Sweethams and similar names fields were  possible was once his?

This Landscape  website can help explore this subject further:

http://tinyurl.com/chea97g

Feniton History Group 33rd Meeting

Feniton History Group held the 33rd meeting at Feniton Church on 13th September 2012

Group members were joined by members of the public for a talk by John-Michael Kennaway entitled "The Fall and Rise of a Country Estate" Escot.

John-Michael showed a very interesting set of photos of the rise of the Estate from near dereliction to the thriving visitor attraction it is today. He also gave some detail of the early  history, the purchase from the Younge family in 1794. Sir George Younge had to sell due to debts incurred from dubious use of the public purse and the "rotten borough" of Honiton, the devastating fire in 1808, which destroyed the house, to the present day detailing the work and restoration, which of course is ongoing.  John-Michael is the 7th generation of his family to reside at Escot. 

I would like to thank John-Michael and our Group members for their help in making the evening a success. A total of £54 will be passed to Feniton Church. The Church is a perfect venue for meetings like this having the screen and projector.

Our next meeting will again be in the Church for a talk by Chris. Wakefield from Ottery St Mary Heritage on "Village Boundaries". This will be in the same format as the talk last night. 8:00 pm Thurs. 11th Oct. 2012, raffle prizes please.

David has suggested a "Bring and Share" meeting, where we pool our research and chat about our own projects. This will be  our November meeting in the Nog Inn on the 8th Nov. 2012 at 8:00 pm. 

Feniton History Group 32nd Meeting

We had a very companionable evening. Chris Saunders very kindly loaned us an Oral Project DVD on the Ottery St. Mary Brickworks. The interviewee was Mr Jeff Woodley who was manager at the works until its closure. The Group found it very interesting, Mr Woodley had wonderful old photos, he detailed the machinery and showed the method of making Sand Faced Hand Made Bricks.

One interesting fact was that the bricks used to build the 1930s houses in the area of Burnthouse Lane in Exeter. They also made roof tiles, land drains and hanging tiles.

Thank you Chris for making this available to the Group.

Now to business, Geoff's suggestion for a visit to Fursdon sounds very interesting, but as we have a full program and the house closes at the end of August, we will plan this visit for June next year. This link will tell you more:     Fursdon House.

Jenny and George are working hard on the Power Point presentation of the Battle at Fenny Mead, they are adding some very realistic sound effects!!

We confirmed details of the Escot Talk, a raffle, tea, coffee and biscuits for our next meeting on 13th Sep. We will meet in the Church at 7:00, John Michael will need the screen and a extension lead.

The October meeting on the 11th will be with Chris Wakefield in the Church on Village boundaries, arrangements the same as above.

David suggested we hold a "Bring and Share" evening to show what members are working on and to offer help and advice where needed. This will be our November meeting, 8th Nov.

We were joined in the bar by a wonderful cat called Felix, he slept happily with us throughout the evening.

Hayridge Hundred

Feniton is in Hayridge Hundred.

Hayridge hundred was originally known as Silverton Hundred – can’t find when it changed or why it was called Hayridge.

A Hundred is subdivision of a English Shire first noted in the 10^th century and survived as a unit of local government until the 19^th century. The origin of the name is Anglo Saxon for an area comprising of around 100 geld hides (this was a basic Anglo Saxon land unit for taxation prurposes). The origin is probably Germanic meaning 100 warriors or households. One hundred geld hides approximated to about 12000 acres or 18.75 square miles. The hundreds varied in size and the makeup of the parishes in each hundred continually changed. Each hundred had its own court which met regularly every four weeks until the 13^th century by which time local lords had taken them over and they gradually lost importance from the 16^th century onwards. The court was made up of Tythingmen from each of the parishes or Tything groups in the hundred. They had responsibility for crimes committed by members and jurisdiction over pleas of debt and trespass. In northern counties the equivalent to a hundred was known as a Wapentake – from the Norse word for the same unit.

Notes and details of the freeholders and attendees at Hayridge Hundred courts for the 17^th and 18^th centuries are held in the DRO – some have been transcribed by the Friends of the Record Office and are online. [Geoff]

Feniton History Group 31st Meeting

It was good to meet up again after our beak last month.

The research and displays we staged for the Art Fund event in the village were very well received, this also means we have done some very useful property and family research for our archives. The total amount raised was well above expectation at £1,137.00.

I would like to thank the members for all their hard work in staging the event. The display depicting the Prayer Book Rebellion by Jenny is a real master piece.

During the last few months I made some notes I thought the Group would find of interest and these were discussed:

Look into the Enclosure act in relation to Feniton.

We would benefit from having copies or the fiche for the Land Tax Assessments for the village, to get them photo copied at the DRO would be very expensive at .25p per sheet, so I will enquire if we can buy the set of fiche, we do have a £25 donation from the Art Fund and £7 from the Railway CD sold at the DRO Open Day. I hope this will cover the cost.

The Parish Record Transcripts are well on the way to completion, we need permission of the Rector and Churchwardens to put them on the Internet, either on our Blog or on the Devon GENUKI website, the preferred option.

We discussed spelling and how important it is to keep an open mind when looking for place and surnames.

The Hayridge Hundred and the Peasant's Revolt Poll Tax of 1381 was another point raised, there are documents relating to this may be worth a look, if they are readable!!

We discussed the origins of the chapel at Fenny Bridges, the one intact by the old A30 was probably built  for the Wesleyan Centenary in 1839, the early chapel was thought to be in the garden of the Mill. The bodies buried at the chapel were reinterred in the churchyard in 1949.

In the Baptism Register in mentions the Salter family lived "In the corner", Geoff checked this out in the DRO and it is though this phrase was used to differentiate between the various Salter families there at the time, 1549 to 1625. Thanks Geoff.

Other topics,    "Hull" the name for the box the priest used to shelter in to take a burial in the graveyard on a wet day!

 Bones found on Woodbury Common though to be Cornish Rebels, the bones showed the men were very tall, perhaps due to good nutrition from the fish diet, then we talked about how we make assumptions on things when the full evidence is missing! 

Clerks comments in their Registers.

Origins of the name of Chelsea Farm, something to ask about.

Memories of flooding in the past. bought on no doubt by the current wet weather and floods in the area. I hope I have remembered everything! It was a very full evening.

MESSAGE ON A POSTCARD

An old picture postcard has been found showing the old part of Feniton village. In front of Court Barton and Thorn Cottage is a group of nine little boys posing with their hoops. A man stands with the boys at the entrance to Court Barton. The stamp, which would have given a clue to the date the card was sent, is missing. The card is addressed to Miss L Harris, C/O Mrs Sage at Kersbrooke, Budleigh Salterton, with this message:

Dear Lily, Just a PC to tell you that G Harris is ill again, had a fit Saturday night had only been in bed 2 minutes the Dr came out Sunday morning he says he cannot do anything for him. Me and Aunt Ellen were going to bike to Axminster Monday if this had not happened. Keep this card. Puzzle find Bert on it. Love to both from Mother xxx   Will write later.

With the help of parish registers, census returns and GRO lists it is surprising what this simple message can reveal.

Miss Lily Harris was living-in as an ‘assistant with dairy work’ with the Sage family on a farm at Kersbrook, Budleigh Salterton, in 1911 when she was 19 years old. From her baptism in 1892 in Feniton we find that her parents were Frederick and Emily Harris.

Lily’s mother Emily was from the Colyton area, one of seventeen children of farm worker Edwin Dare and his wife Anna. Emily and Fred had met when they both in service at Rull Farm, Cheriton, Payhembury. In the spring of 1892 they married and their first child Lily Maud arrived during that summer. (A romance in the farmyard?) Lily’s siblings were also baptised in Feniton church: Elsie in 1894, Daisy in 1895 while the family were living at Sherwood, and Ernest in 1899 when they had moved to Curscombe.

In 1901, when Lily was eight, she and her five year old sister Daisy were recorded staying with an Uncle and Aunt, James and Anna Salter, at Fenny Bridges. (Anna was Fred Harris’s sister) Their mother Emily had recently died and father Fred was living as a widower at Charlton, Feniton with his other children Elsie and Ernest, an elderly man Henry Tucker and his 20-year old grand-daughter Sarah Strawbridge. (Sarah seems to have been brought up by her Tucker grandparents at Cheriton). Later that year Fred and Sarah were married. They had a baby boy Albert, baptised in Feniton Church, in 1902.

By 1911 the family were living at Sweethams – Fred and Sarah with Ernest age 11, Albert age 9 and Sarah’s grandfather Henry Tucker, by now age 80. Sister Daisy was in service with the Pidsley family of auctioneers in Sidmouth

The ‘Bert’ mentioned on the postcard was very likely Albert, Lily’s young half- brother. The boys look about aged between six and 12 so it is probable that the picture was taken between 1908 and 1914. Bert may well have trundled his hoop down Green Lane to join his pals when the photographer persuaded them to pose. Could the man in the picture be the farm manager Walter Vallis who was living with the Horsford family at Court Barton in 1911? Rose Horsford, a widow, was then running the family farm. The Horsfords had been at Court Barton since the 1840s.

 So it was Mrs Sarah Harris who bought this postcard to send to her step-daughter Lily who was ‘living in’ at Kersbrook, Budleigh Salterton. ‘Keep this card’ she wrote, so it was probably newly published.

Sarah Harris had been baptised in Colyton Church in December 1880. Her parents were Frederick Strawbridge, a tin plate worker, and Sarah Ann Tucker, and they had been married in the church the previous August. Just twelve days after the baptism, baby Sarah’s mother was buried. By the next census in the spring of 1881 Fred, now a widower, was back living with his family in Colyton and his baby daughter Sarah Ann was with her grandparents Henry and Mary Tucker at Cheriton, Feniton. By late 1891 grandmother Mary had died and Grandfather Henry was left with his 11 year old grand-daughter to care for.

Sarah’s mother Sarah Ann Tucker had a younger sister Ellen who married a thatcher Frank Rowe and they settled in Payhembury. This is just up the road from Cheriton and Feniton, so she probably kept in touch with her niece Sarah, and could be the Aunt Ellen who was going to cycle with her to Axminster.

Sarah Harris’s father Fred married again and remained in Colyton. His wife Rose and daughters were working as Nottingham lace net menders in 1911.

Fred’s father Robert Harris, a farm labourer lived on as a widower at Sidbury into old age. He was the ‘G. (grandfather) Harris that Sarah described on the postcard as having a fit. The doctor ‘cannot do anything’ she wrote. Robert died in the early summer of 1913, which suggests when the card was written. So Sarah and Aunt Ellen could not ‘bike to Axminster Monday’. Were they just going for the ride? We shall never know! It would have been a long haul from Feniton and Payhembury, especially on the heavy bicycles of the day.

Sarah Ann Harris, who wrote a brief message on a card that has shed light on so much local history, died on 3^rd May 1918 at Sweethams, aged just 37. Husband Fred was a ‘farm carter’. The death certificate gives the cause of death as ‘Cardiac disease, mitral regurgitation, for some years’, meaning that the patient had a faulty heart valve; one common cause in the days before antibiotics was rheumatic fever, a bacterial infection that damaged the heart. It is a wonder that Sarah had been fit enough to ride a bicycle with this condition. Also a cause of death was ‘acute gastric catarrh’ for 6 weeks. This was a form of gastritis, a nasty inflammation of the stomach lining, causing excessive vomiting and not being able to keep any food down: a truly horrible way to die. Present at the death was Lily Harris, step-daughter. Had Lily had to go home to nurse her step-mother?

Later that summer of 1918 Lily married Thomas Bastin, a mason’s labourer who lived with his family at South Farm Cottages, Kersbrooke. Perhaps the ‘love to both’ on the card included Lily’s intended’ Thomas Bastin. After Sarah’s death she was free to go back to Budleigh to marry her sweetheart. Perhaps she had been waiting a few years to marry. This is the kind of sacrifice that girls were often expected to make in those days.

Written and researched by Brenda Powell. 

Feniton History Group 30th Meeting

This meeting was dominated by arranging the Art Fund Event display. The research is going well, albeit rather confusing as the census and the Street Directories very rarely gave the property address! It seems that Court Barton and the adjoining house, Thorn Cottage, were part of each other at varying times.
An interesting point is the rear of Court Barton is over part of Thorn, and this is known as a flying freehold.
Brenda has researched one of  the boys in the postcard, shown below, Bert Harris, and his family.

The message on the reverse of the card

The meeting had a debate about the failures of the modern railways!!! The evening was rounded off with Alan reading the "Devonshire Alphabet" It was enjoyed by all. Thank you Alan.
Date of the next meeting in the Nog Inn  Thurs. 12th July.