Spring 1996 Newsletter
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a presentationby the HydestileAnimal Hospital after the CHAIRMAN'S REPORT Businessmeeting. Everyone is welcome. Vanessa The past year has providedthe usual mixtureof planning Lowndes applicationsand villageprojects. The paper and bottle banksare now situatedin the car park of the Rudgwick Hall, Bucks Green. We are assured by SouthernWater that a permanentsolution to our water supplyproblem is GASKYNSPOND beingdesigned and will be completedbefore next Over two years ago the PreservationSociety started summer'speak demand period. discussionswith west sussex county councirwith the The Society now holds the licence for the Gaskyns Pond view of taking over the licenceto maintain Gaskyns pond. and there is more aboutthis in the next column.We are At long last, and with a file of correspondencesome two very gratefulto LeslieHawkins for all his hard work in inchesthick, the licencehas now been approved. gettingthis project under way - it has not been easy. The Pond is shown on old maps of Rudgwickand in more It is hoped that the projectto publish Diana Chatwin's recent times it was a pond in the comer of the orchard of 'Gaskyns' book on timberframed buildingsin the Parishwill come to (now PennthorpeSchool). When the Gaskyns fruitiontowards the end of this year. lt has meant a Close housingwas builtby Croudaceabout 30 years ago tremendouscommitment from Dianawith the supportof a Croudace concretedthe bottom.We were able to inspect sub-committeefrom the Society.We are indebtedto Ken this in the summerwhen the pond dried up and it is stiil in Croninfor his help with the photography.The book will excellentcondition. Croudace, however, are still make an excellentChristmas present. technicallythe owners but transferredthe rights of maintenanceto the CountyCouncil Highways The Rudgwickprogramme of guidedwalks underthe Department. Underthe HighwaysAct 1980 County auspicesof the West SussexCounty Council was Councilshave the rightto transferresponsibility for extremelysuccessful last year. There is another full maintenanceof Highwayland to 'adjacentlandowners' programmein 1996 but you will now haveto pay 50p for 'free' underlicence. Two problemsarose however- the pond the officiallist. See our newsletter(p7) for the list of was not technicallyconsidered to be highwaysland walks startingin Rudgwick. and the PreservationSociety was not an 'adjacentlandowner'. There has been another busy year in the Planning However eventually these difficultieswere overcome and Departmentwith approximately73 applicationsrelevant to we now have the licence.One final difficultyemerged last Rudgwickduring 1995 and we commentedon most of autumn,just as we thoughtwe were there.The Council them. The applicationto buildfour new housesat Ridge, requiredus to take out publicliability insurance which we Church Streetwas refusedand we await further plans to thoughtwe wouldn'tbe able to afford.We have overcome be submittedor for it to go to appeal, Plans have been this by joiningthe BritishTrust for Conservation lodgedfor two attachedhouses to the rear of L'Antico, Volunteerswhich will not only give us valuabletechnical BucksGreen and for the originalbuildings to be returned supportbut will also enable us to provideinsurance at to two dwellings.We are againstback land development reasonablecost. in principleand have made our objectionsknown to Overthe years the pond had builtup a largeamount of HorshamDistrict Council. We have not objectedto silt in the bottomand the surroundshad becomevery L'Anticoreturning to its originalstate and have suggested overgrown.We were hoping to make a start at clearingit it mightreturn to its originalname of Snoxalls. and diggingout the silt at the end of last summerwhen There are two sites in the Parish,outside the defined the pond was dry. Unfortunatelythe Societywasn't built-uparea, which are both up for development.The first allowedto becauseof the insuranceproblems, but again of these is the land adjacentto the police House in Bucks a way aroundthis was found.Thanks to Neil Mitchelland Greenand the otherone is land nextto Woodfalls, his countrysidevolunteers we were able to make a good LoxwoodRoad, Tismans Common. We are strongly start and in Octoberwe were able to clear much of the opposedto both.The majorityof planningapplications are surroundingshrub and dig the silt intotwo largemounds smalland non-controversial,but we have commentedon in the centre which we hope might attractducks to nest. most of them. My thanksgoes to Judy Knightsfor her We now look forward to restoringthe pond to be an hard work and constantvisits to the planning Office. attractivefeature and a valuablewildlife habitat. OurA.G.M.will take placeon Monday2gth April, 1996 at the RudgwickHall, Bucks Green, at 7.30pm.There will be Leslie Hawkins RPS NEWSLETTER SPRING1996 I have not discoveredwho took over BrickkilnFarm from BRICKKILN FARM AND LOCAL StephenKnight until 1871, by whichtime the holdinghad BRICKMAKING been increasedto 120 acres,and was occupiedby CharlotteRiddle, widow aged 67, with her three Continuing the story of Brickkiln farm from unmarriedsons, William50, Francts42, James 25, and the Autumn A/ewsletter farm servantRichard Hampshire 32. BrickkilnCottage was occupiedby MauriceWoodhatch 47 , his wife, three By Alan Siney childrenand lodgerJames Puttock 48. In 1879Denzil To returnto the tithe map: it was fascinatingto carryout a Onslow,the Lord of the Manor,died on his estateat lengthysurvey and see nearlyevery piece of bank Great Staughtonin Huntingdonshire,and his large separatingroads, fields and gardens,intact and precisely holdingsin this areawere possiblysplit up and sold,or as shown, in this respectthe area must be almostunique. this was in the processof being arranged.However, in About 400 yards north-westof BrickkilnFarm was a 1881 BrickkilnFarm was stilla capitalholding of 120 clusterof buildingsopen to the road belongingto the acres, but with a new occupant,John Knight,a widower farm. From the size of the oak trees borderingthe top of 64 with his four sons and two daughtersbetween 18 edge of Barn Fieldthey must have been demolishedat and 33. Another resident,George Botting,a labourer least a centuryago. The large pond by the site of aged 51, had taken up occupancyof Brickkilnbarn. At WoodhouseFarm was there two centuriesago, no doubt this time the cottagewas occupied by Stephen Steer with made as a fish pond primarilyto lay carp on the his wife and son, both men being agriculturallabourers. gentleman'stable. The smallfarm pond lies very close on This historynow comes to that inevitableblank when the other side of the track.Just beyond the rear bank of recordedhistory ends and human memory begins: CousinsCottage garden lay the remainsof two largepear (censusreturns are only made publicafter 100 years)a trees on what was ChilbeamOrchard. ln 1842Cousins periodwhen local historycan usuallyonly come from Cottage was let to William Sheperd of FarnfoldFarm, and documents kept in privatehands and are so often thrown the road runningthrough it was called FarnfoldLanes. Yet away by relativesduring a clear-out.Arthur Barnettof I could find no single farm or homestead listed by that Tisman'sCommon recallsthat his father,who was born in name on the tithe apportionmentschedule. lt seemedto 1900, and livedin CousinsCottage for a time, oftenwent refer to large areas of land to the west and south, all down to Pephurstto watch them at work up to the period owned by the Lord of the Manor, and let to several precedingWorld War One. He was told that in the latter farmers. years the site was mainlyinvolved with makingland drain Who were the people who lived and worked at Brickkiln pipes ratherthan bricks.This is probablywhy the kilnwas tarm? The recordsare by no means complete as the able to keep workingafter most, if not all, small census returns often do not give a precise address, brickworkshad closed down. Before the turn of the 20th merelystating the locality.Indeed, there are signsthat century large brickworkshad evolved, using the more some illiterateoccupiers simply did not know the name of efficientcoal burningclamp system.They had power their cottage.In 1851Jesse Woodhatch, his wife,four driven pug mills,which not only mixed the clay,but also daughtersand his widowedmother livedat "Brickkiln extrudedunder great pressurein rectangularcolumns, Cottageor CousinsCottage". lf the enumerator,who had which only needed cutting off to length.Also they had to visit and fill out the forms was confused as to which solvedthe transportproblem: steam tractionengines was which, then we today have more reason to be so. could haul up to thirty tons five or six miles in an hour. Arthur said that the concretehard standingon the site Knight Farm By 1851 Stephen had left Brickkiln with his was laid to set up a saw bench rack producingtimber - were wife Sarah they eventuallyto have three sons and duringWorld War Two. Severalhouses (includingthe and moved Tisman's three daughters to Glovers at Cricketers)were built at Tisman's Common after the on which he took a 1000 year leasehold Common, 1851-54enclosures and it would be reasonableto occupiedit assignmentand to the end of his days. He assume that many housesbuilt in and around Rudgwick as a brickmaker 1851,1861 was listed on the and 1871 from the 1830"sto the turn of this centurywere builtwith census,evidently operating Pephurst Kiln all this time, as Pephurstbricks. by 1881, being 73 years of age and no longerworking, a new brickmakerhad moved into Pephurst Farm,Alfred As for the farmhouseand cottages at Brickkiln,they