1st July, 2008 Issue 21
Oxfordshire Record Office, St Luke’s Church, Temple Road, Cowley, Oxford, OX4 2HT. Telephone 01865 398200. Email archives@oxfordshire.gov.uk.Web-site: www.oxfordshire.gov.uk
LARK RISE OBSERVATIONS
THE SMITHY AT FRINGFORD Page 1 SEE PAGES 2 and 3 - for ‘Observations’ 1st July, 2008 Issue 21 LARK RISE OBSERVATIONS
Anyone watching the recent BBC adaptations of FloraThompson’s Lark Rise to Candleford trilogy will be aware that, although filmed elsewhere, the novels are set in the north-east corner of Oxfordshire with Lark Rise representing Juniper Hill and Candleford supposedly an amalgam of Banbury, Bicester, Brackley and Buckingham. Flora Thompson (nee Timms) lived at End House in Juniper Hill, a hamlet of Cottisford where she attended the local Board school and church on Sundays. Her job in the post office was at Fringford (about 4-5 miles away).
In the novels Flora called herself Laura and in the TV series her parents are called Robert and Emma Timmins. In real life her family name was Timms and her parents were called Albert and Emma. The End House where they lived in Juniper Hill can still be seen today (part of a modern dwelling) and its location can be seen on an OS map, c1900. The Cottisford parish registers reveal that 10 children of Albert and Emma were baptized in the church, starting with Martha on 13th Nov 1875 and ending with Cecil Barrie on 6th Mar 1898 (over 20 years, by which time Emma was in her mid-40s). Four of the children, including Martha, Albert (born 1882), Ellen Mary (born 1893) and Cecil Barrie (buried 4th Apr 1900) died in infancy. Flora was the second child and baptized on 4th Mar 1877. In the earlier years Albert’s occupation was described as labourer but in 1890 and 1893 it was listed as mason and in 1898 as bricklayer. Plaque in Cottisford Church Albert and Emma were married in Cottisford church on 29th July 1875. Albert is there described as a mason from Cottisford ( he may have been residing there for some time; he originally came from Buckingham), son of Thomas, also a mason. His bride was Emma Dipper, also from Cottisford (originally from Ardley), daughter of John, a labourer.
Albert, Emma and their surviving children appear in the census returns for Juniper Hill in 1881-1901: Flora and Edwin (their 3rd child, born in 1879) are in both the 1881 and 1891 returns. By 1901 only their last two children were still at home: Frank Wallington (born 1888) and Annie Gertrude (born 1890). The 1901 census confirms that Albert was referred to as a bricklayer by this time.
Edwin (Edmund in the novels) was killed at the Battle of the Somme in 1916. The family remained at Juniper Hill until Albert’s death in 1918. The Cottisford burial register shows he was buried on 17th Dec, aged 64. Emma lived until she was 80: the Cottisford register shows that she was living in Hethe and was buried on 5th Dec 1933 – I wonder if it was this event which prompted Flora (now living in Devon) to write about her childhood.
Laura’s employer in the TV series is a 30- 40 year old spinster called Dorcas Lane, whose father was both a blacksmith and postmaster in the town of Candleford. In reality the circumstances were somewhat different. Flora was employed in 1891 in Fringford by a 56-year-old widow called Mrs Kezia (Keziah) Whitton. The Fringford parish registers show that her husband, John Whitton, was buried on 28th Aug 1891, aged 61. The registers also show that they had 4 children baptized at Fringford between 1860 and 1865. The first two, Anna Louisa and John Kirby, died in infancy. Page 2 1st July, 2008 Issue 21 John’s occupation is described as blacksmith. This is confirmed in a directory of 1864 and also in the census of 1861-1881. However Kelly’s Directory for 1883 shows that John Whitton was the Receiver in the Post & Money Order Office & Savings Bank as well as being a blacksmith and farrier and this is confirmed in the census and directory of 1891. He died later that year and his wife, Kezia, is listed in an 1895 Kelly’s as sub-postmistress and blacksmith/farrier. This position was not something that was bestowed automatically and it must have seemed extraordinary in those days for a working woman – and a blacksmith at that - to have been elevated to such a high level of responsibility. The post office was now listed as an annuity and insurance office as well. Kezia died in 1898 and was buried at Fringford on 16th Feb., aged 63.
The census returns also reveal interesting details about their household including names of relatives, employees and servants. Two names are significant: their son George Kirby, baptized 27th April 1862, who appears with his parents only in the 1871 census; and blacksmith Frederick William Plumb, who appears in both 1881 and 1891 – aged 21 and 31 – as a boarder and employee, (possibly the model for Dorcas’s blacksmith, Matthew, in the TV series). It’s hard to find a model for the wonderful maidservant, Zilla (played by Liz Smith in the TV series) but there was a Zilpha Hinks, an unmarried 26-year-old, who is listed as a general servant to the Whittons in the 1881 census. However she no longer appears to be working for the Whittons in 1891 so it’s unclear whether Flora knew her.
Finding an accurate location of the smithy and post office where Flora worked has provided something of a mystery. The 1900 edition of the OS 6” county series map shows a smithy and a post office in separate places. In Kelly’s 1911 directory, the sub-postmaster of Fringford is listed as Ernest Price. Examination of the land valuation (District Valuers) survey maps and valuation books (created c. 1910-12) reveal that Ernest Price occupied a house and shop on the western edge of Fringford (hereditament number 186) – but there is no indication that this was either a smithy or post office and its location does not fit with the OS map locations of either.
However, where the smithy is shown on the map, the valuation book shows that it was occupied by one Frederick William Plumb, blacksmith (hereditament number 242). What’s more the owner is listed as none other than G Whitton. Frederick William Plumb, who was employed as an assistant blacksmith by John Whitton and later his wife in the 1880s and 1890s, was now running the smithy which was still in the family, owned by the Whitton’s son, George Kirby. An interesting aside on George Kirby is contained in the Fringford parish registers which records the baptism on 31st July 1887 of Arthur John Whitton son of George Kirby and Catherine Mary: their occupation and address is listed as Clerk in Customs, Lower Bebington, Cheshire – his mother would have been proud of him!
In this piece I have focused on some of the main characters in the Lark Rise trilogy but Flora must have based many of her characters on real persons and further examination of the records held here at Oxfordshire Record Office and elsewhere would I’m sure reveal interesting details of their lives. In addition there is a fascinating little exhibition of Flora’s life, work and influences at the Old Gaol Museum in Buckingham – why not finish your tour of Juniper Hill, Cottisford and Fringford with a visit to the Museum in Buckingham and a trip to the Record Office in Oxford!
Chris Gilliam, Archivist; Photos by Joel Phipps
Publications of the Quarter - we have several new publications in stock at present Alan Godfrey maps Eureka Partnership "Changing Faces" Robert Boyd Chipping Norton, 1919 The Barge People of the River Publications NW Oxfordshire, 1911 Thames Chipping Norton, Book 1 The Peculiar Court of Banbury and Kennington, Book 1 Cropredy, Vol 1 Grimsbury OFHS (CD) The People of St Peter in the East in Cumnor and Farmoor with Appleton Witney Registration District, Vol. 4 the City of Oxford and Eaton Page 3 1st July, 2008 Issue 21
ORO TOP TEN RESEARCH FIGURES Document of the Quarter - JANUARY - MARCH 2008 Par 295/17/ms/1 (19th Century) Family History 483 Adversaria Woolvercottiensia – day book Report of action of 150 rebels with pistols, rushing into Local History 96 the church at Wolvercote, while Preacher in the pulpit, Transcription 22 and how they were disarmed in 1644 Henley 22 Oxford 19 Wills 18 Church History 16
Poor Law Union 14 Victoria County History 13 Parish records 12
Catalogues Completed, and in progress Did you know? January - March 2008
The first English Aeronaut was James Sadler, January 2008 who made a balloon flight from Christchurch Catalogues completed:none Meadows on 4th October 1784. The balloon was made from silk and lined with paper, the February 2008 circumference was 170 feet, and inflated by Catalogues completed: 4 PC61 Checkendon Parish Council a fire underneath. The balloon was then O195 Banbury British Legion Women’s Branch released and travelled as far as Woodeaton, PC86 Deddington Parish Council rising to an estimated height of one mile. B137 Woodward & Sons, bakers, Osney There is a plaque on the wall of Deadman’s Walk which commemorates the event – March 2008 Catalogues completed: 1 ‘James Sadler, 1753-1828. First English Aero- RDC1 Banbury RDC naut who in a fire balloon made a successful th Catalogues in progress: Oxford Preservation Trust; OCC ascent from near this place - 4 October 1784 Clerks Correspondence files; Oxford Playhouse; to on land near Woodeaton’. Woodstock Borough; Society of Friends - Banbury Monthly Meeting
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