Memoirs and Stovold History
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MEMOIRS AND STOVOLD HISTORY RAYMOND STOVOLD Index page Intro The Stovold Family in Surrey 3 1. By-the-Wey 5 2. Lydling 8 3. School Days 12 4. Broomleaf Farm 16 5. Farming Ladder 20 6. The Years Between 30 7. (missing) 8. Eashing Farm 1925 – 1939 32 8a. The Eashing Herd of Guernseys 43 9. Horses, Horses and More Horses 45 10. Master of Foxhounds 53 11. Part-time Soldiering 59 12. Home Guard 63 13. Kenya 66 13a. Jack of All Trades 73 14. Harry Davies – A Lifetime of Loyal Service 76 15. Facts & Figures 93 16. Odds & Ends (missing) 94 17. Dairy Business 95 18. Yachting 100 19. Miscellaneous Extracts 106 2 19.3.76 INTRO: THE STOVOLD FAMILY IN SURREY I have searched many old church registers, both of Elstead and Farnham, of baptisms and marriages to trace the family history in Surrey. The name Stovold appears more than any other. I have only dealt with one branch which appears to be a direct male line. The last six generations contain the name Frederick and the dates of birth are fairly authentic. Earlier registers may refer to baptisms or dates of birth, it is not always clear. One Christian name, the same as the father’s, made things more difficult. The family could be of Scandinavian origin. It is thought they may have come over at the time of the Vikings in the Ninth Century and, in fact, before the First War my Great Uncle Percy traced the name back to the time of William the Conqueror. Furthermore, he went on to say VOLD means a Plain (as opposed to Hill or Valley). The STO means in Norwegian, “A Man of VOLD, the plain”. The suffix can be seen in names like out present Judge, Carl AARVOLD and during the German occupation of Norway during the 1939-45 war the Prime Minister was a man named NAGYSYARVOLD. In Lady Boston’s “History of Surrey” it was suggested the name was derived from two old English words – “Stod” denoting stud (or possibly “stot” horse) and “falod” an enclosure. This English derivation seems feasible. Either could denote an interest in agriculture. The style and spelling has altered over the years, put down to illiterate clerks in the early period. Three examples are: 1564 “Elizabeth Stavalle, the wiffe of Hary Stovalle was buryed the XIII daye of Julye”. 1632 Dec. 23 “Maria Stoffould filia Robert Stoffould bapt.” 1634 “John Stovold senior (burial) Febr.5.” The first local record of Stovold, as a personal name, occurs in 1269 as John de Stofolde and again in a document dated 1284 in which Ralph de Stofold appears in connection with land at Bramley. Again in 1356 William de Stofold is mentioned concerning land at Chiddingfold. There can be little doubt that Stovold is essentially a Surrey name. At Cranleigh there is a “Stovold’s Hill” and since the 1939-45 War I have granted permission for an Aldershot housing estate to be named “Stovold’s Way”. Prior to the 1920’s the family was farming in a large way and at one time at Polshot and neighbouring farms in Elstead, Broomleaf, Farnham and Lydling, Shackelford. A member of the family unit must have been farming at Aldershot and sold land for part of the railway construction – hence Stovold’s Way. 3 THE STOVOLD FAMILY IN SURREY Direct Male Line (subject to confirmation) – 1563-1953 HENRY = Elizabeth D. 17.5.1577 D. 14.7.1564 EDWARD = B. 1.1.1563 HENRY = Mary Billingshurst D. 10.4.1609 M. 16.10.1586 D. 27.9.1637 NICHOLAS = Maria Ancell D. 17.6 or 29.9.1666 M. 29.6.1653 NICHOLAS = Joan (1st wife) = Thomasina Boxall (2nd) B. 1640 D. 21.2.1684 M. 9.9.1688 D. 5.9.1696 NICHOLAS = Ann B. 9.1668 D. 31.3.1712 D. 1.3.1727 NICHOLAS = Alice Tice (2nd wife) = Elizabeth Moor (1st) B. 30.8.1700 M. 29.5.1748 (Seale) M. 20.10.1730 D. 24.2.1783 D. 1.3.1795 (Peper Harow) D. 30.7.1746 RICHARD = Anne Sibley B. 3.7.1750 M. 3.2.1774 Elstead by licence RICHARD = Mary B. 14.3.1777 FREDERICK = Emma Darvill B. 27.2.1804 M. 23.2.1841 D. 1888 D. 1869 FREDERICK FLOAT = ` Emily Churchman B. 8.5.1842 M. 1871 ERNEST FREDERICK = Ada Florence Rose B. 31.5.1873 FREDERICK RAYMOND = Mary Emily Simpson B. 21.9.1903 B. 31.7.1903 M. 14.4.1926 St Nicholas’, Guildford JOHN FREDERICK = Hazel Patricia Crunden B. 11.3.1929 M. 1.9.1952 St John’s, Busbridge, Godalming PETER JOHN FREDERICK B. 10.11.1953 4 1. BY-THE-WAY POLSHOT If I was to live my life again I would not wish to alter it in any way. As a farmer I have led a full and interesting life covering many aspects in agriculture, showing, judging, business, part-time soldiering, hunting, Master of Foxhounds, yachting, travelling and meeting many interesting people. Since 1940 we have entertained visitors from over seventy countries at Eashing, including Russia, Japan and leading nations of the world. I have been fortunate in having an understanding wife who, though not of country stock, is always so interested in agriculture and country pursuits, thus being an ideal farmer’s wife. We celebrated our Golden Wedding in April 1976. Our son, John, now farms Eashing. Our daughter, Janet, and her husband John were farming in Ireland for several years, returned to England in 1979 and have since bought a farm in Wiltshire. John’s son, Peter, returned to the United Kingdom in December 1975, having spent four years in New Zealand and Australia. It is hoped he will carry on the family tradition. He now has a partnership in the Eashing Park Estate, and is a partner in his father’s farming interests, as well as being Company Manager of F. Raymond Stovold Limited who retail over 2,000 gallons of milk daily. Little did I think when we moved from Polshot to Lydling in 1906 that it would be the last occasion Stovolds would live in the ancestral home, occupied by the family for several generations until sold by Grandmother Emily Stovold in 1922. This was left to her in Grandfather’s will dated 1873. He died at Broomleaf Farm in 1917. The house was built in the fourteenth century as an open hall house of four bays. The solar bedroom is jettied a little way over the open hall. A seventeenth century wing was added on the west end. The house comprised of an office, four bedrooms, boxroom and a large kitchen with scullery, dairy and other outhouses attached. The buildings included a large barn, a granary on iron quoins, (supposed to prevent rats and mice entering the building), stables and loose boxes, a loft, coach house, harness room and pig sties etc. Surrounding the large garden, tennis court and ornamental ponds was pasture and arable land of about thirty-five acres, bordered on the eastern side by the River Wey and adjoining Major Howard’s Hampton Estate, now owned by Richard Thornton. The rest of the farm was bounded by the Elstead- Farnham and Puttenham roads. Records in the Elstead Church Register are from the time baptisms were locally recorded. The first name to appear being Edward Stovall in January 1563. For many generations Polshot was the hub of the family farming activities. Farms in the area included Thundry, Turners, Fulbrook, etc., all were within easy reach of Farnham, Tilford, Shackleford and Aldershot, where other farms were situated. It is thought the name “Polshot”, is derived from Pole and Shed. Poles were used for drying hay. It may have been a pole store for the monks of Waverley Abbey, Farnham, who had large interests in the area. Oxenford Farm, Elstead, was granted to Waverley before 1147. From then until now Cranford was a Cistercian Monastery. After leaving Polshot, the house and farms were let to a distant cousin, Charles Webb, who had returned from farming in New Zealand, with a very “horsey” wife. Their children, Ivor and Una were practically brought up in the saddle. We had many pleasant years playing cowboys and Indians and numerous other games that children get up to, on and off their ponies. During his time at Polshot he was Secretary of the Surrey farmers Agricultural Association of which my father was a Director for many years and of which in the 1960’s I became Chairman. Nell, during the war was the first lady Whipper-In of the Chiddingfold Hunt. She returned to New Zealand after the war with Ivor and Una. Charles enlisted in the New Zealand Artillery early in the 1914/18 war. It was just after Armistice Day, 11th November 1918, his wife heard he was killed in action at Beauraignies, near Le Quesnoy, on 1st November. 5 I did not know it at the time but we were related to the Webbs. Charles’ mother, whom we called “Aunt Dot”, was sister to our grandmother Rose, both being daughters of a very successful farmer at Bentley, near Farnham. We were very friendly with Charles’ sister, Aunt Ethel and her husband, Ernest Blaire Dowsett, (Uncle Dow), who did so well as a Dental Surgeon, attaining the position of Senior Dental Surgeon at Guy’s Hospital. Before the war he was a Lieutenant Colonel of the Royal Army Medical Corps (Territorial) and was training when war was declared and saw service in France, winning the D.S.O.