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April, 2013:

Sherborne: Edwin Childs (1859-1934)

Apr 30th, 2013
by Dorset Ancestors.
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As the Victorian era was drawing to a close the 20th century was taking its first breaths. The Horseless carriage, the motor car to you and me, was becoming less of a rich man’s novelty and more a viable form of transport. The penny-farthing had evolved into the safety bicycle, there was farm machinery to be kept working and industrial machines to be maintained; this was a good time to be a mechanical engineer.

Six decades earlier things had not been so good. For Charles Childs of Yetminster this meant moving to Deptford in Kent soon after his marriage in 1841 to Harriet King. Their son Charles was born there in 1847 followed by a daughter, Sarah Ann, in 1849. Later the couple moved to the Old Kent Road area, which was then a part of Surrey and where their son, Henry, was born in 1852.

When Charles Childs secured a job maintaining new machinery that had been installed at Willmott’s silk mills in Sherborne he was able to bring his family home. They lived in the Westbury area of the town and had three more children: Temperance in 1855, Albert in 1857 and Edwin in 1859.

The youngest boy, Edwin, inherited his father’s interest in all things mechanical and in his teens he was apprenticed to Joseph Read of Westbury. Read was a general smith, engineer and bell-hanger and through his works came many farm wagons, gigs and broughams (light, four-wheeled horse-drawn carriages) and there was plenty of business to had keeping primitive farm machinery running. Edwin was ideally suited for his placement with Joseph Read and this hands-on experience was supplemented by reading about his chosen trade in books and magazines.

The family was non-conformist. The children with their parents attended the Congregational Church. Edwin was a bell-ringer too, became captain of the Abbey Church bell-ringers and played a trumpet in the town band. In 1884 Edwin married Jane Bown in the Abbey Church at Sherborne and his eight children were all baptised there but he continued his allegiance to non-conformity. Edwin and Jane made a perfect match; she supported and encouraged his driving ambition to make something of himself and shared his enterprising spirit. They set up home in Hound Street, Sherborne and started to save for the future – no easy task on an income of thirty shillings a week.

In 1892 Edwin and Jane bought an ailing business, The Sherborne Coffee Tavern, for a deposit of £50 and a mortgage of £500 advanced by the Foresters Benefit Society.  An odd choice of business for a mechanical engineer but it was a means to an end. At that point in their married life they had four children. Edwin continued to work for Joseph Read and had set up his own workshop and forge behind their cottage, where he carried out small jobs for his friends and kept up to date with his reading, while Jane served endless cups of coffee and innumerable trays of buns at the Tavern.

Two years on and Edwin was ready to launch his own business. The tea and coffee urns, counter, table and chairs went to make way for bicycles, bells, bags, lamps and oil. He commenced trading as a Cycle Agent selling Singers, Rovers, Ormonds, Swifts and Sunbeams. He hired out, repaired and cleaned bicycles and trikes and even taught customers how to ride. His timing was spot-on and after years of hard work he had his own business spurred on by a wave of bicycling enthusiasm that swept the country at the turn of the century.
 
1896 brought the first London to Brighton car rally and the first London Motor Show opened. Locally a Colonel Baxter who lived in Sherborne bought his first car, a Clement Panhard, and became Edwin Childs’ first automobile customer.

Motoring in those early days could be a hazardous experience. The heroic Colonel and his car would venture forth, but more often than not the car would stop and fail to restart somewhere along the planned journey and Edwin would be standing by to rescue the stranded Colonel and his car. Borrowing two strong horses from the Brewery and equipped with a strong rope he would tow the car back to his workshop and sort out the problem.

Bicycle sales increased but Edwin Childs was not a man to rest on his laurels. The windows of the Tavern were knocked out and double doors put in, large enough to facilitate entry of the very first tri-cars, the frames of which were mounted with a single cylinder four-stroke engine with a wicker-work passenger carriage fitted in front. The family’s first car was a tri-car with twin seats. On a Sunday morning, ignoring protests from an anxious mother, Edwin would drive his two youngest children the five miles to Yeovil and he prided himself always to have them back in time for Sunday lunch.

In 1903 the Motor Car Act was passed and came into force on the 1st of January 1904. This increased the speed limit to twenty miles-per-hour and required all drivers to have a licence then costing five shillings. Edwin Childs and his eighteen year-old son Charles were number thirty-nine and forty in the Dorset Licensing Register.

About this time Edwin purchased a plot of land in Long Street and on it he built a garage, the first in Sherborne.  In the 1909 edition of the Handbook of the Motor Union of Great Britain he is listed as: “E.Childs. Repairer. Standing for twenty cars.” Not everyone who could afford one bought one but amongst his early customers were Colonel Baxter; E.A. Ffookes; R.T. Grantham; E.W. Bartlett, and Harry and Reggie Boden.

The car was not welcomed by everyone in Sherborne, for some saw the car as a danger to the town’s ancient heritage. The Church and School watched with distaste the innovation of the dust-raising mechanical carriage.

Edwin was convinced the car was here to stay and began to build a fleet of cars for hire. He already owned a pre-1900 Benz and added a 12 horse-power Vulcan, a 16 horse-power Argyle and a 22 horse-power Darraqu. The Darraqu was an open touring car with leather upholstery and canvas hood and windows, which, with the removal of the hood, could be winched into position by block and tackle. It was much in demand from the hunting fraternity for ferrying to and from various Point-to Point. The Darraqu could be converted into a car for all occasions. It was the ideal limousine for weddings and funerals and was also used for Hunt Balls that were held throughout the county during the hunting season.

Edwin Childs was a good husband, father and employer. He had spent his life working towards a personal ambition and with its fulfilment he found his leisure time and income increased and he now started to work towards his chosen good cause, the Yeatman Hospital; this, in the days when the Welfare State was still a dream of radicals.  Eventually he was made a life governor of the Cottage Hospital. At the beginning of the First World War, he bought, maintained and provided a driver for an ambulance for the Red Cross to carry injured servicemen from the station to some local buildings and houses including Sherborne Castle, Leweston Manor and Chetnole Grange, that had been converted to receive them.

Edwin and Jane Childs had four sons and four daughters. One son served in France another in the Middle East and later the two younger sons were posted to army camps in different parts of the country. During the war there was still hire business to be had and because of the war effort more tractors had to be kept going, Petrol was rationed but people who had cars were using them in the service of their country, and these, too, had to be kept running. Approaching old age Edwin Childs found himself working as long and hard as he ever had at any time in his busy and eventful life. When the war ended the motor car was a fact of life. He died in 1934.

We have placed photographs pf Edwin Childs in the photo gallery.

FOOTNOTE: We have been contacted by Andrew Norwood who says about the Clement Panhard mentioned in the article: “ I am pleased to tell you that 110 plus years later the car is still going strong – although it is as temperamental as it was back in 1900. I own the car and you can find more about it at www.clementpanhard.com under ‘Our Car’ “ Mr Norwood has sent us a photo of the car and we have placed the image in the gallery.

Thorncombe’s Thorn

Apr 26th, 2013
by Dorset Ancestors.
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The Cornish writer, poet and historian Richard Polwhele, in his History of Devon, says with reference to Thorncombe which, until 1843, was a part of Devon: “Some attribute its name to one remarkable thorn near the combe, at a place in the parish known as Thorncombe’s Thorn.” Here, some 600 feet above sea level and a few hundred yards from the village is a cross roads with a house which to this day is known as Turnpike Cottage, although it is now greatly extended.

This was an ideal spot to have a Toll Gate and we found a reference to it in the surviving parish records: “March 1785. Paid Mr Phelps cart to carry the people to Exon – 4s.0d., Paid Turnpike forwards and backward at Thorncombe’s Thorn 8d.”

As the government struggles to find innovative ways to raise money for new roads and for the maintenance of the existing ones, high on their agenda is charging for road use, i.e. Toll roads. There is nothing new about this – it was first tried in the 17th century.

In 1663 the government of the day passed the Turnpike Act. The act allowed magistrates to charge for using the roads and the money raised was spent on the upkeep of the roads, an idea initially trialled in three counties. It proved to be so successful that the scheme was soon adopted all over the country. In 1706 the first of many private company schemes was set up. These businesses, known as Turnpike Trusts, allowed the public the opportunity to invest. The income from charging people to use the roads, the toll, was divided between the costs of maintaining the road and profits for the investors.

Toll gates were set up and pedestrians, carts and carriages would have to stop and pay the toll before being allowed to proceed. But not everyone liked the idea and people would leap over the gates to avoid paying; it was not long before spikes were put on top of the gates to dissuade people from trying to avoid the toll. It is from this that the term turnpike comes and anyone accused of damaging a turnpike would have faced execution.

Thorncombe derives its name from the Saxon words Torn and Cumb, meaning a bottom or low ground subject to thorns. We have placed a photograph of Turnpike Cottage in the gallery; it was taken in the mid 20th century.

North Poorton and the Church of St. Mary Magdalene

Apr 19th, 2013
by Dorset Ancestors.
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It was the Revd. Thomas Sanctuary the Archdeacon of Dorset and Vicar of Powerstock who commissioned the Dorchester architect John Hicks to design a replacement church for North Poorton, since the existing church was in ruins. Built in 1861-1862 the new church is thought by some to be Hick’s crowning achievement.

The consecration service took place on October 4th 1862, a day when all the trains on the line stopped, especially at Powerstock Station and for the convenience of visitors Omnibuses were operating between the Station and North Poorton. The Bishop of Oxford preached during Morning Prayers and in the afternoon Dr Wordsworth of Westminster preached at Powerstock Church. The new church is dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene.

The church was built by men from the village using local stone. It consists of a nave and chancel but its outstanding feature is a minaret tower or, as Pevsner describes it, a “turret with spire” housing a bell dated 1635. In the vestry are several monuments dating to the 18th century; these were transferred from the old Church.

The specialist carving work was done by Benjamin Grassby, who is responsible for the corbels and capitals, while the richly detailed carved stone pulpit is the work of Richard Boulton and much of the wood carving is by Thomas Champion of Frampton. Correspondence has survived from Richard Boulton to the Revd. Thomas Sanctuary and it appears that at the start of the project Benjamin Grassby was an employee of Richard Boulton but once the work was under way Grassby became employed directly by Revd. Sanctuary, something Boulton was not at all pleased about.

Early records from 1381 mention a Chapel at Poorton dedicated to St. Nicholas, but it seems from 1405 onward there has been a church here dedicated to St. Peter. The adjacent burial ground was declared full and closed in 1768. Thomas Sanctuary had been Rector for over ten years when he commissioned the new church for Poorton because the old church was “dilapidated and inadequate.”

This old church accommodated sixty-eight people, which is about what the parish population was during this time. There was a three tier pulpit and a font dating from the early 15th century. The old font stood outside the entrance to the new church until 1908, when the Rector passed the font on to the parish of Holy Trinity in Weymouth because it was “derelict”; seems an odd kindness.

Poorton comprises two hamlets: north and south which are both small and isolated. North Poorton benefits from a large 17th century farmhouse with additions from the 18th century; this stands about 200 yards from the church. Also of interest are two thatched cottages: one dating from the 17th century and the other from the early 18th century. Three centuries ago the community here was on a larger scale; many of the houses have disappeared but it remains a parish.

Knowlton and the Riddle of its Rings

Apr 12th, 2013
by Dorset Ancestors.
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Knowlton is a deserted village hamlet on the B3078 in the east Dorset parish of Woodlands, 10 miles north of Wimborne. The motorist passing speedily through the place on the main road may notice nothing more than a number of low mounds and embankments, which may convey nothing to the untrained eye. Seen from an aircraft or balloon however, and the full extent of an amazing complex of earthworks will be immediately apparent, ideally in the low, raking sunlight of evening.

The ancient structures scattered across nine fields at this site are the funeral and ceremonial monuments of Neolithic and Bronze Age communities occupying this area from about four and half thousand years ago. Possibly the locality was favoured for the fertility of its soil and/or the proximity of a stream for water supply. But the sheer density of the earthworks, indicate a very long phase of occupation spanning over a millennium. There is not just a scatter of a few graves at Knowlton, but a complex of memorials on the scale of necropolis. Indeed, it has been said that in their day these earthworks ranked only third to the great megaliths of Stonehenge and Avebury.

Central to this complex of prehistoric remains is a close-knit scatter of four of the ring-bank and ditch enclosures known as henges. These structures diminish in diameter from south to north and are ramified by the course of the B3078 and a minor road running northwest from it. The main road actually bisects the Southern Henge which, with a diameter of 220 metres, is the largest enclosure in the group. In the angle thus formed by the main and unclassified roads are three other henges: the central but smaller Church Henge and, 100 metres to the north-west, the still smaller Northern Henge and the tiny enclosure known as Old Churchyard.

Approximately equi-distant from the henge complex to the northeast and southwest are two dense scatters of round-barrow mounds, and known respectively as the Northern and Southern Barrow Cemeteries. A further ten barrows have been identified and plotted with a random distribution among the henges, with another four in an imperfect east-west alignment across four fields slightly to the west. One dominant barrow (Great Barrow) with an unusually distant ditch lies 50 metres east of the Church Henge. These barrows vary widely in size and represent higher caste burials of the Bronze Age Wessex Culture, dating from a later period than the ritual henges of the Neolithic settlers. The barrows now mapped at this site now number about 55.

Clearly the reconstruction and interpretation of this site would represent archaeological bodies with a challenging source of material for investigation. So it was that in 1993 landowner Arthur Thomlinson and a confederation of other local landowners granted permission for a programme of surveys and excavations to be conducted by Bournemouth University with funding from English Heritage. The results of these investigations added considerably to the knowledge of the site in general and Southern Henge in particular.

Unlike other types of circular enclosures, henges are defined as having the corresponding ditch on the inside, not the outside of the bank. It was the Southern Henge upon which the attention of the BU archaeology unit was primarily focussed, with a preliminary geophysical survey of a cross-section of the bank and ditch on the south east side being carried out. However, the result was inconclusive, as the bank of the henge did not respond well to the survey techniques. For the 1994 season the following year the university project team excavated a 3 by 30 metre trench across the area surveyed the year before to access the extent of plough damage and to examine in more detail the earthwork’s stratigraphy. It was found that the henge bank survived to a depth of only 20 centimetres and had indeed been extensively damaged by ploughing. A burial soil was also discovered beneath undisturbed portions. The ditch, which is separated from the bank by a 9.5 metre platform, was 5.5 metres deep, though only 4.5 metres could be excavated at the time.

The ditch fills suggested that it had been cut with almost vertical sides, and there was evidence of episodes of slumping. Two slot-trenches were also found one with posts and the other with wattle work. On the floor of the post trench a piece of worked chalk was discovered.

Elsewhere, this season saw a geophysical survey being conducted over the north-east quadrant of the Southern henge, where aerial photography had indicated past entranceways, now possibly obscured by the main road or farm buildings. A contour survey was also carried out over the eastern half of the henge and another geophysical survey was undertaken of an area to the south where some ring-ditches had been identified. One of these was a double ring-ditch 29 metres across, while the others formed a tight cluster; one large ditch was cut by smaller examples.

Following the arrival of Christianity in Britain, a popular practise was to consecrate and thereby perpetuate henges and other prehistoric enclosures as holy, ritualistic sites by building some of the earliest churches within them. In so doing it was likely thought by the early ecclesiastics that they were symbolising the triumph of Christianity over paganism, whether or not the sites were foci of some kind of tellurian energy which could be tapped for religious purposes. Normally however, evidence of the maintained use of a prehistoric ceremonial site by the Christian priesthood will have been obscured by trees, boundary demarcations, etc, such that unusually circular churchyards in areas of prehistoric settlement may be all that is visible to betray the practice today.

But as a consequence of unusual circumstances, this was not the fate of the Church Henge at Knowlton. This monument is probably unique, for no-where else in England, if not the UK, can one see a better example of the heathen-to-Christian transition in its bare native state, for this church was never walled or consecrated for burials. And this enclosure may have been sacred to Celts, Romans, and Saxons before the Norman’s built a stone flint-rendered church here sometime in the 12th century.

Records state that this church had once been a ‘Chapel of Ease’ for Horton, was enlarged during the 15th century, and had a curate (Richard Saunders) in 1550, when there were three bells in the tower. But it is likely that the effects of the mediaeval plagues, which led to the de-population of the village, also affected the church, and in about 1650 regular services ceased. After a brief period of restoration and revival, the church was abandoned after a roof collapse some time later. The font was removed to Woodlands Church.

Today the empty shell of this church stands within the henge approximately 300 yards from the deserted village. This henge is about 100 yards in diameter and became the focus of attention from the archaeology team for their 1995 season. At this time a contour survey of Church Henge was conducted, the results suggesting that the bank around the west entrance (one of three) had been altered after the henge’s construction, possibly when the church was built. Other evidence led to the supposition that the northeast entrance of the henge may have been created some time after, by infilling the ditch at that point and removing a portion of the bank.

1995 also saw the University students surveying the northern henge and Old Churchyard. Northern Henge is a curious earthwork consisting of a sub-rectangular ditch enclosed within a horseshoe-shaped bank, both of which are broadly open to the southeast. Old Churchyard, the smallest of the four enclosures at Knowlton, is even more unconventional, having a small squarish bank enclosed by a circular 60-metre diameter ditch with one entrance on the northeast side. This configuration and small scale is difficult to parallel, and has no precedent among the classes of ringed earthworks known. Furthermore, the feature does not conform to a henge in the strict sense, since here the bank-ditch positioning is reversed. However the finding of scatters of burnt flint in the vicinity of the enclosure clearly points to a prehistoric origin, and contemporaneous with the true henges. It has been thought this feature could signify a valuable link between earlier and later Neolithic monument methods and styles.

An analysis of the molluscan (snail) profiles in the ditch of the Southern Henge revealed that considerable change during use and decline of the monument had taken place. One other feature of the site identified by aerial photography and the University research was an as yet undated track way leading off southwest across a large field from the south side of the Southern Henge. This may be Medieval, but it is yet another controversial element in the complex history and remarkable sequence of human activity at Knowlton.