Author: Andy Turner

William, Agnes and Ethel Ford

Among the singers from whom Anne Gilchrist noted songs during her visits to Blackham, in the period 1905-1907, were a Mr and Mrs Ford, and an Ethel Ford, whose version of ‘The Farmer’s Boy’ Gilchrist noted had been learned from her father. Her notes to the song ‘Sylvia’, meanwhile, say “Sung by Mr Ford, blacksmith”. This allows us to identify them as: William Ford, born 1852 at Penshurst in Kent; his wife Agnes (née Durrant), born 1858 at Cowden in Kent; and their daughter Ethel, who had been born at Tunbridge Wells in 1893.

In the 1901 census the family (which also included their 12 year-old son William) were living in Blackham at 1 Forge Cottage – just off what is now the A264 – and it’s likely that this is where Anne Gilchrist met them.

William Ford, 1853-1939

In the available twentieth century censuses, William Ford is shown as working as a blacksmith in Blackham (“Shoeing & General Smith” in the 1921 census). His residence is given as Forge Cottage in 1901, and presumably he remained at the same address in 1911 and 1921, although the precise address is not specified in those years. His place of birth is stated either as Penshurst or Chiddingstone (which are less than three miles apart as the crow flies). At his death in 1939, his age was given as 87, and his birth year as 1852.

He was in fact born on 31st May 1853, the son of John Ford, a labourer, and Harriet née Jenner. Harriet died in 1859, and in the 1861 census 42 year old John Ford was listed as a widower, living with one daughter and three sons, all under 10 years old, at Spring Hill Cottage, Ford Place, Penshurst. William and his siblings were all shown as “Scholar”.

In 1871 it must have been the same William Ford – 18 years old, and place of birth given as Penshurst – who was recorded as working as a farm labourer at Perry Hill Farm, Hartfield, East Sussex, for John Swift, “Farmer of 240 acres of land”. And then surely, ten years later, he must be the William Ford who was a Blacksmith’s journeyman living at Burnt House Holtye, Hartfield, and employed by the blacksmith John Hemsley (birth details for this William Ford are given as Chiddingstone, 1855, but inaccuracies in nineteenth century census records are far from uncommon).

He was married to Agnes Jane Durrant in the final quarter of 1887, and by the next census in 1891 he had set up as a blacksmith in his own right, living at 2 Pennington Road, Tunbridge Wells. The couple had one 2 year old son, also named William. They had another child, Ethel, in 1893. At some point between then and 1901 the family moved to the Withyham area of Sussex: the 1901 census shows that they were living at 1 Forge Cottage (actually Blackham rather than Withyham), with William’s occupation still given as blacksmith. The following year it appears that they wanted (or needed) to leave the business – the Kent and Sussex Courier for 6th June 1902 advertised “Old established Blacksmith’s Business, at Blackham, to Let; ½ mile from Ashurst. Possession can be had at once. – Apply W. Ford, Blackham, Withyham, Sussex”. Circumstances must have changed, however, as local newspaper cuttings reveal that the family were still living at the Forge in 1904 and 1906.1 And in 1911, although William’s address is given only as “Blackham, Langton Green, Tunbridge Wells”, since he was still the village blacksmith we can assume he was still at Forge Cottage. In 1921 too, he was still living with his wife Agnes, with his occupation given as “Shoeing & General Smith”. William was 71 at the time of that census, and it seems likely that he retired not long afterwards, moving the five miles or so to Markbeech. When Agnes died in 1924 her funeral took place at Holy Trinity, Markbeech. William survived another 15 years, being buried on 15th March 1939, with the funeral again being held at Holy Trinity, Markbeech. His residence was given as “East Grinstead Formerly Of Markbeech”.

Anne Gilchrist noted the following with regard to William Ford’s singing:

“Sylvie” or “Silvery” (i.e. Sylvia) was learnt as a boy from the singer’s ‘mother-in-law’ (i.e. step-mother).

Mr Ford’s singing of this and other songs was characterized by an excellent boldness and vigour, and his feeling for rhythmic accent was so good that I asked whether this harmonious blacksmith sang at his work in the forge. But it seemed that this was not the case. He has no knowledge of music, but is famed for his singing of a special song, the tune for which he told me he had made himself, after having “got the words off a ballad-sheet”, such as used to be hawked round the neighbourhood. This song, “The Old Grey Mare,” is in great request at village concerts, where he accompanies it with dramatic action.

It is unclear who is meant by William’s “step-mother”. His father John appears to have been married twice: to Philadelphia (Philly) Thompsett in May 1841 and then, after her death in 1847, to Harriet Jenner in September 1851. Harriet – William’s mother – died in 1859, when William was just 5 or 6; but there is no record of John having remarried, and in all subsequent censuses he is recorded as a widower.

Agnes Jane Ford, née Durrant, 1858 -1924

Agnes Durrant was baptised on 9th May 1858 at St Mary Magdalene, Cowden. Her parents were Liberty Durrant, a farmer, originally from Brighton, and Jane née Bowra. In 1861 the census showed the family living at Ely Land, Cowden, a 16th century timber-framed house, now Grade II listed. 37 year old Liberty was listed as “Grocer and farmer 20 men 1 boy”, Jane as “Grocers wife”. 3 year old “Agness” had one younger brother, named Liberty after his father.

Census records show that Liberty Durrant continued to farm at Ely Land, being described as “Landowner” (1871) and “Farmer of 20 acres” (1881). He and Jane had one further child, Walter (named after his paternal grandfather), born in 1868. In 1881 Agnes’ occupation was given as “Farmers daur”.

Agnes married William Ford, Blacksmith and resident of Cowden, on 15th December 1887 at Holy Trinity, Markbeech, and they settled first at Tunbridge Wells before moving to Blackham. Predictably, the occupation field is blank for Agnes in subsequent censuses, until 1921 when she is listed as performing “Home Duties”. It appears that when William retired, they moved to Markbeech. Agnes’ funeral took place there on 18th March 1924, although her residence was still shown as “Blackham, Sussex”.

Ethel Agnes Ford, 1893-1962

William and Agnes’ daughter Emily was baptised at St Barnabas, Tunbridge Wells, on 5th February 1893. She was the couple’s second child – her brother William was four years older than her.

Ethel would have been around 12 years old when she first sang for Anne Gilchrist. By the time of the 1911 census she was 18, and out at work, as “General servant domestic” for a Mr and Mrs Farrer, who lived at 6 Arundel Road, Tunbridge Wells. She married Frederick G Carey, from Cuckfield, in 1918. In 1921 they were to be found living at 4 Myrtle Cottages, Groombridge, Sussex. Her husband worked as a Railway Porter for the London Brighton & South Coast Railway, and she was listed as carrying out “Home Duties”; they had a one year old son, Gordon Frederick. Another son, Donald, was born the following year.

Fred continued to work on the railways – in 1939 he was a Railway Signalman, and the family were living at 1 Town Station Cottage, Station Road, Edenbridge. Ethel’s occupation was “Unpaid Domestic Duties”.

She died in 1962, her death being registered in the Tonbridge district.

Jane Durrant, née Bowra, 1825-1886

Agnes learned the song ‘Mother mother make my bed’ from her mother. Jane Bowra was baptised at St Mary the Virgin, Westerham on 14th August 1825. Her mother was Mary Ann, née Hollamby, originally from Speldhurst. Her father, William, farmed at “Oberries Farm”, Brasted – this was probably Obriss Farm, at Toys Hill, which is now owned by the Landmark Trust.

She married Liberty Durrant in Shoreditch, London, in the final quarter of 1844. At the next census, in 1851, she and Liberty were living at Ely, Cowden, where they would remain until at least 1881. He was shown as “Farmer 20 acres”, while her occupation was given as “Grocer”.

She died in 1886, at the age of 61, and was buried at Holy Trinity, Markbeech on 9th September. Her residence at the time of death was given as Stick Hill (about half a mile north of Cowden Pound). The same information was given for her husband, Liberty Durrant, who had been buried at Holy Trinity just a few months earlier, on 28th March 1886.

Songs

Agnes Ford

Ethel Ford

William Ford

My thanks to Kathy Wallwork, whose genealogical expertise helped me unravel the details of William Ford’s early life.

  1. Richard Coomber, Blackham Village website, http://www.blackham-village.co.uk/WWI%20William%20Ford.html ↩︎

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It Rains, it Hails, it Blows, it Snows

From Mr Coomber

Collected by Anne Geddes Gilchrist, Blackham, Sussex, May 1907

Anne Geddes Gilchrist Collection AGG/3/6/17a, AGG/3/6/17b

Roud 608

AGG-3-6-17a It Rains it Hails it Blows it SnowsDownload
AGG-3-6-17b It Rains it Hails it Blows it SnowsDownload

Anne Gilchrist took down a very similar tune from another Blackham resident, William Ford – see I prithee, love, let me in – and a full set of words from Mr Ford’s daughter Ethel as The Cottage in the Wood.

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The Gentleman Soldier

From Mr Coomber

Collected by Anne Geddes Gilchrist, Withyham, Sussex, May 1907

Anne Geddes Gilchrist Collection AGG/3/6/14, AGG/8/27

Roud 178

AGG-3-6-14 The Gentleman SoldierDownload

The song was included in the Penguin Book of English Folk Songs, edited by Ralph Vaughan Williams and A.L. Lloyd, 1959, with a somewhat more coherent set of words than Thomas Coomber had sung. Malcolm Douglas, writing in the revised edition, Classic English Folk Songs (EFDSS, 2003), identifies the additions as having come from printed broadsides, and the version sung to H.E.D. Hammond by Mrs Gulliver of Combe Florey in Somerset (HAM/2/2/23). He also refers to Frank Kidson’s statement that a “gentleman soldier” was one in a yeomanry regiment, and suggests that Anne Gilchrist’s note “sung in camp” indicates that Thomas Coomber had served in the local militia, and had learned the song at a militia camp.

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Thomas Coomber

Thomas Marshall Coomber, 1865-1945

Between 1905 and 1907, during her stays with her brother at Blackham in Sussex, Anne Gilchrist noted down more than a dozen songs from the Coomber family, who lived in the village. One of these, ‘The Gentleman Soldier’, became well known on the folk music scene thanks to its inclusion in The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs, first published in 1959. The song came from Thomas Coomber, who had moved to Blackham following his marriage in 1884, but had been born and raised in Penshurst.

Thomas and Elizabeth Coomber
Thomas Marshall Coomber and Elizabeth Coomber

His parents were Richard Coomber, a labourer, and Frances (Fanny), née Card. Both were natives of Penshurst. Thomas was born in the third quarter of 1865, and his birth record lists him as Thomas Marshal Coomber.  Oddly, when baptised at St John the Baptist, Penshurst, on 5th November that year, his name was recorded as William Thomas Comber, but subsequent census records have him as Thomas M. The family’s residence at the time was shown as Pounds Bridge, Penshurst (actually, geographically it’s closer to Speldhurst). In 1871 they were to be found at Barracks Cottages, Penshurst. Richard Coomber was now working as a “Stone drawer”. Four sons, and three out of four daughters, were still living in the family home: his eldest son Richard was a bricklayer’s labourer, while daughters Harriet and Elizabeth worked in a paper factory. This would have been Chafford Paper Mills, actually at Fordcombe, which existed from at least 1786, until 1913, and which at one stage produced paper used for Bank of England notes, and for postage stamps. Ten years later, in 1881, they were living at Poundsbridge and Richard was now a bricklayer’s labourer. Both his wife Fanny, and youngest daughter Charlotte, were employed at the paper factory. 15 year old Thomas was, like his older brother Arthur, working as an agricultural labourer. He had been listed as “Scholar” in 1871, but by his own account he left school at the age of 8, and we know that he was illiterate – both because Anne Gilchrist recorded this fact, and because he signed his marriage certificate with an X.1

On Christmas Day 1884, at Fordcombe, he married Elizabeth Gasson, who hailed from Hartfield in Sussex. As Thomas’ descendent Richard Coomber points out, Christmas Day would have been one of relatively few days in the year when both bride and groom could be sure of being off work. It would appear that Elizabeth had had a son earlier in the year, and that Thomas Coomber was the father: the baptism of Thomas George Marshall Gasson was recorded at Hartfield, Sussex in 1884.

At some point before the end of the decade the family moved to Blackham, just over the border in Sussex, and Thomas began work as a labourer on the extension of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway:

In all probability Thomas’s quest for work to feed his growing family saw him tramp the few miles to the village of Blackham where the construction of the railway offered the chance of hard, but quite well paid work.

Most of the men employed on the extension of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway line from Edenbridge to Ashurst junction were professional ‘navvies’, men from all over Britain, Ireland and even parts of Europe, who followed the growing rail network wherever labour was needed. The life was hard and the men often crude and rough, prone to heavy drinking and fighting. Indeed, this line should have been opened 20 years before, but a lack of funds and a riot at nearby Mark Beech over the use of Belgian labourers halted all work until the 1880s.

Thomas worked on shifting the thousands of tons of earth and stone excavated as the cut was dug through Black-ham, and the bridge was built to carry the road which ran from the recently constructed ‘Iron’ church just below the post office, down Bean’s Hill to the watermill on Kent Water, the tributary that marks the border with Kent and ran into the Medway near the papermill about a mile further along its course.

Much of the earth was shifted further down the line towards Willetts Farm to build the embankment for the line before it reaches Ashurst. Thomas was using a horse and cart belonging to the farmer Thomas Floyd and by the time the railway was completed, he had obviously impressed him with his willingness to work hard because he was offered a job on the farm.2

The 1891 census shows the family living in Blackham, with Thomas’ occupation now farm labourer. Their son Thomas was now listed as Thomas G.M. Coomber, and they had a daughter, Elizabeth, born in 1886. Abraham Read, a 74 year old farm labourer, was living with them.

In 1901 they were living at 1 Blackham Cottages, and Thomas was working as “Stockman on farm”. Indeed he remained “Cowman on farm” in the next two censuses, with his employer in 1921 shown as Thomas Ashby, Willetts Farm, Blackham (Ashby had taken on the tenancy of Willetts Farm in 1912). Neither the 1911 or 1921 census gives any real indication of where they lived, other than Blackham, but Richard Coomber believes that they lived throughout this period at a cottage on the Willets Farm estate. You can read a description of their dwelling on the Blackham Village website.3

When he finished his day’s work on the farm, Thomas would return and work in his garden. Apart from a few flowers near the house, it was given over to producing food for the family. Rows of vegetables gave way to plum and pear trees, and a Maid of Kent apple tree, which yielded huge apples. Room was also found for a chicken run and a pig pound, in which he would raise two pigs – one to be killed for the family to eat, the other as payment to the butcher for killing and preparing the meat.4

By 1911 Elizabeth had given birth to a total of 13 children, six of whom had died. When Anne Gilchrist came collecting in the early 1900s, she took down one song, ‘The Squire and the Milkmaid’ (AGG/3/6/8), from Thomas and Elizabeth’s daughter Florrie, who would have been around 14 at the time (she was born in 1891). Gilchrist noted that “the little girl who sang the song had learnt it from her mother, but could not remember all of it”. She also marked one song, ‘The Dark-Eyed Sailor’ (AGG/3/6/9a), as having been sung by “Mrs and the Misses Coomber”. The other Miss Coomber was probably Beatrice (born 1894), although it might have been Dorothea (born 1896). There’s a pretty good chance that they all knew some of their parents’ songs, but unfortunately we’ve no idea if any of them continued singing them in adulthood.

Elizabeth Coomber with daughters and grandchildren
Elizabeth Coomber with daughters and grandchildren. Possibly Florrie on the left.

In 1921 there were two grandsons residing with Thomas and Elizabeth, both shown in the census return as “Mother alive Father NK” i.e. Not Known. They were in fact  the children of Thomas’ daughter Florence, and their father had died in the First World War. The two boys, Jack and Frederick, were brought up by their grandparents, and from a fairly young age were expected to help with jobs in the garden or on the farm – for example, milking, thatching haystacks, and hop-picking.

There was no doubt this was a tough existence for a young boy and Jack remembers that his grandparents could be very strict. “Grandad would make you behave. You couldn’t mess him about. If you were naughty he would take his cap off the knob of the cupboard next to his chair and throw it at you. You had to take it back to him and he’d hit you with it. He never used a strap. Mostly, the punishment was to be sent to bed. Granny would sometimes give you a smack.

“They were very strict. When you sat at the table you never spoke or touched anything. You were asked if you wanted any food and you had to sit there until everyone had finished. Meals weren’t a social occasion with people chattering about what they’d done during the day. In many ways the old couple lived two separate lives both working hard right up until they died.5

Thomas taught Jack how to fish, and how to snare hares, rabbits and even sparrows, which would be cooked in a pie. He rarely drank, and then only Elizabeth’s home-made wine – dandelion, parsnip, elderflower, and so on.6

Needless to say, Elizabeth’s occupation, if listed at all in census records, is shown only as “Home Duties” or “Unpaid Domestic Duties”. However Richard Coomber records that “Although unqualified, she became the person women called on when they were giving birth or a body needed laying out”.7

The 1939 Register shows the couple living at Willetts Cottages, Blackham, with Thomas listed as “Incapacitated”. Thomas died on 13th January 1945 at the age of 79. Elizabeth survived him by just a few months: she died on 10th March, aged 80, a few days after she had had a stroke and fallen into the fire, burning herself badly. They are both buried in the churchyard of All Saints, Blackham. Richard Coomber notes that “In later years, Thomas also worked in the garden of Mr and Mrs Vinall at Home Place for sixpence (2.5p) an hour which he asked the Vinalls to keep for him to pay for his tombstone. The stone, which is still in Blackham church yard, cost over £72 in 1945, representing nearly 3,000 hours work”.8

My thanks to Richard Coomber for generously allowing me to quote biographical information from his Blackham Village website, and for providing the photographs reproduced above.

Songs

Thomas Coomber

Thomas and Elizabeth Coomber

Elizabeth Coomber

  • The Banks of Sweet Dundee (Roud 148)
  • Barbara Allen (Roud 54)
  • The False Hearted Lover (Roud 154)
  • The Folkestone Murder (Roud 897)
  • Mary across the Wild Moor (Roud 155)
  • Undaunted Female (Roud 289)

Elizabeth, Florrie and Beatrice (?) Coomber

  • The Dark-Eyed Sailor (Roud 265)

Florrie Coomber

  • The Squire and the Milkmaid (Roud 559)

Note: Since Elizabeth Coomber and her children were born and raised in Sussex, their songs are not included on this website. They can however be found by searching the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library Archive Catalogue.

  1. Richard Coomber, The Coomber Family, http://www.blackham-village.co.uk/Coomber%20chap%201.html ↩︎
  2. Richard Coomber, The Coomber Family, http://www.blackham-village.co.uk/Coomber%20chap%201.html ↩︎
  3. Richard Coomber, The Coomber Family, http://www.blackham-village.co.uk/Coomber%20chap%202.html ↩︎
  4. Richard Coomber, The Coomber Family, http://www.blackham-village.co.uk/Coomber%20chap%203.html ↩︎
  5. Richard Coomber, The Coomber Family, http://www.blackham-village.co.uk/Coomber%20chap%205.html ↩︎
  6. Richard Coomber, The Coomber Family, http://www.blackham-village.co.uk/Coomber%20chap%207.html ↩︎
  7. Richard Coomber, The Coomber Family, http://www.blackham-village.co.uk/Coomber.html ↩︎
  8. Richard Coomber, The Coomber Family, http://www.blackham-village.co.uk/Coomber%20chap%203.html ↩︎

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