Category: Singer

Mr and Mrs Truell

Ralph Vaughan Williams noted down eight songs from a Mr and Mrs Truell in Gravesend, on 31st December 1904. Their surname was spelled in numerous ways over the years, although most commonly as ‘Trull’. The couple were John, and Sarah, née Townsden.

John Trull, 1829-1908

John was baptised at St John the Baptist, Sutton-At-Hone on 26th April 1829. His father John was a labourer. Possibly it was the same John Trull, “servant to Mr. John Staples”, who won second prize at the 1830 Kentish Agricultural Association ploughing match, ploughing “with a turnrise plough and three horses”; possibly it was the same man who was an inmate of Dartford Union (i.e. the Workhouse) in the Summer and Autumn of 1836; almost certainly it was this John Trull who was living in the Dartford Workhouse in 1871, three years before his death.

John’s mother’s name was listed as Sarah. Towards the end of 1840 his father married Rebecca Croucher at Ss Peter & Paul, Farningham. Rebecca was a widow, but John senior was recorded as a bachelor, so presumably he had never been married to John’s mother (and consequently we have no way of knowing her surname).

The 1841 census found the family living at Swanley, in the parish of Sutton At Hone. John had an older sister, and two younger brothers. By 1851 John was working as an agricultural labourer at Sampson Row, Langley, living with another labourer, Rob Hayes, and his wife Anne. John’s surname was recorded as ‘Trowell’. He married a widow, Sarah Chapman, at St Mary the Virgin, Chalk, on 10th March 1860. The following year’s census shows the couple living in Chalk, with two children listed as “Daughter in law” and “Son in law”. Also in the house are John’s sister-in-law Elizabeth Bennet, and two lodgers. The lodgers’ occupation, and that of John, is recorded as Carter.

In 1871, under the surname ‘Troull’, they were at Chalk Street, Chalk, John’s occupation once again simply “Agricultural labourer”. It has not been possible to trace the Trulls under any variation of their name in the 1881 census, but in 1891 they were living at 2 West Court, Cliffe, their surname now spelled ‘Trowl’; a couple of other farm labourers were boarding with them.

By 1901 they had moved to 3 Whitehill Road, Clifton Terrace, Milton, Gravesend, and this is one occasion when their surname is spelled ‘Truell’. John is now a “Farm yardman”. A farm salesman was lodging with them, as well as sister-in-law, Rebecca Nichols. He and Sarah may well have been living at that address when visited by Vaughan Williams.

John died at the age of 74, and was buried on 3rd March 1908. His residence at the time of death was given as the Union Workhouse Infirmary in Gravesend.

Sarah Elizabeth Trull, née Townsden, 1829-1913

Sarah was baptised on 11th October 1829 at St Helen’s, Cliffe At Hoo. Her parents were David, a labourer, and Jemima née Fry. The 1841 census shows her parents and four children living at Church Street, Cliffe, but Sarah’s name is not included in the household. In 1851 the family were at No. 3 New Houses, Cliffe; her father was now a widow.

She married Edward Chapman, a labourer, at St Helen’s church, Cliffe At Hoo, on 12th October 1854, but within a year he had died. She remarried, to John Trull, at Chalk, on 10th March 1860, although it appears that the couple had already had two children together: both Ellen (1855) and William (1857) bore the Chapman surname, but in both cases baptism records from Ss Peter & Paul’s in Shorne list their parents as John and Sarah. The children were recorded in the 1861 census as son / daughter in law; at that time this usage was often employed for step-children, but in this case, unless their father was someone else called John, they were both the children of John Trull, but born out of wedlock. In the 1871 census they are simply listed as son and daughter.

Sarah survived her husband by five years. In 1911 she was residing at 90 All Saints Road, Perry Street, Northfleet. She was 79 years old, and her occupation was shown in the census as “None (OAP)” – a very recent designation, as old age pensions had only been introduced by Lloyd George in January 1909. She died in the second quarter of 1913, and the official record for this is one of the few places where the ‘Truell’ spelling of her married surname is used.

Songs

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Mr Wanstall

Francis Collinson noted three songs from a Mr Wanstall at Aldington in 1942. Based on the 1939 Register, there were several men with the surname Wanstall living in Aldington at that time, and it is not possible to identify Collinson’s singer with absolute certainty. Biographies of the most likely candidates are given below.

Fred Wanstall, 1864-1954

Fred Wanstall (and he does seem consistently to be Fred rather than Frederick) was born on 12th October 1864, and baptised on 11th December at St Martin’s, Aldington. His father John worked as a sawyer; his mother’s name was given as Marianne, although census records have her as Mary Ann, née Earl.

In 1871 and 1881 the family were living at Aldington Frith. Fred was one of eleven children. In 1871 John Wanstall’s occupation was given as “Lab and sawyer”, while his wife Mary Ann and 13 year old son John were both listed as “Carrier”. In 1881 John was shown as “Agr lab & carrier”, and no occupation was given for his wife. Fred was “Agr lab son”.

John died in 1886, so in the 1891 census Mary Ann was head of the household, her occupation now “Carrier & grazier”. The family was living at Stone Street Green, Aldington. Fred, 26, was one of four children still at home. He was also working as a carrier; two of his sisters were working as dressmakers.

Towards the end of 1893 Fred married Lydia Caryer in Aldington Church. At the time of the 1901 census they were living at Handen Farm, Aldington. Fred was now described as a Farmer & grazier. He and Lydia had two children, and Thomas Howland, “Yardman on farm”, was living with them. Ten years later they were still at Handen Farm, they had another son, and Fred’s occupation is given as Carrier. In truth he was both farmer and carrier, as his obituary made clear:

Born at Aldington, he helped his mother run a carrier’s business at an early age and made regular trips to Ashford market with a horse and van. He later took over the business and continued it until 1923, when it was transferred to his son, Mr. Frank Wanstall, and became modernised.

Mr. Wanstall was also a farmer for over 40 years. From 1890 to 1919, he farmed Handen Farm, an outlying portion of the Brabourne estate and then went to Bank Farm until 1929 which is now run by his eldest son, Mr. J. Wanstall.1

Further detail is provided in the Kentish Express, 18th June 1987, in a report on a meeting of the Aldington local history society, where a Mr Crook had given a talk about Fred Wanstall:

He lived to be 89 and was a farmer in the village for 40 years. From 1903 — 1923 he was the carrier with a horse and cart. He plied from Hamden [sic] Farm and then from Bank Farm to Ashford on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday leaving about 10am and returning at about 8pm. He would take in goods and return with, among other items, groceries, casks of beers from Shepherd Neame in Bank Street, Ashford, and sweets and cigarettes from Mrs Nye’s sweet shop on Forge Hill. In 1932 he realised the days of the horse and cart were over and bought a small bus which was driven by Frank, one of his sons.2

As stated in his obituary, by the time of the 1921 census Fred and Lydia had moved to Bank Farm, Aldington. Also living with them were their sons John (22) and Frank (15), both of whom were listed as “Assisting Father In General Farm Work”. If he farmed for 40 years from 1890, that implies he retired around 1930; certainly by September 1939 he and Lydia were living at The Gables, Aldington, and Fred is listed as “Retired Overseer”. In fact, local newspaper reports on the marriage of his sons allow us to date the move to The Gables as at some point between April and October 1929. In April 1929, on the occasion of Frank Wanstall’s marriage to Lilian Nutley, the bridegroom is described as “one of Aldington’s popular young men, being conductor of the Al Freyle Dance Orchestra and a good cricketer. For some years he has managed his father’s business as a general carrier (known as Wanstall’s Service) between Ashford and Aldington”3. Then in October of the same year his brother John married Dorothy Uden; the newspaper refers to “Mr. and Mrs. Fred Wanstall, of The Gables, Aldington, and late of Bank Farm”4.

Fred’s wife Lydia died in May 1943, and he passed away on 23rd January 1954 “after a long illness patiently borne”5. His obituary stated that “He was in his 90th year, and was the last of four well-known brothers”, continuing

He knew every yard of the district and could trace his ancestors back to smuggling days. He was also a Parish Councillor for many years a school manager, a bell-ringer until five years ago, and member of the Bellringers’ Guild. He had a fine bass voice and sang in the church choir and in many concerts and oratorios in other villages.

FAVOURITE HYMN
At the funeral on Wednesday at Aldington Church where he was once a sidesman the congregation joined in singing one verse of the hymn “Forty days and forty nights.” On the day before he died, Mr. Wanstall had sung the last verse of this favourite hymn. The organist was a Bonnington farmer Mr. Eyton Boulden.6

Eyton Boulden was also the organist on Good Friday 1931 when Mr. F. Wanstall (bass) was mentioned as having taken part in a performance of “In the Desert and in the Garden” by the Choral Society in Aldington parish church.7 Fred Wanstall would also have been very familiar with Harry Barling, as George Frampton has identified him as a member of Aldington Brass Band, playing the flute.8 Being known to two other men from whom Francis Collinson noted songs does not necessarily mean that Collinson also collected songs from Fred Wanstall but, combined with the fact that we know he was musical, and clearly well known in the village, does make this very plausible. George Frampton, who interviewed members of the Wanstall family in the 1990s, seems confident that Fred Wanstall was Collinson’s singer.

Ernest John Wanstall, 1886-1965

1930s editions of the Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate & Cheriton Herald frequently mention darts matches at the Walnut Tree in Aldington, which were followed by a smoking concert. For instance a report on the match between Aldington and Dymchurch in October 1933, states that

There was a big gathering afterwards, when the room was packed for a smoking concert. Mr. Arthur Francis (capt.) presided and the artistes were Messrs. George Finn, A. Harris, A. Higgins, F. Fifield, D. S. Wild, J. Paton. J. Hyder, E. Wanstall, A. H. Heap, A.T.C.L. (pianist), and J. R. Anderson.9

Some of these men, including E. Wanstall, had also provided the entertainment at the annual share-out of the AIdington Slate Club in December the previous year.10 Meanwhile, a brief report on a Whist Drive at Aldington names Mr E.J. Wanstall as the MC.11

The gentleman at the Whist Drive would have been Ernest John Wanstall, the son of John Wanstall, Fred’s older brother. He was born on 12th September 1886 and baptised on the 1st November. His mother Lucy, whose maiden name was Boulden, was the younger sister of Eyton Boulden’s father David. In 1891 the family lived at Hurst Cottages, Forge Hill, Aldington. John worked as a General labourer; Ernest was the second youngest of five children (two more would arrive in subsequent years).

The 1901 census found them at Church Street, Aldington. Ernest, now fourteen years old, was working as an Assistant shepherd. 10 years later, residing in the family home at Church Hill, he was “Shepherd and cattleman on farm”. By 1921, still at Church Hill, Ernest was now “Farmer – Own Account”.

He married Margaret Howland in April 1930, and the 1939 Register shows them living at Goldwell Farm, Aldington. Ernest’s occupation is given as “Farmer General”. He died in the first quarter of 1965.

Edward Wanstall, 1886-1964

Of course, there is no reason to assume that the E. Wanstall who regularly sang at darts match smoking concerts was the same person as the E.J. Wanstall who chaired the Whist Drive meeting. The singer could well be Edward Wanstall, whose life span corresponded almost exactly with that of Ernest, but who appears to have belonged to an entirely different branch of the family. His father George William Wanstall came originally from Nonington, his mother Jane née Daniels was from Stelling. They married in 1880, and by the time of the 1881 census were living in Aldington. George was at that time a Journeyman blacksmith, living in a cottage – probably next door to the Forge itself, and just down the hill from the Walnut Tree.

Edward was born on 20th September 1886, the fourth of, eventually, seven children. Although the family lived in Aldington, he was baptised at nearby Bonnington, in the church of St Rumbold, on 1st November. By 1891 his father was shown in the census as Blacksmith. Their address is only given as Forge Hill, so it’s not made clear if they are now in the Forge House itself, but that was given as their address in 1901 and 1911. The two eldest sons, George and Charles, were working with their father in the forge. In 1911 Edward and his younger brother Herbert both have the occupation “Tar paver”.

Edward married Bessie Maud Cheeseman at St Stephen, Lympne with West Hythe, on 28th September 1914. By the time of the first post-war census they were living with a son and a daughter at Court-At-Street, between Aldington and Lympne. Edward was working as a Builder’s Labourer, employed by Hayward & Paramor of Folkestone.

In September 1939 he and Bessie were back in Aldington, living at 8 Goldwell Houses, on Roman Road, opposite the primary school – and just a few minutes’ walk from the Walnut Tree, where darts matches took place. His occupation was “Roadstone Quarrier”.

Having been born just over a week after Ernest Wanstall, Edward preceded him to the grave by a few months, dying in the second quarter of 1964.

Songs

  1. Kentish Express 29 January 1954 ↩︎
  2. Kentish Express 18 June 1987 ↩︎
  3. Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate & Cheriton Herald 13 April 1929 ↩︎
  4. Kentish Express 12 October 1929 ↩︎
  5. Kentish Express 29 January 1954 ↩︎
  6. Kentish Express 29 January 1954 ↩︎
  7. Kentish Express 10 April 1931 ↩︎
  8. George Frampton, Country Magazine in Kent, Bygone Kent, Vol. 16, No. 7 ↩︎
  9. Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate & Cheriton Herald 28 October 1933 ↩︎
  10. Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate & Cheriton Herald 31 December 1932 ↩︎
  11. Kentish Express 09 December 1932 ↩︎

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Fred Ring

Frederick Thomas Ring, 1855-1951

Fred Ring was born on 1st September 1855 at Wissenden – between Bethersden and Smarden – and baptised at Bethersden on 2nd December. He was the eldest son of Thomas, an agricultural labourer, and Martha Maria, née Millen. In 1861 they lived at Farm House Cottage, Wissenden Grove. The 1871 census lists Fred as ‘Thomas’; he is working as a farm servant for Thomas Millen (presumably a relative of his mother), at Tearnden Farm, Bethersden.

In 1881 he was back in the parental home, Mudlark, Bethersden, and he’s listed as “Ag lab”. The following year he married Matilda Mary Williamson at Waltham Cross, on 2nd November 1882. The marriage record gives him the occupation “Farmer”, but in subsequent censuses he always appeared as “agricultural labourer”, “Farm Labourer (General)” or similar.

The 1891 census shows them living at Ashford Road, Bethersden; they have two sons and a daughter. In 1901 their address was specified as Coles Cottages, Ashford Road, and they have another daughter. Ten years later the family had moved to Maple Cottage, Bethersden, and would remain there for the next four decades. In 1921 Fred’s employer is given as J D Cameron, Gentleman Farmer.

In the 1939 Register he is listed as Thomas F Ring, and his birth year is erroneously given as 1885. Sophy Theobald, a widow, is living with Fred and his wife, and carrying out “Unpaid Domestic Duties”.

Fred died at the grand old age of 95, in 1951. His obituary in the Kentish Express, Friday 2nd March 1951, ran as follows:

AGED 95, Mr. Frederick Thomas Ring, of Maple-cotts, the home of Mr. and Mrs. F. Ring, died on Feb. 22 after a few days’ illness. Born at Wissenden, he had lived in the parish all his life. His wife died in 1946. Formerly he was a hop-drier for Mr. Jenner of Yalding, and later he worked for 25 years on the farm of the late Capt. Cameron, of Lowood. In his younger days he was a glee-singer and bellringer, and he sang in the church choir as a tenor.

Francis Collinson collected two songs from a Mr Ring, one of these being noted in November 1942. Now there were several men with the surname Ring living in Bethersden in September 1939, including Fred’s sons Walter and Frederick. However it seems most likely that Collinson’s singer was Fred, given that we know he had been involved in music-making in Bethersden.

A report on the annual Bethersden Hop Dryers’ Dinner in the Kentish Express, 23rd October 1909, gave the names of those who had “helped with the evening’s entertainment, giving songs, etc. :– Messrs. H. Elliott, W.F. Parker, F. Ring, Lovel Woodcock, G. Burden, Leslie Woodcock, L. Cole and L. Mannering; with Mr. Elliott (of Ashford) as accompanist”. In a sign of the times, “Selections were given by Mr. Beale on his powerful gramophone”.

In December 1913 Fred Ring was contributing to the entertainment at a meeting of the Mid Kent Hunt:

Some very good songs were rendered during the evening, those contributing to the enjoyment including Messrs. Ryan, Cornwallis, Heath, Parker, Ring and A. Farrance while a glee was given by Messrs. Ring and Buckman.

The following week, Fred was again singing, at the “sixth annual dinner of the Royal Standard Slate Club”:1

A most enjoyable evening was spent and some capital songs were sung by Messrs. Parker, Ring, Greenway, Kingsland, Kingsnorth, Brown, Dyke, and others; a trio was given by Messrs. Buckman, Batt and Ring; and a duet by Messrs. Buckman and Brown, accompanied by Miss Jeffrey (pianist), and Mr. Jeffrey (violin), of Biddenden.2

33 members of the Slate Club received a payout of £1 6s. 8d.

The event at the Royal Standard took place on Saturday 14th December, but Fred Ring, Horace Buckman and Jim Batt were also present at a similar event the following Wednesday, for the Bethersden Share-Out Club, at the Bull Hotel. On this occasion

Those who contributed to the harmony of the evening were Messrs. Parker, T. Venner, A. Woodcock, T. Ring, Batt, F. Wraight, J. Woodcock, P. Murrell, A. Dunk, A.W. Buss, etc. Mr. W. Elliott ably accompanied.3

Members of this club each received £1 11s. 1d “the largest sum paid out since the Club has been running”.

Songs

  1. Kentish Express 13 December 1913 ↩︎
  2. Kentish Express 20 December 1913 ↩︎
  3. Kentish Express 20 December 1913 ↩︎

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Mr Sawkins

Francis Collinson had the words of two songs from a Mr Sawkins of Pembury, on 26th March 1952. It has not so far been possible to identify this singer from the census records for Pembury. George Frampton found two photographs of a Will Sawkins in Pembury in the Past by Mary Standen (Meresborough Books 1984). One, undated, shows three farm workers, and is captioned “The three [hop] driers have a rest on the pocket they have just finished. They are Pat Brown, Arthur Clarke and Will Sawkins who worked at Beagles Farm”. The other shows an early 1950s Darby and Joan Club Christmas dinner at the Church Institute, with Mr and Mrs Sawkins identified as amongst those present. It’s hard to tell from the photograph, but it seems likely that Mr Sawkins was born in the 1880s, or perhaps a little earlier. However, there is no William Sawkins in the census records for Pembury, so this may be a case of someone universally known as Will, but that not actually being his official forename.

At the time of the 1939 Register there was a George Sawkings, born 1877 – so the right kind of age – living with his wife, son and daughter, at Batchelors Cottages, Pembury. He was born at Elmsted, and had worked as an agricultural labourer in East Kent; but his surname is consistently spelled as Sawkings, with a “g”.

Songs

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Kate Oliver

Kate Oliver, née Buckman, 1881-1967

Between 1943 and 1952, Francis Collinson collected nine songs or song tunes from a Mrs Oliver of Bethersden. Collinson included her tune for ‘I wish I wish’ in the Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, 1946, writing:

Mrs. Oliver of Bethersden, Kent, comes from a naturally musical family each member of which played an instrument, either violin, concertina or piano, and all of them self-taught. She played the airs of the tunes to me on the English concertina and spoke the words to me afterwards. She learned the songs from her father, who knew upwards of a hundred songs. I have noted a number of songs from her in addition to the incomplete one below, including “Blackberry Fold,” “The Cottage in the wood,” ” Mary at the garden gate ” and “The sprig of thyme.” Mrs. Oliver is a woman of middle age.1

Looking at records from the 1939 Register, there are at least three married women in Bethersden, with the surname Oliver, who could meet the imprecise description “a woman of middle age”. The most likely seemed to be Mrs Kate Oliver, if only because Horace Buckman, who George Frampton has identified as having taken part in musical activities in the village before the First World War2, was her older brother. In fact, George has been able to positively identify Kate Oliver as Collinson’s singer – in an article in Bygone Kent he quotes Mrs Oliver’s daughter Mrs Rhoda Sargeant (born 1925), who remembered Francis Collinson visiting the family to note down the songs, and later hearing them sung on ‘Country Magazine’:

My mother learnt the songs as a young girl from her father who played them on his concertina which she learnt to play when she was quite young — it was a natural talent, as she had no lessons except a few tips from her father who was also a natural player.3

Kate was born in 1881, the eighth child of agricultural labourer Jeremiah Buckman, originally from High Halden, and Sarah, née Russell. The 1881 census (shortly before Kate was born) showed the family living at Paris Cottages, Bethersden. In 1891, they were at Bateman Lane, Bethersden, but Jeremiah and his two youngest daughters were back at Paris Corner in 1901 (Kate’s mother Sarah had died in 1896). Kate, now 19, was working as a domestic help.

In 1906 she married farm labourer John Charles Oliver, and at the next census were to be found living at Paris Corner, with a baby son. Her father, Jeremiah had died in November 1910, so John was shown as head of the household. In 1921 their address was 5 St Peters Row, Bethersden; they had another three sons and one daughter. John was now working as a Roadstone Carrier for H Godden Contractor, while Kate’s occupation was shown as “Home Duties”. In September 1939 they were at 5 Council Houses, Bethersden; Kate’s occupation was “Unpaid Domestic Duties”. Three children were still in the parental home, including their youngest child Rhoda, who was approaching fourteen.

Kate Oliver died aged 85, on 20th March 1967. She was buried at Bethersden Methodist Church. An obituary in the Kentish Express, 31st March 1967, gave her address at the time of her death as Bailey Field, Bethersden.

Jeremiah Buckman, 1833–1907

As noted above, Kate learned her repertoire of songs “as a young girl from her father who played them on his concertina which she learnt to play when she was quite young — it was a natural talent, as she had no lessons except a few tips from her father who was also a natural player”. The age given for her father Jeremiah in census records generally points to him having been born in 1832 or 1833, but this is not consistent and he could have been born as late as 1836. When his death was registered, his year of birth was stated, somewhat improbably, as 1831. At all events, his baptism, at St Mildred’s church in Tenterden, did not take place until 19th March 1838. His parents were Henry, a labourer, and “Cesilia”, or Celia, née Gladish or Gladwish. They had been married in February 1828 at Rolvenden, her home village, but now lived at High Halden.

The 1841 census found Cecelia (listed as “Ag Lab Wife”) living on Tiffenden Road, High Halden, in the household of William and Charlotte Buckman. Neither Henry nor Jeremiah is listed at the same address however, and both have so far proved elusive. Cecilia was still at Tiffenden Road in 1851, as was Henry, now the head of the household, plus four sons, two daughters and a grandson. Jeremiah however was now eighteen, and working for local farmer William Carpenter as a Waggoner, at Rausley Farm, High Halden. In all subsequent censuses he is shown as “agricultural labourer” or “farm labourer”.

Jeremiah married Matilda Potter towards the end of 1856, but she died in January 1859, and was buried at Bethersden. The following year, 1860, he remarried, with Sarah Russell, and they settled in her home village of Bethersden. By 1871 they had two sons and two daughters; by the time of the 1881 census, when they were residing at Paris Cottages, Bethersden, they had another three daughters, and Kate was born a few months later. In 1891 Jeremiah, Sarah, and four children including the youngest, Kate,  were living at Bateman Lane. Sarah died in 1896, and the 1901 census found Jeremiah back at Paris Corner. He died in the final quarter of 1907, at the age of 76 according to the registration record although, as discussed, he was probably closer to 74.

Songs

In his article for JEFDSS, 1946, Collinson mentioned having noted ‘Blackberry Fold’ and ‘The sprig of thyme’ from Mrs Oliver. Neither of these appears to have survived in his collection.

Rhoda Sargeant told George Frampton that her mother sang a song which started “As I walked out one summer morning”. This might have been a version of ‘The Banks of Sweet Primroses’.

  1. Songs Collected by Francis M. Collinson, Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, Vol. 5, No. 1 (Dec., 1946), pp.13-22. Actually, I have not so far found any references to musical performances by Horace Buckman in local newspapers of the time, whereas I have found numerous mentions of a Mr C. Buckman – for example at the annual dinner of the Share-Out Club at The Bull in December 1914, “Those who contributed to the entertainment included Messrs. T. Ring, C. Buckman, H. Ring…” (Tuesday Express, 22 December 1914). Similarly, at a dinner to welcome home returning servicemen at The Standard, “Mr. W. Ring and Mr. C. Buckman gave a duet which was well received” (Tuesday Express, 27 January 1920), and at the same pub in 1928, Mr. C. Buckman junior was the chair of the Share-Out Club, while singers included C. Buckman senior (Kentish Express, 07 January 1928).
    This singer would almost certainly have been Charles Buckman, 1861-1938, a farm worker who lived at Burnt Oak Cottage, and whose obituary recorded that he “had lived in the parish all his life, was a member of the Ancient Order of Foresters, and was well-known for his music activities. He played in the village band until it was disbanded, and played at the Methodist church for many years” (Kentish Express, 07 January 1938). He does not appear to have been directly related to Kate Buckman / Oliver. ↩︎
  2. George Frampton, The Millen Family of Bethersden, Kent, Musical Traditions, https://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/millens.htm ↩︎
  3. George Frampton, Country Magazine in Kent, Bygone Kent, Vol. 16, No. 7 ↩︎

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Samuel Holdstock

Samuel Holdstock, 1832-1915

Samuel Holdstock was born on 16th May 1832, at Budds Farm, Wittersham, He was baptised at the church of St John the Baptist, Wittersham on 7th June, and remained in the village all his life. His parents were Joseph, a labourer, and Elizabeth, née Tickner. At the time of the 1841 census the family was living at Blackwall, Wittersham. Samuel was the second oldest of eight children, and the household also included the 80 year old Mary Holdstock.

On 11th April 1846, Samuel married Sophia Jenner in the church at Wittersham. In 1851 they were living at Back Road, Wittersham, and had two daughters and one son. Samuel was listed, as he was in most subsequent census returns, as an agricultural labourer. The 1861 census lists the family at 1 Back Street, Wittersham (the same location as Back Road?); Samuel and Sophia have had another three daughters. In 1871 their residence was in the High Street, Wittersham; their youngest daughters, Kate and Caroline, still living in the parental home. In 1881 they were at 5 Main Road; Caroline was still with them, and on the census day they were also looking after a baby granddaughter, Minnie. The 1891 census found them at 4 Swan Road; their daughter Sophia was now living with them, along with two granddaughters, Emma and Mabel.

Samuel’s wife Sophia died and was buried in the parish church on 14th December 1894. By the time of the 1901 census, he had moved in with his daughter Sophia, now married to Thomas Hinkley, a corn miller, at Poplar Cottage, Wittersham (the census has Samuel down as Thomas’s brother-in-law, but that is plainly wrong). Also in the house were Thomas and Sophia’s three children. Samuel was aged 77, but still listed as Agricultural labourer.

Although generally shown as an agricultural labourer in census returns, in 1881 he was described as “Shepheard” (and his daughter Caroline as “Shepheards daur”). In fact, it would appear that he was a skilled shepherd, winning prizes at meetings of the Tenterden Agricultural Association: in 1869 he was placed third for “Rearing the greatest number of lambs (320 lambs, 278 ewes)”1; was third again in 1870 as “lamber of a breeding flock who shall before the 1st June  have reared the greatest number of lambs in proportion to the number of ewes under his management (the number of ewes not to be less than 300 in lamb) of which there must be one-third ewe tags”2; and gained first prize – and a prize of £1 10s. – in 1874 “for rearing 311 ewes 415 lambs”3. On all three occasions his employer was Thomas Chennell, of Budds Farm, Wittersham. He was also awarded a number of prizes at the Wittersham Horticultural Society’s Annual Meeting, in August 1870 – for his extra red gooseberries, herbs, turnips, stocks, scarlet runner beans, calceolaria, cut flowers, marigold, and red potatoes4.

Percy Grainger visited him on 21st August 1909, in company with Mrs Edith Lyttleton, who lived in Wittersham, and noted down five songs – although for only one of these did he note any words. Grainger wrote to his mother the following day

We got though several folksongs yesterday from a very nice old man, his name Samuel Holdstock. How cross I am that I didn’t bring my phonograph with me, for he sings really with charm and with many added syllable “inden” “I’dd” etc.”
One of his melodies was really beautiful: [here he wrote out the tune of the song ‘Mary Thompson’]
I’m so fond of those beginnings (marked*) on the 4th of the key, so uniquely characteristic of English tunes.
Perhaps I will arrange it for 4 voices and let them sing it this evening.

Of the singer, he noted

Samuel Holdstock, born 16 May 1832 [at] Budds, Wittersham, Kent. Here all his lifetime except 2 years in Appledore. [Dealt with] cattle and sheep. Worked up to he was 79, and then got hurt. Wouldn’t sing on a Sunday. Even in his wild days he had never done that. He went up to London to see the Queen’s funeral (Vic[toria]) and he never wished to see another.5

Two years later, in 1911, Samuel was still living with his daughter’s family. Thomas Hinkley was now shown in the census as “miller and baker”, and the family were living at The Mill, Wittersham. Samuel died in the final quarter of 1915, aged 92.

Songs

  1. Maidstone & Kentish Journal 11 October 1869 ↩︎
  2. Maidstone & Kentish Journal 10 October 1870 ↩︎
  3. Epsom Journal 13 October 1874 ↩︎
  4. South Eastern Advertiser 13 August 1870 ↩︎
  5. Quoted in Kay Dreyfus (ed.), Farthest North of Humanness: Letters of Percy Aldridge Grainger 1901-1914, p307-308. ↩︎
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Mary Powell

Mary Rebecca Powell, née Wells, 1835-1920

In August 1910 Francis Jekyll collected two songs from a Mrs Powell, Minster, Isle of Sheppey. This would appear to be Mrs Mary Powell, who had been an inmate of the Sheppey Union Workhouse since at least 1891. Census records from 1891 to 1911 have her birthplace as Linton in Cambridgeshire, or Cambridge. However she appears to have been baptised at Isleham, near Newmarket in Cambridgeshire, on 2nd September 1835. She was the daughter of Edward Wells, a labourer, and Hannah, née Starling. The 1841 census shows the Wells family living in Isleham. Mary was the third eldest of seven children, and there were two other adults and a 15 year old also living in the same house.

Mary was still in the family home at Isleham in 1851, but at some point between then and 1873 it seems that she must have moved to Kent, because in the final quarter of that year she married Thomas Holden on Sheppey. The 1861 census listed Thomas as a carter, working at Eastchurch.

The 1870s were a time of rural unrest throughout the country as, in a movement often referred to as “The Revolt of the Field”, the newly-formed National Agricultural Labourers Union, led by Joseph Arch, encouraged farmworkers to stand together to achieve better working conditions and wages. Formed in 1872, the union’s membership peaked nationally at over 86,000 in 1874. The separate Kent Agricultural Labourers’ Union – later the Kent and Sussex Agricultural Labourers’ Union – was founded as the result of a meeting held at Shoreham on 17th April 1872. This meeting was addressed by Alfred Simmons, editor of the radical newspaper the Kent Messenger and Maidstone Telegraph and he emerged as the main leader of the Kent union (Simmons was not himself an agricultural labourer, but he attributed his commitment to the labourers’ cause to the fact that he and his siblings had been brought up in poverty by his mother, who had been left penniless on her husband’s death). Within three months of that initial meeting, the Kent Agricultural Labourers’ Union had over 4,000 members, and by the end of the year this figure had risen to 6,000. One year into its existence, by May 1873 there were 8,000 union members and the union had a healthy bank balance: subscriptions had brought in £1,25o, plus more than £200 from public donations1. Soon, farmers began to dismiss workers who had joined the union, but the union countered with boycotts of these employers – finding work for dismissed labourers elsewhere in the county and also, following the example of the national union, assisting workers to emigrate to Australia or New Zealand.

A union branch was established on Sheppey following a meeting of 200 men outside the Royal Oak, East End Lane, near Minster, on Saturday 31st May 1873. A detailed report of this meeting was printed in the Sheerness Times and General Advertiser on Saturday 7th June 1873, under the headline “MEETING OF AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS” (PDF), and it is well worth reading this to get a feel for the nature of the farmworkers’ grievances, and also the eloquence of the speaker at the meeting, a Mr. Harry Howard, of the Southfleet Branch of the Kent union. Howard argued persuasively that “A combination of men was better heard and listened to than the complaints of single individuals. Masters could discharge their labourers by wholesale a short time since, because they were sure of getting others, but that time had gone by: working-men were no longer weak, and their complaints were now listened to”, and summarised the aims of the Kent Union as “to secure an adequate scale of wages for work performed, overtime to be paid for in the coin of the realm, and to secure a certain number of hours as a day’s work”. In conclusion, he suggested that they should adjourn to the pub to formally set up a union branch. This they did, and 70 men joined on the spot.

In 1875 the union pressed for higher wages – asking for 3 shillings a day, and the working day to be set at 10 hours. Employers rejected this, insisting on an 11 hour working day. In April 1865 it was reported that

Nearly all the agricultural labourers of the Isle of Sheppey have turned out on strike, in consequence of their employers not acceding to a request for more wages and shorter hours. The men – most of whom have been in receipt of from 16s. to 18s. a week – are backed up by the Kent Labourers’ Union. The farmers held a meeting, and resolved to maintain an opposition to the demands at any cost.2

The Tablet, 10th April 1875, put the number of striking labourers as “200 to 300 in number”.

A letter in the Sheerness Times, 17th April 1875, signed simply “A FARM LABOURER” sought to make readers aware of how farmworkers were treated by their employers.

The farm labourers are “locked out” because they demand that a day’s work shall consist of ten hours, and I am sure that the majority of your readers will coincide with me that that time is quite long enough for the arduous work we have to perform. Latterly (at the request of the majority of the labourers) a young man was elected branch secretary of the Kent Agricultural Labourers’ Association, and he was immediately discharged from a farm near “Court Tree” for his connection with our Society. This was not all! Although he had held the position of “organ blower” at the Church at Eastchurch for the last seven years, to the satisfaction of all, he has also been peremptorily discharged from that position by the Churchwardens. The salary attached to the above office was the paltry sum of £1 per year, I ask those who deprecate the un-English proceedings of the farmers of Sheppey, to support those on the “lock out” with their mite.

We know that Thomas Holden was a union member and took part in the strike, because this was widely reported – in Kent and elsewhere – in reports of a court case in August 1875. The Sheerness Guardian, 21st August 1875 provided a summary of the case:

AN AGGRAVATED ASSAULT.—At the Sittingbourne Petty Sessions, on Monday last, a farmer named King, belonging to Eastchurch, was summoned for assaulting Mary Rebecca Holden and Jas. Holden, her husband, at Eastchurch, on the 10th of July, 1875.—Mr. Hayward appeared for complainants, Mr. Johnson for defendant. Considerable interest was attached to this case.  Holden is one of the agricultural labourers who have been on strike in Sheppey, and it is understood that in this action he was supported by the Kent Agricultural Labourers’ Union. The assault was clearly proved, and neither of the complainants appear to have given the defendant any provocation. The defendant knocked Holden down insensible, whereupon his wife went to his assistance, and, as she was stooping down to pick him up, King struck her. He knocked her down several times, cutting her eye, breaking her jaw, and finally rendering her senseless. The magistrates characterised the assaults as most brutal and cowardly. For the assault on the man defendant was fines £4 18s. 5d. including costs; for the assault on the woman he was sentenced to fourteen days’ imprisonment with hard labour, and ordered to pay the costs (£2 18s. 5d.) or to undergo further imprisonment for one month.

Several reports gave the name of the assaulted man as James Holden, but this was a typographical error – perhaps the result of conflating his name with that of the defendant, James King.

This article, from the Sheerness Times and General Advertiser, 21st August 1875, provides some further information:

COWARDLY AND UNPROVOKED ASSAULT.

James King, farmer, of Leysdown, Sheppey, was summoned for having assaulted Thomas Holden, an agricultural labourer, and Mary Rebecca Holden, his wife, at Eastchurch, on Saturday, July 10th.— Mr. Hayward for the complainants; Mr. Johnson for the defendant.

The evidence of the complainants, supported by several witnesses, was to this effect. On the day in question, Holden was in the Wheatsheaf beer-house, Eastchurch, and his wife came to the door with a basket of vegetables for sale. King was at the bar, and he went to the woman and took a bundle of lettuce out of her basket and tore them to pieces. Holden then went to his wife and asked why she allowed her things be spoiled, whereupon King said, “Do they belong to you, Tom,” and he replied “Yes, Jem, and I don’t like to see them spoiled.” King then gave Holden a “chuck” under the chin, saying, “How do you like that,” and this he followed by some “fearful blows”,  knocking Holden down, and rendering him nearly quite insensible. The woman thought her husband was dead, and went to pick him up, when King attacked her, striking her several times, and finally knocking her down on the cellar-flap outside the house, and breaking her jaw-bone. The woman was insensible, and some thought at the time that she was dead. It was suggested in cross-examination that the woman drank the defendant’s beer without permission, and that she sang in the tap-room after her jaw was said to be broken, but this was denied; it elicited, however, that she had been convicted of riotous conduct. Two witnesses were called on the part of the defendant named Stockbridge and Mungham; they endeavoured to prove that the woman was the aggressor, but they gave their evidence in such a way that Mr. Hayward significantly declined to cross-examine them.

The magistrates characterised the assault as brutal and cowardly. For that upon the man they fined the defendant £4 18s. 5d., including costs; for that upon the woman he was sentenced to fourteen days’ hard labour, and to a further term if the costs (£2 18s. 5d.) were not paid.

Nowhere is Thomas’ union membership explicitly stated as the reason for King’s assault on him. But all reports mention the fact that he was a striking union member. In fact the union supported Thomas and Mary in bringing the case, retaining the lawyer Mr Hayward on their behalf.

The longest, most detailed report appeared in the Kent & Sussex Times, 20th August 1875, under the headline “BRUTAL ASSAULT ON A LOCKED-OUT LABOURER AND HIS WIFE BY A SHEPPY FARMER”. This provided the additional information that “The case had been adjourned for a month in order to enable the female complainant to appear, she having had her jaw broken in the assault, and being under medical treatment. She now appeared in court with her face bound up”. Thomas Holden (incorrectly referred to as James throughout the article) is described as “one of the men who were “locked out,” and by growing a few vegetables in his cottage garden occasionally earned a few pence to supplement the Union lock-out pay”. The article includes details of Mary’s testimony – and since we rarely have the opportunity to hear directly from the mouths of traditional singers from this era (even if filtered through the pen of a newspaper reporter), this is given here in full:

I was in the front of the bar of the Wheat Sheaf, at Eastchurch, on the 10th of July. My husband was in the tap-room when I went in. I asked them if they wanted some lettuces or onions, and the defendant took a bunch out of my basket, and threw them down in front of the bar. He repeated this. I said, “If you don’t want to buy them don’t pluck them to pieces.” My husband came up to know what was going on, and the defendant said “are they your’s,” and up with his fist and struck him under the chin. He struck him in the same way again, and then knocked him down. I went to pick him up, and the defendant struck me and knocked me down, cutting me across the eye. When I was getting up he hit me under the jaw, and knocked me down again. I became senseless, and that is all I know about it. I am under the doctor now, and still have the wires in my jaw, which was broken. I did nothing to the defendant, but went to pick my husband up, and that was what I had the blow for. I cannot say how long my husband was senseless, for I was knocked down senseless myself directly afterwards.

Then, when examined by the defence lawyer:

I am quite sure it was the defendant who tore the lettuces to pieces. I did not attempt to drink any of his beer. I saw Stockbridge and Mungham there, and they are witnesses, I ought to have had, but they both live under the defendant and work for him. I was in Mr. Hughes’ summer-house when I came to myself. I should not think I was capable of singing after having my jaw broken.

The evidence given by the landlord James Hughes, and his wife Sarah, as well as three labourers who had been witnesses to the attack, all supported Mary’s testimony. The conflicting evidence given by the labourers Stockbridge and Mungham seems to have been given short shrift – the magistrates told James King that “The assault is a brutal one on your part, and particularly disgraceful in knocking down a woman and breaking her jaw as you did”. At the end of the trial, King paid the damages plus costs – amounting to a total of £7 17s, “and the defendant was removed in the custody of the police to undergo his sentence”.

The anonymous author of the ‘Jottings Grave and Gay’ column in the East Kent Gazette, 21 August 1875 condemned the assault by King, saying that “I should imagine that a more unmanly outrage never disgraced the Isle of Sheppey”, and applauded the fact that the magistrates had sentenced the assailant to two weeks’ hard labour, not just a fine. He concluded that this would demonstrate that there was, as was often asserted, not one law for the rich, and another for the poor. This view was not universally shared however. Reynolds’s Newspaper (originally linked to Chartism, and later the Cooperative movement) ran a report on the trial under the heading “MORE LENIENCY TOWARDS RUFFIANISM”. The Kent & Sussex Times, meanwhile, on 20th August 1875 described the sentence as “FLAGRANT INJUSTICE”. The column argued that

The Hon. Secretary to the Labourers’ Union has acted well in bringing Mr. KING before the magistrates, and it is greatly to be deplored that the Bench acted in so half-hearted a manner in punishing the accused. To such a person as Mr. FARMER KING a fine of a pound or two is no punishment whatever. The only real punishment brought to bear upon him is the fourteen days’ imprisonment, and we emphatically maintain that this sentence is utterly inadequate to the outrageous nature of the offence. It will be very convenient for some persons to know that they may commit a brutal assault upon an unoffending man and his wife, that they may kick the husband and break the wife’s jaw bone, and all upon the risk of “a small fine and 14 days.” Now let us put a case. Supposing instead of a labouring man’s wife this woman had been the wife of a farmer, and supposing instead of a farmer KING had been a labourer, would the punishment inflicted have been the same? We trow not. We venture to think that any working man who attacked an unoffending woman would have been committed for trial, and ultimately sentenced to a lengthy term of imprisonment. And in that he would have had no more than his due. Yet, here is a farmer who, without receiving provocation, commits a cowardly and aggravated assault upon both the man and his wife, and – because he is a farmer, possibly – a few days’ confinement, and a mere flea-bite of a fine is deemed sufficient.

It concluded

We denounce the decision of the magistrates as entirely inadequate to the offence. It is this partiality for higher class criminals which is daily bringing the law into contempt; and the Sittingbourne verdict adds another to the long string of precedents which eventually must lead to the appointment of stipendiary instead of country gentlemen magistrates.

Sadly, the attack on Thomas and Mary was not the worst tragedy to befall them at the Wheatsheaf Inn. The Sheerness Times and General Advertiser, 2nd October 1880, reported that on the afternoon of Saturday 25th October 1880 the Holdens went to the pub, which “is situate on the borders of Eastchurch parish, in the centre of an extensive agricultural district, and at this season of the year […] is mostly frequented by those engaged in harvest operations, as in addition to being a retailer  of beer and spirits, the proprietor also carries on the business of grocer and general dealer, and the labourers are accustomed to resort thereto for their weekly provisions”. They met William Hadlum and his wife in the pub and, after eating some dinner, went outside to sit on the green in front of the pub.

Shortly afterwards Hadlum, who was the worse for drink, commenced abusing his wife and making so much noise, that the landlord ordered him either to be quiet or to go about his business, whereupon Hadlum stretched himself upon the ground and appeared to go to sleep. Whether he really did so or not we cannot tell, but it seems that after the lapse of about two hours he jumped up and recommenced the disturbance, by challenging Holden to fight. The landlord again interposed, and warned Hadlum off his premises, when the latter suddenly turned round, and exclaiming “This is the way to do it,” rushed at Holden, who was still sitting on the ground, and struck him two heavy blows with his fist, knocking him senseless. Assistance was at once rendered to the unfortunate man, but it was soon discovered that he was past all human aid, and Hadlum was accordingly detained till the arrival of the police, when he was taken into custody and removed to the lock-up at Sheerness. The deceased must have expired immediately, as he neither moved nor spoke after being struck. Hadlum is well-known all over the island, being somewhat of the half-gipsy type and has been generally looked upon as a man to be avoided when in drink, his violent temper and cruel disposition having on more than one occasion led to a breach of the peace. On the other hand, Holden, who was a native of Eastchurch, was a quiet, inoffensive man, and was greatly respected by those with whom he worked.

At the inquest the following Monday, James Hughes the pub landlord said Thomas Holden was a farm labourer who resided in the parish of Warden (just up the coast from Leysdown, in the East of Sheppey), and that he’d known him since childhood. He described what he had witnessed, and his attempts to restrain Hadlum:

as I was approaching him, Hadlum took off his coat and waistcoat. He said he had fought Tom Sayers [a famous bare-knuckle prize fighter], and he would fight the best man in England. He again placed himself in a fighting attitude in front o the deceased, who was still sitting down, and had apparently not provoked Hadlum at all. I pushed Hadlum back, and threw his clothes on his shoulders and told him to go. I said “Holden is not a fighting man, but one of the quietest persons in the parish.” I then turned round to go away, when Hadlum immediately jumped round and said, “This the way to do it.” He then struck the deceased two violent blows with his fist, the first on the temple and the second near the ear, knocking him over senseless from the seat upon which he was sitting. Holden had not attempted to get up or to fight, and the only expression I heard him use was “If you hit me you will have to suffer for it.” So far as I know there was not the slightest provocation given by Holden to Hadlum. Deceased appeared to lay doubled up. I put my hand under his shoulders and lifted him straight. I tried his pulse and could find none, and I then said to Hadlum, “He is dead, you vagabond, you have killed him.”

Once again, we get to hear the voice of Mary Holden. Here is her evidence as reported in the Sheerness Guardian of 2nd October – it is mostly consistent with what appeared in the Sheerness Times, but has a slightly more natural feel, and some additional detail:

The deceased, Thomas Holden, is my husband. On Saturday last, at ten minutes past twelve, he and I came to the “Wheatsheaf Inn” to have our dinner. Hadlum and his wife were there when we came in. After dinner we all four went out and sat on the green in front of the house. No disagreement occurred between my husband and Hadlum, and I sat talking to his wife. Just before five o’clock Hadlum said something to [my husband], but I did not hear what it was. My husband replied, “If you hit me, you’ll have to suffer for it.” He got up, stood in front of [my husband], put himself in a fighting attitude, and said “I care for no man; here I am; I am one of Courtney’s men.” He then struck my husband two violent blows and he fell down dead directly.
The witness here became very excited, and after waiting for some time, she was removed from the room in a fainting condition.

In the first quarter of the following year, 1881, Mary remarried, with Edward George Powell. At the time of the 1881 census, the couple were living at 2 Earlls Cottages, Eastchurch. Edward was 42 years old – three years younger than Mary – and his occupation was given as “Ag lab & army reserve”.

In April 1891, when the next census took place, Mary Powell was for the first time accorded an occupation in the census record – Agricultural labourer. But she is also shown as a Pauper inmate of the Sheppey Union Workhouse in Minster, and there she appears to have remained until her death, three decades later. Edward does not appear to be listed as an inmate of the Workhouse in 1891, 1901 or 1911; in fact, he seems to disappear from the official record after the 1881 census. Mary would have been a resident of the workhouse when she sang her songs for Francis Jekyll. She died in 1920, aged 85.

Songs

An Old Man He Courted Me (Roud 210)

Tarry Trowsers (Roud 427)

  1. This account of the Kent Agricultural Labourers’ Union is derived mostly from Rollo Arnold, The “Revolt of the Field” in Kent 1872-1879, Past & Present, No. 64 (Aug., 1974), pp. 71-95 ↩︎
  2. Midland Examiner and Wolverhampton Times, 10th April 1875 – exactly the same words were printed in local newspapers across the country ↩︎
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Fred Mannering

On the 9th July 1942, Francis Collinson noted two songs from a Fred Mannering at Bethersden, and one from a James Mannering. It has not so far been possible to identify Fred Mannering with certainty. However the most likely candidate seems to be

Frederick Charles Mannering, 1901-?

Born in 1901, he was the son of Henry James Mannering, a farm labourer, and Sarah Jane née Buss. In 1901 the family was living in The Street, Bethersden, and in 1911 at Wilk’s Cottages, Bethersden. Frederick is not listed in or around Bethersden in 1921 or 1939, but his parents are – in 1939 they were living at Prospect Cottages, Bethersden. In the 1881 and 1901 censuses Henry James Mannering is listed just as James Mannering. Perhaps he generally went by the name of James (or more likely Jim). And it’s possible that when Collinson visited the Mannerings in 1942, their son Fred happened to be at home as well.

Of course it is also possible that the singer wasn’t actually called Fred at all – it might just have been a nickname (in the same way as another Bethersden singer, Tim Fidler, had actually been baptised Reginald Harry Fidler). But, based on information in the 1939 Register, the only other male Mannerings living in the village were Frederick Mannering’s brothers – and it seems extremely unlikely that, with a brother called Fred, either of them would have acquired Fred as a nickname.

Songs

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James Mannering

On the 9th July 1942, Francis Collinson noted two songs from a Fred Mannering at Bethersden, and one from a James Mannering. It is not possible to be 100% certain of either singer’s identity, but the most likely person is

Henry James Mannering, 1866-1954

He was baptised at the church of St Stephen, Lympne with West Hythe, on 14th January 1866. His residence was recorded as Marwood – presumably Marwood Farm, which is between Bonnington and Lympne. His father George was a labourer, and his mother was Ann née Hawkett. In 1871 the family were living at Mannering Green Lane, Bethersden. 10 years later they were at Snoadhill, Bethersden and Henry James’s first name is recorded simply as James. He was 15, and working as “Ag lab (indoor serv)”.

He was married to Sarah Jane Buss in 1887, and at the next census, in 1891, they were living at Grove Court Cottages, Dowe Street, Pluckley, with a son, Louis. By 1911 they had another four sons: Percy, Frederick, Raymond and Oliver. Although most census records give his name as Henry James, in 1901 he was listed as James, and it seems probable that this (or more likely Jim) is the name he was known by.

James and Sarah remained in Bethersden: in 1901 they were at The Street, 1911 Wilk’s Cottages, 1921 at 4 St Peters Row, and 1939 at Prospect Cottages. James’ occupation is shown as agricultural labourer (or some variation thereof) in all of these censuses, up until 1939 when he is recorded as “General Labourer Retired”.

He died in 1954.

Songs

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Mrs Lurcock

In Francis Collinson’s collection the carol ‘Lazerus’ is recorded as “Collected from Mrs. Lurcock of Bredgar, Kent, and noted down by Miss Alice Travers of Bredgar”. Lurcock is a common surname in that part of Kent, and there is no indication of when the song was noted down by Miss Travers – although the chances are that she wrote it down and sent it to Collinson at some point after May 1942, when the BBC’s Country Magazine programme was first aired. It’s not possible to be 100% sure of the identity of the singer, but the most likely candidate is

Ann Flosy Lurcock, née Drury, 1884-1988

Born on 8th August 1884, her birth record has her as Ann Flosy Drury, although when baptised at St James’, Sheldwich, on 24th August her name was recorded as “Anne Florence”. All subsequent official records have her as Ann without an ‘e’, and where her middle name is given in full it’s never “Florence”, but always “Flosy” or “Flosey”.

Her parents were Charles Drury, a farm labourer, and Keziah née Bramble, and in 1891 they were living in North Street, Sheldwich. By 1901 they had moved to Bunce Court Cottage, Otterden. Ann was at that point the eldest of four children, although ultimately there would be seven children; her father was working as a carter on a farm.

The 1911 census shows Ann working as a “Kitchen maid domestic”, for a Scottish couple, Mr and Mrs Simson, at Ickleford Manor, Ickleford, in Hertfordshire.

She married James Lurcock, a labourer, and native of Bredgar, on 13th May 1916. He appears to have enlisted in the RAF in July 1918, but by the time of the 1921 census they were living together in Bexon Lane, Bredgar. From local newspaper reports they appear to have participated in events run by the Bredgar Cottage Gardeners’ Association, and to have attended whist drives and dances held at the Red Triangle Hut (Mrs Lurcock came third and won a tea strainer in December 1923!).

A newspaper article celebrating her 103rd birthday (East Kent Gazette 13th August 1987) gave details of her life:

She does not claim to hold the key to eternal youth, but believes hard work and a drop of brandy might have helped her to keep going!

Her memory is still sharp and she can recall her full life in minute detail.

She was born the eldest of seven children at the family home in Badlesmere. As a fashionable youngster she remembers having a string of admirers and modern ideas about women at work. She herself worked below stairs as a cook in Hertfordshire and spent a year cooking at a stud farm In Ireland.

Mrs. Lurcock said: “A lot of the people I worked for asked if my family minded me working so far away from home, but I really enjoyed it. I suppose it now sounds a bit like ‘Upstairs Downstairs’ with butlers, footmen and all.”

Although life was hard, Mrs. Lurcock admits there was time to relax at local dances.

She remembers slipping into tight-fitting ‘”hobble skirts” to tempt the lads at the local hop.

And it was at a dance in Bredgar that she met her husband James, who lived in Bexon Lane. They married on 13 May 1916 at Sittingbourne Register Office.

The couple lived in Bredgar and had no children. After her husband died in 1932, Mrs. Lurcock went back to work as a lady’s companion.

Later she shared a home in Rainham with her sister until the latter’s death two years ago. She then moved to Court Regis old people’s home in Milton where she shared her birthday celebrations with relatives. staff and friends.

She died the following year, on 2nd June 1988.

Songs

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