Despite technical difficulties Edwin Cuss gave an interesting and informative illustrated talk on views along the River Coln through Fairford. The photographs spanned well over a century, the earliest being 1858. He pointed out important sighting landmarks such as the gas works chimney and the Church and useful dating clues such as costume and the size of trees. One of the more recent pictures was of several youths sitting on the town bridge, one of whom was sitting in the audience much older and wiser!
We were very grateful to the member who lent a substitute projector that enabled the talk to continue. Edwin was very disappointed that his equipment let him down and has offered to give us another talk on a different topic in 2008.
Valentine Strong was a well-known Cotswold stonemason who built Andrew Barker’s Fairford Park mansion house and was the father of Thomas and Edward Strong, Sir Christopher Wren’s master masons in the rebuilding of St Paul’s Cathedral following the Great Fire of London. Valentine Strong died in Fairford in 1662 and is buried under an impressive bale tomb in St Mary’s churchyard.
A brief account of an officer of the Royal Navy who was a contemporary of Nelson and who developed the Navy List into an unparalleled reference work. His grave is pictured opposite in St Mary’s Churchyard.
June Lewis-Jones gave an informative and entertaining talk on medical practices in the town from the Middle Ages to the 20th Century. Medical men mentioned during the talk included:
Thomas Fayreford who treated people throughout the West Country in the 16th Century including at least one Fairford resident
Mr Ducket a licensed surgeon in the town in the mid-18th Century
and the Iles, Cornwall and Bloxsome dynasties of doctors serving the town in the 19th and 20 centuries
Also covered were the Retreat lunatic asylum, the Pest House at Burdocks, Fairford Workhouse, Fairford Cottage Hospital and the fundraising efforts of the Carnival for the hospital. The talk was illustrated by pictures from June’s own collection.
Pictures courtesy of June
Fairford Workhouse
Laying the foundation stone of Fairford Hospital 1887
Lewis-Jones
June Lewis-Jones gave an informative and entertaining talk on medical practices in the town from the Middle Ages to the 20th Century. Medical men mentioned during the talk included:
Thomas Fayreford who treated people throughout the West Country in the 16th Century including at least one Fairford resident
Mr Ducket a licensed surgeon in the town in the mid-18th Century
and the Iles, Cornwall and Bloxsome dynasties of doctors serving the town in the 19th and 20 centuries
On 21st September Chris Hobson gave a talk on Victorian Fairford using a PowerPoint presentation.
He talked about five research tools that he had used to discover the history of Fairford:
the national census
trade directories
the Times Digital Archive
the National Burial Register
the Internet
Chris Hobson
Using these sources he then briefly covered four topics: population, transport (coaches and railways), medical and the asylum, shops and services. He then showed an example of what can be found on the Internet by illustrating the career of Alfred Sandling Cowley whose life can be traced from Fairford to South Africa and then to Australia where he became a prominent politician.
Chris then outlined a project that he has been working on that aims to record every resident of Fairford during the 19th Century starting with basic information from the sources mentioned above. When the database is more complete the aim would be to make it available to researchers either via the FHS website or on a PC in the planned Heritage Room of the Community Centre. If anyone would like to assist in finding information to make this project more complete, please contact Chris on Fairford 711768.
The Poole family from Gloucester are able to trace their family back to the 15th Century. On 22nd August they made a special visit to Fairford to try to trace some of their ancestors. During their visit Fairford History Society assisted the Poole family to find the tomb of their ancestors Henry and Susanna Tovey who died in 1801 and 1806 and whose listed tomb is in St Mary’s Churchyard (see opposite). At least 11 other members of the Tovey family are also buried in St Marys and all of their graves were identified during the visit. The later Toveys were millers and maltsters at Fairford Mill.
In the business part of the meeting Keith Cottam welcomed the members and outlined the programme for the evening. As an addenda to the Chairman’s report, John Read spoke about the progress of the Fairford Community Play project, for which FHS has obtained a substantial grant. It will be produced in collaboration with Fairford’s schools and FADS over 4 or 5 nights in October 2007 in St Mary’s Church. The LHI grant has also enabled FHS to buy equipment and set up the FHS website www.fairfordhistory.org.uk and Suzanne Jones of TGN Ltd, who designed the website, demonstrated the contents so far. The business part of the meeting was then concluded, all committee members being re-elected en bloc.
Peter Yells then gave a talk about the family firm of Yells Brothers which was established in 1858 and was involved in the building trade for 120 years. The firm’s first jobs were mainly linked to agriculture there being many large farms in the area e.g Arkells, Cole and Iles. They carried out of lot of work for Dr A C King Turner at The Retreat, one job being to replace all the locks with special asylu
Peter Yells
m locks at a total cost of £14 which must have been expensive in those days. Another big job was the building of Burdocks, Mr Yells could oversee this from his house as he lived at Vane House in Horcott Road at the time.
When Peter’s father took over more building work was undertaken, houses were constructed on the Burford Road at Lechlade, London Road in Cirencester, Palmer Hall in Fairford (1936), and houses at Blunsdon. The firm often used the designs of Sidney Pile, the architect. Yells employed upwards of 50 men at one time, and during the Second World War some men were able to keep their jobs as it was a reserved occupation but could be called away at short notice to help repairs required by thebombing of London. After the War much of the work involved modernising cottages as grants were then available. Yells converted the Old Farmor’s School into the town library and a youth leader’s flat on the first floor. The firm ceased trading in 1978 due to the general decline in the building market at that time.
Mr Yells brought along many items including company ledgers, day books, customised stationery, and pictures that had been stored in his attic for many year. It was a very interesting insight into another slice of Fairford local history.
Fairford has been very fortunate in obtaining a grant of £24,949 from the Local Heritage Initiative fund thanks to the hard work of Margaret Bishop and John Read who haVE masterminded the whole idea.
The Play will celebrate the heritage and history of Fairford’s pioneering role in education with a dramatic presentation of education in Fairford over three centuries. It will be produced in association with pupils and staff of local schools in and Fairford Amateur Dramatic Society, directed by Barry Kilgariff.
The story so far…………
The research is complete and been co-ordinated by Hugh Dudley and Nicky Clare from Farmor’s School with contributions from many other local history experts in the town and local history interviews. The amount of material acquired was so vast and in order to make a first class production it was decided to approach a professional scriptwriter, Stephen Deproust. Most of the material has now been handed over to him and in the remaining part of 2006 he will collaborate with production team to produce a first class script which will be completed by the end of December, 2006.
FHS hopes to get as many people as possible involved in this project and if you are interested please e-mail enquiry@fairfordhistory.org.uk
The LHI grant has enabled us to set up this website designed by Suzanne Jones of The Graphics Network in Fairford.
FHS has also used part of the grant to acquire a scanner, digital camera, video camera and tripod.
This equipment will help us produce our outcomes from the project: a book ‘Now & Then in Fairford’ in which FHS is fortunate to have Edwin Cuss collaborating, a film of the Play which will be produced on DVD and a film of making of the play. It is also hoped to produce a short film for the purpose of display to visitors to Fairford.
The Local Heritage Initiative is a national grant scheme that helps local groups to investigate, explain and care for their local landscape, landmarks, traditions and culture. The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) provides the grant but the scheme is a partnership, administered by the Countryside Agency with additional funding from the Nationwide Building Society.
a talk by James Turtle, Outreach and Education Officer from the Gloucester Record Office.
James entertained and horrified about 60 members of the Society with information about the plague, remedies and recipes, smallpox and the development of the medical profession. In 1638 all the members of two families in North Nibley died within 1 week and 1 month of each other, their bodies were buried in their back gardens.
In 1714 a universal remedy was ‘snail water’ which was made of snails, earthworms, a ‘few herbs’ mixed with white wine and water. Scrofula was reputed to be cured by the touch of a reigning monarch (this came to an end an end with the death of Queen Anne.
James also explained the development of the medical profession using Dr John Hitchman of Fairford as an example. He was apprenticed to Dr Charles Cornwall for 5 years to learn his profession. He then went to London and gained some qualifications (MRCS, LSA) but in 1858 legislation was passed that doctors had to follow a proper course for a degree and be licensed by the General Medical Council. Dr Hitchman and many other doctors of the time had to apply to the University of St Andrews, provided testimonials and certificates and were then were awarded a degree.
In the 1850s small pox vaccination became compulsory and District Vaccinators were appointed. The Anti-Vaccination League was very strong in Gloucester and in the 1887 the board passed a resolution than no prosecutions of people not having their children vaccinated should take place. However in 1895 there was a smallpox outbreak and 434 people died in Gloucester and the resolution was quickly reversed.
