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Fairford Brickworks

Fairford Brickworks existed for about 70 years from c 1850- 1920. It was at Waiten Hill on a 10-acre site north of Cirencester Road. Today the barns are still there but the kiln is gone. The chimneys are no longer there but the base remains at about 6 foot. Today the barns are private homes. It made red bricks and clay water pipes and production ceased when the seam of red clay ran out. Thanks to Syd Flatman for this information and through him FHS is lucky enough to have a Fairford ‘Wane’ brick, donated by Bill Lanchbury.

Around Fairford you can see buildings made of red brick e.g. Fairford Hospital and some houses in West End.

Below are entries from the trade directories from 1850 until 1910; it must have closed shortly after that.
1850, 52, 59 John Hurst Wane wine & spirit merchant brick & tile maker
1868 William Wane brick, tile and pipe maker
1879 William Dunn brick, tile and pipe maker Waiten Hills
1885 William Dunn brick, tile and drain pipe maker Waiten Hills
1889 William Dunn brick, tile and drain pipe maker Waiten Hills
1894 William Dunn brick, tile and drain pipe maker Waiten Hills
1897 William Dunn brick, tile and drain pipe maker Waiten Hills
1902 William Dunn brick, tile and drain pipe maker Waiten Hills
1906 Edward Hill brick, tile and drain pipe maker London Street
1910 Edward Hill brick and tile Waiten Hills

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FHS Archive Room

Since 2004 FHS has been collecting information about Fairford’ s history. In 2008 we obtained a designated space in the refurbished Community Centre, which is a room on the top floor front of the building. It was appropriate as the north facing window contains some of the original 18th century glass.

The collection contains anything relating to Fairford’s history, not only books and paperwork but also objects e.g. the Fairford ‘Wane’ brick, a collection box in the form of a WW2 submarine, Fairford mugs, presentation cups, pictures and items collected by June Lewis from Fairford, Manitoba etc. etc.

FHS is always pleased to accept donations, large or small. We have a collection of oral CD memories, unfortunately we have nobody to organise this at the moment. However, we are very ready to accept written memories of Fairford, this is the local history that will be lost in the future. If you would like to talk to someone about your memories so that they can be written down, please contact us.

We always try to help with family history enquiries. All the parish registers, wills and inventories
are online www.ancestry.co.uk, other researchers have deposited their information with us so sometimes we are able help and to put distant relatives in contact with each other.

The FHS Archive Room is open on Monday afternoons 2-4 we are always pleased to see visitors then or please contact FHS by phone or email if that time is not convenient.

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Monuments of St Mary’s Church

1.John (d.1500) and Alice Tame (d. 1471) Click on this link 1_JOHN TAME 1500

2. Muriel Loggan 1754 –  Click on this link-  2_MURIEL LOGGAN 1754

3. William Oldisworth 1680 – Click on this link 3_WILLIAM OLDISWORTH 1680

4.James Oldosworth 1722 – Click on this link 4_JAMES OLDISWORTH 1722

5. Bridget Tracy 1632 – Click on this link 5_BRIDGET TRACY 1632

6. William Oldisworth 1714  – Click on this link 6_WILLIAM OLDISWORTH 1714

7. Keble Family – Click on this link 7_KEBLE FAMILY

8. William Butcher 1715 – Click on this link 8_WILLIAM BUTCHER 1715

9. John Keble 1866 – Click on this link 9_JOHN KEBLE 1866

10. Countess of Rothes 1956 – Click on this link 10_ROTHES 1956

11. Frampton Huntington 1738 – Click on this link 11_FRAMPTON HUNTINGTON 1738

12. Sarah Ready 1731 – Click on this link12_SARAH READY 1731

13. Frederick Wade 1917 – Click on this link13_FREDERICK WADE 1917

14. Henry Jenner 1775 – Click on this link 14_HENRY JENNER 1775

15. John Humphreys 1893 – Click on this link 15_JOHN HUMPHREYS 1803

16. Alexander Colston 1775 – Click on this link 16_ALEXANDER COLSTON 1775

17. George Robbins 1791 – Click on this link 17_GEORGE ROBBINS 1791

18. Albert Palmer 1940 – Click on this link 18_ALBERT PALMER 1940

19. Edmund Tame 1534 – Click on this link 19_EDMUND TAME 1534

20. Raymond Barker 1888 – Click on this link 20_RAYMOND_BARKER 1888

21. Lygons 1584 – Click on this link 21_LYGONS 1584

22.Bettertons 1781 – Click on this link 22_BETTERTONS 1781

23. Morgans 1772 – Click on this link 23_MORGANS 1772

24. Other Monuments: Mary Ann Hitchman, Arthur Smart Loxley, Richard John Bailey, Dorothy Winifred Anne Dowglass, Denys Hodson, Peter and Rosemary Yells, Walter and Gladys Jones – Click on this link – 24_Other Monuments 

 

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Wings School, Fairford

A small advertisement in the Birmingham Daily Post of 16 August 1944 announced the imminent arrival of a new school in Fairford. The advertisement stated: “COMMONWEAL LODGE, from Devon, OPENING AS “WINGS” AT FAIRFORD, GLOUCESTERSHIRE, SEPTEMBER 1944. Progressive approved School for Girls. Individual Tutorials. Music, Riding included.” Commonweal Lodge had been founded by William Webb in 1916 on his estate at Purley in Surrey. In 1941 the school had to move to Ardock Lodge in Lewdown near Okehampton, Devon as its building at Purley were taken over by the military. Three years later the school took up residence in Fairford in the buildings of The Retreat, a privately-run asylum which had been founded by Alexander Iles in 1822 and was owned by Dr A C King-Turner when it closed in 1944. However, the advertisement is slightly misleading as “Wings” appears to have been an offshoot of Commonweal Lodge School which returned to its original home at Purley at the end of the Second World War and remained there until it closed in 2010.

As the advertisement mentioned, riding was a very important aspect of the school’s activities and many of the almost 100 pupils brought their own ponies to school. “Wings” sponsored the Fairford Horse Show and Gymkhana which was held in the grounds of Fairford Park on 21 July 1945 and several of the girls took part in the show. The event was organised by the school’s bursar, Major Frank Edwards, and the proceeds were donated to the Fairford Cottage Hospital. The event was repeated the following year and was even more successful. One of the young riders who achieved national prominence in the sport was 11-year old Patricia Moss who jumped at the London Horse Show in June 1946. She was an outstanding rider having competed at horse shows since the age of four and was frequently mentioned in newspaper reports on riding events. Pat Moss later turned her focus to rally driving having been taught to drive by her brother Stirling Moss, one of Britain’s most famous Formula One racing drivers. She became one of Britain’s most successful female rally drivers becoming European Ladies Rally Champion five times in the 1950s and 1960s.

Pat Moss was not the only pupil of “Wings” to appear in the local and national press. Sisters Patricia and Diana Selous were pictured in the Gloucestershire Echo of 19 June 1946 with a horse named Winged Pan which apparently walked into the music room when it heard the sisters playing the piano and violin! Diana Selous and Pat Moss both won prizes at the Gloucester and District Horse Show which was held on 27 July 1946 when Pat Moss was the only competitor to achieve a clear round. Unfortunately the month ended on a less happy note on the 31st when one of the horses was knocked down by a Royal Air Force lorry in Horcott Road; both rider and pony sustained injuries. The emphasis on horse riding was no doubt due to the influence of the Principal of the school, Mrs Joan Hilsden, who had previously been the proprietor of a riding school in Felixstowe. Mrs Hilsden as well as teacher Noreen Morley and pupils Pat Moss, Diana Selous and Pamela Trotman had all competed at the National Horse Show at White City in June 1946.

Sadly the success at horse shows does not appear to have been accompanied by financial success and in September 1947 the buildings were put up for sale; the sales brochure giving an indication of the size of the etsablishment. In 1948 the property was bought by Gloucestershire County Council and in August the Council requested tenders to build a new block and renovate the existing buildings. In December the Council announced that the site would become a special school for up to 80 residential pupils with learning and behavioural difficulties. The school opened in May 1950 as Coln House School which finally closed in March 2017.

However this was not the end of “Wings” as the school moved to Charlton Park near Malmesbury. Although still under the management of Mrs Hilsden there seems to have been less emphasis on equestrian activities and more on practical skills such as shorthand and bookkeeping. Post certificate and finishing courses were offered for girls up to the age of 19. Unfortunately the school failed to prosper for very long at Charlton Park and in November 1953 the Principal and two of her staff filed for bankruptcy thereby bringing an end to “Wings” School.

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Fairford’s Local Heroes: a record of the sacrifice of a Gloucestershire town in the two World Wars

Price: £8 (p & p £2)
Available from FHS, St Mary’s Church, and the Coln Gallery, High St, Fairford

This is an account of the men from Fairford who went to war in 1914-1918 and 1939-1945 as well as the impact of those two World Wars on the town itself. The main focus of the book is a detailed account of the men who died during the conflicts and are listed on Fairford’s war memorial; 34 named for the First World War and 12 for the Second World War. In addition another 12 men have been identified who were either born or who lived in Fairford and who could also have been listed on the war memorial. Another section gives briefer details of a further 87 Fairford men who served in the First World War and survived, albeit some of them badly wounded. These men served in a wide variety of units and roles in the army, navy and air force and although the majority died in action, some were killed in tragic accidents and several died of illness or disease.

A section of the book is devoted to the home front, particularly during the Second World War. The townspeople of Fairford took in a large number of evacuees from London, many of the children attending the local Farmor’s School. An area known as the Settlement was created to serve as a community point for these evacuees. Home defence was also a prominent feature of daily life in Britain during the Second World War and several organisations were established in Fairford including an Invasion Committee, Air Raid Precautions, First Aid Posts and the Home Guard. Fairford Park became a base for British Army units and later a United States Army Hospital was built in the Park to cater for the wounded that were flown back to Britain after D-Day.

Well illustrated with both contemporary and modern photographs, Fairford’s Local Heroes provides the reader with a comprehensive account of the town’s contribution in the two World Wars and a record of the sacrifice of those who served and those who fell.

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Inventories and Wills

FAIRFORD WILLS
Old wills can often reveal historical information not found anywhere else. This is especially true with regard to family relationships, property ownership and the testator’s character and occupation although it should be remembered that wills are often written to a standard legalistic formula and that testators may have left legacies not included in the will. Some wills are very brief and provide very little useful information but others can be very lengthy and very revealing. Many wills of the 17th and 18th centuries were accompanied by inventories which listed the household goods, money and credits of the deceased. These often include a lengthy list of the goods (furniture, clothes, bedding, utensils, etc) together with their estimated value. Some inventories list the goods room by room thereby suggesting the size and sometimes even the layout of the deceased’s house.
This series will consist of selected details from some of the almost 600 wills and inventories of Fairford residents dating from the 16th to the 19th centuries that have been collected and transcribed. These wills can be found in the collections of the National Archives and the Gloucestershire Archives. Those in the National Archives are of people whose wills were proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury in London and date from 1384 to 1858. They are the wills of the wealthier people, often those who owned property in more than one county. The collection of wills in Gloucestershire Archives are of those of less wealthy people and date from 1541 to 1858. In 1858 the probate of wills was transferred from the ecclesiastical courts to the civil courts. The wills from the Prerogative Court of Canterbury are copies of the original but most of the Gloucestershire Archive wills are originals. The handwriting can sometimes be very difficult to read but with enough practice most, if not all, of the content can be transcribed. Unfortunately some people died without making a will but the Gloucestershire Archives collection includes printed forms which give basic details of the execution of intestate wills. Until education became compulsory in the 19th Century many of the early testators were unable to read or write so signed their names with an ‘X’ or some other mark. Even those who could write rarely wrote out their own will, usually a friend or a solicitor or his clerk would do the writing. A small number of wills relating to Fairford residents or former residents have also been collected from the online collections from other counties, particularly Oxfordshire and Wiltshire.
Many of these wills provide valuable information that adds to our knowledge of Fairford history while others are interesting for a variety of reasons including: language and terminology; examples of great wealth or great poverty; details of property (both real, i.e. buildings and land, and personal, i.e. goods and chattels); and evidence of religious beliefs. Up until the 19th Century Fairford life was predominantly based on agriculture and the wills reflect this. However, the Fairford wills represent a wide range of occupations and trades.
They are also useful in determining family relationships, especially when, as with the Betterton family for example, there were several people of the same forename and surname living in Fairford at the same time. Various themes can be detected in the wills of Fairford residents. For example, in the earliest period (16th and 17th centuries) it was common for livestock, particularly sheep, to be bequeathed to family and friends. In the 17th to the 19th centuries furniture, particularly beds and bedding, were common bequests. Craftsmen often bequeathed their tools to sons – and occasionally daughters – in the hope that they would carry on their business. Those who were in trade, such as shop keepers, often bequeathed their ‘stock in trade’ to their relatives. These and other themes will be featured in this series of Fairford Wills.
Click here for
BROWNE, Henry (died 1714)
ADAMS, Thomas (1769-1845)

INVENTORIES
From 1530 to 1782 it was an obligation for every executor of a will to provide the probate court with an inventory of the deceased’s goods, together with their value. In the Diocese of Gloucester, Gloucestershire Archives have surviving inventories from 1587. However, not all inventories have survived as they were kept separately from the wills. They provide a huge amount of family and social information.
Towards the end of the 18th century they were very brief just listing ‘lumber and other goods’ and their value. Many of them accompanied administrations where the deceased had died intestate. Information from Fairford Wills was also transcribed, although not word by word.All the Gloucestershire inventories and wills are on line at www.ancestry.co.uk and FHS has transcribed copies of most of them.
See below for examples of an inventories, if you don’t know what the word is say it (in a Gloucestershire accent) and all will be come clear.

Click here Inventory William Early 1755
HURST, Walter (1702) Inventory

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Dates for your Diary

Saturday 30 March 2019
MONUMENTAL BRASS SOCIETY TO VISIT ST MARY’S CHURCH, FAIRFORD
The Monumental Brass Society is a learned body which studies commemorative brasses in the United Kingdom and abroad made from medieval times to the present day. The Society holds regular meetings where invited speakers talk about various aspects of church brasses. Fairford History Scoiety and St Mary’s Church will be holding a meeting of the Society on Saturday 30 March 2019 and all FHS members are invited to attend free of charge.
The meeting programme is as follows:-
12.00 Optional tours around the Churchyard with Chris Hobson, FHS
14.00 Opening remarks by Martin Stuchfield, President of the MBS
14.10  Geoff Hawkes – The Church and Windows of St Mary’s, Fairford
14.35 Chris Hobson – The Tames of Fairford, Cirencester and Rendcomb 
15.00 Tea
15.45 John Lee, University of York – The Brasses in Fairford Church  
16.05  Nicola Coldsteam, British Archaeological Association – Late medieval merchants as patrons of architecture.
16.30 Martin Stuchfield, closing remarks 
Refreshments will be provided by FHS in the Community Centre.


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The Thames and Severn Canal

On 17th of March 2010,Bruce Hall, of the Cotswold Canals Trust gave a talk to the Society about the 36-mile journey from the Severn to the Thames through the industrial area of the Stroudwater Navigation to the rural Thames and Severn Canal. The canal passed within a few miles of Fairford and traces of it can still be found at Kempsford and Dudgrove today. The most important cargo was coal especially from the Forest of Dean which was needed to supply power to the mills of the Stroud Valley.

The Stroudwater Navigation opened in July 1779; construction of the Thames and Severn Canal started at the western end in 1783 and the first barge entered the canal at Wallbridge in 1785 by which time the canal had probably reached Chalford. The Sapperton Tunnel, the third longest canal tunnel ever constructed in Britain, took five years to complete. In July 1788 much of the tunnel structure was complete when King George III and family visited the site; the stretch from the Coates portal eastwards is called King’s Reach in his honour. The first barge passed through the tunnel in April 1789.

On 19th November 1789 the first barge reached Lechlade, an occasion which was celebrated by a ball, a bonfire and a 12-cannon salute from nearby Buscot Park. However, competition from the railways in the 19th Century was too much for the Thames and Severn and this, along with continuing problems of excessive leakage, caused its closure in 1933.

In 2009 the Cotswold Canals Trust acquired Inglesham Lock and the Inland Waterways Association raised funds to completely renovate the old lock. The Waterway Recovery Group cleared much of the overgrown vegetation from the disused cana

The Round House, Lechlade from an old postcard

The restoration of the Stroudwater Navigation is well under way. Pictures of abandoned industrial sites show how the site has been transformed into the more modern use of housing and leisure. Bridges have been replaced by Gloucestershire County Council, towpaths reinstated and what were barriers of new roads and motorways have been turned into surmountable challenges. In some places the course of the River Frome has been a useful diversion.

Interesting facts

  • The bottom of locks were built concave to withstand water pressure from the vertical walls
  • The Canal was originally 7 feet deep but has not been dredged so deeply. Leisure-craft do not need that depth and it was necessary to avoid disturbing the pollution of the sediment from the industrial era
  • The flat-bottomed Trow had a removable mast that was used on the tidal reaches of the River Severn up to Worcester. It was 16 feet wide and 68 feet long and built to carry coal and goods only as far as Brimscombe Port. Here the loads were transformed to Thames barges. Later narrow boats 7 feet wide and 70 feet long were more commonly used and as a result the locks were shortened about 1841-42 – this was also a water-economy measure
  • The Lengthsmen and their families who lived in the five Roundhouses along the Thames & Severn were responsible for keeping their stretch of water clear and also looked after the lock if there was one
  • The new bridge opened at Stonehouse in 1994 was the first ever plastic bridge. The building there was used by Sperry’s Gyroscope during World War II and had a gun emplacement on top
  • The Severn-Thames link is 36 miles long with 56 locks, the Thames and Severn from Wallbridge to Inglesham is 28.5 miles long with 42 locks

Sapperton Tunnel entrance

More can be learnt at the Cotswold Canal Visitor Centre a & Canal Shop, Bell House, Wallbridge Lock, Stroud, GL5 3JS
Open 10am — 1pm Monday — Saturday throughout the year and at any other time that the green flag is flying!
Telephone 07582 286 636 or visit www.cotswoldcanals.com.

Further reading
The Thames and Severn Canal through time by David Viner, 2013
The Stroudwater and Thames and Severn Canals from old photographs. Vols 1-3 by Edwin Cuss and Mike Mills, 2010-3

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What lies beneath

During the replacement of the nave floor in St Mary’s during 2009 the workmen discovered several fragments of stone that carried parts of an inscription. The fragments were found beneath the existing surface and had been used as part of the foundations for the floor. Four of the pieces (the largest measuring about 14 inches (35 cm) by 7 inches (18 cm) and about one and a half inches (4 cm) thick were cleaned up to clearly reveal several words and two dates. The surface of the stone had been finished to a very smooth surface with fine lettering but the reverse side was very rough and uneven indicating that it had probably been a grave slab rather than a vertical freestanding headstone. A study of Bigland’s ‘Account of the Parish of Fairford’ of 1791 which lists all the major tombs in the church and the churchyard visible at that date solved the riddle.

The surviving lettering matched perfectly the inscription on the grave of William and Ann Haynes and their daughter Mary who died in 1758, 1723 and 1754 respectively. Bigland records this as “On a flat stone in the South Aisle” of the church. It would appear that the Haynes stone was removed and broken up to be used as rubble during the reflooring of the church, possibly in 1854 when the church seating was replaced. Unfortunately this is by no means an isolated example of the length to which the Victorians would go to ‘beautify’ our churches. William Haynes had been a churchwarden for many years but even this didn’t stop his memorial being smashed up after less than 100 years.

The surviving pieces of the Haynes family gravestone can now be seen in the Archive Room in the Community Centre.

One wonders what else lies beneath the pavement in St Mary’s!

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Fairford Mill

The Mill Buildings
There has been a mill in Fairford since Medieval times. The mill even gets a mention in the Domesday book.
In 1086, there were actually three mills belonging to the Fairford Manor, one of which was on the site of the current mill.
In 1296 Fairford had a fulling mill, but by 1307 there were only corn mills. One corn mill was connected with Milton End farm and the other 2 mills were in demesne (that is, land retained by the lord of the manor for his own use).
In the 17th Century a mill was recorded where Mill Lane crossed the Coln. This is the main part of the mill that we see today. The left wing was added in 1827 and further alterations were made in 1841 and 1857.
The Mill was used as a store between the First and Second World Wars and was derelict until it was converted to residential property in the 1950s. At that time, the machinery that had become dangerous was removed, but some of the machinery remained to minimise the impact on the environment around the mill. Consequently, there are still five mill sluices in place – three of them under the buildings.
The Fairford estate was acquired by Ernest Cook in the 1920s and the Mill later came under the care of the Ernest Cook Trust. The Mill house and adjacent Mill cottage were renovated and the Mill is back in service – this time as holiday lets.
It is likely that the early mill was operated on the lord of the manor’s behalf by villeins or by serfs in fulfilment of their feudal obligations.
In 1791, William Carter was a Miller in Fairford, but it’s not clear if this was at Fairford Mill. More definite news of this mill’s occupants comes from Pigot’s Directory of the 1830s. There are two entries for millers in Fairford. The first is Robert Bosberry of Fairford Mill, whose occupation was as a miller, and the second entry is for Henry and Robert Tovey of Fairford who were also millers by occupation. Between 1839 and 1847 Messrs Tovey were the millers at Fairford Mill. From 1889 until 1906 the Fairford Mill resident was Mr Richard Cole; a farmer, coal merchant and miller.
The last millers were the Bartletts, who moved here from Arlington Mill in 1910. They ran the mill until the First World War, but from 1919 there is no record of any millers working in Fairford.

Lesley Pincombe