Diversification – A Case of Necessity
The inhabitants of the Blackdown Hills parishes, for generations solely dedicated to agricultural pursuits, started to diversify by the turn of the nineteenth century. Basically due to outside influences, alternatives (and supplements) to farming became critical to the livelihood and prosperity of the population. The Chard and Atkins families, particularly those born in the early 1800's, had to adapt quickly to these changes. |
| THE WINDS OF CHANGE
The Post-Napoleonic Depression Whilst the threat of a French invasion receded after the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, the continued costs of a distant continental war with Napoleon frustrated the British population. The maintenance of extreme levels of taxation, skyrocketing food prices, unemployment caused by wartime trade restrictions, and the increased use of labour-saving machinery all contributed to unrest amongst the working class. Even though the Battle of Waterloo finally saw Napoleon's demise in 1915, it was closely followed by the British parliament's passage of the Corn Laws bill. British men and women already living in desperate misery now faced a situation where their "real wage" [1] (i.e. how far one’s money went) had actually fallen. At the same time, with the Industrial Revolution gathering pace, tenant (live in) farmers were being replaced by casual labourers using machinery (particularly threshers) and newly developed technologies thus widening the social and financial gulf between the landowner and his agricultural labourers. By 1830, England’s farming industry was in a pitiful state. Agricultural labourers continued to be the worst paid, worst fed and worst housed of all the working communities. Average wages for farm labourers had risen from 8s/11d per week in 1795 to a mere 9s/6d per week in 1850. In a system that had been in place since Elizabethan times, farming families - basically those classified as agricultural labourers, had previously been able to claim “Poor Rates” for their casual hire. Now the government regarded them as unemployed thus rendering them paupers, a situation which resulted in the REAL possibility that the rest of their life could be spent in a government sponsored, parish run workhouse. The New Poor Law The British government proclaimed the new Poor Law [2] in 1834.There was considerable public debate and controversy over it's introduction at the time as can be seen in the London newspapers of the day (pictured).  Some people welcomed it because they believed it would:- (a) reduce the cost of looking after the poor (b) take beggars off the streets (c) encourage poor people to work hard to support themselves. |
| However, many spoke out against it calling the workhouses 'Prisons for the Poor'. The poor themselves feared the prospect of the workhouse so much that there were widespread riots in rural towns across the nation. Although most people did not end up in a workhouse, it was always an option if a worker was unemployed, sick or old. Increasingly, most workhouses contained only orphans, the aged, the sick and the insane. Not surprisingly The New Poor Law was very unpopular. It seemed to punish people who were poor through no fault of their own. |
The Silk Workers of Stapley
In the tiny Churchstanton hamlet of Stapley a large waterwheel powered the looms of the parish's serge and silk mill providing employment [4] for approximately 150 persons. This was a considerable proportion of Churchstanton's total population of 862 [5] in 1821. It was at this time that the prospect of employment at this mill drove step-sisters Mary Warren and Elizabeth Burrough Atkins to depart their Luppitt family home. |
| THE STAPLEY MILL
The history of Stapley mill is sketchy but the St Peter and St Paul's Church archives [7] refer to a woolen serge mill being in the close vicinity in the late 1700's. The same archives chronicles the serge and silk mill in the first decade of the 19th century.
|
 In the early 1820's Lamech Swift, a Milverton silk thread maker, became involved at the Churchstanton mill and converted it's operation to the sole production of silk. Throwsting [8] (the initial spinning of the filaments obtained from the worm), a manual process, was an essential step in the raw thread's manufacture. This requirement for manual labour saw Churchstanton flourish with it's population swelling to over 1000 during the mill's peak years of silk production. Stapley mill ceased production in 1875 when it's proprietor, Samuel Lawton, retired. It is interesting to note that fifteen years later, census numbers record a population of 672, whilst by 1911 only 358 souls remained. Honiton Lace Whilst the Industrial Revolution's steam-powered mills became the cornerstone for fast and efficient textile manufacture, Stapley silk thread, produced from it's water-driven looms, was highly regarded by the lace makers in Honiton. It's exceptional quality was essentially attributed to the high lime content of the local water supply but lesser scientific minds suggested that "it is equally probable that the poverty of the area attracted the industry by the prospects of cheap labour”. Children formed a significant percentage of the mill's workforce whilst farm labourer’s wives worked from home as silk throwsters (pictured). It is worthy to remember that in was Honiton lace, made from Stapley silk thread, that Queen Victoria chose for her 1840 wedding gown (pictured). |
| In the census of 1851 Mary Warren Chard is recorded as being a pauper (see above) but her two youngest children, Richard aged 12 and Mary aged 11, are employed as silk throwsters. |
The Tradesmen of Biscombe
With husband Thomas and eldest son James banished from England, Mary Chard’s two youngest boys, John and Richard were pressed into the workforce at a very early time in their lives; John starting as a farm hand for their widowed landlady Mary Edwards, whilst Richard was throwsting silk. Possibly at their mother's behest, or more likely out of sheer desperation, both boys quickly showed an inclination to take up a trade rather than eke out an existence from farming. By his late teens John was a blacksmith apprentice in Biscombe and by the age of 25 had become a wheelwright working alongside blacksmith Joseph Sparks in the neighbouring Taunton village of Bishops Hull. As soon as Richard reached recruitment age, he enlisted in the Royal Navy and by twenty two, the 1861 Census tells us that he was a marine private being trained as a ship’s carpenter. Mary would have been extremely proud of her boy's achievements to date, and had she known it at the time, likewise satisfied that her eldest son James had also become a skilled craftsman in multiple disciplines. |
|
| By the late 1860's both boys were masters in their respective trades and happily married. John who had moved to Wellington in Somerset established a successful blacksmith business, whilst Richard returned to his Churchstanton roots establishing himself as the parish carpenter on Malpit farm. |
|
| John and Elizabeth Chard had no children but Richard and Anna Chard made up for it by having twelve. Their first son, born in the same year his grandmother Mary died, was named William, thus continuing the Chard family naming tradition. |
RICHARD AND ANNA CHARD'S CHILDREN
William (1870 – 1940) At the age of 21 William was working as an assistant in Bowleys butchery [14] in the Kingston area of Yeovil, Somerset. Four years later he married a local girl, Kate Garrett and after finishing his apprenticeship he and his young family moved to Southampton [18] where he set up his own butchery. Ten years later the 1911 census tells us he was the owner of a general grocery business. The couple had 5 children, 3 boys; James, William and John and 2 girls; Violet and Norah. Sadly for William – on the eve of his 70th birthday (and the 458th day of World War II [19]), the family home was decimated by a German bomb. Both he and Kate were killed. Amelia (1873 – 1943) Following in her brother’s footsteps eldest daughter Amelia had left the family home before she turned 18, working as a servant at Cockers farm in Clayhidon run by her widowed Aunty Mary Valentine [14]. Ten years later however she was back at Stapley farm working as a domestic servant [18] to Yeoman James Farrant. In 1910 she married [20] a Churchstanton dairyman, Walter William Rust and together they farmed a property [21] in the Somerset parish of Bradford-on-Tone, just 3 miles north east of Wellington. It was not long however before Amelia gave birth to their only child, Francis James. The couple later moved to Longham farm in Tiverton where they dairy farmed [17] until Amelia died in 1943. Walter (1874 – 1925) Barely 16 years of age and Walter was working as a farm assistant alongside his sister Amelia at Cockers farm [14] in Clayhidon. Shortly after he joined his uncle as a wheelwright [18] in Taunton. At the age of 29 he married Florence Stone and together they raised 3 girls; Annie, Florence and Elsie and a boy Frank. Sadly for the children both parents died relatively young. Frank migrated to Australia in 1926 and lived in Ardlethlan, New South Wales until he was 97. James (1877 – 1891) The 1891 census records 14 year old James working as a farm servant [14] at Crosses Hole farm in Clayhidon. He died [15] later that year. Alfred (1879 – 1970) With his father still actively involved in his carpentry and his older brothers off pursuing their own tradesmen ambitions, 23 year old Alfred was left to manage the farming duties at Grants with his mother and younger siblings. This situation changed within the next decade as the 1911 census records that Alfred is a road contractor [21] (probably a carrier or carter). When his father died in 1911 Alfred was the only male in the family resident at Grants. There he remained with his mother until she died in 1935. The second World War roll of 1939 sees Alfred registered as a single male, employed doing light work (he is now 61), at his sister and brother-in-law's (Archibald Ackland) Stapley property Pay farm. When the Acklands sold Pay in the early 1950's and moved to Biscombe to establish their own farm Ivelen, Alfred - now in his 80's - moved in with his nephew Leonard and his wife Ivy. Here he died [27] at the age of 91, his probate being calculated at £535. Elizabeth Mary (1881 – 1965) Twenty four year old Elizabeth was still living at Grants farm [18] when she became engaged to a young Welsh carpenter named Arthur Summerhayes. Her prospective spouse is determined to emigrate to Canada, so with her parent's blessing the young couple set sail [22] from Liverpool aboard SS Southwark. They arrive in Halifax, Nova Scotia on February 24th 1906 and are married [23] in Darlington, Ontario four months later. The following February sees the birth [24] of their only daughter Violet Chard. There are two further births in 1912 – twin boys delivered prematurely who died within hours. The last record for Elizabeth is a census / voter roll [25] in 1945, where at the age of 64 she is living with her labourer husband in Asburn, Ontario, Canada. She died two years later. Arthur (1882 – 1970) Like his elder siblings, Arthur was independent at an early age. By the time he was nineteen he was working as a miller’s apprentice [18] in the local Stapley corn mill. In 1908 Arthur married [20] an Smeatharpe / Upottery girl, Lavinia "Lena" Rowland and together they took up a property [21] in the Wiltown valley of Clayhidon, a distance of barely four miles from Stapley. The second World War roll of 1939 sees Arthur, now a carpenter like his father, and Lena residing in Taunton. The couple were childless but lived in Somerset to the age of 87 and 91 respectively. Frank (1884 – 1959) Of all Richard and Anna's sons, Frank was the one most affected by circumstance. He was possibly the most technically gifted as evidenced by the fact that he was working as an apprentice [18] to a London draftsman at the age of 17. However during the next decade, with his father close to death, he returned to the Stapley family farm to share the workload of both the dairy and to clear his father's building contracts. Two years later Frank married [26] a dairyman’s daughter, Agnes Loosemore and together they settled at Blackmores farm in Biscombe. Like Arthur and Lavinia, he and Agnes bore no children. Frank died at Blackmore Cottage aged 74 with probate records showing that his estate was worth £1972/1s/2d. Widow Agnes lived another twelve years eventually retiring to the Taunton hamlet of Bishops Lydeard. Her estate was valued at £2470. Anna Mary (1886 – 1953) In June 1916 Anna caught the eye of Archibald Ackland, a local Stapley farmer from Pay farm. Archie's father had died the previous year and his mother was reluctant to stay on, but did so handing over the control to the newlyweds. Anna and Archie farmed the Ackland ancestral estate for over 40 years during which time they raised one son, Leonard. Anna died [17] at Pay farm in 1953 having survived her husband by nine years. Leonard married Ivy Cload in 1945 and the couple remained at Pay during his mother Anna's lifetime. Upon her passing however, Pay was sold and the young Acklands established their own 14 acres of Biscombe farmland which they named Ivylen. Lucy (1888 – 1973) and Emily (1888 – 1925) The twins were born at Malpit farm Stapley on the 28th September 1888. Of all Richard and Anna's children they were the ones whose future opportunities were severely impacted by circumstance. Lucy's life away from the family farm (now Grants) began in her late teens when she emulated her older sister Elizabeth's adventurous and independent spirit by heading to Taunton and becoming a domestic servant for her cousin Elizabeth Vearncombe (nee Trickey). Emily meanwhile, not being as strong and confident, remained at Stapely to help with her father's ailing health. With The Great War closely following his death, marriage for twins became less likely as the nation required the attendance of its most able-bodied men. The second World War roll of 1939 shows that Lucy has left her cousins employ to care for her ailing sister Amelia Rust at Longham farm in Tiverton. When Amelia died in 1943, the Rust family together with Lucy returned to Stapley. It was here that she died, a spinster, at the age of 85. Emily also remained a spinster having stayed on at Grants farm with her mother and brother Alfred. Acute illness required her hospitalization in Bristol in 1925 where she died aged 36. |
|
 [The term cordwainer was used to describe a shoemaker. The difference between a cordwainer and a cobbler is that a cordwainer would only use new leather, whereas a cobbler would use both new and old. Sketches courtesy of The Museum of English Rural Life]. Mary Warren Atkins was barely a teenager when her uncle, Abraham Atkins, moved to Upottery. Here he raised his family on Devonshire farmland that most closely bordered Somerset. Economic conditions here were no different to those in Luppitt and Churchstanton as the next generation of Atkins boys, James (1813 – 1892) and George (1821 – 1864) soon discovered. At the time of England’s first census in 1841 the family had moved to the township of Broadway in the neighbouring county of Somerset; the Upottery farm having been sold after Abraham’s death a few years earlier. The younger George commenced working as a mason [10] whilst James, initially a carpenter, began a dynasty of shoemakers [11]. Living with their mother they operated their businesses in Broadway’s Goose Lane. By 1871 James, his wife Susannah (1809 – 1887) and their youngest son Abraham (1855 – 1875), had moved the family business to the nearby village of Forest. Here they worked in the community with other families [12] to manufacture harnesses, gloves and riding boots. James was now a master cordwainer. The eldest son, also James (1840 – 1914), married [26] a local shoe binder [11], Elizabeth Prideaux (1839 – 1922) and together they established a branch of the shoemaker / cordwainer business in the nearby market town of Ilminster. By the turn of the century, another generation of Atkins boys had broken out of the established mould or perhaps it might be seen as a reversion to “kind”. James Abraham Atkins (1868 – 1948), eldest son of James and Elizabeth was back on the land [18] at The Manse, Broadway Hill, and growing teasel [30]. Having married [31] Ada Slade in 1894, cropper James sired a son, James Frederick in 1897. The circle was now complete as this generation of Atkins were back dairy farming [32] at Ashill; a tiny hamlet just 2 miles north of Broadway and just over 10 miles from the family’s original agricultural roots in Luppitt. |
| GLOBAL SYMMETRY |
 Dressed in their "Sunday Best" these handsome men, both dairy farmers, were born seven years apart on opposite sides of the world and died within 9 days of each other. They were cousins separated by FIVE generations - their mutual great grandfather, many times removed, being James Atkins (1738 - 1814). They never knew of each other’s existence. The man on the left is James Frederick ATKINS, born on the 11th December 1897 in Broadway, Somerset, United Kingdom whilst on the right is Fred James CHARD, born on the 6th July 1904 in Framlingham, Victoria, Australia. Both died in August 1984 within three miles of their respective birthplaces. Much of the information gathered about the Atkins clans in the Broadway / Ilminster area is due to the work of a local genealogist, Hilary Bolitho, who transcribed the Horton / Broadway parish church records up until 1984. It is also indeed fortunate that one of Hilary’s closest friends happens to be an 83 year old lady named Nancy Cox who is the daughter of the late James Frederick Atkins (pictured). Of her father, Nancy recalls; “he was a dairyman who collected milk in churns from the farms to take them to the milk factory with his flat-bed lorry and then delivered coal in the afternoons”. To this day Nancy’s father's Ashill property is tended by her brother and nephew; David and Christopher – and both their second names are “James”. Likewise in the western district of Victoria, Australia, the grandson of Fred Chard farms land no more than three miles from his great grandfather’s original property, and the name “Jamie” (aka James) still remains in this family. |
References
|