In about 1906, a row of four cottages was built opposite Corner Cottage at the junction of Manor Road and Golden Lane, Wickhamford. They were probably erected by the Trustees of J. P. Lord, who owned most of the land and properties in the village. The houses on the opposite side of the road, 52 & 54 Manor Road, were built in 1906, after an older property was demolished on that site. George Lees-Milne, who had bought Wickhamford Manor in 1907, was renting the terrace properties from the J. P. Lord Trustees in 1913. The only photograph showing the short terrace was taken in about 1913 and has members of the Halford, Brotherton and Pitts families. (The three ladies are sisters, born Moulbery.)
Based on this photograph and the layout of the cottages as shown on Ordnance Survey maps, Ian Gibson produced the picture below, showing their probable appearance.
The properties
A description of the properties was given in the Valuation Survey, which was taken just before the Great War. In the case of these cottages, the assessment was done on 29th August 1913. It refers to a row of four brick and tile cottages. Each had three bedrooms, two facing the front and one the back of the house. There was a front room, kitchen, back kitchen & pantry, a wash house, coalhouse and water closet at each house. The combined value of the four cottages was put at £800. The total area of the plot on which they were built was a little over half an acre - 2 roods, 34 perches, to be exact.
The occupants in 1911
The names of the occupants of these four cottages first appear in the 1911 census:
- Theodore James Moisey, a 29-year-old market gardener, was living with his wife, Florence, father Thomas, mother Elizabeth, unmarried sister Mary and a niece, Emily Amelia. He had been born in Badsey and only married for one year.
- George Brotherton, a 28-year-old market gardener, lived with his wife, Sarah Ann. They had been married four years and had a daughter, Beatrice May, aged two. Also recorded, was his father-in-law, William Moulbery, a coal merchant’s carter.
- George Eden, aged 29, was a market gardener’s labourer, originally from Shirley, Warwickshire. His wife was Jane and they had only been married for under a year and had no children.
- Emily Hartwell, a 57-year-old widow, lived in the last cottage. She had previously been married for 30 years and had had eight children, but five had died before 1911. Her son, Raymond Percy Marston Hartwell, lived with his mother. He was a farm labourer, aged 15 years. Also present on census night was a grandson of Emily, four-year-old Edgar John Hackett. There were also two market gardener’s labourers boarding at the cottage – James Staite and Harry Evans. Emily was sexton at the Church of St John the Baptist, Wickhamford.
The Great War
- George Brotherton appeared before a Military Tribunal on 15th October 1916. As a market gardener with 7 acres of ground, he was exempted from Military Service.
- Raymond Hartwell, son of Emily, appeared before a Tribunal on 26th February 1916. He pleaded that his mother had five sons, all dead, and she needed him to care for her and 1½ acres of land. He was given a 3-month exemption and then enlisted in the Worcestershire Regiment and, eventually, the Machine Gun Corps. He was discharged in January 1920.
- Theodore Moisey appeared before a Tribunal in October 1916. He worked on 5½ acres of land and was exempted from Military Service.
- Samuel Byrd, who moved into a cottage in the 1930s, had served in the Worcestershire Regiment before the War. He was discharged due to ill-heath in March 1918.
The occupants in 1921
At this census the cottages were given postal addresses of 23, 24, 25 and 26 Wickhamford:
23 Wickhamford was where the Hartwells’ lived. Emily was still head of the household, together with her son, Percy, and his wife Edith - they had no children. Jack Hacket still lived there, now aged 14 years and 9 months and he was working as a builder’s labourer, employed by J. Taylor of 25 Cowl Street, Evesham.
24 Wickhamford had been taken over from George Eden by William Pearce. He was a market garden employer, aged 46 years. His wife was Sarah, and they had three sons living at home. William Frank (20) was mentally defective and had no occupation. The other sons were twins, aged 17, Cecil Reginald and Edward Russell. Both were employed by their father as garden labourers. The Pearce family had moved to the Evesham area from Somerset, where Sarah and the three boys had been born.
25 Wickhamford was still occupied by George Brotherton and his family. He and Sarah now had three children living with them – May, aged 12, and Ernest, aged 6, were at school and there was a daughter, Hilda, aged 1 year 9 months. George was a market gardener on his own account.
26 Wickhamford was still the home of the Moisey family. Theodore James Moisey was a market gardener on his own account and he and Florence had four children living at home – Theodore George Henry (9), James William (7), George Leslie (5) and Gwendoline May (3).
Sale of the Wickhamford Estate, 1930
On 15th September 1930, the Wickhamford Estate was put up for sale by the Trustees of the late John Pickup Lord. The Estate consisted of Garden Land, Pasture Land, Ash Coppices and 36 dwelling houses.
Lot 43 was described as a block of four Dwelling Houses, brick-build and tiled, with gardens and outbuildings, known as Nos 23, 24, 25 & 26 Wickhamford. The rental value of all four houses was £33/15/0 and the tenants were listed as Mrs. E. Hartwell, W. Pearce, T. J. Moisey and S. J. Byrd. It would seem that at some point after 1921, the Brotherton family left 25 Wickhamford and were replaced, by 1930, by Samuel James Byrd.
Demolition of the terraced cottages
In 1935, George Lees-Milne, decided to demolish the row of cottages and to build a new house on the site. He named this ‘Hody’s Place’. This was a name that appeared in the records from c 1425 – Abbot of Evesham, Roger Zatton ‘re-built a tenement at Wickhamford called Hodysplace, in which building he spent at least twenty marks’. Lees-Milne was obviously aware of this text when choosing a name for his new house. The terraced cottages were situated in what is now the front garden of Hody’s Place.
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Later locations of occupants
When the National Register was drawn up, in September 1939, the location of the one-time occupiers of the terraced cottages was as follows:
- Theodore James Moisey had moved to ‘7 Pitchers Hill’, which is now 85 Pitchers Hill. In 1943 he was recorded as market gardening about 40 acres of land and had another 17 acres of grassland.
- William Pearce had moved to the present-day 14 Manor Road, where he ran a glasshouse business. In 1941 he had 3 acres of vegetables and one acre of glasshouses.
- Samuel James Byrd had moved to Aldington and he farmed 34½ acres there in 1942.
- George Eden was living at 75 Northwick Road, Evesham, with his wife, Jane, and was recorded as a retired market gardener.
- Emily Hartwell had died in 1935, aged 83.
- George Harcourt Edward Brotherton had died in 1931, aged only 48 years. His widow Sarah Brotherton and family moved to 26 Council Cottages, Pitchers Hill, now 67 Pitchers Hill.
Footnote
In 1941, Hody’s Place was occupied by Lt Commander Clive Loehnis R.N. and his wife Rosemary. They had a nanny, Helga Davis, living with them to look after their young son and her husband was a pilot in the R.A.F. Pilot Officer Ernest Rene Davis was on a test flight from Lincolnshire and had told Helga that he would be flying past Hody’s Place. He flew too low along Wickhamford Lane, clipped some trees and crashed in a field by Willersey Road. He died along with one other crew member; the third crewman was badly injured. Sadly, if the terrace of cottages had not been replaced by the new house, this event would not have happened.
Tom Locke – August 2023