Many people hereabouts are familiar with the story of the two young Oxford students who, in September 1948, set out to make their first feature film.
Filmed entirely on location around Inkpen and Combe with many scenes shot on Walbury Hill, the plot of the film is based on true events. These were the murders in 1676, of Combe ’s Martha Broomham and her son Robert, by Martha’s husband George and his lover, Dorothy Newman of Inkpen. The murderers were executed at Winchester and their bodies subsequently displayed on Combe gibbet.
Entitled, Black Legend, the film used actors drawn from, variously, members of Oxford University Dramatic Society, one young director’s family who lived locally, villagers from Inkpen & Combe and children from Christchurch School, Kintbury.
The weather that September was sometimes cold and bleak; shooting was held up when the camera broke and had to be sent away for repairs. However, the young men were pleased with their results, writing in the film’s accompanying programme notes:
But for all its failings we believe BLACK LEGEND to be an achievement that in one respect at least has rarely been equalled. For it shows how much can be achieved by the co-operation of enthusiastic people, even in a project so technical as a film.
Copy of the original programme for Black Legend
Were the young students right to feel so positively about their work? Well, when the finished version was shown – in Hungerford, Inkpen, Ashmansworth and West Woodhay the following January, 1949 – the Newbury Weekly News declared in its advertisement for the screening, “The Film YOU helped to make” and “YOU’LL BE SORRY YOU MISSED IT”.
In its review, the Newbury Weekly News quotes an anonymous film critic as saying:
“Black Legend is a film to see and remember…
The acting is a marvel of cooperation among amateurs, some skilled, some quite inexperienced, but all gifted enough to convey their thoughts and often their probable words without any speech.
Soon, Black Legend was to receive a wider audience than the villages around Newbury. An article in the Scotsman of March 1949 reports that it had been shown in the Grand Committee Room of the House of Commons. The film is now described as, “having all the cinemaworld by the ears.”
The report goes on to say,
“The wonderful landscape, the local people, the farms and their implements, are all so used … that the compositions are beautifully organised; the photography of these young people with relatively little experience resulting in a work which ought to make the film industry pull up its socks.”
These young men obviously showed promise: but did they fulfil that promise?
In 1965 one of those young men returned to film on the chalk downland not so very far from here. By now, John Schlessinger – whose family had lived near Kintbury in the 1940s – was regarded as part of the British “New Wave” of film directors and his previous movie, “Darling,” had been Oscar nominated.
This time, Schlessinger’s leading actors were well known throughout the movie world of the early 1960s: Terence Stamp, Alan Bates and Julie Christie, although, as with Black Legend, his cast included many local people. “Far from the madding crowd,” an adaptation of the novel by Thomas Hardy, was to be filmed entirely on location – as Black Legend had been – this time in Wiltshire and Dorset. Just as Black Legend had featured music by Vaughan Williams to compliment the film’s rural setting, so Richard Rodney Bennett’s score for “Far from the madding crowd” is frequently reminiscent of Vaughan Williams’ work, similarly using variations on English folk songs to evoke the period and place of the piece.
Schlessinger’s “Far from the madding crowd” is one of my favourite films. It must be one of the most visually beautiful films ever shot in England and captures the Wessex downland like no other, in my opinion. So many shots, I feel, are reminiscent of scenes in Black Legend, almost as if Schlessinger was finally perfecting, on a much higher budget and in glorious technicolour, scenes he had shot with Alan Cooke on and around Walbury Hill, all those years before.
Iconic 60s star Julie Christie starred in Far From The Madding Crowd
Throughout his career as a film maker, John Schlessinger received four BAFTAs and an Academy Award (an “Oscar”). He was made a CBE in 1970 and a BAFTA Fellow in 2002.
In his article, A Revelation of Personal Endurance, published here on March 22nd, David Hutchinson recounts something of the life in Australia of his ancestor, Edmund Steel.
Edmund was a Kintbury man who was one of the three Kintbury men – the other two were Francis Norris and Daniel Bates – who were sentenced to transportation for their part in the Swing Riots.
David would like to hear from anyone who might have comments or questions about his article. He would also like to hear from anyone who might know more about his ancestor, Edmund Steel. It may be that there are Steel descendants still living in England who have researched their ancestor themselves.
Perseverance, and Love that arose from the Swing Riots of 1830-31.
We are delighted that David Hutchinson, a direct descendant of Kintbury swing Riots transportee, Edmund Steel, has allowed us to publish this article concerning his ancestor’s life in Australia.
Readers will already know of the ‘Swing Riots’, the trials, and the sentencing of those arrested for their participation in one form or another in the ‘Swing Riots’ that occurred in and around Kintbury and nearby districts in late 1830 – early 1831. Recently, on this website we read of the ‘Swing Riots’ Memorial Gathering in Kintbury on 12 January 2024, and the accompanying article submitted by Keith Jerrome on Remembrance of the Swing Riot Martyr, William Smith, also known as and referred to in the trials as William Winterbourne.
Readers who don’t know of the ‘Swing Riots’ or would like to know more, can simply Google ‘Swing Riots 1830-31’ and a dearth of both generalised and detailed information is there on your PC screen, ranging from scholastic research, to entire books.
Notwithstanding, unless one knows how, or has the luck to ‘stumble upon’ evidential ‘portions of’ succeeding history(s) of those of William Winterbourne’s tried and sentenced individual comrades, there is little obvious information of what subsequently occurred to them.
Following, is a ‘word sketch’ of just such one [partial] personal history, unearthed by a 3 x Great Grandson of one of the convicted and sentenced rioters:-
EDMUND STEEL was one of those arrested. EDMUND was born in 1789 at Three Legged Cross, Hampshire, to parents James Steel and Jane Steel (nee Bulpit).
1830
Edmund is one of the referred to ‘Kintbury Five Deputies’ who attended the meeting at the Hungerford Town Hall at the request of Magistrate Willes. It was Edmund Steel to whom Magistrate Willes referred in his verbal statement to the subsequent trials ‘Observing that Steel had a hatchet in his hand, he said to him, “My friend, that is a lethal weapon you have; it would split a man’s skull”, to which Steel replied, “Depend upon it, sir, it shall never injure yours”.
At the time of the Swing Riots Edmund was aged about 41 years, making him amongst the older of those sentenced. Edmond had married his wife Maria Thatcher on 30 September 1811 at St Nicholas Church, Newbury. By the date of the trial Edmund and Maria had already produced 11 children, 8 of whom survived, ranging in age from 18 years to twelve months. Edmund’s occupation is recorded as variously ‘ploughman’ or ‘maltster’ and he is recorded as being able to read and write. Edmund is described as being ‘stout’ and standing at ‘5 feet 4 inches without shoes’.
The Berkshire Family History archives record Edmund as having applied for and received Parish Relief funds on 11 occasions in the 12 months before his trial.
Following his arrest, Edmund and his fellow prisoners were held at the Mansion House at Newbury, and eventually had to be transported from Newbury to Reading for the ‘Special Commission’ trial. An account of that event states: “Before those committed could be tried by the Special Commission they first had to be conveyed from Newbury to Reading. “Harrowing and heart-rending was the scene that took place when the vans that were to convey the main body of the prisoners drew up in the Market Place.” A troop of Lancers and the Yeomanry, with sabres drawn, were “the imposing military escort responsible for seeing the prisoners safely lodged in the county gaol.” The men were brought out in batches while “Women fought their way through the surging throng praying for a parting word with their husbands or relatives before they took leave of them perhaps for ever.” A particularly distressing sight was witnessed when “a poor woman with eight children and an infant at the breast rushed forward to press the manacled hands of her husband as he took his seat in one of the vehicles.”. Newbury has not witnessed a sadder procession through its ancient streets”. It is very likely the poor lady and her manacled husband referred to were Maria (eight children) and Edmund Steel.
1831
Edmund was one of those tried who were sentenced to death. The severity of the trial sentencing generally drew quick response from a significant proportion of the local community and some Elders, concerned that the sentences were too harsh. Subsequently, with supporting petitions to the King and other Authorities, testimony from Magistrate Willes and possibly other Elders, Edmund’s death sentence was commuted to Transportation for the Rest of His Life.
On January 27th 1831, the sentenced prisoners were transported from Reading to the prison hulk ‘York’ in Gosport (Portsmouth Harbour). Conditions aboard the prison hulks is well documented, and could generally described as appalling:-
The “York”, to which the Berkshire men were assigned, was an old 90-gun line-of-battle ship, sold to the Convict Establishment in 1820 and destined to serve as a floating prison for the rest of her days. On her three decks she housed on the average about five hundred prisoners, in addition to the officers and guards who occupied the quarter-deck and stern cabins.
On their arrival the convicts would have been paraded on the quarter- deck where they were mustered and received by the captain. Their prison irons were then removed and handed over to the jail authorities who departed as the convicts were taken to the forecastle. There every man was forced to strip and to take a thorough bath, after which each was issued with an outfit consisting of a coarse grey jacket, waistcoat and trousers, a round-crowned broad-brimmed felt hat, and a pair of heavily nailed shoes. The hulk’s barber having shaved and cropped the convict’s heads. each man was double-ironed and taken on deck to receive a hammock, two blankets and a straw palliasse. A guard then marched the laden and fettered prisoners below deck where they were usually greeted with roars of ironic welcome from the convicts already incarcerated there.
The lower decks were divided into sections by means of iron palisading, with lamps hanging at regular intervals, and these sections were sub-divided by wooden partitions into a score or so compartments, each of which housed from 15 to 20 convicts. Newcomers were allotted to the lowest deck where the air was foulest, and bilge water occasionally slopped through the cracks in the floor boards. Weaklings were congregated on the middle deck, usually the most crowded of the three. Those who had served the greater part of their sentence without being transported were accommodated in the upper deck, the most airy and consequently the most healthy and pleasant. On these decks the convicts existed when not at work and slept at night. Never were they free from the chain between ankle and waist, which was one of the badges of their state, and which clanked and rattled with their every movement. Their bodies, their clothes, their beds and the very walls of the hulk itself were infested with vermin.
Edmund was fortunate insofar as his tenure in the prison hulk ‘YORK’ was limited to only one week. On 2nd February 1831 Edmund was transferred to the transport ship ‘Eliza II’, bound for Van Diemen’s Lands (VDL), known today as the Australian Island State Tasmania, with a cargo of 224 male only convicts, plus Captain, Surgeon, Gaolers, and Crew.
Eliza II, described as having been built in British India in 1806, was a 511 Ton (later 538 Ton) merchant ship. All the Australia & VDL convict ships were chartered merchant ships. None were specially commissioned convict ships. It is not yet discovered what accommodations were on-board to house the convicts, or how many decks there were. Some of the ships that transported convicts were notoriously over-crowded and unsanitary, and many voyages resulted in many lost lives en-route to VDL.
After a voyage of 112 days, Eliza II arrived at VDL, landing at Hobart Town on 29th May 1831, no lives were lost on the voyage. Hobart Town is today the capital city of Tasmania.
It is important in the context of this sketch account of Edmund Steel to provide some background to Van Diemen’s Land:-
Tasmania, or Van Dieman’s Land, as shown in Milner’s Descriptive Atlas, 1849
VDL
The pre-history of VDL is that it was inhabited continuously by Indigenous Aboriginal Peoples for some 30,000 years before being ‘discovered’ by the Dutch seafarer/explorer Abel Tasman in 1642, sailing from Batavia (Jakarta, in Indonesia today) on instruction from his superior Anthony van Diemen, Governor of the Dutch Settlements in the Indian Archipelago to explore the coast of the ‘Great South Land’ as the landmass of Australia was then known. However, VDL was not known to be an island until 1798-99 when it was first circumnavigated by Mathew Flinders and George Bass in their sloop ‘Norfolk’.
Around 1784-85 it was proposed by Henri Peyroux de la Coudreniere, a French politician, to the Spanish Government that there were advantages for the Spanish Crown to settle VDL, but there was no interest from the Spanish. Henri later proposed the same to the French Government, but again nothing resulted. Sealers and Whalers are recorded as having based themselves on VDL and its surrounding Islands as early as 1798. In August 1803 the English Governor Philip King, of the settled English Colony New South Wales (Australia), sent a military party to VDL to prevent any claim to the Island from the French.
The arrival of white people (sealers and whalers, but especially later the British Colonialists) in VDL was totally disastrous for the Indigenous Aboriginal Peoples, and remains, even today, as a matter of great sadness, and heated debate.
VDL was initially governed from the remote New South Wales, but eventually, in 1856 the Colony of VDL was granted responsible free self-government with its own parliament, and the name of the Colony was changed to Tasmania.
From the early 1800’s to the 1853 abolition of penal transportation, VDL was the primary penal colony in Australia. A total around 73,000 convicts were transported over the years to VDL.
BACK TO EDMUND STEEL
On their arrival in VDL it was common for the convicts to be ‘assigned’ to work as labour to Free Settlers (business proprietors, farmers, households, etc), or to work in Government Gangs. EDMUND STEEL on arrival in VDL in 1831 was fortunate to have found himself ‘assigned’ as a labourer to free Settler Robert (Rob) Taylor, Farmer, of property in the MacQuarie River District, very possibly due to Edmund’s past farm labourer work history. The MacQuarie River District is in the Centre-North of VDL, in the Epping Forest area, below the (now city) of Launceston. At this time Rob Taylor owned 4,000 acres of land, including his late father’s estate ‘Valleyfield,’ and rented another 2,000 acres. It is not yet known if other convicts were already or subsequently assigned to Rob Taylor, but the isolation of the Macquarie River District from Hobart Town and other areas of mass convict habitation may have been a blessing for the future of Edmund.
1834
On 19th March 1834 Edmund, with the assistance of his ‘employer’ Rob Taylor, applied to the office of the Colonial Secretary VDL for his Kintbury family (wife Maria, and eight children – John Steel born July 1814, William Steel born June 1817, Maria Thatcher Steel born September 1819, Alfred Steel born June 1821, Sarah Steel born July 1822, David Steel born November 1824, Edmund Steel born March 1826, Charles Steel born April1829) to be sent to join him in VDL. The application is endorsed by Rob Taylor, stating ‘I certify that Edmund Steel has the means of supporting his Wife and Family on their arrival in this Island, and I hereby further undertake that they shall be no expense whatever to the Government, after their arrival in this Colony. (illegible place name) MacQuarie River 19th March 1834. The application is numbered 497, and date at the head of the application form is September 1834, the two dates discrepancy possibly relates to the difficulty of travel and the distance from the Taylor property on Macquarie River to the Administrative Centre in Hobart Town, as much as to possibly the administrative workload for the administration clerks.
Sadly, wife Maria and her eight children did not undertake the journey to VDL, although it is suggested in historic research the application was fully supported by the Authorities but declined by Wife Maria. Maria ultimately passed away at Kintbury on 26th November 1844, the death certificate stating cause of death as breast cancer.
At the time of writing this sketch, no material relating to Edmund’s duties in his employ with Rob Taylor have yet been discovered, but given the degree of support Rob Taylor has signified by his endorsement note to the application for Edmund’s family to join him in VDL it is probable that Edmund enjoyed a courteous and cordial relation with Rob Taylor, possibly exceeding beyond that normally expected of ‘employer’ to ‘employee’. It is known that the Taylor Family, from patriarch George Taylor (father of Robert), a Scot who arrived with a family of eight in VDL in 1823, aged sixty two, and down through the Taylor VDL family line, were staunch Presbyterians, which may well have influenced Edmund, as he was probably housed in or on the same property as the family homestead.
As far as it is known, Edmund stayed as an assigned convict employee with Rob Taylor until at least 1837.
1837
On 24th April 1837 Edmund (and others) was granted a Free Pardon (numbered 280). The granting of the Free Pardons was result of a change of attitude by the English Government, driven by popular opinion, to cease Convict Transportation to the Colonies.
Not much is known of Edmund’s activities immediately after his Free Pardon, but it is likely that he stayed on with Robert Taylor until about 1841, and possibly his remuneration as a free person could have been elevated to above that which he may have been ‘illegally’ receiving as an assigned convict.
On 13th November 1837 Edmund married Martha Saunders (nee Pulsford), widow, at St John’s Church of England in Launceston, VDL. Martha was mother to two boys, and one girl, William Jr born 1820, James born 1929, and Emily (born at sea) 1832. The marriage certificate describes Edmund as ‘free widower’ despite him actually still being married to Maria in Kintbury, so at law his new 1837 marriage to Martha was bigamous. There seems to have been an unwritten ‘acceptance’ by authorities and churches ‘to turn a blind eye’ to circumstances such as Edmund was in, where a wife in England having declined an approval for her to join her convict husband in the colonies, ‘allowed’ the convicted husband to remarry, notwithstanding the ‘bigamy’. Perhaps this ‘acceptance’ was also available to the wife in England?, although there is no discovered evidence of this having been the case with wife Maria.
Martha Saunders had arrived in VDL with her Husband William Saunders in 1833 as free settlers. William was employed by the private enterprise Van Dieman’s Land Company as a blacksmith and wheelwright but died by drowning at East Bay (Circular Head, VDL) in 1835. In late 1836 Martha subsequently set herself up in business as a Registry for Servants, and potentially also as a Retail Grocery Store, in Launceston the principal town settlement in the north of VDL, to support herself and her three children.
The marriage of Edmund and Martha produced two children, Sampson in 1838, and Martha in 1841.
1841
By 1841 it is recorded that Edmund, together with Martha and all 5 children, has left VDL and is now located in the Port Philip Bay colony of New South Wales (now the Australian South Eastern State of Victoria), across the Bass Strait, north of, and almost opposite, Launceston in Northern VDL.
It is not yet discovered when or how Edmund and family made this move (whether Edmund moved first and the others followed, or they all moved together) but they can only have done so by sailing ship, across the Bass Strait, being the direct route between Launceston and Port Philip Bay, and one of the ‘notoriously unpredictable’ although relatively narrow seaways of the world. Hundreds of historic shipwrecks are recorded on the shores of both sides of the Strait.
It is reported Edmund engaged in ‘Depasturing’ in various areas of Port Philip, meaning applying for and receiving Government approval, and paying for the right to graze stock on unfenced Government land for a set period of time (often for one month), that he was also in business with William Booth for a time which he dissolved in 1842 (Booth was the father of Mary Booth who married William Jr the older son of Edmund’s wife Martha in 1841. William Booth and his wife Eleanor had both arrived in New South Wales as convicts). Edmund was at various times through the period 1841 to 1847 the leasehold proprietor of larger government land grazing properties, including at Jan Juc, Steel’s South Beach Station, Indented Head, Steel’s Station Coriyule/Coryule on the Bellarine Peninsular, Point Henry. It is not difficult to believe Edmund was determined, working to a plan, and intent on achieving success as quickly as possible.
1844
In 1844, James the younger son of Edmund’s wife Martha, at age 14 and situated at the time with Martha and others of the family at the Steel’s South Beach Station, was violently and brutally murdered in an encounter with indigenous aboriginals (apparently solely for the want of his clothing and his rifle) while working alone as a shepherd in charge of a flock of grazing sheep. None of the sheep were taken. Older brother William Jr who had been working about a mile distant noticed the sheep were returning and straying into the cattle area of the property. Realising something was wrong, William Jr set out to find younger brother James and eventually found him in the evening, stripped naked, laying face down with multiple body wounds, including a tomahawk blow to the back of the neck which almost severed the head from the body. The indigenous aboriginals are said to have been from the Cape Otway district (westward from the Station). Following this sad event, Edmund is reported to have immediately removed the family from South Beach Station to a safer land holding (presumably to the East) and occupied the South Beach Station himself.
1847
On 13th March 1847 it is reported Edmund, with wife Martha and two children (the youngest two, being Sampson age 9-10, and Martha age 6-7, departed Port Philip Bay on board the ship ‘Bombay’ bound for England as Cabin Class paying passengers. It is not yet discovered, but it seems likely the next two youngest of the VDL 5 children family, James Saunders and Martha Saunders, would have remained in Port Phillip in the care of their now married older brother William Jr Saunders.
1848
On 13th March 1848 it is recorded in the ship’s Passenger log that Edmund, with wife and children Sampson and Martha, and others of Edmund’s Kinbury family (see list following) all as ‘assisted immigrants’, are aboard the ship ‘Adelaide’ returning to Port Philip from London:-
William with wife Mary, and children George age 10, Elizabeth age 6, Edmund age 4, and an un-named infant girl born on board.
Also on board, separately and individually recorded under Widowers and Widows are Steel’s:-
Maria Thatcher, and son James age 1 year
Not recorded as being on board Adelaid are two of the Kintbury Steel’s, being:-
John – he never immigrated to Australia
Alfred – he did immigrate to Australia, but at a later date
++ Edmond (son of Edmund) after immigrating to Australia on the ‘Adelaide’ is recorded as having eventually journeyed to California to join the gold rush, and thereafter appears to have returned to England.
In the Passenger lists the ages of Edmund and Martha are recorded as being younger than they really were (Edmund as 50 – when actually 59 / Martha as 45 – when actually 54), presumably to enable them to travel at Government expense as ‘Assisted Immigrants’ – (had to be not older than 50 to qualify), as were the other members of the family group, but later in the voyage they are recorded as having paid the real value of their passage (presumably their subterfuge was ‘discovered’ somehow?, or their moral sense prevailed?). They all landed at Port Philip on 22nd June 1848.
It is not yet discovered what activity each of the now extended family engaged in following their arrival in Port Philip, or how separated the family became in order for the older members to gain employment, but it is likely that the younger children would have remained with Edmund and Martha, or at least with Martha.
1851
It is recorded that Martha died on 1st June 1851, age 51, at Timboon (now known as Camperdown, in Victoria). It is not yet discovered how Martha died, or which children she had with her. Her occupation on the death certificate is described as ‘overseer’. It is not yet discovered where Edmund was at the time of Martha’s death. Timboon at that time was a large and ‘newish’ agricultural district, with property owners of names that crop up regularly in the early 1841-47 years of Edmund and Matha’s start in Port Philip, so it is very possible both Edmund and Martha were both working in the same Timboon district, probably as employees of people they had previously known before 1847, rather than property owners or lease owner employers.
Martha is buried in the Eastern Cemetery, Geelong, Victoria, Australia. The gravestone is marked with her surname as Saunders not as Steel. Sharing the grave plot with Martha are her youngest Saunders child James, his older brother William jr, and Mary the wife of William jr.
New South Wales and Victoria as shown in Milner’s Descriptive Atlas, 1849
1863
It is recorded on 6th January 1863, Martha the youngest of the children produced by Edmund and Martha is married to Samuel McWilliam, at Geelong, Victoria, Australia. Martha subsequently becomes the Matriach of the (Australian) McWilliam Family, and from this event comes the beginning of the Australian (Iconic) McWilliam Winery, which continues strongly to this day.
1865
On 22nd June 1865 the Death of Edmund is recorded, at Richmond, Victoria. The death certificate records the death causes as Exhaustion, Old Age, and Senile Gangrene – medical dictionary interpretation: ‘(medicine, archaic) A form of gangrene occurring particularly in old people, and usually caused by insufficient blood supply due to degeneration of the walls of the smaller arteries’. To me it reads as though Edmund never stopped working.
The Certificate address of Edmund is given as Chapel Street, Richmond, Victoria. The address of the ‘informant’ (of the information about Edmund) is Emma Tilbury who describes herself as a ‘friend’, and giving the same address There is no information on the death certificate, or yet discovered, as to whether there may have been some of Edmund’s ‘children’ with him at the time of death. The Chapel Street accommodation detail is yet to be discovered.
Edmund is buried in Church of England – section ‘S’, grave #197, Melbourne General Cemetery, Victoria, Australia. Buried in the same grave plot with Edmund are:-
Sarah Maria Raymond – (not researched – a grand daughter to Edmund?)
Maria Thatcher – daughter
Sarah – daughter
Sketch Summation
I am very proud to be one of the 3 x Great Grandchildren of EDMUND STEEL, who I discovered by accident while researching the ancestry of my late Mother. Until then I had not knowingly heard of Edmund Steel, although I can, in hindsight, recall as a child at festive gatherings of my extended family, the adults sometimes reminiscing over an ale or two, and (obviously intentional) mention of the name STEEL bringing guffawing and pointed gesturing toward my mother and her sister, being both 2 x GG children of Edmund, their lineage to Edmund being via his son Charles.
Clearly Edmund was not a ‘bad’ man. Post his arrest during the Swing riots everything discovered about his recorded life would suggest in fact that he was an honest hardworking man, devoted to his original family, and to his second family. In hindsight, I suggest Edmund was likely to have been a very poor, very frustrated parent with great concern for the future welfare of his large family before and during 1830-31, and his participation in the Swing Riots was at worst a ‘poor decision’, and probably totally influenced by ‘need’, and not by greed.
It could even be hypothesised that Edmund was in fact a ‘lucky’ man, in the sense that it is likely his Swing Riots arrest was a fortunate turning point in Edmund’s life, evidenced by the sentence, originally for DEATH but ‘luckily’ commuted to TRANSPORT FOR LIFE, and the later ‘lucky’ granting of a FREE PARDON, removed him from the rather hapless age old daily dire existence of a life of day to day struggle to exist for farm labourers in Berkshire in the 1830’s, more so for those with large families such as Edmund’s, and placed him in a vastly different life in ‘new’ VDL, where ‘luck’ placed him with Robert Taylor and his Family of devout Presbyterians, possibly able to earn some modest income (although it was ‘illegal’ for assigned convicts to be paid anything by their employers, it is reported that it was not unknown for some employers to recompense their assigned convict with cash or goods), and importantly allowed him at last to exercise his intuition and learn valuable skills in animal husbandry and possibly some business management, then ‘luckily’ to finally find and marry Martha, create a new family with her, and together relocate to Port Philip where they could put their combined skills of animal husbandry and business management to good advantage, ‘luckily’ earning sufficient for them to both return to England and recover Edmund’s original eight (adult) children.
It is clear to me that as early as 1834 when Edmund applied for permission for first wife Maria and her children to join Edmund in VDL, he had realised there was an opportunity for a better life for his entire family in VDL than in Berkshire and he wanted for them to all share in that opportunity, even though at that time of 1834 he was still a Transport for Life Convict, meaning he could never personally return to England for any reason, ever, and of course, he had no inkling that he would gain a Free Pardon in 1837.
Of course there was real tragedy for Edmund, and for his original family, and his subsequent ‘second family’ throughout this entire journey, but they all prevailed, seemingly (to me) by commonalities of Personal Endurance, Perseverance, and Love, most of which are directly attributable to EDMUND.
Through his life journey Edmund produced 13 Children and (adopted?) another 3.
William 15 Jan 1814, Newbury, Berkshire, England – 10 Jul 1894, Mount Beppo, Queensland, (Age 80 years)
Maria Thatcher(approx.) 25 Oct 1816, Kintbury, West Berkshire, England – 18 Jan 1877, Chapel Street, Richmond, Victoria, (Age approx. 60 years)
Sarah (approx.) 8 Jun 1817, Berkshire, England – Before 11 Mar 1821 (Age approx. 3 years – tallies with ‘eight children’ records)
Alfred (approx.) 25 Apr 1819, Oare, Berkshire, England – 23 Aug 1894, Newtown, New South Wales, Australia (Age approx. 75 years)
Sarah (approx.) 11 Mar 1821, Chieveley, Berkshire, England – 1880, Victoria, Australia (Age approx. 58 years)
David (approx.) 18 May 1823, Avington, Berkshire, England – 1881,Geelong, Victoria, Australia (Age approx. 57 years)
Edmund 31 Jul 1825, Kintbury, West Berkshire, England – Bef 1865, Kintbury, West Berkshire, England (Age approx. 39 years)
Mary Thatcher (approx.) 9 Mar 1828, Kintbury, West Berkshire, England – (no death record discovered – suspected infant or child death – tallies with ‘eight children’ records)
Charles (approx.) 31 May 1829, Kintbury, West Berkshire, England – 1890, Footscray, Victoria, Australia (Age approx. 60 years)
Following is the known birth – death record of the entire family of Edmund with Martha in age order:-
Sampson (sometimes Samuel?) Steel 1838 VDL / Tasmania (known to be alive 1848 following return from England with Edmund, Martha, and original family members, but nothing yet discovered after that time)
The sources accessed and utilised in the preparation of this sketch include (in no special order):-
Norman Fox’s book ‘Berkshire to Botany Bay’
Hungerford Virtual Museum
Berkshire Family History Society
Berkshire Overseers Papers (CD)
Bellarine History Society
Portphilippioneersgroup.org.au
Various Government Gazettes
Various Convict / Convict Transportation Registers
Trove
we4kings website
black-sheep-search.co.uk
anu.edu.au/biography/george taylor
Wikitionary
Thesis of Bruce Brown Uni Tas 2004
Thesis of Rebecca Rose Read Uni Tas 2019
Various other thesis documents and books in the public domain ex web browsing, and other on-line research sites, the details of which I lost with a catastrophic computer failure and not backed up! (Lesson now Learned!!)
My sincere apology for any source I have inadvertently overlooked in this schedule.
I accept responsibility and apologise for any errors in fact that may have occurred in my misunderstanding of researched information, or in my transposing of information.
Throughout the nineteenth and into the early twentieth century, brass bands were particularly popular; many towns and villages could boast their own local musicians to offer entertainment at fetes and flower shows, in public houses or to accompany parades
Playing, however, is thirsty work, and unfortunately brass bands were often associated with heavy drinking. This was a time before licencing hours introduced during the First World War restricted the hours a public house could open and, “the sacred freedom of drinking was tampered with” (A. J. P. Taylor). It had long been recognised that excessive alcohol consumption was becoming a serious problem.
The temperance movement – calling for abstinence from drinking alcohol – began in Ireland in the 1830s. Throughout the following decades the movement spread across England where temperance coffee shops, hotels, billiard rooms and even music halls were opened. People were encouraged to, “sign the pledge” to say that they would never drink alcohol.
Temperance brass bands were seen as a way of spreading the word. By the turn of the century, hundreds of towns and villages could boast their own temperance bands, a great many of which – although not all – were associated with methodist churches. Hungerford, Newbury and Thatcham all had temperance bands but one of the smaller communities to host a band was Inkpen.
Mr Arthur J. Edwards, the band’s conductor, was a member of the Edwards family from the Sawmills, Inkpen, on whose land the Methodist chapel had been built and who were well known as Methodist church members. Edwards was a talented musician himself and clearly very successful at teaching his band of young players. Band practice was held in the Wesleyan schoolroom where rules and regulations were displayed on a card hanging on the wall.
The first reference to the band that appeared in the local press was in a Newbury Weekly News report of April 1902 when the Inkpen Temperance Band performed at a fund raising event for Inkpen Wesleyan Methodists. The chapel in Post Office Road Inkpen had recently been renovated and the event was to make up a shortfall in the costs of doing so.
In June 1904, the band played at another Wesleyan fund raiser, this time for the Wesleyan Sunday School in Kintbury. It seems the band was well received as the same month, Mr. Edwards placed an advertisement in the Newbury Weekly News stating that the, “12 to20” performers would play, “First-class, up-to-date- music” but that they were already booked up on August 21st as they were to play at Kintbury Flower Show.
Although Mr Edwards continued to advertise in the newspaper across the following months, the next report of the band’s appearance is not until August 1905 when they play at the Annual Camp Meeting in Gore End. Although the report does not specify, I’m assuming from reading later reports this is an event of the Primitive Methodist Church. The meeting was, apparently, well attended: “A large gathering of people listened to the Word of Life simply and earnestly expounded by men who evidently spoke from a religious experience”.
Presumably no women were permitted to speak, whether they had had a religious experience or not.
By 1906, Mr Edwards is confidently advertising the band as having 20 performers, “open for engagements”, wearing, “Full dress uniform” and playing, “Good class music”. Bookings must have been increasing because, as well as having Mr Edwards as conductor, the advertisement names F.D.Carter of Inkpen as “Hon Sec”.
The Christmas season of 1906 was a very busy one for the band who, according to the report in the Newbury Weekly News were, “insplendid form now, and has received praise all round for their fine playing seeing they are only a young band.”
The committee were planning to buy new instruments and were hoping to receive the aid, “of the generous public”.
In January 1907, band members enjoyed an “excellent supper” in Inkpen’s Wesleyan Schoolroom although the severe weather prevented some members from travelling the long distance. It would seem that the popularity and success of the band was attracting members from villages beyond Inkpen. The “esteemed bandmaster” Mr Edwards and others “gave some capital songs and pianofortesolos while various games were freely indulged in”. A Mr Tilley from Newbury “gave some capital selections on the phonograph” – a rare opportunity for some to hear recorded music, I expect. The report concludes:
Great praise is due to the bandmaster for his never-tiring patience, especially with the younger members, and it is hoped that the members will rally round their leader so that this year might be a record one
1907 proved to be a particularly successful one for the band. In May they played at the Whit Sunday Primitive Methodists camp meeting in Inkpen where a special feature was, apparently, their rendering of the march, “Crown Him With Many Crowns.”
In July the band performed at another Wesleyan fund raising event, this time at a sale of work and jumble sale for the Kintbury Wesleyan Sunday School.
August was a busy month. The band played at another Annual Camp Meeting, this time at Ashmansworth where, following talks by visiting preachers, the band led the singing and, “rendered anice selection of sacred music”. The “profitable day” ended with an, “old-fashioned love feast and prayer”.
What an old-fashioned love feast was, I have absolutely no idea – although it sounds to me more like something that would have happened in the late 1960s!
On August 7th – a week day, interestingly – the band played at the Speen and Stockcross Horticultural Society show, and on August 21st – also a week day – they were at the Kintbury and Avington Annual Flower Show & Sports. Then in September, the band won third prize at a band contest at Blenheim Park, Woodstock. This must have been no mean feat as it could not have been cheap or easy to transport twenty band members and their instruments the 42 miles to Woodstock and back. The Newbury Weekly News commented that great credit was due to Mr A. Edwards, “seeing that the band is quite young”.
By April of 1909, Mr Edwards seems to have achieved his aim of purchasing new instruments although these had not come cheaply. The band’s end of year financial report recorded a total income of £70 13s 2 1/2d although a further £100 was still required to defray the cost of the instruments.
In the following years there are fewer reports mentioning the Inkpen Temperance Band although in August of 1911 they were playing at Kintbury & Avington Cottagers’ Show which suggests that the debt regarding the purchase of the instruments had not resulted in the demise of the band.
In the August of the following year, the band played at the Inkpen Flower Show, although their conductor is now Mr W. Edwards.
I found the last reference to the band in a local newspaper was in a report of March 1913 which records the Inkpen band – now known as the Inkpen Temperance Prize band – as attending a Wokingham & District Band League competition, where they came 3rd in the “March” section and 1st in the “Own choice”. Mr Edwards is once again the conductor.
Perhaps the outbreak of war in August 1914 meant that newspapers had other concerns rather than reporting on the doings of village brass bands. However, the website, brassbandresults.co.uk, records Mr Edwards and the Inkpen band – known variously over the years as Inkpen Silver Band and Inkpen United Band – as continuing to compete in various competitions throughout the south of England. On occasions the band is conduced by Arthur Muddiman, later B. Edwards and then P.G.Dyson. The very last competition the band entered was on February 27th, 1954, in Southampton.
Whether the band retained its strong links with the methodist church, I have no way of knowing. Many bands which began as “temperance” bands eventually dropped that word from their names and many of them are still playing today. Locally, the Reading Spring Gardens Silver Band, the Basingstoke Silver Band and the Tadley Silver Band all began life as temperance bands.
It is, of course, impossible to know how many band members – if any – who played at Southampton in 1953 had also been at Woodstock in 1907. Many reports describe the band as being young then – the generation whose lives would be tragically interrupted by the outbreak of the First World War.
Jane Austen, the celebrated novelist, lived from 1775 to 1817. Although the Austens were a Hampshire family, there was a close friendship between them and the Fowle family of Kintbury and we know that various Austen family members visited our village.
The village Jane knew was, of course, very different from the village we know now. So, what do we know about Kintbury- and the wider world – in Jane Austen’s time?
For much of Jane’s life, England was at war with the French. When Jane was 5 in 1780, the Gordon Riots took place. In 1788 George III’s first illness began and the first convicts were sent to Australia. In 1792, the September massacre took place in France and 12,000 political prisoners were murdered. In 1793 Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were executed and France declared war on Great Britain. Then, in 1797 the French landed in Wales, – the last invasion of Britain! In 1798 the Battle of the Nile took place.
In 1804 Napoleon had himself crowned Emperor, then 1805 saw the battle of Trafalgar and the death of Nelson. In 1807 the Slave Trade was abolished, 1810 and 11 saw the King’s illness recur and the Regency established. In 1812 Napoleon invaded Russia and America declared war on Great Britain. The war ended in 1814 and 1815 saw the battle of Waterloo and restoration of Louis XVIII to the throne of France.
The 1834 Poor Law Act saw the building of more workhouses throughout the country to house the poor and destitute; one was built in Kintbury.
For cricket fans June, 1814 also saw the first match to be played at Lords.
Jane received letters from her sailor brothers and other relatives and was therefore conversant with European news. In her novels, sailors and soldiers appear but there is never any specific reference to the situation in Europe or to war. Similarly, life in inland villages such as Kintbury would have been lived with far less reference to the turmoil across the channel and the fear of invasion than that which threatened some coastal areas during the war with France.
The Kintbury Jane knew was much smaller than the modern village we know today; most of the housing was located around the centre and surrounded by fields or open land. Dotted around the village were whiting pits as well as pits from which clay for brick making was extracted.
Irish Hill had its own little clutch of cottages which remained until the 20th century. Despite the legend that it was named “Irish Hill” for the Irish navvies who worked on the canal, the original name, which predated the arrival of the canal, was in fact Ayrish Hill. It was the site of yet another of Kintbury’s whiting manufactories and after the canal came into existence had a jetty where the whiting was loaded onto barges.
The Rev’d Thomas Fowle II was vicar of Kintbury from 1762 to 1798. He had been a close friend of Jane Austen’s father George since their days together as students at Oxford University.
The Old Vicarage in Kintbury
In 1775 an alarming event at the Rev’d Mr Fowle’s vicarage was reported in the local papers: on Wednesday 6th September, at about nine of the evening, a ball of fire entered the house at one of the garrets which went through the house, melted the bell wires, threw two candlesticks from the table, entered a cupboard and set fire to some papers. The family were much alarmed but no further injury sustained.
Also in June 1775, the paper reported that smallpox had broken out and was likely to increase. It was advisable to inoculate the poor and as the situation was very hazardous people were advised not to visit the area. This is the attack in which the Lloyd family at nearby Enborne suffered. At this time, Martha – who was later to become Jane’s close friend – was 10, Eliza – later to be Mrs Fulwar Fowle – was 8, and their sister Mary,4. Sadly their brother, Charles, aged 7, died.
In 1779 Jeff Painter, an old parish pauper, was found dead and Mrs Giles, in a despondent state, cast herself into a well. The Jury’s verdict on this last was ‘lunacy’.
One notable Kintbury resident at this time was Samuel Dixon, a barrister at Lincoln’s Inn, who lived with his sister in Wallingtons, (now St Cassian’s Centre), Kintbury. One night in early 1784, when Dixon was staying in London, his butler, a man called Benjamin Griffiths, broke into Wallingtons, stealing several items and setting fire to the house which was burnt to the ground.
At first, Griffiths was not suspected of being the arsonist and, ironically, he was sent to inform Dixon of what had happened. However, his behaviour aroused suspicion. When charged he confessed and cut his throat but recovered, was convicted and hanged.
Griffiths had previously been a toll gate keeper and was suspected of murdering his partner although never convicted of the crime. There were, according to Newbury historian Walter Money, three toll gates between Newbury and Marlborough and Dixon was on the board of The Turnpike Trust which might go some way to explain why he later employed Griffith. Dixon tried, unsuccessfully, to get the death sentence commuted. In his will left money to two of Griffiths’ children.
Samuel Dixon died in 1892. His sister Elizabeth had predeceased him in 1786 and he had carried out her wishes in providing the parish with a ‘good fire engine’ which is now in the Newbury museum.
Arson was not the only crime to be committed by a resident of Georgian Kintbury.
In October 1785, Charles Smart was transported for seven years for stealing wheat from Mr. Barker. Then, in July, 1787, Thomas Page was sentenced to be kept for three months hard labour in the House of Correction for leaving his family chargeable to the parish.
Also in 1785, an advertisement appeared in a local paper for a Kintbury School for Young Gentlemen. It stated that the young gentlemen were to be carefully instructed in language according to the principles of grammar. The charges for boarders at this school were:
Boys under twelve: 12 guineas
Boys 12-13: 14 guineas
Over 14: 16 guineas.
If the boys were kept at school over the Christmas and midsummer periods then the charge was 1 guinea.
In January, 1790, Thomas Hillin was committed to the county Bridewell charged on the oath of James Thatcher, surgeon of Hungerford, with attempting to extort money by threatening to charge him with a detestable crime! However, what, exactly, the detestable crime was, we do not know!
A village woollen manufactory was advertised in July 1797 as containing: “scribbling, raising, shearing etc in a high state of perfection, erected in a commodious building with 40 looms, twisting mill and other articles used in making cloth. A Dye House with every fixture for washing and dying and land surrounding the manufactory desirable and situated with ample supply of water and built to command ever benefit of light and air.”
This must have employed a number of people.
There was also a silk manufactory said to be situated behind the cottages on The Cliffs. Perhaps this was why local resident and MP Charles Dundas raised the question in the House concerning imports of French silk which were ruining the English silk trade.
1797 saw the completion of the canal from Newbury to Kintbury. A wharf was built opposite the Red Lion and a busy trade soon developed in all sorts of goods but also it aided the increasingly productive Whiting Industry. The inaugural voyage consisted of a horse drawn barge carrying the band of the 15th Dragoons and several important dignitaries. They were watched by large crowds, reached Kintbury in two hours and dined with the Canal’s Chairman Charles Dundas before setting back to Newbury in the rain.
A crime particularly associated, in the popular imagination, with the Georgian period must surely be highway robbery and it is not surprising that there was at least one example of this crime recorded in Kintbury. In March 1798. John Williams alias Timms and John Davis alias William Emmery held up the Hon Hugh Lindsay and Robert Spottiswood on the highway in the parish of Kintbury. The gentlemen were relieved of money, banknotes and a gold watch.
Daniel Heath is mentioned as innkeeper for the Blue Ball; He was still there in 1830 when, it was said, Prize Fights took place at the back of the inn. Prize fights were a popular sport in Regency times and mostly took place outside cities and towns and their location kept secret. This was the age of Tom Crib famous for his victory over the American Tom Molyneaux and Gentleman John Jackson, the English Champion, both of whom taught boxing to gentlemen.
A more peaceful pursuit was the annual was the Pink Show which began in 1778. Silver plate was presented as a prize and a dinner was held in the Blue Ball.
The Napoleonic Wars formed the background of most of Jane’s life and in March 1794 a call had been sent out to the Lords Lieutenants of the counties to form infantry and yeomanry to defend their local areas.
Here in Kintbury, the Kintbury Volunteer Rifles played their part in preparing to defend England if needed.
Particular friends of both Jane and Cassandra Austen were the Rev’d Fulwar Craven Fowle and his wife, Eliza. Fulwar was the son of Rev’d Thomas Fowle II and had taken over the living in Kintbury in 1798.
In 1805, Fulwar led the local Volunteer Brigade to Bulmersh near Reading where they and the other Berkshire Volunteer Regiments were inspected by none other than King George III himself. According to a contemporary report, the troops were on parade at 10.00am and at 2pm the king and Royal Family arrived and then His Majesty rode down the lines whilst the band played a lively air. Afterwards His Majesty expressly desired the Duke of Cambridge to communicate to the Commanders, the particular gratification he felt at having witnessed the military perfection of his Berkshire Volunteers. The King, according to one source, told Fulwar that he knew he was a good clergyman and a good man, now he knew that he was a good officer. Praise indeed!
Rev’d Fulwar Craven Fowle
As well as having an active interest in the military, Fulwar Craven Fowle also had an interest in the developing science of agriculture, keeping his own prize winning flock of sheep. In 1808 two dogs worried his valuable Leicestershire sheep, eleven of which died. It is to be lamented, said the report, that individuals are not careful in securing their dogs as a disaster of this kind is a very serious injury in this most valuable flock in the county.
Unsurprisingly, theft continued to be a problem in Kintbury. In May 1815, someone entered the house of Fulwar Craven Fowle and stole the silver cutlery which had a crest of an arm holding a battleaxe surmounted by a ducal coronet. Silversmiths and pawnbrokers were asked to look out for it and £20 reward offered.
Then, in 1817, John Cozens had a dark bay gelding stolen from the stables opposite the Red Lion and offered £5 reward. Seemingly he could not offer as much as Fowle had following the theft of his silver.
Throughout this period, populations of towns and villages were growing throughout England and Kintbury was no exception. During the years 1761-1815 its population rose from 1,170 to 1,430.
The marriage registers show that, although many people chose local partners i.e. from Inkpen, Kintbury, Hungerford etc some brides chose their husbands from further afield: Binfield, Basingstoke, Marlborough and even Crewkerne. Similarly, brides appeared from Salisbury, Ramsbury, Chieveley, Farnborough and Hurstbourne. Of the grooms, 42% were able to sign their names and 34% of the brides, which suggests quite a high level of literacy at a time when very few people were able to have received an education.
Between the years 1761 and 1812 the average number of births per year was 42 –with an average of 7.2% being illegitimate. Some of the mothers appear to have been in long standing relationships such as Ann Palmer who had five children surnamed Mason. Ann Darling had seven children of whom only one had a surname. Sadly Ann later appears in the workhouse records.
When Ann Green had her baby baptised the vicar wrote disapprovingly that, ’her husband had been transported some years’.
When Elizabeth Harrison brought her son James for baptism it was noted that ‘her husband has been beyond seas for two years’.
Fathers could be summoned to pay for illegitimate children. The father of Elizabeth Watts’ son had to pay £1 towards the ‘lying in’ and one penny a week for the maintenance and twenty pence weekly as long as the child was chargeable to the parish. Elizabeth had to pay or cause to be paid six pence a week. However, Mark Bird from Welford – the father of Esther Sawyer’s daughter – had to pay 40/- for the lying in and £4 19s 6d for maintenance . Esther had to pay 6d weekly.
Although the first census in England and Wales took place in 1801, its results were recorded numerically and it was not until 1841 that we begin to have a clearer idea of trades and occupations in each town or village. However, a study of the church baptismal records give us some idea of how early nineteenth century Kintburians made a living.
In 1813 the church baptismal records began to record the father’s profession and from these we are able to see that the village provided the following:
3 shopkeepers
1 gamekeeper
4 wheelwrights
4 blacksmiths 1 of them at Elcot
3 cordwainers
1 shoemaker
4 sawyers
1 yeoman who was Bailiff to Charles Duindas
4 other yeoman: 1 at Clapton, 1 at Elcot and 1 at Walcot
6 carpenters
1 coachmaker
1 publican
2 bakers
1 miller
1 thatcher
3 farmers
1 pig dealer
1 maltster
1 grinder at mill
1 tanner
2 gentlemen identified as “Esquire”
1 clerk in holy orders at Barton Court.
However, the majority of fathers were listed as labourers and these numbered around 80. Of course, these were only those men who had brought their children for baptism in the years 1813-1817.
Today Kintbury could be regarded as a dormitory village and a great majority of residents are employed outside the village. The Kintbury known to Jane Austen must have been a busy, vibrant place largely supporting its own community.
Women’s Institute meetings were first held in Kintbury in the June of 1930. In the following months, the pattern was set for the years to come: demonstrations, competitions, social time, games, talks, round table conferences and a summer meeting at Hungerford Park.
However, the 1930s were a time of increased tension on the international scene leading to war being declared in 1939. How this impacted on the lives of the ladies of Kintbury can be traced through a reading of the WI meetings’ minutes.
In September, 1938 the decision was taken to begin Keep Fit Classes at a cost: 2/6 for 24 lessons. However, the start was delayed for at least a week owing to the “International Situation.”
Despite this, however, the spring of 1939 saw some members set off on a jaunt to Belgium under the leadership of Mrs. Baxendale. They arrived home safely and promptly gave a talk about their experiences.
Meanwhile other members had arranged a series of Red Cross lectures and Mrs.Packer, wife of the Headmaster, called for volunteers to help in a canteen providing refreshments for evacuated children. During the next few years the Billeting Officer, Mrs. Mackworth, was to house some 600 evacuees, (some of these in a biblically named Upper Room somewhere across the A4 and owned by the church).
Illustration in public domain Wikimedia Commons
The last meeting before the war was declared was a carefree summer one and took place at Barton Court, then the home of Lord Burnham. There was a picnic tea, walks in the gardens and the great man, after providing a large cake, undertook to judge the ankle competition -and this was in two categories, under fifty and over fifty. The winners are not named!
Poor Lord Burnham was to see his house become the HQ of a searchlight battery, his grounds full of Nissan huts and soldiers everywhere. Kintbury was about to embark upon the most intense, vivid and busy period of its history.
In October, 1939, the future of the W.I. seemed bleak. It proved impossible to obtain speakers and the President, Miss Corsair, had to resign because of her war duties in a military hospital. Lady Spickernell agreed to take her place. All branches were urged by H.Q. to continue if at all possible and to help in all forms of voluntary service and in the growing and preservation of food. This our ladies proceeded to do with great success.
The voluntary service began with a decision to knit for the Berkshire Regiment and a box was produced for contributions to buy the necessary wool. From this moment an incessant noise must have been heard throughout Kintbury -the non stop clicking of needles.
1939 drew to an end with the wives of servicemen being invited to join the November meeting which included a Round Table Conference on Wartime Economies and December produced a display of garments for the Regiment and an appeal for more money.
1940 opened with the news that the Coronation Hall had been commandeered by the troops and a new venue for WI meetings had to be found. This proved to be the Wesleyan Schoolroom in the Inkpen Road. This being settled the knitters were spurred on to greater things when in February a “particularly fine scarf ” was put on show. Produced by a member’s husband it was judged a ‘very fine effort’.
The knitters being duly encouraged had, by April, sent 45 garments for Army Comforts and a letter of thanks requested more socks, furthermore, in May, a Captain Phillips appealed for ‘a continuity of supplies of woollen comforts for the British Expeditionary Force.’
The W.I,, then turned its attention towards money and decided to form a National Savings Scheme in the village. Fifty books were issued in March and by May this had increased to a hundred and five. Collections were taken in the Parish Room on Wednesday afternoons between 2.30pm and 3.30pm. This continued throughout the war.
On the domestic front, sugar began to disappear and members were told to make individual applications for jam making and to take their own to meetings if they desired it in their tea.
During 1940 Mrs Bowen obtained a ‘very nice album for local history’ and asked for local pictures and cuttings to be collected and preserved. This was so successful that in 1945 a -and I quote -‘Historian’ asked that a copy be sent to the British Museum.
Despite gloom and bad weather, it was decided to hold the usual open air summer meeting at Hungerford Park. The emphasis was on self sufficiency. The Campden Fruit preserving solution was shown and vegetable seeds on sale. Two appeals were issued during the afternoon for khaki gloves and gumboot stockings and funds for an institute ambulance.
Members struggled to keep meetings going and decided that despite the blackout, which meant short meetings and difficulty in obtaining speakers, they must continue.
The talks that they did receive reflected the preoccupations of 1940: National Savings; Food Production; First Aid; Best Use of Preserved Food; even the social half an hour had a game called The Dustbin Game which taught that nothing need be thrown away. A lighter moment resulted in a competition of “Working a pig on a postcard with needle and wool”.
Let no one wonder what occupied Kintbury ladies during the anxious winter months of 1940/41. They must have been knitting non stop. The county appealed for comforts for POWs and money was advanced to buy wool from a firm in Bradford. Besides producing all these garments the ladies now began to take in the washing of the large numbers of troops billeted in the parish.
began with a party but also brought a reminder of the scourge of diphtheria and the WI was urged to have their children inoculated and to spread the news of free inoculations.
In March H.Q. drew attention to the need to grow onions and tomatoes to provide a surplus. A Mrs. Butler gave a pep talk entitled ‘The Home Front, the Aims of the Present Struggle and How Women Play a Great Part’ – which without doubt they did.
Illustration in public domain. Wikimedia Commons
The 19th -25th April was designated ‘War Weapons Week’ and members volunteered to sell stamps in the Parish Room each day between 4pm and 7pm. They ran a money raising stall and sold tickets for a concert at Haworth House, home of Mrs. Lucas. This plus a raffle and Mrs. Chislett’s box of groceries raised the grand sum, of £31-2s-lld.
In May, Lady Peterson joined the W.I.. Lady Peterson was the sister of Mrs. Nancy Goulding who lived in The Tannery. Sir Maurice Peterson had been Ambassador in Spain and went on to be Ambassador in Moscow where Lady Peterson kept chickens in the Embassy attics!
Lady Peterson lived at Inglewood Lodge which proved very helpful for she owned some stables and when Lady Spick reported that the Fruit Preservation Scheme was now compulsory, these stables were offered for the making of jam, storing of sugar and the finished product. The Scheme was not reserved for the W.I. but they were in a good position to organise it. It did not get off to a flying start as owing to the late frosts fruit was not available until July. However, by September 576 1bs had been produced and sold to the Reading Co-Op.
Whilst our ladies were waiting for the fruit to materialise the knitting continued. A blanket was handed to the Hungerford Evacuation Centre and another started for Shipwrecked Merchant Seamen. The Berkshire Regiment was still being catered for and an appeal was issued for comforts for the ARP. The W.I. issued their own appeal — for more knitters. Kintters could register with Camp Hopson ( haberdashers in Newbury ) under a scheme which allowed 1 1/2 lbs of wool per year to knit for relatives in the forces. At the end of 1941 members were asked to knit also for Yugoslav POWs.
A talk was given on how to overcome the shortage of sugar, and perhaps in an effort to produce the required surplus of onions and tomatoes, Mr. Davis took the W.I. around Hungerford Park gardens and gave many useful tips on growing and storing vegetables.
I cannot think where the money came from but in 1941, in addition to the fund raising already mentioned, the W.I. joined the Red Cross penny a week fund, organized a collection for St. Dunstans – a favourite village charity. During Warships Week a stall raised £8-10s-0d.
In case the enthusiasm for gathering money had started to flag, the ladies were treated to a talk on ‘War Savings and The Government’s Urgent Need as War Expenditure Increased’.
But all was not concerned with money -Miss Green gave a thrilling talk upon her experiences in the Balkans during the last war with an American Red Cross Unit. Whether the thrills came from the Balkans or the Americans we are not informed!
Despite the hard work time was found for a choir to train under Miss Walden. Performing in Reading they earned the verdict of ‘good interpretation and musical rendering of a high standard’.
This high standard was demonstrated to the parish when the choir sang for a Nativity Play at the end of December. This must have been an interesting performance for although staged in the church the PCC had strictly forbidden any rehearsals to be held there!
1942 began with Mrs. Marsden giving a talk on her thrilling experiences as a War Correspondent in Holland and France and on the domestic front a stall was started for outgrown children’s clothes. Thrilling experiences seem to have abounded in for the Kintbury ladies!
The Ministry of Labour informed the W.I. in February, that it had organised transport for villagers who wished to undertake war work in the Newbury area. Also in February the fruit preservation scheme -which had made a profit of £8, asked everyone to save jam jars as it was thought these would become difficult to obtain -and arrangements were made for the elusive cup of tea to be provided again -at the price of 1d.
Now, on top of knitting, jam making, organising collections and acting as town criers, the W.I. became responsible for running monthly whist drives to provide money for POW parcels. The first of these raised £20!!
In March, Mrs. Bowen attended a meeting on Post War Planning. A trifle optimistic as this was early 1942 but perhaps the arrival of the Americans brought renewed optimism. On her return she stressed the importance of planning with respect to agriculture, education, health and housing.
In April, Lady Farrington asked the W. I. to make it known that she had had an interview with the manager of the Vickers Armstrong Factory in Hungerford and had been told that part-time workers were badly needed and half day shifts and transport could be provided if enough people applied.
April also brought yet another pep talk from HQ and attention was drawn this time to unskilled work on farms. One wonders where our ladies were expected to find the time.
Illustration in public domain. Wikimedia Commons
The 1942 Fruit Scheme opened on 19th June with the making of 135 lbs of gooseberry jam, but July was devoted to the gathering and drying of herbs. These were despatched in July and again in September and future supplies were requested. The year was relentless in its demands upon women and this is only the report of one organisation. The Paper Salvage Drive was next -each member asked to bring at least ten books and by September 570 books and innumerable magazines had been collected. One wonders how so many pre war books survived. A further 281 lbs of plum jam was produced and the school children despatched to collect a consignment of fox glove leaves -these were urgently needed to treat heart disease and cases of shell shock.
Despite all this, time was found to form a Drama Society and work in the garden – Lady Peterson and Miss Hayward won first class certificates in the Country Garden Competition. In October the Institute asked Mr. Packer to allow children to collect rosehips, which he did and they collected l cwt -no mean feat. HQ again drew attention -this time to harvesting leek seeds. How casually we treat these things today but in 1942 leek seeds were apparently another vital ingredient in the war effort. But jam, was the main priority and before closing for the winter 160 lbs of blackberry and 130 lbs of crab apple were produced. This meant that in 1942 the grand total of jam produced was 706 lbs!!
The knitters, of course ,were still on the go. Thanks were received from POWs, RAFBF and the Comfort Depot. Next the ladies were then asked to knit for the Merchant Navy or join a Red Cross Working party. The latter was chosen and from 1939 until 1944 the Red Cross Working party produced 4,000 garments and among the special orders were: Pyjamas for the Royal Artillery, Gloves for the Wrens, Socks and Gloves for POWs, Hessian Aprons for ATS Kintbury Home Guard, Kintbury Service men and, later, Baby Clothes for liberated Europe.
Just think for a moment: 4,000 garments in addition to jam making, fund raising, gardening, herb gathering etc all without washing machines, often only kitchen ranges rather than cookers, no main water or drainage, no main sewers.
By December the elusive cup of tea had disappeared again -this time due to a milk shortage.
During 1942, our ladies listened to such serious talks as ‘The Need to Co-Operate with Russia’; Archaeology’; ‘The Early Life of Churchill’; and the intriguing ‘Who Are The Americans?’
The year closed with a curious resolution being sent to HQ from Kintbury. It read as follows: ‘That representation be made to the Ministry of Labour and National Service, that the interviewing of housewives who are mothers of families should be undertaken by women of mature age and experience of running a home. It has been found that young women without practical experience of this kind find difficulty in comprehending the extent of labour and planning necessary to provide a home for a family’.Obviously members felt very strongly about the subject.
1943 began with a very successful party at Hawath House and this seems to set the scene for a lighter note creeps in but the relentless work continued.
The Institute was asked to produce material for occupational parcels for POWs and to take a three month turn in making and despatching them. A talk on savings urged everyone to intensify their efforts. This they did by helping with a variety show for Wings Week.
These shows seemed to have been quite a feature of village life and indeed at one time sported a Minstrel Group called the ‘White Coons’. The Girls Club rehearsed under Mrs. McCartney singing and cabaret acts and the soldiers at Barton Court took part in various sketches, singing and piano playing. A very popular act was Mr. Funnel and his fiddle. Mr. Funnel was a local shopkeeper and his wife a W.I. member. The Wings Week included an auction and made £156 7s Od.
In April, Miss Lansley agreed to become Chief Harvester and to undertake the collection of medicinal herbs. Culinary herbs were also required and these sent to POWs, but in June HQ announced that these were no longer needed and could be sold to the market stall. Presumably medicinal herbs continued to be harvested.. The W.I. was again urged to think of working on farms and perhaps in an effort to obtain agricultural workers it was proposed to erect houses in the village for them. W.I. members were invited to a parish meeting to discuss this but the RDC stated that although four houses were proposed plans had not been approved or rents fixed. Housing was evidently upon the villager’s minds for later in the year there was a talk on housing schemes and how they would affect Kintbury after the war!
Illustration in public domain Wikimedia Commons
Jam making began in June with 160 lbs of gooseberry which was put on sale in the shops and passed as of ‘excellent’ quality. The output for 1943 was 684 lbs.
Whist Drives continued to finance POW parcels and between September and January raised £21 2s 8d. The Drama Club went from strength to strength but perhaps a sign that the war was going well was the return of the travelogue talks. The armchair travellers were treated to talks on America, Russia and the Canary Islands.
1942 ended with the choir raising £10 10s for the Red Cross by carol singing.
1943 began with food and diet uppermost. The W.I. organised and distributed cocoa from the National Milk Cocoa Scheme. Mrs. Willoughby obtained a lemon and raffled it for £1! In the spring members were asked to stress the importance of Cod Liver Oil, and the importance of fruit juice for children.
July brought another Variety Show for Salute The Soldier Week which raised £80 10s Od and Jim Crowe and his concert party gave a show to boost POW funds. Jim came from Newbury and the mere mention of his name brought shrieks of laughter from the people who told me about him.
1944 was a bad year for fruit as I can only find mention of 192 lbs -but perhaps it was not so desperately needed.
December brought the only recorded disagreement and this happened when two more names were put forward to receive POW parcels making six in all. One lady contended that the two men concerned were not Kintbury people and thus not eligible. A definition was called for and Lady Peterson proposed that a ‘local prisoner should be one whose wife or relative is living in Kintbury and has been for at least six months and was not receiving help from any other source’. This was agreed.
The year was supposed to end with a film show -but the machine broke down so an hilarious game of clumps was played. Talks given included, ‘The Danish Folk Movement’, ‘How to Attract Younger Women to the W.I.’ and ‘Housing for The Country’, this last causing many lively comments and criticisms. Just in case the knitters thought that they could ease off a little, they were asked to knit for the European Clothing Relief Fund.
The last few months of the war brought an urgent appeal for a collection for Lewisham. Miss Lawrence placed an office at the disposal of the village and was there to receive gifts at 5 o’clock on Wednesday and Friday. Many gifts were collected and a letter of thanks received. It seems that Kintbury seldom failed to respond generously to charitable appeals.
Eventually the long awaited day arrived: Victory in Europe, 8th May, 1945. Finally, there was time to relax and the next W.I. meeting became an open party. Mr. Saunders undertook to be M.C. and everyone was grateful for his able assistance. The hall was very well filled and Sir Frank Spickernell played the piano for dancing and musical games. Mrs. McCartney gave an account of the arrangements for The Welcome Home Fund, tea and cakes were served and the Drama Club performed a sketch entitles Mrs. Whipple’s Husband. More games and dancing followed.
A committee was formed to organize the Welcome Home Celebrations. These were to include four Welcome Home Parties in the Coronation Hall – with the hilarious Jim Crowe supplying the variety items. At this party 68 returning servicemen were welcomed and altogether 227 received gifts of money and a card of thanks.
The last months of 1945 were spent trying to get back to a normal life and Lady Spick asked to be allowed to retire as she had served 5 years as President instead of the usual 3. It was obvious to those of us who moved into Kintbury in the last years of Lady Spickernell’s life, that she was held in very high regard and much affection. I have been told that she was a lovely person who really cared.
So the W.I. war duties came to an end and to demonstrate that they were now back in the realms of domesticity. The first talk of 1946 was given by a Mrs. Rigg and entitled, ‘Singing While You Work’. Housework, said Mrs. Rigg, particularly bed making, would be less irksome if one sang or hummed a tune.
Perhaps we should bear that in mind!
“It’s your Britain, fight for it now” poster by Frank Newbould. Public domain. Wikimedia Commons
When I first wandered into Christchurch churchyard sometime in the mid 1970s, I assumed it was a very long-established cemetery. I had no idea that a Victorian Gothic Revival church had stood on the site until the 1950s.
So what is the story of Christchurch, and why, less than a hundred years after it was newly built, was it demolished?
Back in the days of high numbers attending church services and – for many – no means of transport other than by foot, parishoners living in homes remote from the nearest town or village would have faced a long and often muddy or dusty trek to attend Sunday worship. In response to this problem, “chapels of ease” were built to serve the requirements of scattered communities and by the 1860s a need for such a chapel was identified in the Kintbury/Inkpen area. The Earl of Craven donated land for the project and its position at Kintbury Crossways must have seemed the ideal location between the villages of Kintbury and Inkpen.
The architect chosen for this project was Thomas Talbot Bury, a person well known to the diocese. He had designed St Mary’s, Lambourn Woodlands and St Gregory’s, Welford, both in the early 1850s as well as working on St Mary’s, Kintbury in what Pevsner was, much later, to call a “heavy handed restoration”. The old vicarage in Kintbury is also the work of Thomas Talbot Bury. Architecturally, it seems, he was the man of the moment.
The new church was to be in the fashionable “Decorated Gothic” style, one which took inspiration from medieval buildings such as Westminster Abbey and Salisbury Cathedral. However at 95 feet long and 46 feet wide, Christchurch would be of modest size with pews enough for 250 adults. All seating would be free.
The tower, however, was to be particularly eye-catching, and was described in the Illustrated London News as being:
“…very effective, both from its massiveness and from the picturesque appearance of the spire, which is of tile in two stages with perforated woodwork intervening.”
The building was to be constructed of locally made brick with Bath stone and the work carried out by local craftsmen. A Mr Cumnor from Kintbury was to be responsible for the brickwork and plaster while fellow Kintburian, Mr Cruise was to be responsible for the woodwork. A Mr Keats from Newbury was the mason chosen to work with the Bath stone.
When it came to the stained glass windows, however, craftsmen from further afield were sought. Heaton & Butler were leading stained glass window designers and manufacturers, working in the fashionable Gothic Revival style. They had already produced a window for St Mary’s, Kintbury: theirs is the window to the left of the south door, featuring Jesus walking on the water.
The Illustrated London News mentions a “good sculpture” of the Last Supper by “Mr Farmer”. I think this most likely refers to Farmer of Farmer & Butler, a London firm of architectural sculptors who had worked on sculptures for the Natural History Museum.
There was also to be a richly carved pulpit and font.
The total cost of building this new church came in at £3133, 1shilling, 9 1/2d. This might not seem a lot to us today but it needs to be remembered that this was at a time when the average wage for the labouring people attending its services was around 10 shillings (50 pence) a week. Furthermore, at the time of the building being opened, only £1835, 3s 0¼d had been raised whilst it was intended that £2035 3s 01¼d should be raised by a subscription and grants. A further sum of £1097 18s 8¼d should be achieved, it was hoped, by, “opening services and subsequent efforts.” One can only imagine the sort of discussions being held by those responsible for overseeing the financing of the project when the full cost was not realised before the church was opened.
“My First Sermon”, John Everet Millais. City of London Corporation
However, certain of the upper classes had deep pockets, and it would have looked good to be seen as a benefactor of this new place of worship. Members of the Dunel family of Barton Court, Kintbury, presented the pulpit, font and reredos; the sacramental plate and six of the windows were given by the Rev J.W. Dundas and two chancel windows by Talbot Bury himself.
The completed church was consecrated on Tuesday, May 28th 1867 by the Lord Bishop of Oxford. The Newbury Weekly News reported on the event and noted in particular the Minton tiles on the chancel steps, the splendid altar cloth, the elaborate reredos and the handsome font supported by marble columns. It was reported that, “an air of comfort and extreme neatness pervades theinterior”. Christchurch, it seems, epitomised Victorian values of good taste and design.
Although most of Christchurch’s 250 “free” seats must have been intended for the less wealthy people living in scattered communities between Inkpen and Kintbury, it seems the great and the good turned out to attend that first service. In the style of reporting typical of the mid-19th century, the Newbury Weekly News name-checked well over thirty people including Rev H.W. Majendie, J.W.Dundas, G.C.Cherry Esq. ,Captain Butler, RN. and T. Bury, F.S.A. himself. One wonders if any of the local agricultural labourers crept quietly in at the back.
I do not know if the £1097 18s 8¼d outstanding cost was easily raised in the months or years after Christchurch was consecrated. So far I have found out very little about the life of the church over the next eighty years. But we do know that by the 1940s the building had severe problems and required extensive repairs. Whether this was due to neglect, stresses resulting from the effects of two world wars upon a rural community or problems inherent in the building’s structure, I have not been able to find out. There is a suggestion that the building was suffering from an infestation by death-watch beetle, but I have not been able to confirm this. Was it simply that Christchurch was not loved enough as a place of worship for anyone who could afford it to contribute to its repairs? By the middle of the twentieth century, the neo-gothic style of architecture so beloved of the Victorians was out of fashion, derided and disliked; it was still some time before the better examples would be championed by John Betjeman. In Newbury, St Joseph’s RC church, opened in 1928, and St John’s, opened in 1955, are both examples of how fashion and tastes in architectural styles had changed.
“My second sermon” John Everet Millais, City of London Corporation
Whatever the reason, in 1948 the decision was taken to close the church and in the mid 1950s it was pulled down. By the time I wandered into the churchyard in 1975, all traces of the building had long gone.
It all seems so sad to me: the craftsmen who worked on that building in the 1860s must have done so with pride, probably thinking their work would last for, perhaps, hundreds of years. Mrs Dunel had presented the font in memory of her children; perhaps she imagined it would be in use to baptise other people’s children for many, many years to come. I am sure none of the people who worked, or contributed in other ways, with pride and love to achieve what must have been – for some years at least – an impressive building, imagined that within the space of a lifetime the decision would be made to tear it down.
Kintbury and Hungerford were not the only places to be affected by the events we now know as the “Swing Riots”on those dark nights in November, 1830. Other parts of West Berkshire saw similar protests and by December there were 249 prisoners being held in custody at the County Gaol, according to the newspaper. On Monday 27th December the trial opened of the labourers from Kintbury and Hungerford as well as others from the Aldermaston area – 134 men in all.
The trial begins
The Berkshire Chronicle reported that the majority were charged with “ riotously assembling and destroying threshing machines and other species of property.” These “outrages” were “accompanied by robberies of money and in a fewer number of instances, provisions were forcibly demandedand obtained.”
The report goes on to say that only 25 of the prisoners could read and write, 37 could read only and the remainder could neither read nor write. (This is not surprising considering that no formal education would have been available to them.)
On Tuesday 28th December, William Oakley, William Smith alias Winterbourne, Daniel Bates and Edmund Steel were placed at the bar, charged with robbing John Willes, Esq of five sovereigns on 22nd November in Hungerford, and also of riot, further robbery and destroying machinery. (Presumably, robbing a gentleman of five shillings was considered to be a more serious crime than the rioting and destroying machinery.) None of the men were themselves agricultural labourers. Oakley was described as being about 25 and “better dressed than is usual among members of the class of working tradesmen.”
The Berkshire Chronicle’s journalist clearly felt no need to avoid subjectivity or bias in his reporting, stating that Oakley was, “apale sinister-looking person, as is Winterbourne.” Winterbourne was 33 but looked older. Bates was described as having, “an extremely mild, good natured expression of countenance”, whilst Steele was a “determined looking man”. Winterbourne was the only one of the four who could neither read nor write, being described as, “entirely uneducated”.
John Hill of Standon House, Hungerford, was quoted at length. He recounted that on 22nd of November he was in the company of 11 or 12 others intending to prevent the “Kintbury mob” from approaching Mr Cherry’s house (Denford House). They met the mob, which apparently consisted of 200 to 300 men, on the Bath Road. “Some of them had large stakes and sticks in their hands.”
The mob proceeded to Hungerford where they broke windows in Mr Annings’ house. Next they broke into Mr Gibbons’ foundry. Mr Willes, Mr Pearse and others then went to the Town Hall where they met with five “deputies” from the Hungerford mob and five from the Kintbury mob. Winterbourne, Oakley, Bates and Steele were four of the Kintbury deputies and were present when the Hungerford deputies demanded 12 shillings a week wages, the destruction of the threshing machines and a reduction in house rent. Mr Pearce agreed that wages should be raised though he was not able to say anything about the rent.
Next the Kintbury deputies spoke and according to John Hill, Oakley said, “You have had a parcel of flats to deal with, but weare not to be so easily caught”. He demanded £5. Then Bates allegedly flourished a sledge hammer and, striking it on the ground, said, “We will be d—– if we don’t have the £5 or blood”.
Apparently, other witnesses could recall more of what was said: Mr Joseph Atherton recalled Oakley as having added, “We willhave 2 shillings a day till Lady day and half a crown afterwardsfor labourers, and 3 shillings and six pence for tradesmen. And, as we are here, we will have £5 before we leave the place or we will smash it.”
According to Atherton, many of the men were armed with bludgeons, sledge hammers and iron bars.
Oakley is reported as having then addressed himself to Mr Pearce: “You gentlemen have been living long enough on the good things; now it is our time, and we will have them. You gentlemen would not speak to us now, only you are afraid and intimidated.”
Until this point there is no account of Winterbourne having spoken but then someone called Osbourne is alleged to have put a hand on his shoulder, to which he replied, “If any man put his hand upon me, I will knock him down or split his skull”.
Atherton alleged that Winterbourne was carrying an iron bar, three or four feet long in his hand, whilst Oakley had an iron bar, Bates a sledge hammer and Steel a stick.
According to the witness, Winterbourne said to Bates, “ Brother, we have lived together and we will die together” and this was the point at which Bates struck the sledge hammer hard on the floor, saying, “Yes, we will have it or we will have blood and down with the b—–y place”.
According to Atherton, this was the point at which Bates flourished the sledge hammer over the head of Mr Willes who responded with. “If you kill me you only shorten the days of an old man”. Mr Willes then gave five sovereigns to the prisoners, who left.
A third witness, Mr Stephen Major, recalled Mr Willes as requesting the men to leave their weapons outside the door, but that Oakley replied, “I’ll see you d—- first”. Then he said, “Here are only five of us, but we can soon clear the room.”
The final witness whose evidence was reported, was Willes – a magistrate – himself. Willes recalled meeting with the mob on their way to Mr Cherry’s house (Denford House, on the Bath Road). He asked the men not to go to Denford House but to follow him to Hungerford Town Hall where, if they were reasonable, he would hear their grievances. He recalled trying to stop the men from breaking Mr Annings’ windows and attacking Mr Gibbons’ manufactory but without success.
Willes believed that the combined Hungerford and Kintbury mob numbered 400 and it was his request that five members from each village should come into the town hall. He alleged that the men said that they never would have come there but for he who enticed them and that they would not leave the hall without having money – £5. When he was cross examined, Willes said that the mob treated him kindly and led his horse by the bridle. Observing that Steel had a hatchet in his hand, he said to him, “My friend, that is a lethal weapon you have; it would split aman’s skull”, to which Steel replied, “Depend upon it, sir, it shall never injure yours”.
The next crime for which the men were, variously, charged was that of riotous and tumultuous assembly and destroying certain machinery employed in the manufacture of cast-iron goods. Several machines had been destroyed that night, and demands made for money or “vituals”. This included destroying the threshing machine belonging to Captain Thomas Dunn at Kintbury and also one belonging to Joseph Randall in Hampstead Marshall, where the men also demanded money or food and drink. Elizabeth Randall recalled that one man wielded a sledge hammer, others had sticks. She said that the men referred to William Winterbourne as, “Captain” which would have given the impression that he was a ring leader. He had instructed the men, she said, not to damage the farm house.
Intimidating behaviour?
It is interesting to note that the accounts of witnesses to the events of 22nd November, particularly those in Hungerford Town Hall, describe scenes which are much more intimidating and potentially violent than the impression given by Rev Fowle of his meetings with the men that day. Fowle’s account includes none of the kind of language used by Dundas in his letter to Home Secretary Melbourne of November 24th when he speaks of the, “shameful and outrageous conduct of the labourers”.In describing his meetings with the men, Fowle’s tone would seem to be conciliatory, even sympathetic in an understated way. He is not judgemental and makes no negative or pejorative comments about their behaviour, even though it could not have been pleasant to have been woken up at four in the morning by a band of men intent upon destroying machinery. The men obviously felt he was on their side when they gave him three cheers. All the evidence available would suggest that Fowle has sympathy with the plight of these men – his parishioners.
Sentenced to death
Sympathy, however, seems to have been in short supply as far as the court was concerned. Sentences of imprisonment, transportation and execution were available to the judges at the trials of the 138 West Berkshire men who stood accused and most were given prison sentences or sentenced to transportation of between 7 and 14 years. However, Mr Justice Park passed sentence of death on just three of the men, all of them from Kintbury. These were William Oakley, Alfred Darling and William Winterbourne.
According to the judge, William Oakley had taken an active part in acts of robbery and, in the robbery of Mr Wilkes, had been armed with dangerous weapons, refusing to lay them aside.
Alfred Darling, as a blacksmith, had no right – according to the judge – to be involved with the rioters.
William Winterbourne, he maintained, had taken an alarming part in the outrages as leader of the mob. He had acted as captain of the band, dictated what was to be done and “received money or not according to his will and pleasure.”
Mr Rigby disagrees
Many people disagreed with Mr Justice Park’s sentencing. Mr Rigby, counsel for the defence and the solicitor who had cross examined the men, was quoted in the Reading Mercury of 10th January 1831 as having said:
“It has been said, that some of the persons who perpetrated these outrages were artisans, not agriculturalists, and had not the excuse of poverty or low wages. But surely let those who advance the argument consider. What! has the poor man no feeling of commiseration for his fellow man because he has a loaf on his table for his own wife and family?”
Whilst Rigby’s sympathy and understanding would have been welcomed, there is an irony here in that the pay of artisans – ie tradesmen, for example blacksmiths or carpenters – would not have been high, either.
The Reading Mercury reported that Oakley, Winterbourne and Darling were, “to be executed, the jury having found them guilty of encouraging unlawful meetings of the people, and by intimidation obtaining money from individuals.”
A petition to the King
A petition for mercy was swiftly organised to be sent to the king, William IV. In a day and a half it had collected 15,000 signatures. The ladies of the borough also organised a petition to be sent to Queen Adelaide.
This was not the only petition: many County & Borough magistrates appealed to the Home Secretary, Lord Melbourne.
“Your petitioners believe….. the offence for which the prisoners have been convicted is one, which in the common opinion of uneducated men, was not considered as capital, and though ignorance of the law may be no legal defence, in all moral feeling it must and ought to have great weight; for it is possible that had these unfortunate persons been apprized of the danger they incurred, they might have stopped short of the violation of that law on account of which they have been doomed to suffer.”
Two of the grand jurors involved with the case, J.B.Monke, Esq and J.Wheble Esq, also appealed to Secretary of State, Lord Melbourne, to petition the King for mercy.
It is interesting to note that, in an age when there were so many laws on the statute books which seem to us today to be biased against the working man and woman and which did nothing but cause them hardship, the imposition of the death penalty in this case caused such strong feelings of objection. Perhaps the case of the rioters, laid out every day in the Reading newspaper reports, had caused members of the middle and upper classes to consider what life was really like for their poorer neighbours.
For Oakley and Darling, the execution of the death sentence was respited (sic) although no such mercy was accorded to Winterbourne.
January 11th 1831
According to the Berkshire Chronicle of 15th January 1831, it was not until the morning of his execution that Winterbourne was told he would be the only man to die. “He expressed himself glad to hear that his companions were spared.” The newspaper goes on to say that Winterbourne’s wife was lying dangerously ill of typhus fever and that one of his last wishes was that she might die before he suffered or that she might not survive to be shocked by the news of his execution.
Winterbourne was led to the scaffold where, “His large muscular form seemed cramped ,- probably from the position of his arms and tightened of the bonds by which he was pinioned. He walked firmly, but his cheek was pallid, his eyes glazed, and the prayers he uttered, though fervently and audibly expressed, came from quivering lips.”
As the prison clock struck twelve on 11th January 1831, Winterbourne was executed.
Return to Kintbury
It would have been the custom for the executed prisoners to be buried at Reading Gaol. However, Rev Fowle arranged for Winterbourne’s body to be brought back to Kintbury, where he was buried in St Mary’s churchyard the following, day 12th January. Furthermore, he arranged and paid for a stone to be place on the grave – something that would have been totally beyond the reach of the labouring classes at that time, whose graves would be completely unmarked and grassed over.
According to the custom of the time, the name on the grave stone reads as “William Smith”, Smith being his mother’s name and his parents not being married at the time of his birth. Also, the grave is not tucked away in some far and distant corner of the churchyard, out of sight.
There has been for some time the persistent idea that Rev Fulwar Craven Fowle had Winterbourne’s body returned to Kintbury and the stone erected because he felt in some way guilty about what had happened to him. I have to say that, in researching this, I have found no evidence for this to be the case. The letter written by Fowle to Charles Dundas (now in the National Archives) contains none of the harsh or judgemental language used against the protestors by others. As I have described above, the men gave Fowle three cheers and obviously felt able to tell him of their plans. There is no suggestion that the men arrived at the vicarage armed or that Fowle felt intimidated. All the evidence suggests to me that they expected to be treated fairly by him, and that they were.
It is believed that around 2,000 people were involved in the Swing Riots by the end of 1830. Five hundred were transported and 19 executed. This was four years before the men of Tolpuddle in Dorset were convicted of swearing a secret oath as members of the Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers, and sentenced to transportation. Those involved in the Swing Riots are not as well remembered as the men of Tolpuddle, but they deserve to be remembered too, for their part in the workers’ struggle for a fairer life.
In Kintbury, William Smith, alias Winterbourne, is not forgotten.
Bibliography
Griffin, Emma, (2018), Diets, hunger & living standards duringthe British industrial revolution, Past & Present.
Lindert & Williamson, (1983), English workers living standards in the industrial revolution, The Economic History Review
Phillips, Daphne (1993), Berkshire: A County history, Newbury: Countryside Books
Thompson, David (1969), England in the nineteenth century, Pelican
Trevelyan, G.M.(1960) Illustrated English Social History:4, Pelican
Woodward, Sir Llewellyn (1962), The Age of Reform, Oxford: OUP
The Berkshire Chronicle (December1830 & January 1831)
The Berkshire Mercury (December 1830 & January 1831)
The National Archives: Letter to Rt Hon Lord Melbourne fromCharles Dundas, MP, November 24th 1830
The National Archives: Anonymous letter to Rt Hon LordMelbourne, November 24th 1830
The National Archives: Letter to Rt Hon Lord Melbourne fromCharles Dundas MP & ninety other signatories, November 1830
The National Archives: Letter to Rt Hon Lord Melbourne fromLord Craven, November, 1830
The National Archives: Letter to Rt Hon Lord Melbourne from RevFulwar Craven Fowle, November 1830
1830 saw rioting break out across southern England
A labouring man
William Smith, also known as William Winterbourne, was born in Kintbury in 1798. It is likely that he was the son of Rose Smith and that he was baptised in Kintbury on 9th December 1798. There is no record of William’s father: it was the custom of the time for a child of unmarried parents to take the mother’s surname, although William was also known as Winterbourne which is likely to have been the name of his father.
Whilst the name William Smith appears in the Kintbury parish registers of the early 1800s, it is difficult to know for sure if this William Smith is also the man known as William Winterbourne. However, it is likely that our William married Mary Hobbs in the parish church of St Mary’s on 27th May 1822. Unfortunately, Mary died on 27th December 1827.
St Mary’s parish marriage register records a William Smith, who is at that time a widower, marrying a Sarah Brackstone on 28th September, 1829. On 3rd January 1830, William, son of William & Sarah Smith, is baptised in the parish church.
We know that William was a labourer and that the England of 1830 was not an easy time for families such as the Smiths. Forget any idea of a rural idyll. Life for William & Sarah would have been hard.
The harvest of 1830 was particularly bad. Furthermore, unemployment was on the increase as was the resulting hunger amongst the labouring classes. For the agricultural labourers, the arrival of threshing machines on many farms meant the loss of work and therefore of an income at a time when it was most needed. Many rural workers felt desperate.
Throughout England, more and more working people began to believe that they did not have to accept their lowly position in life as inevitable: it had not been ordained by God. To what extent the labourers were influenced by the ideas of Cobbett or Hunt – or indeed by many of the other emerging radical thinkers – it is difficult to say. Perhaps the anger and resentment which had been simmering for so long finally boiled over.
Many farmers had invested in the new threshing machines and these became a focus of the agricultural labourers’ resentment and rioting broke out across the country. Many landowners received threatening letters signed by someone identifying as “Captain Swing” or simply, “Swing”. No one knows if there had ever been one particular person behind the first disturbances; it is more likely that the name “Swing” was adopted by various men instigating rebellion in different areas. Threshing machines were destroyed and fires set; perhaps it seemed to some facing destitution and starvation that the labourers were finally rising up against their oppressors.
In West Berkshire, demonstrations for improved wages and the destruction of threshing machines began in Thatcham on 13th November 1830, moving then to other villages. In many places the gangs of protestors – commonly referred to as a “mob” – demanded money from the landowners. In some places the demonstrations were largely peaceful but by 21st and 22nd things in Hungerford and Kintbury apparently became more threatening.
The Kintbury Mob at the vicarage
The Old Vicarage in Kintbury
On November 22nd 1830, the Rev Fowle wrote to Charles Dundas, Member of Parliament and Kintbury resident, informing him that the Kintbury “mob” had been breaking threshing machines all through the previous night and that they had come to him at 4 o’clock in the morning. It seems that the men told the priest what they had been doing and which farms they intended to visit next. In the letter, Rev Fowle explains that he had consulted with one of Dundas’s men and it was agreed that, rather than destroying his threshing machine on his land at Barton Court, the men should bring it up to Kintbury and destroy it there, in the street. Presumably Fowle was trying to be conciliatory to suggest this, as the men agreed. He says that he gave the men £2, and that other landowners did the same. The men were then intending to go on to other villages in the neighbourhood, similarly demanding £2 from each landowner.
The tone of Rev Fowle’s letter to Charles Dundas is particularly interesting in that it expresses no anger or criticism of the men and in that respect is markedly different from many other letters and newspaper reports written at the time. He writes:
“I have not heard that they have committed personal violence on anyone than forcing the labourers to join them”.
He also notes that:
“Ploughs with cast iron shears appear to be as much the object of their hatred as machines and I hear they have broken many.”
At this point in the letter, Rev Fowle writes that he has just received a message from W.Willes (the Hungerford magistrate) which informed him that the Kintbury men had later been joined by those from Hungerford, and the mob now numbered 1000 men. A deputation of ten men had spoken with some gentlemen at Hungerford (the distinction of class being particularly significant at that time) and it had been agreed that the men should receive 12 shillings a week for a man, wife and three children and the price of a gallon loaf for every child above three. Fowle says that he hopes the farmers will agree to this.
In a post script to the letter, Rev Fowle explains to Dundas that he has since met again with the men, who have returned from Hungerford:
“ I told them that as far as was in my power I would endeavour to persuade the farmers to agree with them. The men gave three cheers and expressed themselves perfectly satisfied but they also agreed that there must be no payment in bread but all in money”.
Letters to the Home Secretary
What the protesting men of Kintbury told others in the village about their meeting at the vicarage could have caused trouble for the vicar. It was not the time or place for a person such as Rev Fowle to appear to be sympathetic to the “mob”. Someone, it seems, later complained to Lord Melbourne, the Home Secretary, suggesting that Rev Fowle had encouraged the rioters. This would never do. The Home Secretary was the person to whom those in positions of authority would appeal for support when confronting disorder, so it would not look good if a local priest and magistrate had been reported as encouraging the rioters. Consequently, Charles Dundas and ninety other parishioners signed a letter to Melbourne, to ensure him that Mr Fowle had done everything he could to quiet the disturbances and prevent the destruction of property.
What the papers said
Despite Rev Fowle’s interventions, however, it would seem that the men had not returned peaceably to work and support in suppressing the mob had been requested. According to a report in the Reading Mercury of 29th November, the previous Wednesday, November 24th, had seen a detachment of Grenadier Guards who arrived in Newbury in three stage coaches, followed by a troop of Lancers. An order was given that every householder or individual who could muster on horseback should attend the Market Place at 12 o’clock and eventually a band of men some 200 strong and including special constables made its way towards Kintbury where it met Charles Dundas in his role as Colonel of the White Horse Volunteer Cavalry.
The Reading Mercury report stated that the mob had retreated to public houses, stables, outhouses and cottages so a detachment of horse was sent to the south and west of Kintbury to prevent any escaping. The Grenadier Guards were to guard the prisoners when they had been brought in by the horsemen. Colonel Dundas, it reports, had heard that several men were concealed at the Red Lion (now the Dundas Arms) and took a ringleader by the name of Westal. The men then went on to the Blue Ball, – described as the “chief depot”- where they met little resistance.
“Shameful & outrageous”
Later that day, Charles Dundas wrote to Home Secretary Melbourne of the “shameful and outrageous conduct of the labourers.” There had been a “most notorious gang” which had surrounded the ale houses. However, at the end of the operation, fifty five of the principal rioters had been delivered to commander of the guards, Captain Aston.
What had happened between Rev Fowle’s meeting with the protestors at four o’clock on the morning of November 22nd and the afternoon of November 24th to require a detachment of Grenadier Guards to be sent to Kintbury? Fowle’s letter of November 22nd to Dundas does not suggest that the sixty-six year old vicar felt threatened or intimidated by the labourers, although it may be that only a few of the more respectful of them had approached the vicarage. His letter says that he has spoken to them on their return from Hungerford when he assures them he will do everything in his power to persuade the farmers to agree to 12 shillings a week pay. There is no suggestion that the labourers showed signs of violent behaviour when they had arrived at Rev Fowle’s vicarage. However, it seems that other events that night were not so peaceful – with tragic outcomes.
Bibliography
Griffin, Emma, (2018), Diets, hunger & living standards duringthe British industrial revolution, Past & Present.
Lindert & Williamson, (1983), English workers living standards in the industrial revolution, The Economic History Review
Phillips, Daphne (1993), Berkshire: A County history, Newbury: Countryside Books
Thompson, David (1969), England in the nineteenth century, Pelican
Trevelyan, G.M.(1960) Illustrated English Social History:4, Pelican
Woodward, Sir Llewellyn (1962), The Age of Reform, Oxford: OUP
The Berkshire Chronicle (December1830 & January 1831)
The Berkshire Mercury (December 1830 & January 1831)
The National Archives: Letter to Rt Hon Lord Melbourne fromCharles Dundas, MP, November 24th 1830
The National Archives: Anonymous letter to Rt Hon LordMelbourne, November 24th 1830
The National Archives: Letter to Rt Hon Lord Melbourne fromCharles Dundas MP & ninety other signatories, November 1830
The National Archives: Letter to Rt Hon Lord Melbourne fromLord Craven, November, 1830
The National Archives: Letter to Rt Hon Lord Melbourne from RevFulwar Craven Fowle, November 1830
With Christmas lights in Newbury’s Northbrook Street and shops already decked out for the festive season, even though, at the time of writing this, it is not yet even December, I began to wonder how different Christmas might have been in years gone by.
So I turned once more to the pages of local newspapers, care of the British Newspaper Archive and found, perhaps surprisingly, that it is quite difficult to find much reporting at all specifically relating to Christmas at the end of the nineteenth century.
Throughout the century, it was usual for local shops and businesses to advertise the arrival of new stock by placing small advertisements in the columns of the Newbury Weekly News. With no illustrations and a minimum of text, a shop would announce that, for example, new winter coats or shoes were in stock. In the weeks closest to Christmas, similarly low-key advertisements announced the arrival of Christmas cards and suitable presents.
By the later .years of the century, it seems to have become a thing for the paper to report on the displays of “Christmas meats” in the windows of various butchers’ shops. But of specifically seasonal parties, events or entertainment, I could find very little evidence. Christmas, it seems, was a much lower-key event.
I narrowed my search to reports from Kintbury and neighbouring villages but once again I found very little to distinguish the Christmas season from any other time of the year in respect of the subject matter covered. That is, with a very few exceptions and these are almost all characterised by being reports of how the wealthier principal families were benevolent to the less well off, and how enthusiastically this benevolence was received by the grateful recipients. One imagines there must have been much forelock tugging.
In January 1888, the Newbury Weekly News reported on a tea having been held at the “Big House” (sic), home of Mr & Mrs Cole of West Woodhay. All the children of the parish attended and there followed a “capital display of fireworks” attended by all parishioners. However, the display was, “allowed to pass off without any exhibition of enthusiasm, owing to the indisposition of Mr Cole, for whose speedy recovery every inhabitant of West Woodhay is most desirous”.
No shouts of “Oooh” or “Ahhh” as rockets went up and burst into colours, presumably.
Afterwards the “usual presents of game and coals were againdistributed”, about which I would imagine, the grateful villagers were allowed – probably expected – to look enthusiastic.
The Coles were not the only local family of standing in their village to give to the less well off. In Enborne, Mr K. H. Valpy of Enborne Lodge and in Hamstead Marshall, Mr James Bishop of Hamstead Park both “most generously” gave gifts of clothing and coal to the parishioners of their respective villages. Whilst much is made in the NWN’s reporting of the generosity of certain families, the fact that many other people were quite obviously in need of this kind of charitable giving goes unremarked upon. This, of course, is before the days of the welfare state and a time when dire poverty could lead to admittance to the workhouse.
In December 1903, two hundred of the younger children from St Mary’s School, Kintbury and Christ Church School ( between Kintbury and Inkpen) all received “ a printed invitation, enclosed inan envelope” which I think was a rather pleasing touch on the part of Mr and Mrs Whiston of Barrymores, Kintbury. On December 27th, the children enjoyed a, “bountiful spread” after which there was a, “hearty indulgence” in games. “Handsome presents” were given out from a huge Christmas tree for which the children “showed theirgratitude by loud and hearty cheers.”
On Boxing Day, 1907, the children attending Christ Church School were given, “a splendidtreat” due to the “kindness of Miss Dunn of Wallingtons.” Following “a good tea” a “fine Christmas tree was lighted up, from which each child received a bag of sweets and toys, besides a very useful present in the shape of a garment.”
Bearing in mind that the “lighting up” of the Christmas tree would have involved candles attached to the branches, I think I would have wanted to stand well back as this would have been a fire hazard. I do like the fact that Miss Dunn gave each child sweets and toys as well as a garment, so her idea of a Christmas gift must have seemed much more interesting the young recipients. Accompanying teachers were all given “something useful” whatever that was, and oranges & sweets were in abundance.
The children heartily cheered Miss Dunn, as, of course, they would have been expected to do so. However, for many children the gift of a toy must have been very welcome, so perhaps the cheering was genuinely heart-felt.
Perhaps, for some better-off villagers, being seen to be charitable was what mattered, to enhance one’s standing in the community. This might not have been the case, but it does make me wonder. According to the NWN of January 1907, a Mr and Miss Hinton had recently taken up residence in the “remote village” of Combe, where they lived at the manor. During Christmas week, the Hintons organised “an unusual treat” in the form of an, “entertainment” which was held at the manor and to which “nearly everyone turnedout in the snow”. Most of the entertainment consisted of songs or piano pieces although the audience also enjoyed gramophone selections. For many villagers I expect this would have been the first time they heard recorded music. If there was a Christmas tree, fire works or presents, the Newbury Weekly News report did not mention it.
Reporting styles of the time mean that each account is littered with words such as, “splendid”, “hearty”, “generous” and so on. Social mores of the time meant that poorer villagers were expected to be subservient to the upper or upper middles classes and be appreciative of the charity they bestowed on them. Despite this, however, the Christmas parties, in particular, must have been eagerly anticipated and enjoyed by the children. Gifts of coal, game birds or clothing would have been welcomed by many even if not necessarily living in poverty but on a restricted budget.
I like the sound of Miss Dunn’s party in particular; it seems she took care to give presents that were both practical and fun. Also, it is interesting to note that a legacy of the Dunn family still exists in Kintbury: for well over a hundred years, Mrs Dunn’s Kintbury Charity has given grants to young people of the village.
Kintbury and Beyond 