Whilton Local History Society
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The next meetings

Possibly Thursday 16th September (under review).

An important occasion will be Thursday 21st October at 7.30 pm in the village hall when the new history of Whilton: "Living in the Gap." The Story of Whilton and its Thousand Acres - 1000-2000 A.D. will be launched.

This new book with lots of illustrations contains nineteen chapters which trace life in this parish from the end of Saxon times to the late twentieth century.  It includes the story of the village on the hill, the Locks and Whilton Lodge and should be available from mid-September at £12.99.  Reserve copies now from Anthea at Langton House

Watch for more details later on the notice board and on this site.

Previous meetings (click on the links below)

The Plough: Past into Present (May 2010)

Worn in Whilton (March 2010)

Wadds in a Name (January 2010)

William Langton and his Farm (November 2009)

Landlubbers and Boatmen (September 2009)

The Tale of Tommy Adams (July 2009)

Monuments and Memories in Whilton Church (May 2009)

Fetes and Festivals (March 2009)

A Typical Medieval Winter Meal (January 2009)

Whilton Charities (November 2008)

Whilton Fields (August 2008)

The Poor (July 2008)


May 2010

THE PLOUGH: PAST INTO PRESENT

On Thursday 27th May, our meeting was based on the story of the house known as "The Old Plough," shown in this photo of about 1925.

This began with Richard Langton of Whilton, who sold a house in Whilton to Thomas Mutton sometime in the mid 1600s, probably after the Civil War. Thomas was a prosperous shepherd. He and his wife, Lucy, seem to have lived in this house, where they had two children, Alice and Thomas. In December 1656 Thomas Mutton was unwell, and "considering the weake and fraile estate of my mortall bodye " he made his will, and died in 1658. The house was left to his widow for life, and then to Thomas, his son, who was aged about six at his father’s death.

Young Thomas Mutton grew up in Whilton. He became a husbandman, or farmer, and was active in adding to his property and building. Other houses were also being built in Whilton at this time of renewed confidence and prosperity after the Restoration. Thomas bought a parcel of ground from widow Alice Dawson, on which she had built a new house. There was a yard and orchard adjoining it. He also bought an orchard from William and Hannah Cleaver to the west of Alice Dawson’s house and orchard, and laid it all out together. William Cleaver kept his yard, which lay to the south end of this plot. Alice Dawson’s house became the core of what was to become the Plough.

In 1693, when he was 41, Thomas Mutton had, at least temporarily, left Whilton and gone to Long Orton near Peterborough. In that year he took out a mortgage on his Whilton property, borrowing £70 from Thomas Emery. Borrowing money in this way was common before the days of building societies and banks for all. The witnesses to the deed were Jonathan Newbold the blacksmith and Eleanor Edmunds, the cooper’s widow.

Thomas Mutton was not away long. He is recorded in the poll book as being in Whilton in 1695. In 1697 John Ball, a Whilton weaver, died, and Thomas Mutton helped his widow, Mary, to administer his estate. In the next year he married widow Mary Ball at Long Buckby Church. By now Thomas was 46. I have found no record of any children of this marriage. Thomas and Mary settled to married life in Whilton, and it appears that they were living in Thomas’ newly built house, almost certainly what we know as Dormer Cottage. Thomas was overseer of the poor for the year 1698.

By 1722 Thomas was 70 and had found someone to take over some of his property. George Judkin, (sometimes spelt Judkins) a carpenter, took a lease of what had once been known as Dawson’s House. The house had probably been enlarged, and consisted of four bays and part of a fifth, and with it part of the yard and orchard were leased too, with detailed instructions about the provision and upkeep of the mounds on the boundaries.

These were thatched cob walls, which required maintenance. Thomas Mutton was to make and keep a sufficient mound the whole length of 26 yards on the east side, and on the south end of the orchard the 20 yard mound wall belonged to George Judkin.

Thomas Mutton was a widower and getting old and described himself as in "indifferent health” and so made his will in August 1723, dying a few months later. He left his barn and part of the yard and homestead which “I sometime since agreed to sell to him, or leased to him, and which is now in his possession", to George Judkin. His other bequests were to distant relatives, and his administratix was his kinswoman Barbery Daniell of Whilton. On 4 Feb 1723/4 she left her mark on the statement: "I acknowledge Tho. Mutton received of George Judkin sometime since twenty pounds towards the purchase of a house he bought of the said Tho Mutton in Whilton witness my hand Barbaray Daniel.”

Thomas Mutton had intended George Judkin to have the property, but George had only paid £20 at Thomas’s death, and Barbary stood to inherit the residue of Thomas’ estate. George Judkin considered that by his will Thomas had left the property to him and refused to pay the rest of the money. As a result Barbary and her husband, Sam, would not assent to the bequest. The dispute was finally solved by George Judkin agreeing to pay £11 5s of the £18 10s he still owed and by the Daniells assigning the premises "and the other part of the said fifth bay" to George in November 1724.

George Judkin and his wife Ann now became the owners of the house, where he ran a carpenter’s business. The property stayed in Judkin's ownership for generations, although after the first George Judkin they did not live in the house, but farmed from Roughmoor.

The property was let to a variety of tenants and other properties were taken in. These included the site of a cottage which was "ruinous and much out of repair ", conveyed by John Blencow to tailor William Moss. William Moss pulled down the cottage, which was to the west of Dawson’s house and built a new one with a brewhouse and outbuildings, borrowing £30 from George Judkin to do this in 1789. His fire insurance certificate noted that all these buildings were thatched. William Moss then became tailor, shopkeeper and publican. No doubt he needed every penny as he had twelve children, although one died as a baby.

Other tenants followed and the house was split up into smaller cottages, with a variety of people calling themselves "publican", but none depending on this entirely for a living. There can have been little profit from the pub.

By 1810 the publican was Joseph Emery, a carpenter as well, assisted by his first wife, Susannah, and then his second, Mary. After his death in 1835, Mary Emery and l her step-daughter Zillah took over from her father at the Plough, as it was now known. Before long Mary found a new husband, and married John Kilsby, a mason and victualler, yet again combining the pub with another job. But John Kilsby died in 1844. Mary, his widow, conveyed her pub to John Hyde in 1851. She remained in one of the little cottages adjoining the Plough. Her gravestone, dated 1857, is in the churchyard near the gate. It was John Hyde who took out a mortgage with Phipps Brewery, which by 1894 had taken over the Plough.

The brewery also acquired a little cottage near the street between the Plough and the modern Dormer Cottage. This cottage had once belonged to John Facer, who died here in 1760. He sold it to John Jellis, a Whilton woolcomber. His son and grandson, both called James, inherited the cottage, but were farmers in Leicestershire and so let it out to tenants. The younger James sold the cottage to Phipps in 1894.

Despite a boost during the Second World War, when soldiers from Brockhall and Whilton used the pub, trade gradually declined, and the pub finally closed its doors at Christmas in 1954. It seems fitting that Harold and Trudy Haynes were able to acquire the pub as a home. Harold had Dunkley ancestors, and Harry Dunkley ran the Plough and a carrier’s business in Victorian and Edwardian times.

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March 2010

WORN IN WHILTON

"WORN IN WHILTON" was the title of our meeting on 23rd March, when we considered some aspects of clothing worn here over the centuries. Until the eighteenth century the main fabrics used were wool and linen, the wool being produced locally. The rector had a right to a tenth of the fleeces, and in 1631 two Whilton men, who had been involved in shearing at Brockhall, gave evidence about the collection of tithe there. After the farmer’s sister had laid out the fleeces in tens, the Brockhall rector would send his factor to look over them. He would then choose one from each group as the rector’s tithe. It is likely that a similar system operated in Whilton.

In this area the wool was mostly used to make worsted cloth, which was made of long-staple fibres which were combed to remove unwanted short fibres and make them lie parallel. In the spinning operation, which gives the necessary twist to hold the fibres together, worsted yarns are more tightly twisted than are the bulkier woollen yarns. The soft, heavy yarn is strong and durable and is often used for fine materials. There is a record of a Whilton farm being sold in 1437 for money and armour, which included a red worsted doublet, perhaps locally made.

Wool used for worsted cloth required more than carding, as the fibres to be laid parallel to each other and unwanted short staple wool had to be removed. This process was called woolcombing. It was an apprenticed trade, a seven year apprenticeship being the norm in the mid eighteenth century with apprenticeship starting at about the age of 12 or 13.

The comb, which was like a short handled rake, had several rows of long teeth, or broitches - originally made of wood, later of metal. The broitches were heated in a charcoal fuelled comb-pot, as heated combs softened the lanolin and the extra oil used which made the process easier. The wool comber would take a tress of wool, sprinkle it with oil and massage this well into the wool. He then attached a heated comb to a post or wooden framework, threw the wool over the teeth and drew it through them repeatedly, leaving a few straight strands of wool upon the comb each time. When the comb had collected all the wool, the woolcomber would place it back into the comb-pot with the wool hanging down outside to keep warm. A second hank of wool was heated in the same way.

When both combs were full of the heated wool (about four ounces) the comber would sit on a low stool with a comb in each hand and comb one tress of wool into the other by inserting the teeth of one comb into the wool stuck in the other, repeating the process until the fibres were laid parallel. To complete the process the combed wool was formed into slivers, several slivers making a top, which weighed exactly a pound.

The cloth industry was relatively important in Whilton by the late eighteenth century. With a fast growing national population the production of clothing was essential. In 1781 there were three weavers and nine woolcombers in Whilton. Just as the numbers were reaching their peak, disaster struck, as new methods of making cloth were invented further north. As factories took over, there was no work left for Whilton woolcombers. We have the story of one of these men.

A WHILTON WOOLCOMBER

The records suggest that Richard Constable probably lived in Tudor House. He had a number of children baptized at St Andrew’s and after his first wife died, he married Ann Townley of Whilton. Like other woolcombers he had various business interests. He had a shop in Whilton, but he was almost certainly part of the "harateen" or worsted industry for which Long Buckby was well known. He was probably more than an ordinary cottage woolcomber, being involved in collecting and delivering to other home workers in the area, and in this way may have had the opportunity to meet a variety of other people. This would have suited him because he was one of earliest Methodists in this area.

Sometimes those he met were not trustworthy, as in 1796 when some of his jersey wool was stolen by a Dodford woman. "Jersey wool" was wool which had been combed but not yet spun. By the 1800s the home based woollen cloth industry was in serious decline in the face of industrialization. Richard was one of those left without work. He and his new wife had a baby daughter in 1811 and sometime after this he moved to Northampton in the search of employment. All the woollen industry had now moved further north and there was no congenial work available. Ann was pregnant again. With another new baby to feed and no income, he took on work on a canal wharf in Northampton. The winter of 1813-14 was bitterly cold, and perhaps it was this freezing weather and snow, which must also have prevented canal trade, which led to his final illness and his return to Whilton. By February 1814 he had died and the fatherless new baby was christened here in the following May.

SOME CLOTHES WORN IN WHILTON

We heard about some of the clothes passed on through generations in the past, when hard wearing qualities were more important than the latest fashions. In 1601 Thomas Linnell inherited his father’s russet coat and hose, and in 1641 William Reeve a Whilton husbandman left his wearing clothes of linen and woollen to his brother Richard. However, it was usually women who described their clothes in more detail, when leaving them in their wills.

We looked particularly at the clothes of the interestingly-named Philip Smith, a widow, who died in 1707. She was comfortably off and left a variety of money gifts to various relatives and friends. She had also given thought to all her dresses, and divided them up among several women, some of whom may have been her daughters. Elizabeth Langton received two "pettycoats and a sute of my best linen". Elizabeth Smith, the daughter of Widow Smith of Wootton near Northampton got a black gown and petticoat. Mary Russell, wife of Sam Russell of Long Buckby, inherited a sad coloured gown and petticoat. "Sad" in those days, as we would expect, meant dull. There was a mixed serge gown and petticoat for Alice, wife of John Smith of Stow, and Elizabeth Hedg of Daventry had a different sad coloured gown and a grey petticoat. But Elizabeth Green of East Haddon received a black tawny gown and petticoat with a silver lace. A petticoat at this period was an underskirt, sometimes decorated, and not a piece of underwear.

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January 2010

WADD'S IN A NAME

Our meeting in January was based on some of the place names in Whilton, beginning by re-visiting a Newsletter article by Harold Haynes published in December 1997. He called it "Wadd’s in a name?”, and raised a number of questions and suggestions, some of which can now be answered.

See here for a map showing field names.

Harold rightly guessed that Wadd Close came from the word "woad". From the late 17th century until the enclosure, Whilton was in the area known for its woad growing and processing. The woad people were itinerant, staying for three or four years in an area, and then moving on. They would return twelve to fifteen years later. Woad was not grown in the open fields, but in old enclosures near the village. Landowners would grant leases to the woadmen who organised this. Woad Close and second Woad Close fitted into this category. Some of the enclosures of Roughmoor and fields in Brington and Norton were used for woad.

Harold was intrigued by the name "Top of the Town Close", saying you could hardly call this a town. In fact you could. The suffix "ton" is a Saxon word meaning settlement or village, and in many records over the centuries there are references to the "township" of Whilton. Modern "Hill Top" stands in this close. Not only does it mark the top of the hill, but it also marked the end of the village before the enclosure, when the road took a different route down to the valley.

Inkerman is another puzzle, because no record suggests that a Whilton man fought in the Battle of lnkerman in the Crimea in 1854. However, in the previous year, a Captain George Jenkinson of Weedon Barracks had purchased Whilton Lodge, including the Mill and its farm. The Captain and his family lived in Whilton for a few years, becoming involved in parish affairs, before he left for his new home after becoming the eleventh Earl of Liverpool. It would seem likely that he had some influence in renaming the field in honour of the great battle.

Harold mentioned Windmill Close, Dairy Ground and Donkey Field as having obvious meanings, the Donkey Field being where the Rector kept the donkey which pulled the mowing machine over the Rectory lawns. The Donkey Field was next to a much larger old enclosure, known as the Dove House Close. The medieval dove house may well have stood in this field.

Harold wondered who was the Tarry of Tarry’s Orchard. Edward Tarry was born in about 1832 in Chapel Brampton. His mother, Ann, had come from Whilton. When his father died, Edward came to live in The Old Cottage, Whilton, with his uncle John Dunkley, a bachelor. The records suggest he may have had an unhappy childhood, and this may be what prompted him to leave for Australia. When John Dunkley died in 1866, leaving his house and land to his nephew, Edward Tarry came back from Melbourne. He lived the rest of his life in the Old Cottage, being a grazier here. Presumably Tarry’s Orchard was used for grazing and apple growing. Edward Tarry died a widower with no children in 1907.

Collins Orchard was remembered by Harold as a place for scrumping pears. There were Collins families in Whilton throughout the 19th century. In 1841 Thomas Collins and his family were living in a cottage next to the Wheatsheaf pub in Brington Lane; almost certainly it was they who gave the name to the field beyond their cottage. Thomas was an agricultural labourer.

Harold believed the three fields called Butlins to the north of the road going down Whilton Hill, may have once been farmed by William Langton Wright Butlin. In fact they were allotments to John Butlin at the enclosure in 1778. John Butlin must have been a relative of William Langton Wright Butlin and both were living in Whilton at this time. Later John Butlin seems to have moved to Duston, and let his farmland to Thomas Humphrey.

The Humphrey family were butchers and some were millers. Harold guessed that the two fields off the Brington Road known as John Humphreys were allotted to John Humphrey the butcher in 1778. This is probably correct. It is interesting that some of the original names of people who gained land at the enclosure have been preserved in these field names after two and a quarter centuries. Lang’s Hill Meadow and Langs Hill were allotments to Perridge Langton and Joe Langs was allotted to Joseph Langton at the enclosure.

Harold noted that one of the fields in the glebeland has the intriguing name,"AngIends". This is in fact a very old name. The first record of it is in 1501, when it was part of the open Fen Field, and was known as Hanging Lands or Hanglands, that is "land on a slope".

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November 2009

WILLIAM LANGTON AND HIS FARM

At our November meeting we found out some of the details of the farming life of William Langton of Whilton. William was born in the time of Queen Elizabeth, would have lived through the scare of the Spanish Armada, the accession of James l, the Gunpowder Plot and the early years of Charles l. He died in 1636.

We cannot be sure where William’s Whilton farmhouse stood four hundred years ago, but there is enough information to give us an idea of what his home looked like. With the aid of a model we considered William’s yard, which included the farmhouse where he lived. This was probably well furnished for a yeoman, but we only have records of a bed, chair, cupboards and buffet stool. The house and buildings would all have been thatched and probably built of cob. The fireplace was vital for cooking and for warmth, and the fire was kept in all year. The Langtons had a yearly trip to Rugby to collect coal, presumably from the Warwickshire mining area, and they also burnt furze in the house. Furze could be used as a form of kindling or to raise a blaze when more heat was needed. When William later built another farmhouse, he reckoned there was a need for sixty faggots of furze a year, but the size of the faggots is not described! There were trees in or around his Great Close, from which, no doubt, firewood was obtained. There was timber stacked about the place, some in sheds, which William referred to as hovels.

The yard was almost certainly cobbled. The outbuildings housed his farming equipment, which included at least two long carts and two dung carts, his ploughs, with irons belonging to them, and one great harrow. This equipment would have been pulled by the six horses owned by William. In the stables and cow houses round the yard were gear for horses, racks, mangers and lures. The entry to this yard was through a gateway, with two garners over it, suggesting a wide entrance, with gates which were closed at night, something like the farm at Muscott.

Other equipment included a salting trough, used in the salting of meat, which would have been butchered and preserved for the use of the family. There were also barrels, probably for the storing of beer brewed for the family and its servants and labourers. William had his own malt kiln, with its steeping vat and hair cloth belonging to it, and used in the production of malt probably from his own barley. Thomas Hale, a writer of the next century compared methods for making malt, and wrote, "Of all the methods the plain and simple hair cloth is the best for the finest malts. A slow fire under this dries it very gradually and equally, it is easily turned as is required, and when it is done there is no difficulty in getting it out, for ’tis only turning it at once and all is clean." This suggests William Langton knew what he was doing. He stored his malt in barns round the yard.

In July 1602 William was married in Nether Heyford, where his bride was Elizabeth Worley. Their marriage was to last 33 years, which was a good long time for those risky days, when many women died young. William and Elizabeth brought up their children in the old farmhouse. There were two sons, William and Thomas, and several daughters. William and Elizabeth Langton prospered during their lifetime, and William was able to build a second farmhouse on Nichols Yard in Whilton, so that after his death each of his two sons could have his own farm. This new house had two storeys and with it a yard, homestead, barns and "edifices". There was a great barn next to "Beane Well", with a grass close beside it to the west. This new house was probably comfortably furnished, but the records only mention a table with frame and form in the hall, a spit, cupboards, a swilling pot and brazen pots, but that there were other items of furniture too. After William died, his widow, Elizabeth went to live in this new house with her son Thomas Langton; she had a patch of south facing ground outside her parlour where she could sit in the sun.

William’s closes included an orchard, next to Robert Langton’s close, with different types of apple trees. A few cows were kept in the Great Close near the house, almost certainly for milking, and some sheep grazed here too. Besides his two farmhouses and the hedged fields connected with them, William held four yardlands of arable land in the open fields of Whilton, just as other farmers did. A yardland was not a precise measurement and varied from parish to parish, in this area often being between 25 and 30 acres. If we base our calculations on the lower figure, we can say that William held at least 100 acres in Whilton open fields. He also held ten lands, or strips, in Muscot Field. This was another open field, stretching up adjoining Whilton, beside Roughmoor Grounds, which was communally held by Norton, Brockhall and Whilton parishes. In these open fields William grew corn and peas, wheat and barley. Some barley was used for malt, but other grain would have been threshed and taken to the windmill on the hill or the watermill in the valley, to provide flour for the family. He also harvested hay and held the sixth part of a yardland in the Farm Ground of Whilton. This may have been grassland for hay or grazing.

However, William’s main business involved livestock. In his old age, he owned 16 cows and 8 heifers, and in the common fields he kept 30 young sheep, 15 ewes and lambs and 15 barren sheep, besides his sheep and cows in his Great Close near the house. There were also another 60 hogs (a local word for yearling sheep). His sons also had their own flocks and herds, and appear to have worked the farm with him.

Dung from the animals was an important by-product, used for fertilising the ground. William had dung carts for transporting this manure where required, but the sheep were sometimes folded on the arable strips which William held, the folds being carried out to the lands. After William died, the sons had to carry out his will that young William’s sheep should be moved out to a fold on Thomas’s arable in the open fields every year, so that Thomas should have the muck from his brother’s sheep kept in Great Close; Thomas had the duty of carrying the sheep fold out to the fields.

After his death in 1636, William Langton was not buried in the churchyard, but in the church itself, usually the sign that he was an important and wealthy parishioner. He left the church a plate for the serving of the bread during communion, but no memorial to him has remained. His "beloved friends" whom he made the overseers of his will were other farmers, Thomas Linnell, William Hall and William Briggs. William Phillips, another farmer who probably lived in a farmhouse at the end of Buckby Lane, and the Rector, Samuel Phillips, witnessed the will. The value of William Langton’s goods was reckoned to be £607-9-4, a considerable sum in 1636.

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September 2009

LANDLUBBERS AND BOATMEN

At our September meeting, entitled “Landlubbers and boatmen”, we looked at the history of the canal in Whilton, which is over 200 years old.

The boat people spent their whole lives working on the cut, with their own traditions, dialect and costume. Whilton Locks developed as a “service station” for these forerunners of long distance lorry drivers. The Spotted Cow pub (now Foursquare Farm) provided a meeting place, alcoholic refreshment, especially Guinness, and sold fresh produce.

In 1891 it was sold by auction at the Peacock Hotel, Daventry. The sale details described it as a:-
Spotted-Cow-photo
“brick-built and slated old-established Public House, very eligibly situated near to the road from Daventry to Whilton, and adjoining the towing path of the Grand Junction Canal, having an extensive frontage thereto. The house contains taproom, bar, two sitting-rooms, pantry, kitchen with room over scullery, top and underground cellars, and four bedrooms. The outbuildings comprise stabling for ten horses, granary, hen and coal houses












and piggeries, large yard with pump and well of good water, and extensive garden. Well planted with fruit trees, the whole occupying an area of one acre, or thereabouts. The property was for many years in the occupation of the late Mrs Elizabeth Elliott, and is now of Mr William Elliott, the proprietor. It is in close proximity to Whilton Locks, and is much used as a halting place for boats, there being no other licensed house within a considerable distance.”


Memories of the first half of the twentieth century included fishing competitions, clog dancing, and cricket matches with teas provided by the Spotted Cow. The blacksmith, Sam Tomlinson, shoed the horses for the boat people and the hunters from Whilton Lodge, while his wife was a dressmaker. Bonnets and shirts could be ordered on one trip and collected on the next. It took a skilled needlewoman to work these intricate designs.


Because of their nomadic way of life, few boatpeople learned to read and write, and had to have their letters read by Mrs Wright at the Spotted Cow. We also heard how small boys (Will Adams in the years before the First World War and Jack Wright between the Wars) were fascinated by the blacksmith’s forge, which was also making bikes, and by the threshing tackle, engine box, elevators and a set of saws in the yard which is now the site of Saxon Lifts. Small boys nowadays would not have the freedom to roam in such places!


We noted the bewildering variety of activities undertaken by the Victorian entrepreneur, Thomas Henry Reynolds. Among others, these ranged from being a farmer, coal merchant, miller, grain merchant, lime merchant with lime kilns at the Locks, farm steward for John Craven at the Lodge, Rural District Councillor, four times Mayor of Daventry, Guardian for the Daventry Poor Law Union, Whilton School Manager, Churchwarden and Parish Councillor.


In his spare time he was colour sergeant of the Althorp Company of Volunteers. It was he who fired the first shots on the new range at Brington in 1897. Shooting was one of his leisure pursuits, and with two others, he rented the shooting and fishing rights of Daventry Canal Reservoir, although it was generally agreed that his favourite sport was angling. Perhaps this was one of the few opportunities he had to sit quietly! Going home would not have been quiet, as he and his wife, Tryphena, had nine children.

Whilton-locks-map2

The Reynolds family lived in the farmhouse, which was demolished in order to build the Bannaventa pub, which has now become the carpet shop. The farmhouse, outbuildings and lime kilns can be seen on the left of this map of about 1880.

The house faced the road with an orchard in the area beside the railway embankment. If anyone has a photo of the front of this house, I would be very interested to see it. Needless to say, a photo of the energetic Mr Reynolds would be equally interesting.












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July 2009


THE TALE OF TOMMY ADAMS

The Local History Society met on 15th July to hear “The Tale of Tommy Adams."


Tommy was born in Whilton, 280 years ago, and baptised in the parish church on 11th April 1729. He was the middle child of Thomas and Mary Adams, probably descendants of the Adams family who had farmed in Whilton in Elizabethan times. His grandfather, another Thomas, had made money in London as a butcher.


By the time of Tommy’s birth the family was wealthy, living in fashionable comfort in a large house in Whilton, with coach house, brew houses, stable, malt kiln and pump house, besides its orchard and garden. When his parents Thomas and Mary entertained, they may have used their silver spoons, ladle and salver, stirring their tea with silver teaspoons and lifting the sugar with silver tongs. Thomas had a choice of gold or silver watches and maybe the large crystal with two diamonds on Mary’s ring glittered, while the sparkle of Thomas’s silver sleeve buttons and buckles caught the candle light. Thomas would have looked smart, newly shaved by his barber Jonathan Cue, who also provided the powder to whiten his wig. Their visitors may have been from London, or have been squires and their families from local parishes, sometimes on business and sometimes on social occasions. Thomas’s property extended to Warwickshire, other Northamptonshire parishes and London, providing a wide network for the family. Perhaps Mary and Thomas kept in touch with friends and connections writing at the escritoire in the "Best Room".


Sadly this idyllic existence ended with the death of both parents within a year, when Tommy was six. The three orphan children were then brought up under the care of three long suffering guardians, named in their father’s will. The children stayed together at first, but after a year or two being looked after by the Taylors in Long Buckby, Tommy went as a boarder to Guilsborough School.


However, things did not work out well and by 1743 a guardian was writing: “and as to T Adams, am of ye opinion ‘tis time should learne writing and accounts and if he cannot be sufficiently taught att Guilsborough think ye master ...at Preston may be a proper one for him and ye sooner he is sent thither ye better." He was moved to a new master, Mr Jones at Preston Capes, but his interest in education did not improve. He was a constant worry to his guardians, one writing of him: "if he proceeds in this manner he will be fitt for no manner of business and must be ruin’d." We heard of various traumas through his teenage years, and how by 1745 he had run away from his apprentice master in Daventry lest he be forced into the Pretender’s army in 1745 — "a likely story,” as one guardian commented.


Despite his guardians’ concerns, he finally joined the British army in 1747, and experienced his first battle at Maastricht, a disaster for the English and their allies, but a victory for France. Tommy “escaped with only ye loss of his hatt, ‘tho he was in ye hottest of ye battle and very much exposed." We then followed adult Tommy as he blossomed in his army career, with occasional periods of leave back in England, including one in 1750, when he finally sold his Northamptonshire estates and visited Whilton again to follow the coffin of his younger brother, who was brought back for burial here.


Tomrny’s career culminated in his victories in India, where he replaced Robert Clive while he was back in England. As one military historian wrote: "Had Napoleon fulfilled his dreams and added such a campaign to his exploits in Europe, the whole world would still ring with it; yet the conquest of Meerccossim by a simple Major of Foot is forgotten. Nevertheless, be it remembered or forgotten, one of the great names in English military history is that of Thomas Adams of the 84th Foot."


Tommy was posthumously awarded the rank of Brigadier General, but had died in Calcutta from illness after a battle in 1764.


There is no memorial to Brigadier General Thomas Adams in Whilton, but the Local History Society reacted with interest and pride to hear his story.


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May 2009

MONUMENTS AND MEMORIES IN WHILTON CHURCH

The society met in St Andrew’s Church on Thursday 21st May, which was Ascension Day. In medieval Whilton this was the culmination of Cross Week, when there would be processions around the parish and fields, and litanies would be sung, praying for good crops and that the parish should be free of the pestilence. As the procession went along people would carry banners, probably embroidered with symbols or pictures of saints. These were known as cross cloths, and were sometimes left to the church in parishioners’ wills. They may have been hung near the crosses inside the church for the rest of the year. We have a record that Thomas Tobye left 6 shillings in 1547 to buy a cross cloth for the best cross in Whilton. Cross Week therefore meant a holiday in Whilton, and with that went other celebrations, including the "parish drinking.” The same Thomas Tobye left six hives of bees and their increase to be used "to make a parish drynkyng in the crose weke after ye procession."


We began by walking round the churchyard noting a few of the graves. It was not until the mid 1600’s that gravestones were generally introduced. Among our earliest are those in memory of Ann Dixon, who died aged 26 in 1668, and of her brother, William, who died in 1671.


The first Emery gravestone dates from 1681 and they have a number of other memorials and chest or table tombs over a vault where several members of the family were buried. There is also an Elliott chest tomb. Richard Elliott was a boatman, who brought his baby son for baptism in 1811. He settled at the Locks, where he was variously described as a shopkeeper or grocer, innkeeper at The Spotted Cow, a farmer and a coal merchant. In fact he probably combined these activities for most of his life, serving the boat people. He died aged 68 in 1852.


By far the majority of memorials are to adults who reached a good old age in Whilton, many in their 80’s, suggesting this was a healthy place to live. There are, however, a few to young children and babies, including a stone in memory of Frederick Main Walker, the little son of WhiIton’s second schoolmaster. He died in 1841 aged two and a half. George Watson was another child, aged 7 years 8 months. He died in 1825, after being accidentally drowned at Brownsover.


Inside the Church we noted particularly the memorials to the Freeman and Rose families. Richard Freeman was lord of Whilton Manor and died in 1749. The memorials in the Church tower include Richard, his wife Elizabeth and their daughter Jane. Richard and Elizabeth were parents of the eccentric Langton Freeman, whose body was sealed up in the summerhouse of the Manor House in 1784. There is no memorial to him.


At the west end of the Church are several monuments to members of the Rose family. Whilton benefited tremendously from the generosity, taste and genuine social concern shown by this family, especially by Rev William Lucas Rose and his wife, Ann. The memorials reflect this. This Rector died in the bitter January of 1814 when snowdrifts over 24 feet were recorded in Dunchurch.

His memorial is effusive, but records suggest that it genuinely reflects the feelings of his family and parishioners:


"Patron and Rector of this Church and for many years an active and upright Magistrate for the County. Constant in the practice of every Virtue that can adorn the Character of Master; Husband and Father; he directed his chiefest care to the more important concerns of the Pastoral Office, conducting them for thirty-seven years with a fidelity, diligence, and zeal, which afforded to all who knew him abundant testimony that the service of his God, and the Spiritual improvement of his Flock, constituted the first Business and Pleasure of his Life.”


Set into the floor tiles in the chancel are two slabs in memory of John Spateman and his wife. Rev John Spateman was Rector and died in 1749 the same year as the lord of the manor, Richard Freeman. John was Whilton’s poet Rector, writing long works in blank verse, entitled "Jesus” and “War.” He attempted to get another 10,000 word poem printed, entitled "Tobias.” This was going to be in twelve volumes, but there is no record that he managed to get enough subscribers.


We also noted that there are other unmarked burials beneath the Church itself. These include several Tudor villagers, among them Francis Hodge, a farmer, who requested to be buried in the church porch of Whilton in 1597. Our current porch and entrance date from a later period, and so his remains may lie under or near the old tower door. It does mean that he expected parishioners would walk over his bones for centuries to come. Francis also showed concern for the community, leaving six shillings and eight pence to the church and four pence to every poor householder in this town of Whilton.


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March 2009

FETES AND FESTIVALS


Our March meeting was based on fetes and festivals of Whilton in the last century.


Our ancestors were governed by two main factors for their festivals. These were the Christian calendar and the agricultural year. The calendar of saints’ days and religious festivals was once much better known than today, and had a significance for daily life.


Each parish church was dedicated to a saint or saints, and on that saint’s day, there would be the patronal festival. For Whilton this was St Andrew, and his day is 30th November.


Rents, annuities and debts were often paid on the quarter days, and servants were sometimes hired from one to another.


These were four days, coinciding with religious festivals, each three months from the next. The days were:

· 25 March, Lady Day, once the first day of the year.

· 24 June, Midsummer, the Feast of John the Baptist

· 29 September, Michaelmas, the Feast of St Michael and All Angels

· 25 December: Christmas Day, Feast of the Nativity


By the twentieth century the significance of many of these festivals had faded, and one or two had been revived perhaps from pagan days. The roots of May Day are definitely based on some sort of fertility ritual. There was a revival of May Day in the early twentieth century, and Whilton is no exception in this. The traditions of Rogation and “beating the bounds” may both have mixed origins in Christian and pagan traditions. In Whilton the Rogation tradition has been continued to modern times, and has been extended to such events as pet blessing services, which are really a development of praying for blessings on crops and livestock at Rogation time.

For the farmers, harvest was important and Harvest Festival is still celebrated. The importance of Christmas, of course, has been noticeably over emphasized during the later twentieth century

At the Local History Society in March we used written memories and old photos to recall some of the special events of the twentieth century. Here is a small selection:

May was a good time for days off. In the 1930s the May Queen was crowned on the Green. The Maypole was sometimes in the playground, sometimes on the Green. They sang May songs around the village, and then walked to Norton or went on a wagon, for May Day at Emery’s. Even the children had cake and home made wine at Norton Lodge. Stan Haynes remembered shivering in a white blouse, while Ozzie, Mrs Osborne the teacher, wore her winter coat with fur lined collar. He remembered the year when Annie Bingley looked regal as queen and he and Hilda Clements danced a minuet.

Mrs Osborne’s logbook: 1931 1 May “School closed today for May Day celebrations. After crowning the Queen (Phyllis Essen) posing for photographer, we visited neighbouring farms and were refreshed at Norton Lodge with wine and cake. Mr and Mrs W Emery gave the children a splendid tea – followed by Sports with prizes for all.”

There was a fancy dress parade for the coronation of Elizabeth II.

There were good written memories, but sadly no photos, of the Christmas parties for children at Whilton Lodge, where the host was Colonel Shaw, with his moustache, monocle and red countenance and his filmstar like wife. For most village children presents were sparse at home. Don Welch remembered having an orange, nuts, a book and a drawing book from his parents. Stan Haynes remembered the excitement of having pork pie for Christmas breakfast.

We heard how Empire Day activities on 24th May 1937 suffered from bad weather: “Part of the afternoon was to be devoted to Games in the field, where we are allowed to play through the kindness of one of the Managers, Mr Emery, but owing to the dampness of the grass they had to take place in the playground.” At the 1953 coronation , “the children were presented with the County Souvenir, Richard Dimbleby’s book, “Elizabeth our Queen”, and each child was given a ½ lb Coronation box of chocolates by the Head Mistress.” There are still clear memories of this.

We also heard Tony Allen’s memories of bidding for apples with Marcus Swinford at a harvest auction in the 1960s, only to find they were cookers!

We relished Stan Haynes’ account of Christmas Eve here in the 1930s: “In the church new candles were in place, the stove was going well, and the polished copper lamps shone on the holly which decorated the lectern and pulpit… The boy in the corner pumped the organ, Parson Brown announced the hymn, Betty Pride played the opening chord, and the church rang to the sound of “O come all ye faithful.”

Our evening finished with a photo of Whilton bell ringers ringing in the Millennium on 1st January 2000.

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January 2009

A TYPICAL MEDIEVAL WINTER MEAL


On Thursday 15th January Whilton Local History Society met for a medieval winter meal.


Over 30 people sat down by candlelight and tucked into a meal based on food either available or produced in Whilton in about 1388.


1388 was a significant year, because John Holt, a lawyer and the lord of the manor of Whilton, a supporter of Richard II, had been declared a traitor by the Merciless Parliament of that year. The king was too weak to prevent him from being exiled to Ireland. Because all the property of any traitor became forfeit to the Crown, the "civil servants" of the day needed to know what John Holt

was worth. As a result we have details of the crops and livestock in the lord’s demesne that year from the ricks of rye and peas and the malt in the granary to the sow with her 12 piglets worth two shillings.


John Holt ‘s land is described as three gardens for depasturing, (this probably means enclosed fields for grazing), 200 acres of arable adjoining the manor, "divers pieces of meadow and pasture", a dovecote, a water mill, rents, perquisites of courts and 13 boon-works for mowing hay. There were fish ponds too, but it appears no one was very keen on fish, despite the medieval rules for avoiding meat on Fridays and other occasions. The fish in the ponds were sold for two shillings.


The first course was leek and rabbit soup, providing a flavour of the medieval winter cooking pot, which hung over the fire. Every cottager had his own piece of garden, which was cultivated to produce essentials for the family. Onions were grown throughout the country, as were leeks.

The rabbits may have been poached, or may have just been culled to protect the crops. The lord of Whilton Manor, William de Whilton, had obtained the grant of free warren in 1258, and so officially all the rabbits belonged to his successors. However it seems unlikely that they all stayed inside the warren!


This was followed by a small taste of terrine of pike, one of the fish which may have been stocked in the lord of the manor’s fishponds.


The main course consisted of smoked bacon, pigeon breast, pease pudding, parsnips and rye bread with mustard sauce. Records show that peas were grown in quantity in Whilton and put into ricks. They provided protein and a filling ingredient in the days before potatoes. The pudding was cooked very long and slowly, and took in the flavours of other items in the pot, in this case the bacon. Parsnips were probably grown in the gardens here and perhaps a few pigeons escaped from the lord’s dovecote!


Lastly oatcakes were served with a choice of honeyed apples or cheese, all good winter fare in medieval Whilton.


The onion and mustard sauce

Some people liked the sauce and asked for the recipe to be published, as follows:

Ingredients:

One onion

A knob of butter (about 1½ oz)

1 rounded tablespoon flour

Heaped teaspoon Colman’s mustard powder

About ⅔ pint of milk and stock (or liquid from your cooking pot)

Heaped teaspoon French whole grain mustard from Waitrose

Melt the butter and very gently cook the chopped onion, without letting it turn brown (about 15-20 minutes).

Stir in the flour and mustard powder over a gentle heat.

Gradually add the stock and milk, until you reach the consistency you wish, stirring all the time over a low heat.

Allow to barely simmer for about 5 minutes.

Just before serving, stir in the French mustard.


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November 2008

WHILTON CHARITIES

John Murcott was a gentleman of Warwick Square, London, who died in 1833 leaving £100 to the Rector and Churchwardens of Whilton. The interest was to be used for "the benefit of the Poor of the said Parish in purchasing clothing and night covering, except a few shillings to be given to each poor person to commemorate the name of the donor."

John Murcott was born in Whilton in about 1772, and was possibly the brother of the Methodist, Thomas Murcott, of lnglenook. If so, he was one of the eight children of Thomas and Elizabeth Murcott, and may well have had memories of not enough bedclothes to go round, leading to his bequest towards "night covering". It is interesting that he left some money to be given as gifts to the poor to commemorate the name of the donor. This suggests he hoped some people would remember him, and in a way we are commemorating him now.


Over the years the use of his charity changed and it became the coal charity. In providing coal, it continued to fulfil the aim of helping to keep people warm.


Rev Langton Freeman was the fifth son of Richard Freeman and the first son of his second wife, Elizabeth Langton, after whom he was named. He was born in Whilton in 1710, but in contrast to John Murcott, seems to have lived most of his life here.


Langton was destined for the Church and was educated at Pembroke College, Oxford. As Rev Langton Freeman, he became Vicar of Hellidon in 1735. He kept this position until 1760, but this did not stop him also becoming Vicar of Long Buckby in 1738 and then Rector of Bilton. He was never Rector of Whilton, but he did hold property here and in 1749 inherited his position of Lord of the Manor of Whilton.


Langton was a wealthy lifelong bachelor, but gained the reputation of a miserly eccentric. It is even claimed, probably correctly, that he stayed the night with someone and unpicked the threads from his host’s blankets to mend his clothes!


He ended his days in the house known today as the Manor House in 1784. The strange terms of his will were adhered to, and his body was sealed up in the summerhouse in the garden, surrounded with evergreens and a fence, painted dark blue. Perhaps by his death he regretted some of his mean actions, as in his will he bequeathed a recompense to those whom he had robbed in his lifetime! However, in the charity he founded, he showed little sign of generosity, leaving only £20 to the poor of Whilton. This was such a small amount that in later years it was amalgamated with John Murcott’s coal charity.


Mrs Ann Rose was the widow of Rev William Lucas Rose, who had been Rector of Whilton until he died in 1814. During her many years in the Rectory she had helped the poor girls of Whilton with clothing and wanted this to carry on after her death.


In 1823 she set up a trust deed, founding her charity. The trustees were to use the income from the £400 she gave "to purchase once in every year for ever twelve pairs of shoes and twelve pairs of stockings and once in every two years for ever the several articles of clothing hereinafter mentioned, that is to say, twelve bonnets, twelve tippets, twelve pairs of mittens and twelve gowns."

The clothing was for girls who lived in Whilton and who were aged between six and fourteen. This was a charity which had the double benefit of providing apparel for girls and work for dressmakers and shoemakers. During our meeting we dressed Katherine Waterhouse in clothing of the 1820s, as was probably worn by the first charity girls. We now have an idea of how they all looked when they arrived at church on Sunday mornings.


As the years passed, the fashions changed. We heard memories of about 1930, when the girls trooped down to Miss Tomlinson, the dressmaker at the Locks, to be measured for their dresses, and how when all the straw hats arrived at the Rectory, there was no choice of hat: you just had to wear the one that fitted your head! Later on girls were given money and could go to Northampton to purchase a coat, and we saw a photo of Susan Gardner wearing hers in about 1951.


By late Victorian times the coal charity was being distributed at Christmas once every three years, to about 40 households. The trustees "considered this the best course to adopt, the coals being then equally divided between the poor inhabitants of Whilton, whereas if it was distributed every year all the poor persons could not participate in the Charity."


The modern regulations of the Charity Commissioners no longer allow such general distribution, but the Whilton Relief in Need Charities continue with new definitions in the 21st century.


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August 2008

WHILTON FIELDS

At our workshop on 21st August, we looked at some of the old field and furlong names (see here for map), and shared memories of some areas of Whilton. As a result we have moved a little further towards plotting more places on our map of Whilton, both before and after the enclosure of 1778.

Some of the field names have lasted through many centuries. Among these are Anglends, earlier known as Hang Lands and, in 1501, as Hanging Furlong, probably meaning "land on a sIope." The fields called Flimbres were once Flintborough Furlong in the open fields. Windmill Close is where the windmill stood from at least 1500, but was in ruins by 1827. The name Mill Leys goes back to at least 1500, near the water mill. There was a dove cote in the Dove House Close, and some people still have a memory of the white house which stood in White House Fields.

Other fields recall the names of those who farmed them. Joe Langs is the field allotted to Joseph Langton in the 1778 enclosure, Butlins to John Butlin, and Dunkleys to John Dunkley. Parson’s Close was allotted as part of the glebeland at the same time. Barkers Meadow was probably so named because William Barker, a maltster and farmer, was renting it from the rector in around 1800.

Some names give clues to old uses, such as Wheatlands and Great Sheep Pen. In the eighteenth century woad was grown in Wadd Close. Edward Tarry, who was born in Chapel Brampton, but farmed here in Victorian times, had fruit in Tarry’s Orchard on the way to Roughmoor Spinney. The Laundry Field was by the laundry which served Whilton Lodge into the twentieth century.

Other field names await further enlightenment. What is the origin of Knavecote, and was a man’s head or skull dug up at Man’s Head Furlong near the Roman Watling Street?

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July 2008

THE POOR

In July when there were celebrations of sixty years of the National Health Service, we looked at the poor and how they fared in the past in Whilton. We have records of some with ill health.

One of these was Reuben Kenning, who was born here and who reported that about 1787, when he was old enough to start work, his mother took him to Mr Denny’s of Muscott, “hearing that he wanted a lad to drive plough, to offer him as such, but the weather being bad Mr Denney would not take him at that time, but would send for him, that about the spring of the year the said Mr Denney did send for him and employed him to drive plough and other business which he had for him to do. While he was there he was taken ill with an ague and with his master’s leave he came to his mother at Brington but returned in a very short time to his place again, after then he was ill again with a humour in his eyes when he asked his master’s leave to come again to his mother till he was well.

He returned again to his master in ten days, after that he was ill with a humor in his eyes again and with his master’s leave came to his mother again in Brington, after a short time returned to his master Mr Denney again - that he continued with the said Mrs Denny four years and half that his said master in consideration of his service gave him clothes and sometimes money but he does not recollect how much.”

On the whole people lived and died in the parish, using folk wisdom and medicine with little recall to doctors. Just occasionally there might be a need for specialist help. During the eighteenth century we have records that four of the poorer inhabitants of Whilton were patients in Northampton Hospital. For such poor people to be taken on the long journey and then to be in-patients, there would have been expenses, either borne by the parish or a private sponsor.

Two of the patients were from the same family, and perhaps shared the same symptoms. In June 1745 Thomas Andrew was admitted suffering from sciatica. He was 57 years old and stayed in hospital for nine months. When he was discharged, his condition was recorded as being relieved. In December 1772, William Andrews, aged 56, was admitted, also with sciatica. Six months later he too was discharged with his symptoms relieved. If this was the William Andrews sometimes described as “labourer” and sometimes as “pauper”, then he survived for a long life, dying in Whilton in 1798.

Mary Jellis of Whilton was admitted at the recommendation of Reverend John Cadman. Mary was only 20 and had been suffering from epilepsy for a month. She was in hospital from April to November 1761 and was discharged cured. Unfortunately there is no record of the treatment given! The last patient recorded from here was Elizabeth Berridge. She was 30 and her illness was not recorded, but she died in the hospital in January 1838.

By this time the poor of Whilton were being sent to the Daventry Workhouse. The parish paid according to how many of its residents were inmates, and thus the admission of a whole family could be significant for Whilton. The early 1880s can illustrate this. Thomas Linnell of Whilton was 82 when he entered the Workhouse in 1880. He was described as “not able bodied” and came to end his life there.

In the next year the Dodd family arrived. Fanny, a laundress, clearly pregnant with “infant Dodd” brought with her Ellen and Charles, identified as “illegitimate children of inmate”. Ellen and Charles had both been born during previous stays in the Workhouse. “Infant Dodd” died after 7 ½ weeks, but the family remained inmates for a year or two, with one period away. In fact “infant Dodd” had a name. He was buried in Whilton as George Arthur. The Dodd family had old Whilton connections. Fanny was probably brought up by her grandparents, Thomas and Hannah Andrews of Whilton. Thomas Andrews was very likely descended from the Thomas and William Andrews who suffered from sciatica in the 1700s.

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