The 1833 parochial assessment notebooks which my family has records only 6 households in the village of Bovingdon Green plus another 11 at Marlow Common and more at Forty Green. During the day the population swelled however as workers from Marlow walked up to Bovingdon Green and near it for their work.
By 1851 the population was around 65.
Many of the male residents were agricultural labourers or workers in gravel pits or brick kiln.
These thirsty workers were served by the pubs the Royal Oak and the Jolly Cricketers. The latter was sometimes referred to as the Cricketer's Arms. There was also a newly built beer sellers called the Coach and Horses in 1836 which does not seem to have lasted long unless it eventually morphed into the Jolly Cricketers which did not yet exist in the mid 1830s. The Coach and Horses was said to enjoy a good trade and had the advantage of a garden well laid out with fruit and nut trees.
Inevitably with drinking came some trouble. Convictions for being drunk and disorderly on the green happened frequently. More seriously, in 1843 two men who had been drinking in the Royal Oak fell out and went out onto the green to settle their differences. As an added incentive the men put down several shillings between them as a prize for the victor. William Wakefield died after nearly 20 rounds and two hours of fighting. Investigations found that he had suffered a brain hemorrhage. His opponent James Davis was tried for manslaughter but found not guilty. Marlow surgeon Robert Colbourne said that William's alcohol intake that evening could have caused his final fall to the ground and that fall itself could have caused him to hit his head on the ground and hemorrhage [as his energy flagged in the fight he had been plied with brandy to revive his spirits]. While this was only a possibility the suggestion was enough to raise reasonable doubt as to James' responsibility for the death.
In 1894 Frederick Coleshill landlord of the Cricketer's Arms was assaulted when he went for a drink at the rival Royal Oak. The assailant was customer George Todd who accused Frederick of informing the police that his brother had stolen moss and rabbits. Poaching was endemic in the area and the Todd family of Marlow and Bovingdon Green was amongst the most involved families in that. If Frederick had snitched on one of the Todds it was a bit rich of him as he was a poacher himself!
Two years earlier Frederick's wife Lottie was summoned for assaulting fellow Bovingdon Green resident Sarah Sawyer after a falling out between them. She was found not guilty. The magistrate said that he was fed up with the women of the village airing their "dirty laundry" in public and Marlow's courts having to deal with it!
The village did have a rough reputation for much of the 1800s and the Royal Oak tended to be the epicentre of much of that trouble.
It had respectable functions too being sometimes used to hold auctions and often for coroner's inquests concerning village residents. The saddest inquests I have seen were those of toddler Esther Swadling who burned to death when her clothes caught fire in 1830, and of the unnamed newborn baby girl whose body was found wrapped up in a parcel in a field near the village in 1878. An open verdict was returned on the baby.
The Royal Oak was unusual in having a Sick and Dividends Club just for women. It was established 1898/99. Later there would also be a traditional Slate Club based at the pub.
Bovingdon Green had a small school from the 1860s onwards. It suffered at times from lack of money. This combined with the necessity of teaching children of too wide a span of ages all together at once meant that the level of education was sometimes inadequate through no real fault of the teachers. Sir George Higginson of Marlow helped by paying for an extra classroom in 1892 in memory of his mother Frances. By 1894 the school could accommodate over 100 pupils, though the average attendance was a little over half that. Greater funding came from the authorities in the early Edwardian era. These factors led to inspectors' reports praising the school's much risen standards. The great affection felt for Bovingdon Green by Sir George Higginson and his wife meant that the pupils of the school had, courtesy of them, more than the usual number of organised treats. From a child's perspective I'm sure that it was THE local school to go to. On New Years Eve 1885 General Higginson himself waited on the children of the school who were enjoying a special tea with cake, and a magic lantern show thereafter. His wife and daughter also helped serve the tea.
By 1888 there was also a Sunday School in the village.
Residents of all ages benefited from the kindness of the Higginsons. During a severe winter in 1895 much agricultural work and general labour ground to a halt for weeks. Families in Bovingdon Green faced destitution. Lady Higginson distributed coal and money to the worst affected families and organised with Marlow's vicar for local children to have a free breakfast every day.
Others also came to the aid of struggling villagers, organising extra work at Mrs Allam's gravel pits or by providing jobs helping to widen the road near Seymour Court.
The men and youths of the village had fun by playing cricket on the green. The spot had long been a place for it, hence the name Cricketer's Arms / Jolly Cricketers for one of the pubs. Illegal playing of games of coin tossing and dice for money took place on the green and in the lanes nearby too- before the constables chased everyone off each time.
Those constables did not often have burglaries to deal with in the village but both pubs suffered break ins. The Royal Oak landlord was relieved of a gun, bread, cheese and bacon in 1841 while two years later the family at the Jolly Cricketers lost a pair of shoes, some drinking glasses and bacon in a raid on their premises.
Bovingdon Green traditionally held May Day sports and in the 1840's it had its own fair (June) - nothing like as big as that at Marlow of course but animals were sold, and sports were again a big feature. Chief among these was donkey racing. This was taken seriously - a large number of locals kept donkeys in this era, especially those engaged in the skewer trade. In fact the sight of a cavalcade of donkeys leaving Marlow early in the morning was considered a feature of the neighborhood.
For more on Bovingdon Green look at the Nearby Places option on the top drop down menu.
A list of the landlords of the Royal Oak can be found in our post here and of the Jolly Cricketers here.
©Marlow Ancestors. You are very welcome to use this content for family or local history purposes with credit to this blog and a link here so that the sources listed below also retain credit for contributing information.
Some sources:
Report of the committee of Council on Education, HMSO 1894, UNI of Illinois.
1833 parochial assessment working notebooks of the assessors owned by my family, transcribed by me.
Newspapers:
Reading Gazette and Oxford Journal 19th November 1843. Bucks Herald 11th November 1843. Windsor and Eton Express 23rd October 1841. South Bucks Standard 8th January 1892.
All copies held in the British Library and accessed through their partnership with the BNA.
1851 census Great Marlow, my transcription from microfilm.
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