Wood Barn Farm Little Marlow

Compiled and written by Charlotte Day 

Historic occupiers (who are not usually the landowners).

Note: this was part of the Westhorpe estate. A mixed farm historically. 1.5 miles from Great Marlow.

Gaps in dates represent gaps in our knowledge. 

HISTORY TIME LINE

1825 - Mr Cozens left the farm selling off all stock and the contents of his house. Grain and sheep were raised there.

1835 - 47 John Stone Miller was the occupier, possibly earlier. In 1835 two men who had had words with him set fire to a clover rick on the farm in revenge. The rick was entirely destroyed.

In 1841 Mrs Clark, wife of one of the farm workers resident at the farm left her toddler child in the care of another worker's wife who also lived near the farm. The latter got distracted and the child wandered out of the cottage. Searches could not find the child anywhere that day or night. The next morning the little thing was found curled up under a hay rick where it had crawled for warmth. Despite this effort the child had died of exposure during the night. The discovery caused devastation in Little Marlow.

Also in 1841 John was given notice to quit by landlord George Nugent in order to pressure him into voting for Nugent's preferred candidate in the upcoming parliamentary election. All Nugent's tenants were so treated. Marlow elections were very dirty- we were famous for the fact. If the tenant voted the right way the eviction would be rescinded. John simply didn't vote at all, a brave decision but not one that would necessarily have guaranteed he could stay on his land. On the day of the election he was shot at by his farm door by drunken supporters of Nugent's preferred candidate. John refused to alter his decision not to vote for anyone if he couldn't vote freely. He was unhurt in the shooting but perhaps only because the gunmen were too drunk to shoot straight. The frame of the doorway he was standing in was hit. John's eviction was not proceeded with, probably because the shooting incident had already been too embarrassing for the Nugent camp and they needed the matter swept under the carpet as quickly as possible. There is no suggestion anyone from on high ordered or encouraged the attack but they had set a tone of intimidation in the election campaign and the consequences of that were probably more than they had bargained for.

John was assaulted by two men in 1844 resulting in a dislocated arm and also that year suffered six break ins in the space of as many weeks. It cannot be ruled out that these were further acts of political intimidation. Such things happened in Marlow. This decade was a time of violence and tension in both the Marlows, for many reasons however, not only political ones. Little Marlow and the nearby Handy Cross area suffered from a lot of theft. No wonder John probably got sick of the place. He left the farm in 1847 and his remaining crops were sold off at once - oats, wheat, hay and "spring tares". He had also been sheep farming there.

1847-52 Thomas Parrott occupied the farm. After suffering from repeated thefts of barley from one of his barns he hid his ink stand deep in the barley. When police searched for further stolen barley he told them they'd know the thief because embedded in their booty would be his inkstand. Thanks to this ingenuity the thief, a farm worker for Thomas, was caught.  Thomas died in 1852 but in 1854 a Mr Parrott was still the occupier, obviously a relative.

1859-63 William Banwell has the farm. It was mostly a poultry and arable farm under him. He paid £400 a year rent. In 1859 he was robbed of turnip greens. The theft of these from fields occurred multiple times over the years from the farm as well as others around Little Marlow. Most thieves were impoverished women trying to feed their families, or children sent out by them to gather greens. Farmers often tolerated this to a certain degree with prosecutions coming because of the observations from police officers on patrol rather than complaints from the farmers. Turnips and swedes were largely grown for animal feed not human food at this period but some of the growing tops would be picked off and cooked like spinach and were available at local greengrocers. William Banwell left in 1863.

1860 - Westhorpe estate sale includes Wood Barn Farm consisting of 335 acres of farmland plus 20 acres wood. John P Ellames became the owner until his death. He later swapped his  Westhorpe estate for Little Marlow manor but retained Wood Barn. 

1863-72 occupied by William Curtis. He also had Seymour Court Farm though lived at Wood Barn. In 1868 extreme heat caused Thomas Clark working at Wood Barn Farm reaping wheat for William Curtis to die of heat stroke in a scorching July. He was one of two farm workers to die in similar circumstances across the two Marlows, and two more became seriously ill. 

The next year a 12 year old boy Edmund Clark who worked at the farm, presumably a relative of Clark above though not his son, set fire to a hayrick at the farm "for mischief".

William Curtis himself died suddenly of a fit of apoplexy while out in his fields in 1872. His son James Curtis took over.

1872-78 James Curtis (the son). He decided to give up in 1878 when his lease expired and all the farm stock was sold off. The Ellames then kept the farm for their own use with the bailiff James Brock in day to day charge of things. The Ellames main function of the farm became the supply of dairy produce to the Manor House and grain for feeding the game birds used for "sport" by Manor guests. Sheep, turkeys and other poultry were also raised commercially at the farm.

1878 + James Brock as above in charge of the farm. He lives on it too.

1899 - John P Ellames had died so farm stock and implements sold off.

1900 Mr W Wooldridge had taken over the farm but had already decided to leave and was selling up stock= 19 dairy cows, cattle, poultry, a few pigs. Farm had been let to someone else.

1901- Benjamin Hornby was now the farmer.

1904 - Benjamin Hornby prosecuted for cruelty by shooting a stray dog in eyes and leaving it to die in agony. The full details caused widespread revulsion and are too distressing to repeat here.

1907 Benjamin's widow sold up her stock and left including a herd of  29 dairy cows and 9 cart horses. An Ernest Hornsby was mentioned at the farm also in this year.

1912 - 25 George Field kept the farm as well as Cressex Farm where he actually lived. In 1915 George was fined for the stomach churning condition of the room he placed uncovered pails of milk in prior to them being put into churns. This room was a sheep slaughtering room too and the pails were placed on the bloody floor. Animal matter was found by an inspector on the pails and animal hairs in the milk. Hungry anyone? It must be said George was not personally on the premises supervising at the time of the observed hygiene offences.

George died aged 71 in 1925.

1917 Farm for sale again. Now said to be of 314 acres and with four worker cottages not mentioned in previous sales.

1939 - Field Bros ran the farm. Henry Field lived in the farm house. Only one worker's cottage now obviously connected to the farm.

1940 for sale again 214 acres and 3 cottages plus farm house. Arable and pasture.

1953 Mr and Mrs Robert Barnes.

1956 R Barnes and Son.

We focus generally on pre war listings. 

FURTHER INFORMATION 

For other posts on Little Marlow & nearby see the index here

Information on other specific farms can be found in the index here

To look for an individual on the blog (there's now info on 7,200 individuals here) use the A-Z person index on the top drop down menu. 

Compiled by Charlotte Day.

©Marlow Ancestors. You are very welcome to use our research for family or local history purposes with credit to this blog.

Selected References=

Oxford Herald and University Press 17th November 1835. Reading Mercury 25th July 1868. British Library Archives via the British Newspaper Archive.

Maidenhead Advertiser 3rd Oct 1900, Baylis Media Archive.

Kelly's Post Office Directory of Buckinghamshire etc, Kelly's Directories Limited.

Census of England and Wales 1841-1901, transcribed by me National Archives. 

Solicitors Journal and Reporter, July 1860, Law Newspaper Co, 1860.

Private letters.