Hill Farm Marlow

 Not to be confused with Hill Farm, Cadmore End or Hill Farm, High Wycombe. A mixed farm. In 1833 was 90 acres in size. The farm of this post was near Marlow Bottom. It did not apparently have a farm house on site until a few years after 1833. In 1853 was 100 acres, 66 of which had long been part of the farm, the remainder was in Marlow Common Field rather than with the main part.

Occupiers (not necessarily same as owners) and history timeline, gaps in occupiers are gaps in our knowledge, we will endeavour to fill them as and when we can=

1833= James and David Webb who had other local farms and lived off-site.

1851= William Stanmore. Wife Fanny.

1853= Richard Gibbons. Tenant. Farm for sale with a newly erected brick and tile farmhouse "prettily situate with commanding views" [Bucks Herald 27th August 1853 advert]. The property was sold privately. Bought by Mr Wethered.

1854-61. Thomas Batt farm bailiff for the Wethered family who were the owners. He and his wife Ann lived on the farm. On the 1861 census live in carter George Brown, odd job boy 16 year old Joseph Dark and 14 year old carter's boy John Ellick were also recorded. By 1863 the Batts had gone to Little Marlow as steward to the manor there. Thomas Batt had previously been bailiff at Old House Farm, Little Marlow and prior to that in Hampshire. For his grave see here. The funeral was paid for by his employer Mr Ellames of Little Marlow Manor. Ann as a widow lived in the Oxford Road Almshouses where she died age 86 in 1898.

1864= John Hewett, then later in the year Thomas Carter moved in.

1865= Thomas Carter, who complained bitterly at the terrible state of the road that ran near his farm and on towards High Wycombe but the court found that he himself was messing up the road and causing difficulty for the parish road workers. He dies seem to have been something of a prickly individual. Thomas' staff were constantly leaving him resulting in him then taking them to court trying to force them to return as per their labour contract. For whatever reason it does not seem working relations were at all good at the farm. On at least one occasion Thomas was told by a magistrate that he would get good workers when he behaved kindly to them, which implies the bench thought that wasn't happening. Accusations of abuse were levelled at Thomas more than once by disgruntled workers. He wasn't always to blame however- his employee James Bohey who stole sacks of oats from Hill Farm, after he got out of jail sued Thomas for unpaid wages not given to him while he was in jail! He was contracted to be paid a regular wage he argued. Unsurprisingly the bench decided that the contract was annulled by James going to jail. Mrs Carter seems to have had some problems problems with her indoor servants too, sending a 14 year old girl back to the workhouse she had come from because she "didn't suit".

1868= Thomas Carter. His farm worker Edward Wingfield or Winfield died almost instantly of sunstroke while labouring in a field during the hot summer of 1868. [Sources included the South Bucks Free Press 25th July 1868] He was one of two Marlow agricultural workers to die of sunstroke while at work that year, with others affected too.

1870= just about everything on the farm put up for sale- cart horses, beef cattle, sheep, pigs, dung carts, market waggons etc as the farm was up to let.

1871= James Child. Wife Caroline. James retired and moved to Hendon, Middlesex after 1876 but before 1881.

1881= Joseph Blackwell was the resident farm bailiff (for who? Presumably Wethered family). Lived at the farm with his daughter Elizabeth there. Joseph had recently recovered from insolvency when he moved to Hill Farm. He was previously a farmer at nearby Clay Lane Farm. See here.

1894-1911= Abel Dell. Advertised in the Bucks Herald 1895 for a strong girl fond of children to help in the farmhouse. Female farm servants would have been required to feed and tend any animals in the farmyard such as poultry and pigs as wells as take in domestic duties.  Abel's daughter Alice Mary died at the farm aged 7 in 1899. He moved his home to nearby Bencombe Farm 1909 or 1910 but still kept Hill Farm until 1911. For his life at Bencombe see here.

1911-20 = Aubrey Croxford. Wife Ada. Aubrey was a grocer and baker before he took to farming.

1928= Farm also used for commercial timber growing.

1930 =  A Mrs Whincup lived at the farm, daughter of James Henry price a horse dealer of Marlow whose books and business accounts she kept up for him. It isn't clear what her status was at Hill Farm.

1937-39= John Norman. Farm had at least some dairy cattle at this time.  By this time there was a cottage apart from the farm house on the farm.

Researched and written by Charlotte Day.

Further information:

To find every mention however small of an individual or family here, use the A-Z Person Index in the top drop down menu. 

For info about other specific farms, check the index here

General agricultural related posts can be found listed here

Other Sources=

England and Wales Census, 1871, database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KXS5-2BX : 26 June 2022), James R Child, 1871. Other censuses my transcriptions from microfilm. All census material remains Crown Copyright.

Bucks Herald 22nd June 1895. Bucks Advertiser. 27th August 1898. Bucks Herald 16th November 1928. All British Library Archives via the BNA.

South Bucks Free Press 25th November 1867, 8th Aug 1930 Bucks Free Press Archives. 

1833 Great Marlow assessment notebooks, transcribed by Charlotte Day from originals in our possession.

1861 census transcribed from microfilm by Charlotte Day. Census information remains Crown copyright.

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

Thomas Batt Grave

 

Little Marlow grave of Thomas Batt. Two lines follow which I could not read. At parish church.

Then it says Thomas Batt died 23rd May 1874 aged 54.

Thomas was the steward for the Wethered agricultural estates round about Marlow, under Owen Wethered. He came from a similar role in Hampshire. He resided at Old House Farm followed by Hill Farm and then moved to become steward to the Little Marlow Manor estate for J P Ellames. Ellames subsequently paid for his funeral. Widow Ann would spend the last 8 years of her life in the Oxford Road almshouses in Marlow, dying 1898 age 86. 

For more graves from Little Marlow, Great Marlow or Hurley see the Graves option on the top drop down menu.

More Little Marlow content can be found on the menu under Nearby Places.

All mentions of someone on the blog can be found under the Person Index in the same menu. 

Sources include the South Bucks Standard 8 July 1898, British Library Archives. 

©Marlow Ancestors. 

Bencombe Farm, Marlow Bottom

 

Description: 1944 = mixed farm with farmhouse and two staff cottages. Modern: used as a brewery.

Historic Occupiers=

1883= Edward Batt Curteis. He had moved to Shottesbrook Berkshire by 1886.

1887-1908= James Chilton. Kept pigs and poultry as well as cows and grew walnuts, peas, swedes and turnips as crops. In 1888 a cart his young employee was driving in Marlow High Street ran out of control and damaged some shop fronts. James and his wife hosted the children of the Marlow Baptist Sunday School for tea and fun at the farm in 1889. Wife Elizabeth, as was traditional on farms, was the one who raised the poultry. Two of her birds were stolen from her in 1898 by William Clark who was jailed for 14 days with hard labour as a result [Reading Mercury, 8th Jan 1898, British Library]. Thefts of crops from the fields of Bencombe Farm and other Marlow Bottom premises happened regularly as it was then a quiet spot. Farm suffered a reasonable fire in 1905, and another rick fire the next year which was put down to arson. In 1907 James was convicted of employing underage Charles Cooper on the farm. Sold up his farm stock and house stuff across the years 1907-1908 as he was retiring.

1909-1927= Abel Dell. Wife Alice (née Warner, married St George's Hanover Square London 1889). Abel was a many times prize winning raiser of beef herds. Also dairy. In 1912 he bought at an auction at Henley Town Hall a cow forcibly sold off to pay the withheld taxes of Suffragette campaigner Miss Lalacheur. The event was disrupted by Suffragette protesters outside and inside the Town Hall [Henley and South Oxford Standard 3rd May 1912, British Library]. Abel was also at Hill Farm Marlow 1899-1908, at least. He went bankrupt in 1927 and died in 1935. Alice died in 1936.

1938-39 at least= Morris, Dell and Co. Richard Dell born circa 1890  lived in. The farmhouse also acted as a boarding house at this point. Only one cottage seems to have then been in use for staff. It was occupied by Alfred Gomme and his wife Ethel plus more lodgers.

1958 in use as a poultry and turkey farm.

Researched by Charlotte Day.

Many other farms from Marlow and Little Marlow have similar posts to this on the blog. They can be found listed under the "Specific Shops, Streets...Etc" option on the menu here

To find people on this blog use the A-Z Person Index option- Thousands of people are mentioned.

©Marlow Ancestors. You are very welcome to use this research for family or local history purposes if you credit this blog and link here.

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