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From the last EHRG Newsletter, you may remember that one of our projects is to 'repopulate' the village to try to find out where the long list of names appearing in the census returns actually lived in the village. One of our aids in this is Syd Tyrrell's book A Countryman's Tale. But when you look in detail at it, it's frustratingly short on real hard geography! However, we are making some progress in pinning down some of the characters in Syd's book.
For example, you may remember Syd's description of the events that led up to the trial and imprisonment of Edward Higham for the manslaughter of his father. All this took place in a yard or court of four run-down houses at the bottom of Partridge Lane, behind the old Methodist Chapel. Some of these houses were knocked down in the 1890s and a modern house and bungalow now occupy the site.
John Humphries was described by Syd Tyrrell as an 'old blacksmith' who shoed Winston Churchill's horse during the great Army Manoeuvres that took place around the village in 1913. At that time he would only be 60 and lived in what is now the Old Forge in Blacksmith's Lane. Next door lived Sally Dancer and her son Billy. She was the Tyrrell's helper and Syd describes how she was brought up during the 'hungry forties'. According to the census returns, Sally was born in 1827. Then there was George Hunt, last in a line of (very slow) country carriers. He lived in a specially modified house, which allowed him to feed his horse in bad weather without getting wet. That house is now gone, but stood in the High Street, opposite the bottom of Blacksmith's Lane.
And the Tyrrells themselves? Well, from the book you will know that they lived at the Red House, the brick built shop in the High Street, from just before the turn of the century. Before that, Syd's parents, Joe and Flora had lived in a number of houses in the High Street and possibly Blacksmith's Lane. The first house that Joe lived in was that of Edward Smith, Flora's father, to whom Joe was apprenticed. This seems to be what is now 14-18 High Street, although quite what the internal arrangement of these houses were before the Great Fire of 1905 is not yet clear.
So, we have made some progress but additional help will always be useful. If you have any information about who previously lived in your house - for example, you may get a chance to look at the deeds of your house and see whom the owners or tenants were 50, 60 or 100 years ago - we would love to know.
Kevin Lodge - Tel: (+44) (0)1327 261535
"It is not generally realised that every modem field in rural areas had its own name, and still has, though modern fields tend to have dull and prosaic names. Nevertheless, one of the major tasks of local historians ... is to make a survey of the present-day field names, since change is now so rapid in some parts of the country." So writes W.G. Hoskins in his book Local History in England, and John Field writes "Field names do offer some evidence of what was present when the names were give, and are a record of human reactions to the life in the fields" (A History of English Field Names). It was ideas like this that prompted me to wonder why the fields are the shapes that they are; where did their names come from, and why are some of the boundaries made of stone while others are hedges? Who were the farmers who worked the land, and which fields belonged to which farms?
I decided to find out as much as I could about the fields in Eydon Parish as part of the Historical Research Group's project. I started the search at the County Record Library in Northampton and found a wonderful map of Eydon, made in 1932, showing the fields with most of their names written on them. A few fields were unmarked, but I have managed to find their names from other sources.
My next task was to try and discover where the names came from and. in some cases to find out their meanings. To my amazement some of the names date back to before mediaeval times, thereby indicating that the land in Eydon has been fanned for a considerable time. There are wonderful names like Barchimore meaning 'a barley-spring marsh' and bretch (written La Brech in 1200) meaning 'land broken up for tillage'. There are other names recorded in the 12th century which do not appear on the modem map like Blackpool (B1akepolehul) and Stanchill (Stanithulles) meaning 'stony hills', so more research must be done to try and track them down!
Some of the names fell into various categories. For instance, there is a group of fields leading from Lime Avenue up the hill called Goodman's Bufton, Big Bufton, Little Bufton, Manning's Bufton and Fenimore Bufton. Bufton means 'land above the village' and Manning and Goodman are the names of the people who once farmed the land. Many other fields are named after the people who farmed them; for instance, we find Ashby's Low Field, Cook's Ground, Gibbs's Close, Harris' Lower Field, Iven's Meadow, Sliaw's Hill. Smith's Close and so on.
Some names indicated their position in the parish: The Mere and March both mean land on the boundary. Other names showed the use to which the field was put: for example, Hop Yard, Dairy, Ground, Brickyard Meadow and Sheep Pen Ground. Some fields are named after foreign parts such as New Zealand, Van Diemens Land (the original name for Tasmania) and Botany Bay. These are generally fields that are a distance from the village and the name therefore implies remoteness. One field is called Bunker's Hill, and is named after a famous battle in the American War of Independence in 1775. It became quite a trendy name and many fields up and down the country were named Bunker's Hill just after this time! Manitoba is named after a province in Canada.
There is, of course, much more research still to do, and this is where you come in! I would appreciate any help or information that anyone may have concerning the fields and field names in the parish of Eydon. I am particularly interested in where the farms were in the 1890s, and who was farming which field.
Chris Howes - Tel. (+44) (0)1327 260178
After a great deal of hard work, copies of these census returns are now available, with an index of names, at the price of £5 for each one. We are also prepared, for a reasonable fee, to do a complete family name search. Please contact me for further details.
Lella Leeson - Tel: (+44) (0)1327 260237
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