Notes on the original transcription.
The task was rather more formidable than it seemed at first sight. The manuscript is completely unpunctuated and editing into a cohesive document proved quite daunting. I endeavoured to edit and transcribe straight on to the typewriter; with hindsight, this was a mistake. I should have made a long-hand copy before typing, but the reasons may not be so obvious. When typing normal copy it is usual to set down the words and punctuate before looking at the next sentence or part of the text. Since the manuscript was unpunctuated I had to leave the typewriter with the last line unpunctuated. This meant I invariably set off with the incorrect spacing! I also found that, on re-reading the early pages, single spacing was rather hard going, so I changed to one and a half spacing. If the document has the historical importance and engenders the interest I think it will, then I will re-type it.
I have avoided any change of context in transcribing, and been
very careful that unusual names e.g. Mrs. Flowr, Mr. Quye , Bash
Smith etc have not been typed inaccurately. Letters which I have
been unable to read have been indicated by a '?' Where
the evidence is conflicting I have marked it(!)
My hope is that other elderly residents in the village will
be able to augment this document, and a map of the village for
that period would be very useful.
A photographic gallery of old postcards of Cavendish to illustrate John Braybrooke's recollections is here
I am about to put down a few things that I remember about my native village in my lifetime, which commenced on October 24th 1820.
The first thing I remember was the coronation of George the fourth, I have a very clear remembrance although I was very young at the time. It was a very grand day. The street was lined with oak boughs with a booth of the same before the George Inn. 1 remember my mother taking me to see the procession of the King and Queen up the street headed by the village band, I cannot call to mind who was the King now, but the Queen was Mary Brockwell, and ever after she was called Queen Mary,
The next thing I remember was a great fire that took place at the George Inn and the butchery when all the back buildings by the churchyard were burned down. I remember my mother came and woke me, dressed me and showed me out of the window that I might see the air. It was so red it looked as though the whole place was on fire. She then took me down to show me the fire and the two rows of men and women handing water from the pond to the fire. This happened not long after. I was very young.
Now I will try to describe the village as I found it when I became to know more about it. The Reverend T. Castley was rector and lived at the Old Rectory. We had a good family living at the Hall. It was Sir Digby Mackweth and family. Lady Mackweth and their two daughters were very kind. My Lady had a Sunday and weekday school for girls. It was kept in the house that Mrs, Everett now is living in by the Hall gates. The girls in the school were all dressed alike on the Sunday in brown stuff. Dresses as it was called then. It would be called serge now. In the summer they had white tippets and cottage bonnets with brown ribbon across and tied under the chin. In the winter they had grey flannel cloaks. They all had to have their hair cut short. John Hardy, the barber, had to go down to the school every few weeks to cut them as long as they remained in the school. They were very kind to every one that needed help in any way. The two Miss Mackweths visited all the poor and sick in the place and had readings three times in the week at different parts of the village. Sir Digby's oldest son was Captain in a horse regiment and he, with his troop, were ordered to Bristol to quell the great riot there, which they did by the kind yet firm address which he gave to them. The Captain and his men got great praise for it. His son Digby and his cousin, Master Herbert, came to spend the holidays at the Hall, and F. and Thomas Mortlock (Charles' brother), had to go up twice a week for lessons to Master Digby and, after they were over, they would take us up the park to have a swing with them or some other game.
The family stayed at the Hall till Sir Digby died and My Lady moved up to their house in London. They were very much missed when they were gone. Sir Digby was a very fine tall man. He always walked with a long brown stick with a bright spud at the top and when he saw a few boys at play in the street he would stop and put a hand in his pocket and pitch some pence down for a scramble. He did not often pass up or down the street without seeing some boys! I can see him now in my mind.
They lived at the Hall until Sir Digby died. He was up in London until the change came and, after that, they went up to London to live, but they did not forget Cavendish for many years after they left it.
Now 1 will go to the other end of the village and try to describe it as near as I can how I found it when I first knew it. 
On the ground where the station stands now, there was a farmhouse and house stood. It was called the Great House Farm. Mr. James Hickford held the farm and had a dairy of cows and sold the milk and butter to that part of the village. That farm had land on both sides of the road as far as the brick kiln. The farm belonged to Colonel Matthew of Pentlow Hall and, when he died, it came to his son the Reverend Edward Matthew. He sold the land on the left hand side of the road to Squire Brice and he laid it to Blacklands Hall Farm.
He had got a farm at Hundon that he offered to Mr. Hickford and he took it on condition that, if Blacklands Hall was to let, he was to have the first offer of it. Then the land on the river was laid to Pentlow Hall Farm, I was about ten years old then and it was held by Mr. Wm. Orbell.
The house on the right hand side, where the Railway Arms stands, Thomas Skilton lived. He was a big man and gardened a little field. It was called Towne Field. It was by the side of Water Lane and went up to the house that stands by the path that goes up by the fields. The path that leads down to the Lecture Hall is where the hedge was. He also had a garden this side of Workhouse Street. He supplied most of the place with vegetables and fish. We boys liked to hear him come up the street calling 'bean pod, bean pod, three pence. A peck will produce one quarter of beans and a pound of bacon.'
There was a nice garden in front of his house and a little cottage at the bottom of it where Mr. Churchyard built his house.
In the house on the other side of the road lived a widow woman and family by the name of Eagle. There was a nice house to the garden then.
The house that J.& T. Brockwell live in now was the home of Jockey Jay. He was a horse dealer: I should think that's how he got the name of Jockey. I never heard of any other name for him.
The next place, where K. Cooper and Mr. Dupont now live, was H. Stammers carpenter's yard. The workshops were close to the road. They had three sons and three daughters. All three sons worked at the trade at home with their father. There were four daughters. : They were all married, the oldest to Thos. Evans, the second to Thos. Wood, the third to J. Rice and the fourth to a horse-doctor at Hartest. Arthur was the oldest son. He was a nice man and a good workman. When the father died he thought of having the business. His mother had been dead some years and the father went to live with Herbert, his grandson. Arthur paid all for him. The other two were not satisfied, so he left the old place, bought the the premises next to the Lecture Hall, built the workshop, went into business himself and had most of the work. The old place was sold and bought by Ambrose Smith. He had the old workshops taken down and built the house N. Cooper lives in.
Then we come to the Old Maltings below the bridge. That is the place where Mr. T.S. Garrett began business for himself. Thos. Thompson was the first man he had and kept him as long as he lived. Mr. Garrett was born at Pentlow Mill, His mother and father lived there with one sister. There was a wheelwrights up the yard where J. Alfounder now lives. The Maltings by the side of the yard Mr. Garrett built and took John Page to work for him. He and Thos. Thompson worked the two as John Page had to learn the trade. He is another man that he kept till he died.
The house that is now Mr. J. Deeks and where the Coffee House is kept was Joseph Byford's. He was the carrier from here to London. He had two waggons and two carts on the road. One of the waggons started on Monday at six in the afternoon and he himself on Tuesday at eight with the cart. He overtook the waggon at Romford and they both got to the One Swan yard Bishopsgate at four o'clock on Wednesday morning. The other waggon went on Wednesday and the cart on Thursday morning. The first got home on Thursday and the last on Saturday. Robert Brown went with the last waggon a great many years. He very often brought and carried letters for people that had children in London as every letter cost ninepence. The first time I went up to London I went with Mr. Byford in his cart. He gave me the rains to hold, but I was to let the horse go where it liked. It would go right for it knew the way and where to stop at. I found it was so. We had a very pleasant journey for he talked all the way, when he was not asleep. He told me about the horse that was taking us. He bought it at Mr. Groom's auction at Bower Hall. It was four years old and, when he saw it, he was going to have that horse. So, when it was put up for auction, he bid a good price for it but there were some there heard him say he meant to have it bid against him till they got it up to over eighty pounds and he said it was the cheapest one he had ever bought, it was such a good one. Then he told me how he began the business. He lived at Clare then and was a steady, careful young man but poor. There was a man living there by name Uston, a harness maker, and this young Byford used to spend most of his time, when he had nothing to do, at Mr. Uston's shop, talking to him . One day they were talking and Mr. Uston asked him what he should like to do and he said he should like to have a cart and horse and be a carrier. Mr. Uston said there was a good chance there for one, he said there was.
But Mr. Byford said 'I would like to take it but have no money to buy the cart and horse with, so I cannot'.
Mr. Uston said 'I have got twenty pounds lay upstairs that I do not want. If you should like to try it I will lend you the money and pay me vhen you can'. So he took the money, bought his horse and cart, became a carrier and got on well. At the end of one year he had saved the twenty pounds and he took it to Mr, Uston and paid him. But the same night.the horse was taken ill and died. He was so cut-up he did not know what to do, but, in the morning, he would go to his old friend and tell him.
So he went and, as soon as Mr. Uston saw him, he said 'Well Joe, what is the matter?'
He told him his horse was dead and he said 'Never mind Joe, boy, the money you brought last night is here and I do not want it. Take it back and buy another one.' So he took it and went and bought two horses with it. From that day he got on well and, when Mr, Colt gave up the business, Joe Byford came from Clare and took it. He worked it well and said his kind old friend was the maker of him. This is the story as he told it to me as I sat by him on my first journey to London.
There was a little grocer's shop just below the bridge, where S. Hale now lives, held by Robert Evrett and a bake office just above it where A. Brown now lives. His name was Jes Sparks. Where E. Eavens now lives, was a shoe-makers shop. George Thompson was the shoe-maker there and S. Evans lived there. He worked for Thos. Woods.
Now we may come to the White Horse Inn. Mrs. Churchyard lived there. Then the Bull Inn: Mr. Deeks Lived there. There was the blacksmith's shop that John Smith have now. Charles Mott lived there. The next house to the Bull was William Braybrook's. He was a tailor and kept four hands at work. The next one was Mr. Wood's shoe-makers shop. He kept four or five men at work. He was one of the singers at the church and played the baseviol. His son Thomas played violin and Henery Clark a violin. William Woods was a singer. John Blaclock was a counter-tenor, one of the best that I ever heard. His son, John, was a fine tenor. They were both coopers by trade; their workshop was at this end of a Pools House. Then there was Robert Spencer and two or three more that sung With them.
When I was a little boy I would get my mother to take me to church on the Sunday Afternoon at two to hear them play and sing. I was so fond of music and so I am now. The service at church began at half past two. We had only prayers in the morning at eleven.
The whole of that property up to Mr. Clark's was old Mr. Woods up to the Bull Meadows then. Now we come to Mr, Clarks. That and Mrs. Dalton's belonged to the Jays. They were woollen manufacturers. Mr. Philip Jay was master when I began to know anything about the place. Mr. Clark's warehouse was called the yarn shop. Thos.Eavens was foreman for him and the women went to him for the wool to spin and brought the yarn back to him when they had done it and weighed it and paid them for it. There were not many houses in the place that but what had two or three spinning wheels in them and they earned a good bit of money at it until he gave it up.
The first that I remember being at the shop was a master Stoneham. He was there when I was a very little boy. Before that, Mr. Edward Jay, a brother of Mr. Philips, lived at the shop. I think he died a young man, for his wife and her two sons lived in Pool Street and she was a widow. Her two sons were older than me. One of them was named William and the other Nickles. They both went to the grammar school. William, when he left school,went up to London and got a job in that great mourning shop as shop boy in Regents Street and, some time after, Nickles left here and went away and we did not hear a thing about them for many years, but my father went up to London to see my sisters. One morning he was walking up Regent Street when someone came behind him and laid his two hands on my father's shoulders and said 'Who would have thought of seeing you here?'. My father turned round and saw a young man. He looked at him and said 'Why, it is Nickles Jay! I did not think of seeing you!' He said 'I am he, and now you must come in and see brother William'. My father said he did not like to. He said 'but you must, William will be as pleased to see you as I am and he is master here.' So he took his hand and took him through the shop to his brother. They were both very pleased to see him. They took him all over their large place of business and asked him to go and see them again. But that he could not do as he was coming home the next day. They made him promise if be went to London again to call and see them. He never saw London again.
The Dakings lived in the next house. They had all that Mr. Garrett has now. They also had the Church Farm and one of the Kamsons, the one on the right hand side of the lane, and the little farm, called the Moors, up by the woods. But George Daking had all three of them and this place all his own, He was in the wool trade and had a good business at one time, but he spent most of his time at the Bull inn.
Mr. Colden lived there then, and Daking sold all three farms to him and spent most of the money with him. But he had done this before my time and Colden had left the Bull and was living at Kamson Farm when 1 knew him. When G. Daking died, the place was sold and Mr. Stoneham bought it and built a new house and shop. It was a very fine shop. They moved into it and Mr. Jas. Bocock at the shop at Hartest took the old shop and put his brother George into it and they found out they could go into the new shop but they could not take the trade with them, for the people would go to the old shop. So, after a time, Mr, Stoneham left it and Mr. Nind came and lived there for some years and, when he left it, the two Miss Ambroses' took it and had a school there for young ladies. The shop became a school-room and so it remained till the place was sold again and Mr. Garrett bought it and altered the house and built all the places that are there now but the house is the same. There was a nice garden where they stand. S. MacCrow had that and lived in the little house where Walter Frost lived in the yard. Where H. Brown now lives was a blacksmiths shop and the place they they shoed the horses was built out into the street. The path up this side of the street went under this place, then the ditch that came down from the churchyard was open. Across the street the path was on an arch over it and another for the roadway. For the path the other side of the road, large posts, rails and a low brick wall divide them.
There was a nice piece of grass from the Brook to the George yard Miss Parmenter was mistress of the George Inn. The butchers shop next to the George was Mr, Wm. Orbell's. He did a very large trade there then. There were four or five very big tall poplar trees stood before the house and shop then. He had wood from one tree up to the big one with hooks in and, twice in the week in the season, there would be one, and sometimes two, calves hung out there to be sent to London . He was a very kind man and has been known, many a time, if a poor child was sent up for six penny-worth of calves fry, to fill her basket and tell the child to tell her mother she had got a good six penny-worth Mr, Orbell also held Scotts Farm and his foreman, John Brown, went with the waggon and, as he came home, he was coming down Pentlow Hill he got killed. I saw him brought home up the Street. He lived at the corner and was a very quiet man.
The Five Bells inn was held by Mr, Eady when I first knew it, for a few years. Then he bought the Rose Inn at Sudbury and went to live there. Mr. Meller came to the Bells and Sam Ward lived with them. They did the horse dealing between them. The time Mr, Meller was there he bought two old cottages and the house and shop that J. Smith lived in. He took the old cottages down and built the three that stand there now.
At the top of the Bells garden, on the Green, stood the Cage and stocks where they put people when they were drunk. At that time the public houses were open all the Sunday morning until two o'clock. When we came out of our church we could always see men rolling up and down streets drunk. Now there was an old man by the name of Newman lived in the house that Wm. Perkins lived in. He was a little man and he was almost always drunk that he could not walk and often the Constable would take him up to the stocks if it was fine and put him in. Sometimes they put his hands in and then he had to stand up, but it was most times by his feet and he laid himself down. He had very small hands and feet and could take them out when he liked, so, when he had had a sleep and come to himself he would get up and go home. He would wash and dress himself and go back and put himself back in till they came out of church in the afternoon. He was the match maker for the place. When it was wet they would put him in the cage and shut the door. We had two Constables here and they went round the place to see the pubs were closed. When they came to the last one, they met a party and went in and spent the afternoon drinking. They had to close from two till five.
I was born in the house that stood in the yard behind Mr. Newmans, My father lived there and his father before him. It was a nice old place and had a nice workshop there all by itself. John Sheperd lived in Newman House or an old one that stood in the same place. He was a blacksmith and he worked at Hammonds shop on this side of the road. The little one that Newman used as a cart shed was Susan Wood's. It was a nice, clean little place. She was a maiden woman. The house was her own for life and she had a little coming in to keep her. She used to bind shoes for her brother. She was a nice woman. Where Pettitt lives, the Evans lived. The Post office was there. They had to send down to Clare in the morning for the letters and again at night to take them to post. The mail cart went by then as it do now. They were bakers as well and the men were woolcombers by trade. I think I can see them now with a table set in the street in front of Susen Wood's window with a white cloth on it, the men smoking their pipes and the women talking to each other and their children. The two Evans's and my sisters skipping and I and their two boys playing 'I'm on Tom Titler's hill, taking all his Flowes on a heap of stones' when there was any lying on the grass or playing handball together.
We lived as neighbours did then, caring for and helping each other. Mrs. Flowr and her two daughters lived in the next little house. Mr. Gooch lived in the house next to the school. He was a barber and hair dresser. He had a boy about my age. He, George Eavens, and I were always together.
Then we come to the Grammar School. Mr. Seabrook was master then. He was an old man then and, after he gave up the school, he went to live in the house C. Underwood live in. Mr. Shield came to the school after him and we had a good school time he was there. He was an Irishman but a good school master. He had a large school of boarders and day boys. I was in the school most of the time he was there, we had to go at nine on Sunday morning and in the afternoon at half-past one. The first class had to learn the collect and epistle and gospel. He took us to church morning and afternoon himself.
Now we come to the Manor House. There was a large school there for young ladies and it was kept by the Misses Larkins. There was a high brick wall in the front with folding doors in the centre and Mr. Hammond's shop was the dancing room. We three boys used to go to the window to see them. The house that Mr. H. Warring live Mr. Stud lived in. He was the plumber and the house has been altered since then,
Mr. Ambrose's is the same as it was when I first knew it. Dr. Barns lived where the doctor lives now. There was a Bakeoffice where Mrs. Ambrose now live. The rest to the Hall gates are the same as when I first knew them, all but the house that Bougen live in, There was a little old cottage stood there. Wm. Leach bought it and built this house to end his time in. Mr. Quye lived at Blacklands Hall. He was a very large cattle dealer, and , on Christmas morning, he gave all the children that went down a penny.
Andrew Partridge lived at the Kimson Farms on the left side of the lane. A Mr. Ambrose at Wales Farm. Timothy Raymond at Wales End Farm. John Ambrose at Robs Farm. Mr. S. Viall of Foxearth held Colts Hall, John Orbell of Brook Hall at Foxearth held Lodge Farm. Houghton Hall had a steward living in it. There was cows kept at all of them, the people got butter at 7d per lb.
There was another blacksmiths shop where Balbed did live. A widow woman and her grandson lived. Isaac Deeks worked for her, her name was Theobald. There was also another shop up by the Bells, The man's name Mason. He and his son worked it. There was also a collar makers shop where W. Newman now live, Wm. Thompson lived there: the one down the street is his grandson. This is as it was seventy years ago.
Now we will go to 1837. We shall find a few changes. We will begin at the church. We had prayers in morning service with sermon.
In the afternoon on Sundays we had prayers on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday and Christmas the same as Sunday. There were two Sunday Schools Tor twenty girls and of boys the same. Wm. Brockwell saw to the boys and Bash Smith and Sophia Blakelock to the girls. June Brockwell was clark and John Smith the sexton. Mr. Shield had left school and Mr. Simpson had taken it. Dr. Barns had left and gone to Clare. Mr. Warring had married Miss Castly and was living in the house he left as our Dr. C. Hardy had bought the Manor House and made it into three as it is now. We left the Hall empty: it stood so some years. Mr. Snape was left in it till Sir Digby's lease was out. Mr. Quye was dead and Mr. Jas. Hickford living at Blacklands Hall. About this time we heard the Hall was let and that there was a family coming into it. It was Dr. Yellowy and family, Just before they came, Mr. Simpson at the grammar school had opened a fund to buy an organ for the church and got it and bought one of Mr. Nun of Bury St. Edmunds, It was a grand day when it opened. Mr. Nun came to open it and he brought some men singers with him from one of the church choirs and the music and singing was lovely to us then. They had taken six young men and boys and six girls. I was one of them and Mr. Simpson taught us to sing by music. Mr. Milard was organist till T. Woods and H. Clark had learned to play, Mr. Milard was Mr. Simpson's head teacher at the grammar school where they were both very nice men. We had got a curate to help Mr. Castly so we had two full services on the Sunday. The Sunday schools had been opened up to all that liked to go. Then they applied for volunteer teachers and I and my dear sister, Fanny, were the first two, then my sister Ann's son Thos. Thompson and his cousin Win. Thompson. Mrs. Bos Brown and her cousin Eliza, Henry Clarke and Wm, Brockwell came. H. Clark was chosen Superintendant of the boys. Robert Mason sat with the boys till he left and went to Clare to live. Mary Deeks sat with the girls. We had a large school. When the organ had been up a year we had an anniversary sermon and the Rector gave the children a dinner of roast beef in his barn. Mr. Churchyard served the dinner. He did so for a few years: the last one was in the year '51
Now I must go back a few years to the Hall again. Dr. Yellowy and family were there and they were a very kind family, all of them. We did all their work for them and their mens servants and the doctor's little jobs I had to do at the Hall. My sister, Fanny, did the ladies needlework between her school hours as she kept a school at home, I was up with the doctor several hours two or three days in a week. I had to do his little jobs just as he told me.
He did not live here only a little over two years. He was taken in a fit and died. How I missed him! I loved to wait on him.
Miss Yellowy and Miss Harrich taught in the Sunday school and took great interest in them all the time they were here.
Mrs. Yellowy hired the end of the Manor House that we lived in for the day schools: my sister had the second floor for her school and Mary Deeks had the lower floor. Hers was a plaiting school. My sister's was reading, writing, needle-work and arithmetic,
H. Clark was the organist as he was the best of the two and, after Mr. Simpson left the grammar school, he taught the choir. We all had to go up to the Hall once a fortnight to have lessons by Miss Yellowy and, after the lesson, we had to go into the servants hall to have cake and tea. We also had Mr. Nun came and give us two lessons twice in the year at the Hall and, in the year of '52, Mrs. Yellowy invited the Sunday Schools up to the Hall with the teachers to have tea in the park and to spend the evening there: she did so as long as she lived. They were very kind to all the poor, old and sick, all of them.
Esquire Brice had built a new wing to Blacklands Hall and, when his son married, he came to live there till his father died. Old Mr. Hickford was dead and his son had the farm till their lease was out. He had to leave it then and took a farm at Hawkedon. Mr. Brice farmed it himself till his father died, then he let the farm to Mr. Garrett. His mother and sister came and lived there for a little time.
Now I must go back to the time I was a boy and speak about our workhouse. It was the house that Mr. Frost live in . Mr. Plume was governor. He lived in the end of the house and the poor old men and women had the other two houses. The three little cottages that stand on the left side of the road, next to the one where Eliza Brown live, were the Town Houses. They were for the old men and their wives to live in free after they were past work. I shall never forget seeing them, when they were taken away from the two places down to Sudbury, how both men and women how they cried and wrung their hands.
In 1846 Mr. S. Yellowy let out the first allottments. I and Jas. Steff are the only two living that took them when they were first let. We have always kept them on. It was the year after the great potato disease came so bad that there was none to be got here. Mr. Yellowy had got some very nice ones and he let all that had taken a piece of ground two bushels at 2/- a bushel. They were fetching 6/- a bushel elsewhere.
Now I think I have told you all I can remember about the old place till the time you came.
Now I will tell you about my own family. There was my father and mother, brother Dixon and my dear sister Fanny at home. My brother had asthma very bad all the winter and had been so for many years. My sister was a cripple. She fell down the stairs when she was four years old and hurt her spine so the back grew out and she could not get about much alone: I always led her about.
One day my father and I were hanging out a piece of cloth that we had been wetting. I had got my end on the line and he could not get his on. I called to him and he could not answer me, so I left my end and went down to him, called my brother and mother, and we got him in. He soon revived but could speak plain no more nor could he lift his right foot off the ground but only drag it along. Every little while, for the rest of his life, the doctor said he had three kinds of fits. He lived eight years after the first fit. I had to help him to bed at night and up in the morning all through his long illness; he would not let anyone else touch him. One day I was out for the day and night. I got him up before I went and it was my oldest brother got him to bed and went to get him up in the morning but he would not get up till I got home; which was after eight o'clock in the evening. When I went in 1 heard him call 'John'. I went up and had to get him up and down the stairs. He sat up an hour and I had to get him to bed again. That was the only time I ever left him for a night till after I had got him to bed. I could do anything with him. I was always very kind to him and let him have his own way. I and my dear sister Fanny kept my father and mother for six years. Then our dear sister was taken from us. She was loved by all who knew her. She was vory fond of my wife and children and we felt her loss very much as we loved her so much. Then my father died after my mother. Then brother Dixon lived with us. He only lived two years and the last winter he was very bad all the winter.
In the spring he got a little better, but, in April, he was taken worse again and died in a week. One morning our Rector sent for me to go down as he wanted to speak to me. I went, and he asked me if I would go and read to them and do his writing for him. I told him I would if he thought I could do it, so I had to set down and read a chapter out of the bible first and then do all the writing he wanted doing. I then went to reading again. My hours were to be from ten in the morning till twelve, but it was always one before he would let me leave him, I went down six days in the week for close upon seven years and if I was not there by ten he would be up to my workshop calling 'John'. I was with them the day before he happened with the fall down the cellar stairs. It brought on his death in less than a fortnight .
Now I think I have put down all about the place that I can think of and what I have put down I know is as just as it was then
I shall be 74 years old if I live till the 24th of this month, October 1894
John Braybrook
Note: this is Hodgkinson's map of 1783 and the village had changed in some details by 1820