Parish History
The Parish has a long and interesting past. There are at least two locally authored books looking back over its history which you may be able to track down in the village. “The Parish of Saint Paul’s Walden” is a short history which was written to commemorate the 80th birthday or Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother in 1980, St Paul’s Walden Bury having been her childhood home. “Memories of a Whitwell Woman” written by Jessie Peacock Sansom published in 1988 looks back at the late 19th and early to mid 20th century history of the Parish from a local family’s perspective. Both books are fascinating in giving insight into how people lived and how this Parish was established and has grown.
For more contemporary information it is also interesting to look at Whitwell of Yesteryear online. There are also still many families in the Parish who have lived here for generations and will happily chat about the old days and how things were in grandad or grandma’s time. It’s fascinating and a wonderful way to better appreciate the community we live in.
While the books mentioned above are too extensive to include here the following short essay was written by Islay Shelbourne (a Whitwell local and PhD student), expanded from an article she wrote for the HertsMemories website in 2013 as part of her work experience with the Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies Library.
WHITWELL THROUGH THE AGES: A Snapshot of 19th Century Whitwell Through Its Census Records
There has been a settlement in what is now the Parish of St Paul’s Walden since before the time of the Doomsday Survey, with land and eventually a manor at St Paul’s Walden (now the Bury) changing hands repeatedly between 888AD and 1652AD. The current manor house at the Bury was built in the early 18th century for Edward Gilbert, and later became the possession of the Bowes (later Bowes-Lyon) family who maintain the estate to this day.[1] By the time of the 1905 Victoria County History’s (VCH) survey of the area (part of a national project started in 1889 to write a history of every county in England), the parish consisted of ‘2,334 acres of arable land, 1,059 acres of permanent grass, and 581 acres of woodland’ as well as three manor houses, All Saint’s Church, and two adjoining hamlets: Bendish and Whitwell.[2] Bendish is described in detail in the VCH, but Whitwell clearly did not meet the esteem of the surveyors, who lament that though the hamlet’s ‘situation along the valley of the river is very pretty…the village itself is unpleasing, being a long row of houses, which are, for the most part, poor’.[3]
A look at the census records from the decades before and just after the VCH survey though suggest a rather more complex character to the parish’s 600 strong village.[4] Many of the buildings from the period still stand in the village today, including the ‘old tannery house’ highlighted by the VCH as the exception to their otherwise negative opinion on the village’s dwellings, and the building which was once the Eagle and Child Pub. The pub has long since been converted to a private home, but the support for the pub billboard and the insurance for the fire brigade are still visible on its façade. Within the archives, the pub can be tracked back to the 1881 census where it is known as the Eagle Pub commanded by Thomas Jeffrey, a 38 year old painter and inn keeper who, with his wife of 39, Ellen, ran the pub and also kept lodgings for John Ansell, a 71 year old farm labourer, and the Peacock family of three ( Charles, 43, a farm labourer, Louisa his 37 year-old wife and their son Harry ( aged 7 and attending the local village school).
In describing the trades available to those living in the village in 1905, the VCH states that though tanning and straw-plaiting were once industries, people now ‘have to depend on agriculture and water-cress growing’.[5] The census, however, reveals a thriving village of varying industries, with straw-plaiting and watercress growing both represented, among numerous other commercial ventures and, most importantly, plentiful public houses!
Pubs A’ Plenty
At the time of the 1881 census there were eight pubs in Whitwell and the surrounding area. Of the eight, two remain as working establishments, The Strathmore Arms and The Bull Inn (the latter ran, in 1881, by 74 year old William Eldrid and his wife Ann). The remaining six pubs, The Maiden’s Head, The Fox Beer House, The Eagle Pub, The Swan Pub, the Lamb and the Beer House and Old Beer House at Church End are no longer operational, but at the time of the 1881 census often represented multigenerational businesses in which families and their lodgers lived and worked in the building. This is true of The Fox Beer House, which was listed as the residence of nine members of the Thrussel family in 1881 – Joseph, the publican, his daughter Ann (who worked at the village plait house) her mother Susan (aged 73), husband Joseph (52 and an agricultural labourer) sons George (a 21-year-old baker) and Rudolf (aged 1) and her two daughters Louisa (19) and Elizabeth (13).
Post and Potatoes
Grocers too were plentiful in the village, with 5 grocers shops represented in the 1881 census: three identically named ‘Whitwell Grocer’s Shop’, one which operated as part of the cress beds and one that was also a pub.
Of the three identically named ‘Whitwell Grocer’s Shops’, one was owned by 81-year-old widow Mary Ginger, who with her 71-year-old sister Ann Camp served as bakers and grocers with the assistance of their general servant Harriet Day (24). Another was run by the Welch family, consisting of the head of the house Timothy Welch who was both the grocer and a flour miller at 62, his wife 61-year-old Elizabeth and their 18-year-old daughter Clara. The final ‘Whitwell Grocer’s Shop’, owned by the Lee family, saw growth if not in business than in household members between the 1881 and 1891 censuses. In 1881, the household consists of Thomas Lee, the grocer, who lived with his wife Jane and their daughters Eva Eva Jane (4), Jennie (2) and Emma (1), as well as their servant Jane Barber (13) and Thomas Alfred Barber (3) who is listed as ‘son’. Ten years on, however, as the Lee family has grown, now consisting of Thomas (40), Jane (42) Eva J (14) Thos A (13), a new addition who despite being of age was not noted on the 1881 census, Jennie (12), Emma (11), Bertha A (9), Stephen J (7) and Maude E (3). There is also the addition of Susan Thrussel the 81-year-old mother-in-law living off her own means; and Annie the 19-year-old niece who is a grocer’s assistant.
The Swan Pub and Grocer’s was, in 1881, ran primarily by the 50-year-old widow Anna Maria Saunders, who in the 1881 census is listed as the publican, assumedly assisted by her daughters Emma (29) and Jane (20). Her son, Arthur (25), lists his profession as a ‘carrier’ – a term used to refer to various professions involving the transference of goods.[6] The Swan Pub also had two lodgers on the day of the census, Isaac Cunningham, a 60-year-old groom, and Joseph Giddins, a 56-year-old labourer.
The final grocer’s shop listed at the time of 1881 census was ran as part of the Water Cress Beds with greengrocer John Clark accompanied by wife Sophia and sons Albert (15) and Alfred (14). John’s granddaughter, Mary MacDonald (12), also lived with the family and attended the local school alongside Alfred. Two other Clarks also lived in the household, Henry (25) and Clara, his wife, (24). Henry’s occupation is listed as a tailor.
By 1891 it is clear that more than one business has diversified their trade, as The Swan Pub and Grocers was doing in 1881. In the 1891 census ‘The Beer House, Woodman and Grocers Shop’ appears, ran by James Laing whose occupation is listed as publican, carter and grocer. He lived with his young son John (4) and his wife Rebecca.
Whitwell continues to this day to have a popular Post Office for all the village’s needs. In 1881 the Post Office was owned and run by John Wyman, who lived with his wife Matilda and three sons: (John (1), Samuel Henry and William Henry (both 0). They were assisted by their domestic servant Jane Ford. 30 years later, however, at the time of the 1911 census, the Post Office had changed hands, with Arthur Thomas Robinson (aged 54) working as both the postmaster and a tailor. His wife, 55-year-old Ellen worked as the elementary school mistress, and they are joined in the household by their 23-year-old daughter, Ellen Maude.
Smithy’s, Dresses and Drapers
Business continued to grow in Whitwell between 1881 and 1891, with the appearance of several shops and businesses in the decade between census surveys.
By 1891, the Ewington family are listed as running a blacksmith in the village, with William Ewington as head of the family operating as the main blacksmith whilst also training his oldest son Edward ( an 18 year old apprentice). Also living at the address was wife Sarah M, eldest child Alace (aged 22), 15 year-old Clare E. Ewington who is listed as a ‘dressmaker’s apprentice’, and youngest child Albert T Ewington who at aged 10 was still a student.
A Draper’s Shop had also been established under the control of John Orsman, a 55-year-old cordwainer (a type of shoemaker) along with his 64-year-old sister Ellen who was a draper by profession. This business, however, did not survive to be listed in the 1911 census. New within this later census, however, was the village’s first Police Station. Police Constable Wade of the Hertfordshire Constabulary was listed as living in the village alongside his wife Emily Ada and his two children, Reginald William, and Bernard Stanley (aged 7 and 5 respectively).
Clues to the Past
Many of the businesses listed in Whitwell’s varying censuses no longer remain along the narrow main streets of the village, though they leave their marks behind. The old school is now the village hall; the barns of the farm converted to a livery yard, a tea shop and numerous small businesses; and pubs, tannery buildings and other previously commercial buildings transformed to private residences. Yet a glance into the census records of the late 19th and early 20th century proves that even with growing streets and changing businesses, the essential character of the village remains as close knit, spirited and welcoming to new households and visitors alike as it ever has been. Enterprising businesspeople, a steady stream of village school children, and once even a party on the Bury estate when the main household was away; the census offers a snapshot into Whitwell’s past that delights, enthrals or offers up a new mystery or two!
Should you wish to discover more about the village’s history and its former residents, you need only look online to Ancestry or FindMyPast, or alternatively pay a visit to the Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies Archive to discover for yourself just what the past can reveal about our Parish.
[1] “Parishes: St Paul’s Walden.” A History of the County of Hertford: Volume 2. Ed. William Page. London: Victoria County History, 1908. 405-411. British History Online. Web. 28 May 2022. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/herts/vol2/pp405-411.
[2] Institute of Historical Research, Victoria County History (2022) https://www.history.ac.uk/research/victoria-county-history [accessed 28 May 2022]; “Parishes: St Paul’s Walden.” A History of the County of Hertford: Volume 2. Ed. William Page. London: Victoria County History, 1908. 405-411. British History Online. Web. 28 May 2022. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/herts/vol2/pp405-411.
[3] “Parishes: St Paul’s Walden.”
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Matthew Woollard, The Classification of Occupations in The 1881 Census Of England And Wales, (University of Essex: Historical Censuses and Social Surveys Research Group Occasional Paper No. 1, 1991), p. 4.