The Old Vicarage, with its Post- Medieval Origins: Vicarage No. 1

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Title

The Old Vicarage, with its Post- Medieval Origins: Vicarage No. 1

Description

Three photographs of the Old Vicarage, situated on the eastern end of Bemberry Bank, in the centre of the village of Timberscombe. The upper photograph is the front of an original postcard that would have probably been taken before the 19th of January 1900. The second photograph depicts the same front of the same building, dates from around 2005 and appears to have been taken across the road from the elevated carpark of the Timberscombe Village Hall. The bottom photograph, of the rear of the Old Vicarage, was taken in July 2020. As the name implies, the building is a former vicarage of the 12th century St. Petrock's Church in Timberscombe. There are three former vicarages in the village and The Old Vicarage is the oldest, indeed with origins possibly as early as those of the church.

St. Petrock's Church overlooks the Old Vicarage, situated just a little to the southeast. Inside the church is a hand-lettered list of former vicars, the first being Ralph de Sloutre, serving from 1313 to 1319. A church vicarage is recorded in 1536 as being worth £6 10s (1), but was probably there earlier as accommodation for clergy and quite likely the foundation of this property which seems to be in the same location.

In the 1400's, there was a rapid turnover of vicars, possibly because of the poverty of the village and possibly because they were not qualified to lead a church. In 1446 and 1449, Thomas Bekynton, the Bishop of Bath and Wells had to prevent the appointment of potential replacements because of their ignorance of the scriptures (2) and being "manifestly defective in letters". At the time of the 1536 record, a more educated Richard Laghwell, serving 1525 to 1554, was rector at St. Petrock's but probably rarely present in Timberscombe (3). It was not unusual for absentee vicars to appoint a curate to (hopefully) watch over things while the vicar remained at a more comfortable parish. All suggesting that the Old Vicarage was quite likely prone to neglect.

By 1571, during the time of the Rev. Peter Jones, the Old Vicarage had a small barn, a stable and a dovecot. Yet by 1815, it was declared unfit for inhabitants, though apparently was not demolished and was somewhat improved by 1830 (4). William Bailey Whitehead was appointed vicar in 1826, but he also served Chard and chose to live there (5) and the Old Vicarage was leased to the curates. By the time of the 1843 Tithe Map, William Bailey Whitehead had moved into The Great House at Timberscombe. He was listed as the "Landowner/ Lessee" of the Old Vicarage but the Rev. Thomas Bealy resided there, as listed on the 1841 Census, when he was 75 years old and was serving as the curate of the church. However Rev. Thomas Bealy was also the occupier of at least three other houses south of the church, including The Knapp (6), built in 1836 by the farmer and Bible Christian preacher, Edward Cording (7). If the Old Vicarage had improvements in the 1830's, perhaps Rev. Thomas Bealy was responsible.

On the 1851 Census, the Old Vicarage was again occupied by a curate, the 27 year old Rev. Thomas Cox, born in Australia.

A Surveyor's Report dated July 1856 detailed "The vicarage comprises a small entrance hall, 2 parlours, back passage, kitchen and pantry with a cellar or wood house on the basement under and a detached scullery on the same level. The kitchen and pantry are covered by a tiled lean to roof against House and the only bedrooms are over the parlour and entrance hall. The kitchen and pantry and also the scullery are small and inconvenient and it is proposed to pull them down in order to excavate for and carry up new kitchen and offices with dining room and bedrooms over." By the 1st of August 1856, the incumbent vicar beginning in 1853, the Rev. James Hall Croft was sent a remonstrance from the Bishop of Bath and Wells, accusing him of wilful neglect and urging the suggested repairs (8).

Between the time of the remonstrance and 1864, the Old Vicarage was enlarged to a 2 room-cross passage house with the kitchen and scullery soon enclosed with a dining room, a service area and two new staircases added (9). It was becoming the house as seen in these photographs. It was also a house where the actual vicar could live, as the Rev. Croft now did, along with his wife, Isabella and two servants (10). He served to 1870.

The Old Vicarage continued to house the rectors and their families, including the Rev. Robert James Crosswell, who became the vicar of St. Petrock's in 1876 (11), his wife Blanche (nee Deverell) Crosswell and their two daughters, Flora Nicolette and Cicely Eveline (12). The upper photograph would have likely been taken during their tenure. The bottom image is the reverse of the postcard where "H.H. HOLE WILLITON & MINEHEAD" is printed on its left edge. This would have been the photographer, Herbert Henry Hole, born in 1836 at Crowcombe, who indeed had photography studios at Long Street in Williton and at various times on Friday Street and The Avenue in Minehead (13).

Herbert Henry Hole died on the 19th of January 1900 and Rev. Crosswell died on the 15th of July, also in 1900 (14). On the lower left of the photograph, two women in white are visible. Their attire suggests they were servants and if that is the case, one could be Florance Mary Pugsley, born in Kingston, Somerset and who was 22-years-old in 1891 when she worked at the Vicarage for the Crosswell family (15). To the right, more in the shadows, is a woman, man and boy. Rev. Crosswell and Blanche Crosswell were born respectively in 1838 and 1836 and would be too old for the couple in the photograph (16). Their daughter, Flora, married John Cecil Turner, a Farm Bailiff from Dorset, in 1892 and they could be the man and woman shown (17). Flora, who sadly also died in 1900, five months before her father, had four children, two of them boys (18). However their birthdates were 1896 and 1899, making both too young to be the boy glimpsed here (19).

The Rev. Henry Herbert Bell and his wife, Katharine Mary Elizabeth, succeeded the Crosswell family at St. Petrock's Church and lived at the Vicarage from 1900 to 1930 (20). Their eldest son, John, was born in 1890 (21) and could be the boy in the upper photograph and the man could be a younger version of Rev. Bell, as photographed at SP- 221. He was not the vicar at Timberscombe while Herbert Henry Hole was alive but Mr. Hole's studio at Williton continued operating after his death and his son Herbert John (Bert) Hole continued to photograph Timberscombe until his passing in 1915 (22).

The School Managers (the Board of Governors) of Timberscombe School, normally chaired by the vicar, held most of their meetings at the Old Vicarage at least until April 1946, after which they seem to switch to gathering at the schoolhouse (23). In 2008 Shirley Eason, who as Shirley Peirce enrolled at Timberscombe School in 1936 (24), recalled that her family temporarily moved into the Old Vicarage shortly after the end of World War II. Before the war her father, Harold Peirce, had worked as butler for Fred Beadle at Stowey Farm. At the outset of the war, Mr. Peirce enlisted with the RAF and at its end, chose not to go back into service, resulting in the loss of his family's home--owned by Mr. Beadle-- on Great House Street. Mrs. Eason wrote "The vicarage was empty, so with local help, we moved in and squatted there--not uncommon at that time". Apparently this did not last long. By winter the Peirce family moved into the East Harwood Cottages (25).

However the days of the Old Vicarage housing the ministry of St. Petrock's were numbered. Jennifer (Jenny) Hansford, who as Jennifer Bond was the daughter of Fred and Constance (nee Lyddon) Bond who operated the Timberscombe Village Post Office provided some insight. In 2022, Jenny remembered her sister, Barbara and Shirley Peirce playing in an empty Old Vicarage during the later years of the war. Timberscombe's vicar from 1940 to 1946 was Rev. Rowland A. W. Newman, who had lost one of his arms to tuberculosis and was confined to a wheelchair, certainly not conducive to the Old Vicarage's staircases (26). In November 1946, the Rev. David John Cockle became St. Petrock's new vicar. He and his wife, Stephanie Therese (nee Ondaatje) Cockle did take up residence at the Old Vicarage (27). Even so, Jenny Hansford remembered playing there in empty areas. Rev. Cockle appears to have been the last minister living in this old building with its post-medieval origins. After Cockle's death in 1951, The Rev. Canon, Sidney Ernest Swann became vicar and quickly bought his own home in Dunster (28).

The Old Vicarage was sold in 1962 and converted to flats. A new bungalow was built by Mr. G. C. Beech (29), just southwest of St. Petrock's, situated in the centre of a lot formerly part of the church's Rectory land, becoming the second Vicarage, as seen at SP-143.

The second photograph still looks much like the top photograph, although the turn of the century chimneys are gone and the centre bottom window has been replaced by a doorway, no doubt as an entrance to the various flats. The bigger change is past each side of the Old Vicarage, where lighter coloured buildings are visible. This is council housing, opened in 1988, to provide much needed and affordable homes to local people, sponsored by the West Somerset Rural Housing Association, a charity formed in 1986. The housing was built on the land that had been the gardens and orchards for the Old Vicarage. It was officially opened, as Vicarage Court on the 16th of June 1989 (a year late) by Princess Margaret (30). To the left of the Old Vicarage, a lower building built of the same red sandstone is visible, being the former barn of the late 17th/early 18th century Kiln Farmhouse (31), also converted to a flat at this time.

The third photograph features the rear side of the Old Vicarage. Past it, on the left with a white doorway, is the building housing Nos. 7 and 8 Vicarage Court. It is part of the council estate but this particular building was not a new build. It appears on the 1843 Tithe Map, also leased by the Rev. William Bailey Whitehead, at the same time he was the landowner of the Old Vicarage.

A shed is visible at the back of the Old Vicarage, with "EGGS SOLD IN SHED"painted on the door and indeed they are, greatly appreciated by Timberscombe villagers who can buy chicken (and often duck and goose) eggs at any time of day or night.

The reverse side of the postcard ( the bottom image) shows that it was postmarked in April of 1906, mailed just from Dunster to Timberscombe. The sender and recipients would have been known to the occupants of the Vicarage. They were all either married or baptised by Rev. Robert James Crosswell and Rev. Henry Herbert Bell. The postcard is addressed to "Mr. S. Stenner", being Samuel Stenner (1856-1838) who was the landlord of Lion Inn, a short walk east from the Vicarage. The message contains good wishes to "Jack", Mr. Stenner's eldest son, John Hale Stenner (1885-1964), who was having his 25th birthday. The sender, Bessie, was Jack's 15-year-old sister, Elizabeth Ann Stenner(1891-1982) who was attending school in Dunster.

The postcard was shared in August 2022 by James Bowley of Buckinghamshire and the current owner of Yew Tree Cottage on Church Street in Timberscombe.

Creator

Herbert Henry Hole /
Anonymous /
Tom Sperling

Date

pre 1900
c. 2005
July 2020

Contributor

Language

English

Identifier

The Old Vicarage / Timberscombe / village centre

Acquisition Date

2022
2020
2020
2022

Acquisition Method

Gift
Research
Gift
Gift

Category

PLACES: Vicarages / Timberscombe

Condition

Good

Condition Notes

entered by Tom Sperling

Condition Date

2020
2022

Dimension Type

W X L

Dimension Units

cm

Dimension Value

11.5 X 19
7.5 X 13
12 X 10
9 X 14

Institution Name

St. Petrock's History Group

Notes

(1) VictoriaCountyHistory.co.uk (2) "Register of Thomas Bekynton, 1443-1466", written by Thomas Bekynton, Bishop of Bath and Wells, edited by Sir H. C. Maxwell-Lyte, Somerset Heritage Society (3) VCH (4) VCH (5) 1841 England Census (6) Timberscombe Tithe Map 1843, Source: Somerset Record Office, Taunton, researched and drawn by John Burns for the Timberscombe School, February 1989 (7) "WELCOME!". pamphlet of the Timberscombe Methodist Church, donated by Joy and Martin Booth, 2018 (8) Surveyors Report on Vicarage July 1856, Taunton Records Office (9) VCH (10) 1861 England Census (11) UK, Clergy List, 1897 (12) 1881 England Census (13) "Secure the Shadow, Somerset Photographers 1839-1939, by Robin Ansell, Allan Collier and Phil Nichols, The Somerset & Dorset Family History Society, 2018 (14) "Secure the Shadow, Somerset Photographers 1839-1939 and Somerset, England, Church of England Burials, 1813-1914 (15)1891 England Census (16) England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915, 1841, 1851 England Censuses and England Select Marriages, 1535-1973 and England Select Births and Christenings, 1538-1975
(17) Somerset, England, Marriage Registers, Bonds and Allegations, 1754-1973 and England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations) 1858-1995 (18) England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1837-1915 (19) 1901 England Census and 1939 England and Wales Register (20) 1901 England Census, the Timberscombe School MINUTE BOOK, 1903-1930 and the Timberscombe School Minute Book, 1930-1974 (21) 1891 England Census and Somerset, England, Church of England Baptisms, 1818-1914 (22) "Secure the Shadow, Somerset Photographers 1839-1939 (23) Timberscombe School MINUTE BOOK,1930- 1974, page 128 (24) Timberscombe School ADMISSION REGISTER, 1935 to 2012 , No. 657 (25) a letter dated 8 December 2008 from Shirley (nee Peirce) Eason to Jim and Terry Bruce of East Harwood Cottages and shared by the Bruce family (26) www. newman -family-tree.net/rowlan-newman.html (27) "The Communist, The Vicar and M15", written by Marion Jeffrey, The Histories , St. Petrock's History Group, January 2021 places Rev. Cockle in the Vicarage and as recalled in 2020 by Maurice Huxtable of Ye Olde Malthouse, a lifelong resident of Timberscombe (28) as recalled in July 2022 by Jennifer Hansford (29) VCH (30) The West Somerset Free Press, June 23, 1989, Reported by Kirsty Senior (31) Historic Environment Record, Exmoor National Park, SS058 and the Timberscombe Tithe Map 1843

Storage Location

St. Petrock's History Group Archive

Storage Date

2020
2022

Storage Notes

St. Petrock's History Group PHOTOGRAPHS
St. Petrock's History Group PROPERTIES

Item Reference

SP-142

Technique

Copies

Comments

Citation

Herbert Henry Hole / Anonymous / Tom Sperling, “The Old Vicarage, with its Post- Medieval Origins: Vicarage No. 1,” St. Petrock's History Group, accessed April 20, 2024, https://stpetrockshistorygroup.omeka.net/items/show/3432.