House History 3: Thomas Fereby

When William Roach sold the house to Robert Short on 2 August 1790, the sitting tenant was listed as a Mr Thomas Fereby.

Thanks to a genealogist with the delightful nom de blog Parishmouse, I now know Thomas Fereby's occupation, dates of birth and death and place of burial. I even have a mini-obituary for him, with the prospect of a fuller one to come.

Parishmouse transcribes historical books and makes them freely available online. Yesterday, the entry for Sodbury in the Universal British Directory 1791 was published. A few minutes later - thanks to Google Alerts - a link to the transcription was in my Inbox.

Listed under "Clergy" in the Directory entry I found:

Ferreby Rev. Mr. Baptist-preacher

Googling on variants of his surname, plus +baptist and +sodbury, enabled me to find the following information:

• From the October 1808 edition of the Monthly magazine and British register, courtesy of Google Books, came a death notice cum mini-obituary:

 At Sodbury, the Rev Thomas Ferebee, aged 76 years - 52 of which he spent in the discharge of his duty, as minister of the baptist congregation in that town; and to whose sterling piety and unblemished reputation all who knew him bear ample testimony.

• From a list of Ferebee BMDs online I have his place of burial:

Thomas Ferebee, no age, 1808, of Sodbury, Shortwood Baptist.

• From the Baptist Historical Society website I have the index entry to his obituary in the Baptist Magazine, 1809:

Ferebee, Born: 1733. Died: 1808. Obituary: Baptist Magazine 1809. Page 105.

Chipping Sodbury Baptist Church is the church where I worship, when my health permits. This morning I attended the Good Friday service there. I am so pleased to know of this connection between our house and a former minister of the church. I am hoping that the obituary in the Baptist Magazine will give me more information about him. In view of his calling, it seems entirely appropriate that his wife's name was Hannah Heaven. They married, by licence, at Chipping Sodbury on 9 May 1774.

Your Starter for 10 - Kate's Bedroom

This is the bedroom which my daughter, Kate, uses when she visits from London. Sadly, I don't have a "before" picture but suffice to say that it was decorated with woodchip wallpaper, painted orange, and had an orange carpet. The beams were covered in thick black paint.

Having stripped off the wallpaper, we used traditional lime plaster to repair the damp damaged walls and finished them with Farrow & Ball's Casein Distemper in All White, which enables the lime plaster to breathe.

We carefully stripped the beams back to the old oak, using repeated applications of non-caustic paste, and then fed the beams with wax:

We removed the carpet and the rotting underlay and found layers of chipboard nailed to the floor. We were delighted to find the old elm floorboards underneath, but they were in very poor condition. We had them carefully restored and waxed by Hicraft Wooden Flooring in Bristol. We also replaced the modern double doors on the cupboard with a new single door made from tongue and groove, with black strap hinges and latch. The new door was specially made for us by K T Home Improvements.

With a new oak bed, rattan lamps and bespoke artwork from May Queen Designs, today this is my favourite room:

Your Starter for 10 - The Outside

I recently dug out the estate agent's details from when we bought the house back in late 2004. Looking at the photographs, I realised that, although our big restoration project has yet to begin, we have actually made considerable progress during the past 6 years. So I thought I'd document what we started with and how far we have come.

This is how the outside of the house looked in 2004:

During the past two years we have repainted the whole of the ground floor, using Farrow & Ball's House White (a pale yellowish off-white) to replace the black and white paint. We've also removed the ugly fake burglar alarm box which sat between the two windows on the first floor. The front door was repainted in blue, as suggested by my mother - thanks Mum, a good choice - and the black 1970s door furniture replaced with brass.

This is how the front of the house looks today:

The concrete render on the back and side of the house was in very poor condition. It had cracked and damp had penetrated and was dissolving the lime mortar which holds the stone walls together.

The walls were sodden with damp and plants were growing on them underneath the render. The stone was beginning to crack and spall. We removed the render from the worst places and repaired and repainted the window frames, which were flaking and rotting:

Finally we removed the gates to the driveway, which dated back to the 1970s and were on their last legs:

We replaced them with custom made gates from Country Style Supplies in Wickwar, once again painted in Farrow and Ball's House White:

All the work was done by an excellent local firm called K T Home Improvements.

1751 Indenture

Back in December, Marian Pierre-Louis posted a comment on House History 1: 1690-1790 saying: "Any chance you could scan one of the old deeds and post it as a blog post? I would love to see what it looks like!"

Now that I have my new Flip-Pal scanner, I have been able to do just that. I took an original document measuring 20" x 24" and made 53 separate, overlapping scans. I then used the EasyStitch software, bundled with the Flip-Pal, to reassemble them into one large image. I am very pleased with the final result.

This is the earliest deed that we possess. It dates from 1751 and it  is an indenture. An indenture was a legal contract which was written in duplicate on one sheet of paper. The copies were then separated by cutting along a wavy, indented line. Each party to the contract was given one half. The authenticity of the contract could be confirmed at a later date by fitting the two parts back together. You can see the wavy line at the top of the image.

I am sure that lawyers back then were paid by the yard, as the indenture contains an awful lot of legal padding around the "meat" of the contract. For that reason, I have not bothered to transcribe the whole thing but just extracted the following sections of interest:

This Indenture made the Fifth day of December in the Four and Twentieth Year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Second by the Grace of God of Great Britain France and Ireland King Defender of the Faith and so forth and in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Fifty One Between Jeremiah Russell of Yate and Arthur Walter of Old Sodbury both in the County of Gloucester Gentlemen Devised In Trust named in the last Will and Testament of Nicholas White late of Rodford in the Parish of Westerleigh in the said County of Gloucester mason deceased and Elizabeth White Widow Relict and Executrix of the said Nicholas White deceased of the one part and John Boddily of Chipping Sodbury in the said County of Gloucester Innholder of the other part Witnesseth that the said Jeremiah Russell Arthur Walter and Elizabeth White for and in Consideration of the Sum of Fifty Eight Pounds of Good and Lawfull money of Great Britain to her the said Elizabeth White in hand by the said John Boddily ... hath Granted Bargained Sold Aliend Remitted Released Conveyed and Confirmed ... unto the said John Bodilly ... All That Messuage Cottage Tenement or Dwellinghouse with the appurtenances wherein one Henry Wickham formerly dwelt and since in the Possession of John Clark but now of James Taylor as Tenant thereof Situate lying and being in Chipping Sodbury aforesaid in a Street there called Horse Street between a Tenement heretofore or late of Ann Somers on the Northside and a Tenement formerly of Henry Crew and since of Sicilly Wickham but now of Sarah Smith on the Southside which said Messuage Cottage Tenement or Dwellinghouse was some time since built and Erected by one Francis Cross and afterwards bought and Purchased in Fee by the said Nicholas White of and from David Clark and Mary his Wife who had before purchased the same of one John Clark and was then or heretofore called the Smith's Shop ...

At the bottom of the indenture are the signatures and seals of Jeremiah Russell, Arthur Walter and Elizabeth White. It is interesting to see that Elizabeth, the widow of a property-owning craftsman, was able to sign her own name.

Lovely listing

Listed Buildings

Our house is a Grade II listed building. A listed building is one which has been placed on the Statutory List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest. There are just under 500,000 buildings in the UK to which this applies.

According to English Heritage:

Listing helps us acknowledge and understand our shared history.  It marks and celebrates a building's special architectural and historic interest, and also brings it under the consideration of the planning system so that some thought will be taken about its future.

The older a building is, the more likely it is to be listed. All buildings built before 1700 which survive in anything like their original condition are listed, as are most of those built between 1700 and 1840.

Grade II buildings are nationally important and of special interest; 92% of all listed buildings are in this class and it is the most likely grade of listing for a home owner.

A listed building may not be altered without special permission from the local planning authority. This is called listed building consent and is in addition to the normal requirements for planning permission.

(cartoon by the very talented Merrily Harpur)

Our Listing

Our house was listed on 29 July 1983 when it was described as:

C17 house, remodelled in early C19. Coursed rubble, pantile roof. Three storeys; 2 windows, glazing bar sashes. Ground floor has modern bow windows. Heavy flat timber hood on brackets over modern door with plain painted stone surround. Gabled 2-storey wing and 2-storey extension at rear (originally separate cottage or workshop). Date plaque 1819 on front dates re-modelling. Interior has chamfered beams.

The listing is wrong about the date plaque, which is actually 1812, and the hood over the door is stone rather than timber. The listing also fails to mention a number of other historic features such as the inglenook fireplace, elm floorboards, oak doors, iron door furniture, shell-headed buffet and spice cupboard.

 

Application for listed building consent

Before making a formal application for listed building consent and planning permission, our architect has submitted a request for pre-application advice from the planning department at our local council. They will give us an informal assessment of their likely attitude to our proposed application, enabling us to tailor our plans accordingly. Hopefully, this will help to avoid disputes when our actual application is submitted and will enable things to proceed more smoothly and quickly.

Our architect submitted the request just before Christmas. We heard on 4 January that it has been received and registered and that we should hear back from them within 2 to 4 weeks.

House History 2: 1790-1873

For 83 years the house was in the possession of one family, the Shorts. They were cordwainers - the name for makers of shoes and boots who worked with good quality leather, as opposed to cobblers, who literally cobbled together old leather scraps.

2 August 1790

William Roach sold the house to Robert Short of Yate, cordwainer, for £112 10s. Mr Thomas Fereby was the tenant.

Robert Short and his wife, Ann, had two children, George and Jane, baptised at Wickwar in 1765 and 1768.

Thomas Fereby married Hannah Heaven, by licence, at Chipping Sodbury on 9 May 1774.

1793

Robert Short's son, George Short, remodelled the cottage adjoining the house.

21 December 1801

Robert Short died intestate and the house passed to George Short, his only son. Like his father, George was a cordwainer.

George Short was baptised at Wickwar on 1 December 1765. He married Jane Rawbone in Yate on 12 May 1788. George and Jane had two children, Priscilla and George, baptised at Yate on 5 October 1788. Priscilla had been born before her parents' marriage and was baptised under her mother's name of Rawbone.  George and Jane Short had a further nine children baptised at Chipping Sodbury between 1792 and 1810.

1812

George Short remodelled the front of the house, replacing the 17th century gable front with a fashionable Georgian style facade.

15 September 1815

George Short mortgaged the house, together with a property in Yate, for £260 to Thomas Watts, proprietor of the Royal Oak in Chipping Sodbury.

£180 of the money was used to pay off an earlier mortgage on the property in Yate, which George Short and his sister Jane had inherited from their father, George having used the money to buy out Jane's half share.

The other £80 was for George Short's own use. It may well have been used to pay for the building work on the house.

23 April 1818

George Short wrote a promissory note to his son-in-law, John Haynes, in return for a loan of £260 (presumably to pay off the 1815 mortgage).

1 July 1829

George Short signed an indenture granting the reversion of the property to John Haynes upon his own death. This was in settlement of £290 owed by George Short to John Haynes (the 1818 loan of £260 plus £30 accrued interest).

9 May 1833

George Short died, aged 67, and was buried in a large chest tomb, prominently situated at the entrance to the churchyard of St John the Baptist, Chipping Sodbury.

Under the terms of the 1829 indenture, the property passed into the ownership of John Haynes. John, who  was described as a gentleman, was married to George Short's eldest child, Priscilla.

6 June 1841

The census shows the occupants of the house as John and Priscilla Haynes. John was aged between 65 and 69, of independent means and not born in Gloucestershire.

September 1844

John Haynes died and left the house to Priscilla in his will.

30 March 1851

The census shows the occupants of the house were Priscilla Haynes, a widow and house proprietor, aged 64 and born in Yate, and her niece, Elizabeth Short, daughter of Priscilla's brother, Shirley Short.

7 April 1861

The census shows Priscilla Haynes, a widowed house proprietor, aged 74 and born in Yate. She was living alone.

16 August 1864

Priscilla Haynes died childless. Under the terms of her will, the house was to be sold and the proceeds used to pay legacies to her brothers and sisters and their families.

29 June 1866

Priscilla's brother, George Short, bought the property for £140 from her estate. For the first time, the "court or garden" was mentioned and the adjoining cottage was included in the sale. George Short was already tenant of both properties.

George Short was also a cordwainer. He and his wife, Ann, had five children born in Chipping Sodbury between 1829 and 1841.

8 November 1870

George Short died, aged 82. His effects were valued at under £200.

2 April 1871

The census shows that the house was occupied by George Short's son, Shirley Short, a bootmaker, aged 29 and born in Chipping Sodbury. The other members of the household were Shirley's wife, Ann, and sister, Victoria.

Shirley Short had married Ann Endicott in Bristol only a few weeks earlier.

24 October 1871

Shirley Short bought the property for £150 from his father's estate. Shirley was already the tenant of the house and cottage. He was using the cottage as a workshop for his boot and shoe making business.

5 January 1873

Shirley Short died childless, aged only 31. Under the terms of his will, the property passed to his wife, Ann. She sold it four months later.