"NOTES FOR THE HISTORY OF FELSHAM"

By Sir John Tilley, 1951

Sir John Tilley, National Portrait Gallery

The history of Felsham, like the history of most English villages: has not been in anyway momentous. Felsham, however, has this great merit. It is a typical English village of the best quality; a vil­lage properly grouped round the Church and the Village Green, two greens in fact, with the Village Hall, formerly the School, and the Village Inn near the centre.

To start with geography, or geology: Felsham has no marked feat­ures. It lies on or near the banks of the Orwell; the Orwell in its early childhood. Although we are often told that the proper name of the river until it reaches Ipswich is the Gipping, I call it the Orwell because two of my own fields bear the old names of Orwell Field and Orwell Paddock, which suggests that Orwell was at any rate an al­ternative name for the young river. Some say that Orwell is its proper name up to Stowmarket. I once proudly told Lady Beatrice Pretyman, who was then living at Orwell Park, between Ipswich and Felixstowe, that I too lived an the banks of the Orwell. She rather flattened me by asking what boating facilities we had at Felsham. However, I escaped, having a vision of small children about the arch on the Bury road, by saying that we had only small boats.

Felsham is bounded on the North by the Great Wood (Felsham Hall Wood and Monk's Park Wood) which must be considered a feature of the parish, though not part of it. It is of interest to note that on our side of the wood, not far from Felsham Hall, there was formerly an alder carr, from which no doubt the village drew some of its water supply. I was told by a former Curator of the Bury Museum that he knew of forty alder carr in Suffolk. The late Mr. Redstone, a great authority on Suffolk, once told me that Ipswich itself drew water from a carr; hence the name Carr(e) Street, borne by one of the Ipswich streets. A carr is a damp piece of ground planted with alders. I suppose the small piece of ground near the arch, which was planted with alders some sixty or seventy years ago is prac­tically a carr.

One peculiar feature of Felsham geology is the gull between the Bury Road and the Rattlesden Road, where the Orwell, for reasons which I have not fathomed, has made a ravine, in some places nearly fifty feet deep. The river has at some time apparently worn away a great slice of the hills which slope down to it on either side. We are sometimes told that some hundreds of years ago the Orwell was a much bigger river, navigable by boats or even barges as far as Rattlesden. My own guess is that it may have been so navigable in winter, when drainage was poor and floods were frequent.  There is a second gull further down the stream, near the Rattlesden road.

Felsham, in one sense, must have been well off for water. There are fields near the Cockfield road, behind Maidenhall, which bear the names of Upper and Lower Queach and, according to the dictionary, Queach means moist or boggy. Moreover, most of the old farm houses were surrounded by moats, and although moats are said to have been intended as a protection against wolves, they must have supplied water for stock and other purposes.  Some of the moats are separated from the houses and I wonder whether this means that the house has at some time been rebuilt, or whether the cattle and sheep were driven at night on to a sort of­ island, the moat being for their protection rather than that of the humans.

There seems to have been a considerable pond to the east of the Church House (or Town Houses) from which occupiers of the building and lessees of the Church Croft (now the allotments) were allowed to draw water. The land at one time in the l7th century belonged to John Cocksedge. I may add here that as, long ago as the 14th cen­tury Cocksedges in Felsham were paying the subsidy (something like income tax). The Church registers too in the 18th century are full of entries of births, deaths and marriages of Cocksedges. Henry and Peter Cocksedge, for instance, were exceedingly prolific. Towards the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century Pilbrows, Horrexes, Gladwells and Grimwoods abound.  In a diction­ary of surnames, that of Cocksedge is included among those derived from plants. As a plant, sedge is familiar, but I have not my­self heard of Cock as a variety of sedge.

Felsham Dovecotes

Last month I described how Felsham is “moat famous” because it contains a relatively large number of moated sites for a parish of its size. An important function of a moat was as a source of food: wild duck, geese and swan for the medieval table supplemented by fish on non-meat days.

An additional source of protein would have been provided by pigeons bred in dovecotes. It is quite possible that there were dovecotes on most of the farms in Felsham though historians tell us that ownership of dovecotes were largely a privilege of the feudal overlord. Dovecotes were used in Britain for over 700 years and because pigeons can breed as many as six times a year they would have been extraordinarily productive and very valuable.

Evidence of the existence of dovecotes can be found by looking on maps for field names such as Dovehouse Yard or Dovecote Pasture. Sometimes, actual structures are shown: an estate map of Felsham Hall Farm in 1729 shows a dovecote to the north of the moated farmstead at one end of a long pond.

What would these dovecotes have looked like? Almost certainly, they would have been built of materials similar to the original farmhouse and its surrounding barns and outhouses. The drawing below shows the timber-framed dovecote, constructed in the late 16th century, which still stands at Church Farm in Clare.

The building measures 6m by 5.5m and is 3.65m high to the eaves. The walls are clad with lath and plaster, and with weather boards on the lower half. (This was often done in farmyards to protect the plaster from damage by farm animals.)

Dovecotes would have been proofed against vermin at the lower levels, with closable apertures in the roof to give birds access. There would also have been ladders inside to enable the owner to harvest the “squabs” [baby pigeons]. The interior of the dovecote would be dimly lit and its upper walls would contain ledges or shelves to create nesting conditions that closely mimicked those in the wild.

It was important that dovecotes had a nearby water supply [i.e. a moat or pond] because, like many grain-eating birds, rock doves are well known for their strong thirst.

In addition to providing pigeon meat, the dovecote also supplied feathers for stuffing material, while the droppings were valued as fertiliser and as an ingredient for softening leather in the tanning process.

The use of dovecotes declined in the 18th century. Writers of the time often condemned pigeon-keeping as causing a great waste of cereals and as a nuisance to other farmers.

More information about the dovecote at Felsham Hall Farm in 1729 can be found at
http://homepages.phonecoop.coop/c.felsham/Dovecote%20at%20FH%20Farm.htm



Recipe for Stewed pigeon from ‘Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management’

INGREDIENTS - 6 pigeons, a few slices of bacon, 3 oz. of butter, 2 tablespoonfuls of minced parsley, sufficient stock No. 104 to cover the pigeons, thickening of butter and flour, 1 tablespoonful of mushroom ketchup, 1 tablespoonful of port wine.

Mode.—Empty and clean the pigeons thoroughly, mince the livers, add to these the parsley and butter, and put it into the insides of the birds. Truss them with the legs inward, and put them into a stewpan, with a few slices of bacon placed under and over them; add the stock, and stew gently for rather more than 1/2 hour. Dish the pigeons, strain the gravy, thicken it with butter and flour, add the ketchup and port wine, give one boil, pour over the pigeons, and serve.

Time.—Rather more than 1/2 hour. Average cost, 6d. to 9d. each.

Sufficient for 4 or 5 persons.

“Down on the allotments 170 years ago”

The 1841 Census Return for Felsham mentions a farm labourer called William Osborn. We know he worked an allotment because there is a document that shows he rented a plot of land between October 1839 and October 1840.



“My name is William Osborne and I live on The Street in Felsham. I am thirty years old and I have lived in Suffolk all my life. My wife is called Susan and she’s thirty too. We have three children. Nero, my son, is ten this year; Christiana, my eldest daughter is eight; while my youngest Eliza is only four.

I’ve had an allotment for a few years now. It’s a fair size being about a quarter of an acre and I try to get down there most evenings when it is fine. I grow mostly potatoes and wheat. Sometimes I grow barley instead of wheat. Peas, beans and cabbages also do really well. My wife and the children help out with the weeding and harvesting. I mostly do the planting and digging. I am not allowed to borrow a team of horses and a plough, I have to cultivate only using my spade. The trustees say that it keeps us agricultural labourers “gainfully employed” and out of mischief for longer.

The landowners and the rector get really worried if we start grumbling and that’s why they have given over some of their land to us ordinary poor folk as allotments. Ten years ago, during the Swing riots, there were a lot of incendiaries going out and about in Suffolk. Hungry farm labourers crept out at night setting fire to barns and hayricks. They desperately needed higher wages to feed themselves and their families. I sympathised with them but I had only just got married and we were busy setting up a home, so I stayed in at nights.

Nowadays, we are asked to spy on each other. We have to report any suspicious activity to the farmers. They are still very worried about their property getting destroyed. There is no doubt that a box of the new fangled “safety matches” makes starting fires much easier.

The farmers in Felsham didn’t like it when the Feoffees of the charity land gave us agricultural labourers our vegetable patches. They thought we should be working for them every blooming hour of daylight. Bloodsuckers! If it wasn’t for our benevolent Rector who insisted on going ahead with the allotment plan, my family would be on short rations. Without potatoes we would be very hungry indeed! Certainly, we would not be able to feed the pig which we keep in our back yard and which we slaughter just before Christmas.

Our pig is called Caesar. (Nero, my son, called him that after learning about the Roman Empire in the dame school). The children love to scratch his back and feed him with old cabbage leaves and potato peelings. The children help to clean his sty and carry the manure over to the allotment in my old wheelbarrow.

On the allotments everyone helps each other. The other day, my neighbour gave me a bucket of lime to sprinkle on my cabbage patch. I’ll probably give him some of the muck from Caesar’s sty later in the year. Everyone is really friendly. It can get quite lively on Guy Fawkes Night when we have a bonfire and burn up all those old pea sticks and bean poles. The children love eating the roast chestnuts and chase about having a riotous time. Afterwards, the men usually head for the Six Bells for a pint or two. The Rector doesn’t like us going in the public house or loitering on the street, but he always praises us if he sees us going home with a full basket of fresh vegetables! Of course, it is in the interests of the Rector and the other trustees to keep us busy and well-fed. The Poor rates would go up if we had “to go on the Parish!”

If anyone misbehaves on the allotment, like steals someone’s potatoes or tools, they will be in big trouble. The least that can happen is that they will be thrown off the allotment and not even allowed back to harvest their crops. The Rector sermons us every Sunday about behaving properly and living according to the Ten Commandments. He says things like: “Every labourer must endeavour through God’s help, to live in all things as becometh a Christian,” and so on and so forth. Me and the family have to go to the Church every Sunday – it is one of the conditions of renting the allotment. Talk about keeping us poor on the “straight and narrow”. We are not even allowed to work our allotment on a Sunday – it’s not “becometh of a Christian” you see!

It will soon be Old Michaelmas Day – the 11th October – then we will have to pay our annual allotment rent. Ten shillings! That’s a week’s wages! We try to save a bit each month to pay this, but on top of the rent for our small cottage it doesn’t leave us much to spend on “extras”. Even so, we get by. I wouldn’t give up my allotment for anything.”


For details of the documentary evidence for this imaginary description of a Felsham allotment holder in the first part of the 19th century, go to my blog at:
http://felshamhistory.blogspot.com/2010/08/felsham-allotments-rules-and.html

Felsham History Posters

These posters are the first of a series exploring local history themes related to Felsham and the surrounding area.


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Some of Felsham's listed buildings

There are 27 listed buildings in Felsham. It would be interesting to know a lot more about them. The exteriors are generally open to view but the interiors are often the most interesting part.


For the complete list, see http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/england/suffolk/felsham/



The poster below gives basic details and position of just nine buildings:



Click to see detailed version of this poster using Adobe Acrobat.
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Felsham’s changing countryside:

Felsham Hall Farm over the centuries

Geographically, Felsham is situated at the headwaters of the Rattlesden River, which is a western tributary of the Gipping flowing towards Stowmarket. Its landscape typology can be described as that of a gently sloping valley on medium clay soils.
Historical maps and aerial photographs can reveal how the local landscape on this typical rolling valley clay-land has changed over the centuries.


Click to see poster in Adobe Acrobat

The Origins of English Field-names

Some examples from Felsham Hall Farm, 1838



Field names mentioned in deeds and on maps can tell us a lot about land use over the centuries. Field names existing on farms today can sometimes go back to the time of enclosure of the great fields of the medieval period.

This poster was produced for the Felsham History Day September 2010:



Click on the map to get a larger image. (Then, holding CTRL and moving the roller on your optical mouse, you make the image even larger and hopefully clearer. You can make the image even larger on your Windows screen by pressing F11)
Alternatively, click here to see a detailed version of this poster using Adobe Acrobat

The Dovecote at Felsham Hall Farm, 1729

Drawing by Jenny Portlock based on a photograph by John McCann in "The Dovecotes of Suffolk", 1998.

This poster was prepared for the Felsham History Day September 2010:



Click on the map to get a larger image. (Then, holding CTRL and moving the roller on your optical mouse, you make the image even larger and hopefully clearer. You can make the image even larger on your Windows screen by pressing F11)
Alternatively, click here to see poster details.

Felsham Allotments: Rules and Regulations, 1838

This is an image of a poster produced for the Felsham History Day September 2010



Click on the map to get a larger image. (Then, holding CTRL and moving the roller on your optical mouse, you make the image even larger and hopefully clearer. You can make the image even larger on your Windows screen by pressing F11)

Alternatively, click here to access the poster in Adobe Acrobat.

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