NEWSLETTER NO. 19 - Nov 2008
xxx
WADHURST HISTORY SOCIETY
This acquisition came from Edenbridge as a house was being cleared - it will be on display in the Commemoration hall at our meetings. A colour lithograph from the Ancient Order of Foresters Friendly Society, it certifies “that Bro William Walter Winch was duly admitted a Member of the Order in Court No. 4267 on the 31 st day of April in the year 1910” and signed by William George Benge Chief Ranger, Joseph Smith Sub Chief Ranger and Frank Boorman Secretary. There is some research to be done here one day.
With the Certificate came a copy of the Wadhurst Parish magazine for November 1911; this records the marriage of William Walter Winch and Alice Norman on Sep 30; it also records the marriage on Oct 21 of John Biddlecombe Hayward and Sarah Norman [perhaps Alice’s sister?] and on Oct 7 the marriage of Alfred Pooley and Helena Daisy Smith [perhaps connected to the Sub Chief ranger?]. And to complete the picture, on Sep 29 the baptisms are recorded of Alfred, Henry, George, Caroline and Lily Florence Pooley and of Helena Daisy Smith: a real ‘Darling Buds of May’ event by the look of it. There’s some work here for our family historians.
But for starters: William Winch occurs in the 1901 census as a 13 year old at Beals Barn with his family: father Thomas aged 47 agricultural labourer, his mother Mary aged 50, his elder brother, James aged 18, assistant stockman on the farm, and sister Eliza aged 15. None were born in Wadhurst.
The Pooley family lived, in 1891, in 12 Woods Green Cotts, moving to no. 11 by 1901. They were a large family: James, aged 45 in 1901, the father, a carpenter; his wife Elizabeth aged 45; children: Alfred [15], Fanny [14], Henry [12], Horace [11], George [8], Alice [7], Caroline [5], Newton [4] and Lily Florence [11 months]. By 1901 the three eldest children, Ada [23], Fanny [21] and Emily [20]
had left home. Why were only four of the children at home in 1901 baptised in 1911?
Incidentally, this Horace Pooley was not the Horace Pooley of the Royal Fusiliers, who died on 11 Mar 1919 and is buried in the Parish churchyard; he was the son of the domestic gardener at Olives in 1901.
The same parish magazine also records the marriage of Arthur Lavender and Annie Maud Cheesman on 18 Oct. And the burial of Robert Barlow Gardiner, presumably a descendant of the Revd. Robert Barlow Gardiner, vicar from 1818 to 1846.
