Donkey Lane Community Orchard - Who lived there 180 years ago?

The first full population census, taken in 1841, tells us who lived in the three cottages on the land now known as Donkey Lane Community Orchard. It shows us 31 names from the six families living there, which is hard to imagine when you look at the site now. All six were renting from the owner, Joseph Allnut.

The census taker worked from the High Street towards Chinnor Hill and our knowledge of who lived in which cottage is based on a presumption that he continued uphill to follow the dwellings in order. The lane was then called Holland Lane. (Donkey Lane is a later and never an official name.)

In the top cottage, nearest Chinnor Hill, lived the Bishops and the Ways. The Bishop family were Jacob (45) and his wife Ann with daughters Sushannah/Susan (19) and Martha (16). Jacob was an agricultural labourer, probably on one of the local farms. He was born in Oakley in 1796: Oakley then was a separate settlement from Chinnor, connected by a road between heath and fields. He married Ann Keen from Bledlow when he was 25.  Read more...