Donkey Lane Community Orchard – who lived there 180 years ago?

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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, John 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. After the births of Susan and Martha they had a son, Joseph in 1831. However, baby Joseph was probably not expected to survive because he was privately baptized at home and although he did live to be ‘received into the church’ within the month he is not on the 1841 census so it is presumed he didn’t see his tenth birthday.

Next door, William and Elizabeth Way had four sons: William (21), Heden (18), George (10) and Alfred (7). Father and the older boys were all agricultural labourers, even George at 10 years old! Perhaps William at 50 years old had found slightly more security, as his marriage certificate and the birth certificates of all his children show him as a general ‘labourer’ rather than ‘agricultural labourer’. The Ways married in 1817 when William was 26.

In the middle cottage lived an elderly couple: John and Esther Wade were 78 and 65 years old, having married eight years previously after both being widowed. The census lists John as an ‘independent’ which means he had some private income, perhaps some savings that saved him from claiming help from the parish. Mary Munday, a lacemaker, lived there as well, and maybe having a lodger made financial ends meet for the Wades.

Also in the middle cottage was the Williams family. Thomas, 60, was another agricultural labourer and his wife Sophia (55) also earned money by making lace. They had three children, Harriett, Rebecca and Joseph - aged 20, 15 and 10 respectively.

 
Sharing the bottom cottage nearest to where the railway line is now were John and Sarah Guntrip and Sarah’s 85 year-old mother Mary Gomm. John, at the age of 60, was still working as a woodman. They were another couple who stayed in the local area: John had been born in Longwick and Sarah in Chinnor.

 
Next door were Edward and Maria Howlett with their eight children. They had come from comparatively far away (Bray, Berkshire and Blandford, Middlesex) but brought up their family in Chinnor where Edward was a farm labourer. By the 1841 census they had been married 25 years. The half cottage would have been full with seven daughters and a son, aged 23, 21, 19, 18, 15, 13, 9 and 5. By Helen’s birth Mrs Howlett was in her early forties.

The 1841 census gives limited information, just names, ages and some occupations, but from it we can picture the families and something of their lives. Marrying in their mid-twenties or later, these families were headed by mature or elderly men working long hours in manual outdoor jobs. Apart from John Guntrip the woodman, all the men were general or agricultural labourers. 10 year-old George Way was already following on and contributing to the family income. Other older children certainly worked too, although these details are not given on the 1841 census. Adult children and widowed mothers stayed with their families.

 
Several of the adults had not had the education to write their names, although they may have been able to read a little. For example, on their marriage certificate, John Wade signed but Esther ‘made her mark’, showing that she couldn’t write her name. John Guntrip, their near neighbour, also ‘made his mark’ as their witness, and Elizabeth Way did the same at her wedding.

The women worked hard too – everything, including drawing water from the well by the middle cottage, the laundry, harvesting and preserving fruit from the variety of trees planted on the plot, to be done by hand. Sophia Williams and Mary Munday were some of many professional lacemakers in this area and it is very probable that all or most of the women and girls supplemented the family income by lacemaking.

Clearly life was crowded and hard: open fires, draughts, outside privies and all water to be raised from a well was mid-19th century normality. The six families in their three rented cottages might have lived life very close together, but there would also be company and support. And maybe the fact that the Bishops, the Ways, the Williams and the Howletts had between them ten children aged between 16 and 23 might have made a lively life in that top corner of 1841 Chinnor.

Cathy Whiteway - From research by Bernard Braun and Carol Stewart

If you are interested in knowing more or you have further information or photographs to add to the ‘Story’, we would love you to contact us either by email greeningchinnor@gmail.com or phone Carol Stewart on 07764 452777. Other Orchard articles can be found via the ‘Project’ tab on our website at www.greeningchinnor.blogspot.com.

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