Ernest Arthur was born in Langford, the youngest son of Charles Brownett, a coachman/gardener at Langford Court and his wife, Sarah Ann née Symes. In 1911, he was listed as a postman, aged 17. Also living in Langford were his brother, Edwin James (23), a domestic gardener, and their sister, Mabel Ellen (14).

He was known as Arthur, or Jim, and was Private 26046 serving in present-day Iraq with the 5th Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment, when he died on 16th January 1917 at the age of 22. He is buried in the Amara War cemetery (Grave Reference XVIII.D.9).  Amara (now Al Amarah) is a town on the left bank of the River Tigris some 520 kilometres from the sea. It was occupied by the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force on 3rd June 1915 and immediately became a hospital centre. Amara War cemetery contains 3,696 identified burials and 925 unidentified casualties of the First World War.

On the 3rd February 1917 the following obituary was printed in the Weston Mercury and Somersetshire Herald:-

“BURRINGTON HERO FALLS PRO PATRIA

 Much sympathy is extended by residents throughout Burrington and District toward Mr and Mrs Charles Brownet [sic] in the loss of their youngest son, Arthur Brownet, of the Wiltshire Regiment, who was killed in action at the Persian Gulf on January 16th. His parents had been wondering why they had received no letter from him, and on Saturday morning were shocked to receive a communication from the War Office notifying them of his death. The gallant young soldier was well known in the district being for many years in the Langford post office, where he was greatly missed when called up. Being of a genial kindly nature, he was very much beloved by those who came in contact with him. He was a member of the Burrington Church of England Men’s Society, and was also a member of the Men’s Club Committee. Mr and Mrs Brownet have one other son at the front and one serving with the YMCA.”

While at the front Arthur had become friends with a Samuel Millbank and they had pledged that if either were killed the other would visit their family. Samuel did that and later married Arthur’s sister Ellen (Nellie). Their grandson John Millbank has provided information and photographs since the publication of the Burrington in WWI book including the photographs of Ernest in postman’s uniform and Edwin with a horse.

Of other members of the family, Reginald Charles was born in 1884 and served with the YMCA from 1915 to 1920, as he was unfit for active service. In April 1915 he married Rose Shepstone. He died in 1939.

 Edwin James, who was born in 1888, served with the Royal Engineers as a Lance Corporal from 1914 to 1919 and saw active in France and Italy. Edwin did not marry, living in later life with his sister Lucy.

One of the nice consequences that results from the publication of our books on Langford and from having this website on Langford History is that enquiries regularly come in about people who have lived here in the past.  Usually this is from individuals seeking information about their forebears and the homes they occupied. It is often the case that they tell us more about Langford than we are able to tell them about their ancestors.  It is particularly satisfying when the benefit is mutual.

A recent example occurred following an enquiry from Deborah Howells about her great grandfather, Thomas Fudge.  An entry in the National Probate Calendar for 1938 quite clearly refers to him as “of Langford Hall, Langford, Somersetshire”.  Our first thoughts were that this must refer to the Drill Hall in Lower Langford.  But no.  Then we were shown a copy of Sheet 165 of the One-inch, New Popular Edition Ordnance Survey map that was fully revised in the 1930s and published in the 1940s, after WWII.  It clearly marked Langford Hall on the Wrington side of the A38 at Havyatt, where Havyatt Farm and the properties on the other side of Havyatt Road are now[1].

All of this land was sold in the auction of the Wrington Estate in 1895.  Havyatt Farm, on the north-east side of Havyatt Road, together with 200 acres of land, was sold for £7800 to Edward Payson Wills, one of the many sons of Henry Overton Wills II.  Havyatt Lodge, on the other side of the road, which was let to a Mr Gibson, was sold to a Mr Power for £4850.  The main property included 91 acres but the lot also included the “rights of the vendor as lord of the manor”.  This gave rights over a further 1000 acres of land.

Havyatt Farm was more recently bought out of the Wills estate by the Alvis family, whose members still occupy it.  But Havyatt Lodge has had a much more chequered existence and is the subject of several local myths and legends that are sometimes at variance with verifiable facts.  The stories about Thomas Fudge, in particular, do not cast him in a very favourable light.  Not knowing if Deborah would welcome a potential skeleton in her ancestral cupboard, we were initially nervous about feeding back the things we heard.

We’ll start with one of the stories.  Thomas Fudge owned a boot-making factory in Bristol. The story is that the business fell on hard times during the great depression of the 1930s.  Thomas Fudge was said to have set fire to his premises and claimed on the insurance.  This worked so well that he later decided to do the same at Langford Hall.  What he’d forgotten was that he’d hidden much of the factory stock down the well at the Hall.  This was, of course, discovered when the brigade tried to put the fire out and Thomas ended up in prison for fraud.  A nice tale but, sadly, not one that is borne out by the records we’ve been able to uncover.

There are several Bristol families with the name of Fudge and a number of the members are called Thomas, so confusion is easy.  Several of the Fudge families were also involved in shoemaking and it seems likely that there were two contemporaries named Thomas Fudge each described as boot or shoe manufacturers.  The Western Daily Press on October 3^rd, 1933 reported the sudden death of Mr Thomas Fudge, boot manufacturer of Holly Hill Road, Kingswood.  This is clearly not Thomas Fudge of Langford Hall and it seems more likely that he was the proprietor of a factory that had been badly damaged by fire 32 years earlier.  The event was recorded in the Bath Chronicle of Aug 15^th, 1901.  It reported that the premises of Fudge and Williams in Hanham Road, Kingswood, were destroyed along with their contents and the firm’s books. It expressed surprise that Mr Fudge’s house, which was near to where the fire was most intense, remained undamaged.

Thomas Fudge of Langford Hall was born in about 1860 in Hanham.   Newspaper reports from October and November, 1892, record the bankruptcy of Thomas Fudge, boot manufacturer of Bell Hill, St George.  He was charged with concealing over £100 of stock behind nailed-up boards on the top floor of the factory and of not declaring two sums he had received totalling £130.  He was initially remanded to Horfield prison and then transferred to the house of correction (for more minor offenders) at Lawford’s Gate, just beyond Old Market, Bristol.  He was finally bailed in a total surety of £1000. One of the magistrates dealing with the case was none other than Edward Payson Wills. When Thomas came to trial at Gloucestershire Assizes on November 25^th, 1892, he was found guilty and sentenced to 18 months hard labour.  The Western Daily Press of December 12^th, 1892, advertised the factory to be sold or let, and its machinery and stock to be auctioned.  Further notices in February announced the auction of Thomas’s household effects.  The consequences of the bankruptcy and conviction must have been very severe for both Thomas and his family.

Thomas seems to have bounced back into business quite quickly.  However, he was soon again in trouble with the law.  At the end of December, 1894 he was fined 2s 6d for striking a 13-year-old boy with a heavy stick.  Apparently the victim and others were in the habit of lighting fires on waste land adjacent to his factory and the magistrate had some sympathy for him but ruled that he had over-reacted.  Thomas was quick to prosecute those he felt had offended against him.  There were several instances of individuals convicted of minor thefts from the boot factory and in November 1897 there is a report of a prosecution he brought against a commission agent for seeking compensation by false pretences.  The case failed.

In the 1901 census, Thomas is recorded living with his wife, Annie, and their four sons, in Holly Lodge Lane, St George’s.  He is described as a boot manufacturer.  The Bristol trade directory of that year refers to his factory in Orchard Road, St. Georges. In the census of 1911, Annie was living in Cardiff with three of her sons but Thomas has not yet been found.  Thomas next appears in April 1928, living in Hollywood, Parry’s Lane, Stoke Bishop, and selling two-story, five-bedroom residences there.  Two years later, another advertisement for “charming residences to purchase or rent” refers to him living in Oakhurst Hall, Parry’s Lane.  Thomas had become a builder and property developer.

At about this time he must have come into possession of the property at Havyatt previously called Havyatt Lodge but then known as Langford Hall.  In another court case, in December, 1930, Thomas Fudge was sued for £34 15s for electrical work carried out at Langford Hall that he considered unsatisfactory.  The plaintiff received judgement for £2 5s of the claim.  By May 1933 he was trying to sell Langford Hall by auction.  It is described as comprising three reception rooms and nine bedrooms, as having electric light and water and included 15 acres of land.  It clearly failed to attract the price he expected and was again up for auction in May 1937.

During this period, Thomas Fudge was once more in court, this time answering a charge of slander.  He had engaged the widow of a former town clerk of Jarrow as housekeeper.  She had been so employed for 17 days when, on Easter Sunday, 1932, she returned from an evening visiting friends to be accused of being drunk and dissolute.  When Thomas told the Court he disapproved of her going to dances, the judge said he was “out of date” and awarded the lady £500 damages.

In the early hours of October 15^th, 1936, a serious fire destroyed a cottage adjacent to Langford Hall.  Only the efforts of neighbours and the local fire brigade saved the Hall from damage.  It was less fortunate 18 months later when what was described as a disastrous fire did very severe damage.  Thomas’s properties did seem to be somewhat fire-prone.

Thomas Fudge died in a Clifton nursing home on July 17^th, 1938.  He had been living with his son, Herbert, at 64 Parry’s Lane, so it is possible that Langford Hall had been sold the previous year.  When probate was granted, Thomas’s estate was valued at £14,136 8s. 9d. Annie died in 1941.

Our thanks are due to Deborah Howells for alerting us to Langford Hall and for supplying most of the detailed material on the Fudge family.

John Gowar
July 2013

From the 12^th century to the 19^th century a significant landholding called Whatley figured in documents relating to the Manor of Wrington.  But where was Whatley and what became of it?  These were puzzles raised by Michael Lawder in the April 1976 issue of Wrington Village Journal.  They remain a mystery.

 “Our” Whatley can easily be confused with the small manor and parish of the same name near Mells which, like Wrington, was both held by Glastonbury Abbey and listed in the Domesday Survey.  The Whatley in Wrington is mentioned for the first time in 1189.  This is in a survey of Glastonbury manors and it records that a Roger of Whatley held half a knight’s fee in Wrington.  Typically this would have comprised 2 to 3 hides or 250 to 300 acres of ploughed land.  Together with its pasture, meadow and woodland, it would have been quite a considerable holding.  In other documents, Roger is referred to as Roger of Pont Audemer, that town inNormandybeing the site of his main estate.

 The land in Whatley was clearly the cause of some dispute.  It is strange to think of absentee Norman knights arguing over this area of Wrington.  In 1198, a list of Wrington tenants owing military service assigned the half knight’s fee at Whatley in the Manor of Wrington to a William of Wanton’.  Then, in 1213, an entry on the Fine Roll records the payment of 20 marks and two palfreys to King John, for the recovery of this estate by Roger’s nephew, Jocelin of Pont Audemer.  A few years later again, records show it being held by Henry of Sandwich.  In a settlement of11 Nov 1235, at an Assize of Mort Ancestor, Simon of Sandwich acknowledged the right of Thomas of Moreton to hold the land. Thomas presumably claimed Whatley through inheritance and also held the manor now submerged underChewValleyLake.

 In 1298, a survey of the royal hunting Forestof Mendiplisted 21 settlements (vills) which surrounded the Forest and whose residents would have been adversely affected by the forest laws.  Whatley (Whatleigh) is one.  All the others are still the local parishes of today.  Along the north slope of Mendip the list runs:  Banwell, Churchill & Langford, Whatley, Winscombe, Shipham, Rowborough, Burrington, Blagdon, Ubley.  Whatley was then held by John of Moreton.

 By 1342, when Abbot Walter of Monington had a feodary compiled listing all his hereditary tenants, Whatley had passed to Robert, son of Robert of Brent.  During this time and over the following 200 years, many exchanges of parcels of land are recorded between the Brent family, a family called Whatman and a family based at Bourne, near Rickford.  And in this process, Whatley passed out of the control of Glastonbury.  In a post-mortem document of 1508, it is recorded that a later Robert of Brent held the manor of Over Langford, Nether Langford, Synderland, Whatley & Whatman’s Brent.

 It is my belief that the Brent family merged the land of Whatley, in the Manor of Wrington but now in the parish of Burrington, with holdings from the parts of Upper and Lower Langford, in the parish of Churchill, to form the estate based on Langford Court.  In many documents, dating from the 1500s to the 1800s, it is referred to as the Manor of Langford alias Whatley alias Whatman’s Brent.  It is now simply known as Langford.

John Gowar