Originally a Grade III listing Ford Cottage, as it has come to be known, was upgraded to Grade II on the 19th July 1985
British Listed Buildings describes it as a small house, early 18th century, extended during the 19th century. Colour washed coursed clunch rubble and brick; old plain-tile roof with brick stacks. 2-unit plan extended to L-plan. One storey plus attics and 2 storeys. Low rubble front range has a projection, to left, containing combined entrance and large window, and there is a 3-light casement to right; one 2-light half dormer to left. Projecting lateral stack divides front. Taller brick C19 rear wing has sashes and some segmental arches. Interior not inspected. Included for group value which means it is one of several properties of interest and the properties from The White House to the Manor House all have listed status.
Until the end of the nineteenth century the property was copyhold of the manor of Bensington and whenever the cottage was transferred the legal business was usually done at a court held in the Castle Inn or the Red Lion in Benson. For a period during the middle of the century the Ladies of the Manor were Catherine and Maria Stapleton whose property included 320 acres in the Parish of Warborough.
The description of the cottage, faithfully copied out by scribe after scribe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, was ‘All the messuage or tenement situate at Warborough in the County of Oxford abutting North on the Common ditch and adjoining the Meeting House Yard on the East and abutting Single Field on the South with Garden and appurtencies’
Ford Cottage takes its name from Mr Ford who came from London and kept shop there during the Second World War.
The current owner has a comprehensive set of documents and it is clear that the property was leased from the Stapleton sisters for many years and the majority of these lessee’s in turn had tenants.
The earliest resident we can confirm is Silas Biesley* who was living at the cottage in 1781. Born in 1736 he had married Anne Gammon in 1761 and they had six children.
The churchwarden’s accounts show that Silas Bisley was paid £2 18s 10½d to build the 108-foot churchyard wall in 1765. Silas died in 1801.
* Silas’ surname is recorded on Ancestry and in our churchyard with a variety of spellings but the Parish Register, below, shows it as Bisley.
Parish register – St Laurence Church, Warborough
At this time Mary Goody with her son, Bartholomew are mentioned on paperwork showing ownership.
In 1801 the cottage was leased by William Wiggins until 1815 when he surrendered the lease, he later took it back in 1819 and held it until 1837 when it passed to the Burgis family of Benson.
Although difficult to identify the properties in Warborough, William Wiggins, living with his wife, Judith and described as grocer are recorded in 1841, 1851 & 1861.
In 1843 records show that William Wiggins appeared at a court in Watlington charged with using weights that did not measure up to the Imperial Standard Weights. He was fined 5 shillings and ordered to pay fourteen shillings in costs.
William Wiggins Conviction in the Watlington Court – 25th February 1843
We know from our research into The Post Office that William Wiggins, a shopkeeper was recorded in the 1847 Post Office Directory as the receiving house for letters from Wallingford.
The 1871 census confirms that Henry Saunders Frewin is living with his wife Elizabeth on ‘Warborough Common’ He is 27 years old and his occupation is given as paper hanger and grocer. We have photographic evidence which indicates this is the cottage. Henry had been born in Warborough in 1844.
Photo dated 1890, with presumably Elizabeth Frewin at the door
It is said that for a few weeks the Post Office operated from here while the counter was being set up in the Post Office that was run by Kezia Gibbons.
On the 1881 census which has Henry listed as a Cattle Dealer, there is no mention of the Grocery business and he and Elizabeth have a daughter, Elizabeth Adeline, known as Adeline, who is eight. Moving on to the 1891 census Henry is listed once more as a Paper Hanger and Elizabeth is listed as a Grocer. Adeline is now 18 and still living with her parents. Elizabeth died in 1894 and was buried in St Laurence Churchyard. Adeline married in 1897 and in 1901 Henry is found living in Warwickshire with his daughter, now Adeline Turner and a Harry Frewin, son aged 4, Henry returned to live with his sister in Benson where he died in 1925.
Returning to Ford Cottage as we now know it, we find Joseph S Johnson, with his wife Eve and they ran the shop on the 1901 census. Basil Deed’s article names a BJ Bent, & Mr Preston living there but they are unconfirmed from the census.
We have sight of a Deed of Re-enfranchisement dated November 1910 which converted franchised land into freehold property, thus ending the manorial rights over the property¹. The title was passed at this point to Frederick William and Albert Bailey. The property remained in the Bailey family until sold in 1953.
In 1911, the census indicates that the property is still running as a shop, with Eliza Brenchley living there as shopkeeper.
The 1921 census does not clearly indicate the property and its owner but by the time of the 1939 Register Mr Sydney Ford, his wife Mabel and daughter Alice have moved from Bexley Heath to run the shop.
Entry in the 1939 Register
Mr Ford continued to run the shop during the war years but he died in September 1947 and was buried in St Laurence Churchyard. Mabel returned to London.
The cottage then ceased to be a shop and a Mr Holiday lived there for a while before in 1953, the Bailey family sold the house to Mr Lisle James Fruin, his wife Jessie Ellen and daughter Eileen moved from Oxford The ‘Players Please’ signs were finally removed. Lisle died in 1968 and Jessie Ellen in 1979, both are buried in St Laurence Churchyard. Eileen continued to live in the village and for a period was the Parish Clerk. Eileen is remembered by people in the village; she sold Ford Cottage to the current owner in 1985 and moved from the village.
Next to the cottage was the Quaker Meeting House and Burial Ground. The meeting house was demolished and eventually the Burial Ground became part of the cottage garden.
The cottage showing the gate into the former Burial Ground
The Quakers were very prominent in the Parish, many lived in Shillingford and would make their way to worship via a footpath off Quaker Lane so they did not have to pass the church. This footpath originally led into the Burial Ground but now ends at the Green Space on the edge of Six Acres Meadow.
The 1898 – 99 Ordnance Survey Map shows the Meeting House and Burial Ground to the east of Ford Cottage
The map dated 1912 shows the Meeting House has been demolished and the Burial Ground as disused.
The site of the Quaker Meeting House and its graveyard were purchased at the same time as the property by Mrs Anne Brewer, and form part of the garden.
A few headstones were still on the site when Mrs Brewer moved in and she offered them ,to the Wallingford Meeting House, who did take six stones* and seven others remain in the private garden of Ford Cottage.
Mrs Brewer occasionally has people, usually American, asking where the Burial Ground is.
Like so many cottages around the Green, Ford Cottage has featured in several episodes of Midsomer Murders:
Bad Tidings – 2003
The House in the Woods – 2005
The Great and the Good – 2009
Breaking the Chain – 2015
Image from The Great & The Good.
The property has been extended in recent years.
*The stones have now been returned to Warborough and will in time be displayed in the Six Acre Meadow and the Quaker history will be the subject of another article.
¹While Anne was going through the documents relating to the property, she discovered that the deed of Re-enfranchisement was between Robert Douglas Norton (London) Captain Arthur Duncombe Shafto (Durham), and Salford Aloysius Cathcart de Trafford (Richmond) to Frederick William and Albert Bailey, and she says ‘although one wonders how they became involved in this’ The question had to be answered and I found that Robert Douglas Norton was the son of Amelia Duncombe Shafto who was the Gt Granddaughter of Robert Shafto (1732-1797) who is better known as Bobby Shafto, who went to sea!!
Arthur Duncombe Shafto was married to Margueritte Cecile Catherine Stapleton who was the Gt. Gt. niece of Catherine & Maria Stapleton
Compiled by Lynda Raynor
Many thanks to Anne Brewer for her meticulous studying of all the documents relating to the property.