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The Clock House
 | The Clock House, part 1, 1728 - 1850
Written by Christopher N Lewis
The Clock House has been described as the “grandest house in Abingdon”. It was built for Benjamin Tomkins, a local, wealthy maltster, for himself and his wife Sarah. The initials BTS can still be seen carved into the brickwork above the outermost, first floor windows.
Benjamin Tomkins Senior died in 1732 and an 8 page codicil to his will gives detailed instructions to his sons for the erection of a set of Almshouses for "four old men and four old women" on his land in Ock Street. His instructions were followed to the letter and the building has since been known as "Tomkins Almshouses". More of that Building later.
Over 50 years later, a fire insurance policy for Sarah Tomkins (a descendant) of Ock Street in the Parish of Abingdon in Berks dated 26 Dec 1785 shows that the estate was still intact and gives more details as follows:
On her now Dwelling house only situate as aforesaid not exceeding nine hundred & seventy Pounds
Household Goods therein only not exceeding Three hundred Pounds
Wearing Apparel therein only not exceeding Sixty Pounds
Plate therein only not exceeding Thirty Pounds
Warehouse Brewhouse Laundry Chamber & Office adjoining & communicating not exceeding Two hundred & Fifty Pounds
Utensils & Stock therein only not exceeding Forty Pounds
Turrett Clock & Bell on said Offices not exceeding Forty Pounds
Stables Harness Room & Hayloft adjoining each other near not exceeding One Hundred & Fifty Pounds
Utensils & stock therein only not exceeding Twenty Pounds
Coachouse & Henhouse adjoining near not exceeding Fifty pounds
Two Stables with Plaster & Tiled not exceeding Twenty Pounds
House & Offices adjoining near in Tenure of - private not exceeding Sixty Pounds
House only in Tenure of Benj.n Leader Carrier Brick Stone Plaister & Tiled not exceeding One Hundred & Fifty Pounds
Tenements & Offices adjoining in Tenure of Benj.n Leader aforesaid Brick Stone Plaister & Tiled not exceeding fifty pounds
Stable & Hayloft at the bottom of the yard not exceeding Sixty Pounds
Carthouse & Dovehouse over not exceeding Thirty Pounds
House & Tenement adjoining in Tenure of Mary Moore private Brick Stone Plaister & Tiled not exceeding Eighty Pounds
House & Shop adjoining in Tenure of Robert Fairbrother as Locksmith Brick Stone Plaster & Tiled not exceeding Sixty Pounds
Stable only not exceeding Twenty Pounds
The above situate in Ock Street Abingdon aforesaid
Three Tenements adjoining each other in Back St. Helens in Abingdon aforesaid in Tenure of Thos. Couldrey & others private Brick House Plaster & Tiled not exceeding Sixty pounds
All brick Stone & Tiled except as above Two Thousand, Five Hundred Pounds.
Duty £1.17.6
The last members of the Tomkins family to live in the house were Benjamin’s great-grandchildren Sarah and John. An ”Abingdon Scrapbook” survives and records the elderly Sarah and John travelling to the Baptist Church by sedan chair. John died May 6th 1846 aged 82, and Sarah on January 22nd, 1850 aged 83. Their gravestone can still be seen in the family plot next to the Baptist Church.
The house and contents were left to relations in London, who sold them by auction. Jackson’s Oxford Journal carried the advertisements for the sales, which read as follows:
Valuable Freehold & Leasehold Property
In ABINGDON, Berks
TO BE SOLD BY AUCTION,
By Messrs. HARRIS and BELCHER,
At the Crown and Thistle Inn, Abingdon, on Tuesday 19th of March at One o’clock (by order of the Trustees for Sale under the Wills of the late John Tomkins, Esq. and Miss Sarah Tomkins.)
Lot 1. – All that capital FREEHOLD MANSION, situate on the south side of the Ock-street, in Abingdon, late the residence of John Tomkins, Esq. deceased, with front entrance into a handsome Hall, paved with marble, leading to the principal staircase and landing; spacious and lofty dining and drawing rooms; breakfast parlour and office adjoining; butler’s pantry and store room; 11 sleeping rooms and 2 dressing rooms, with 2 lofts running the whole extent of the roof; spacious kitchen, with larder and scullery conveniently arranged. The cellaring, which runs under the whole of the house, is light, dry, spacious, and well arranged for beer, wine, coal, &c. – The out-offices adjoining comprise a brew-house, conveniently fitted up for brewing and washing, with lead pipes &c. communicating from a large reservoir of rain water with the brew-house, and from the brew-house to the cellar; a spacious and lofty laundry over the gateway, upon which is a turret, with an eight-day clock; a green-house, wood-house and knife-house, and two servants’ bed rooms; also a capital seven-stall stable, with lofts and granary. The out-houses are approached by a carriage entrance from the street into a well-paved court yard, which leads into the Paddock, Close, and Orchard, extending to the River Ock, and in which are the detached coach-house, piggery, and other offices. – The present right of road will be reserved from Winsmore lane to this lot. – The Mansion is substantially built, and offers a suitable residence for a family of the first respectability.
Also a Brick-built MESSUAGE or TENEMENT in the Ock-street, adjoining the Mansion on the west end thereof, now in the occupation of Mrs. Brooker.
The Close, Orchard, and part of the Paddock and Gardens, are Leasehold, and are held under the Feoffees of Wrigglesworth Charity.
Lot 2. - TWO LEASEHOLD MESSUAGES or TENEMENTS, situate on the south side of Ock-street, Abingdon, in the several occupations of Mr. James Thomas, carpenter and builder, and Mr. John Burry, boot and shoe maker, with large and convenient timber yard, workshops, garden, and offices adjoining, and a carriage entrance to Mr. Thomas’s premises from Winsmore lane; also TWO TENEMENTS adjoining Mr. Burry’s premises; and FOUR TENEMENTS fronting Winsmore lane, adjoining to the gateway. – This lot is also held by lease under the Feoffees of Wrigglesworth Charity, and Mr. Burry has sub-leases of the whole, at an annual rent of £37, which will expire at Christmas, 1855. – This lot will be sold subject to a right of road reserved to Lot. 1.
Lot 3. – All that FREEHOLD spacious, convenient, and substantial MALT-HOUSE, situate in Winsmore Lane, Abingdon, capable of wetting upwards of 20 quarters, with extensive malt lofts, granaries, stables, coke and coal sheds, residence for malt-man, with large yard leading to a paddock shooting on the River Ock, in which is a Rookery, and which paddock is included in this lot. – The whole of this lot, except the Rookery and a warehouse occupied by Mr. Couldrey, is on lease to Messrs. Hall and Tawney, brewers, Oxford, at an annual rent of 40l., which may be determined at Michaelmas, 1853, by the purchaser giving a twelve months’ previous notice.
Lot 4. – All that FREEHOLD GARDEN, YARD, and BUILDINGS, situate in the borough of Abingdon, now in the occupation of Mr. Thomas Couldrey, having the entrance from Winsmore lane. – The garden has for many years past been cultivated as a Market and Nursery Garden, and is well planted with choice fruit trees.
Lot 5. – All those THREE LEASEHOLD MESSUAGES or TENEMENTS and GARDEN, now in the several occupations of Thomas Grain and others, situate in West St. Helen’s street. – This lot is held by lease under the Corporation of Abingdon, for 21 years, from Lady-Day, 1845, at an annual Quit Rent of 10s.
Maps are prepared and will be annexed to the Particulars, on which the various lots are delineated. Lot 1 may be viewed by permission of the auctioneers, and the other lots by permission of the respective tenants; and further particulars may be known on application to Mr. James Badcock, solicitor, or to the auctioneers, Abingdon, Berks
JACKSON’S OXFORD JOURNAL. – SATURDAY, MARCH 16, 1850
Fortunately the map for the sale has survived, and a number of the features can still be found on the ground today. The frontage onto Ock Street has not changed much, the mansion with its steps and railings dominating the view. The double doors are probably a more recent feature. The buildings of Lot 2, now nos. 10-20 Ock Street, have a long and curious history – a file about no. 12, prepared by the Abingdon Buildings Group, is in the Local History section of Abingdon Library. To the west and adjoining the mansion is Benjamin Tomkins’ “little tenement”, slightly set back (now no. 28A). The yard had a set of stables, now the building called “The Beaconsfield” (more about this curious structure in the next part). Going through the arch under the clock, the yard continued, but there was a lawn with formal pathways on the right. Very little of this survives, instead there is a modern office building and car parking space. From here the grounds extended down to the river Ock, as described in the particulars, and included a Pleasure Garden, Kitchen Garden and Fish Pond. All this has been swept away by the Brewery buildings (now housing) and Electricity Sub stations. However the Right of Way described in the particulars has survived, and is now the entrance from Winsmore Lane into the car-park, and numbers 5 & 7 Winsmore lane appear to be the surviving parts of four tenements marked on the map, and sold as part of Lot 2. The three-story buildings (9-23 Winsmore lane) are more modern but stand on the site of the Coach House and sheds. The buildings on Lot 3 have been demolished and rebuilt more than once, the two cottages at the corner, once known as Malthouse Cottages, occupy the site of Coal Sheds marked on the map, and the two buildings now named “River View Terrace” and the associated cark park occupy the rest of the land. The border between Lots 1 and 3 survives in the form of the long side of “George Morland House”, which is built on what was Lot 1. The Market and Nursery Gardens of Mr. Couldrey (lot 4) extend from St. Edmund’s Lane to the River Ock, and are now the Pay and Display Car Park and the newer town houses to the south.
The household furniture and effects were auctioned a few days later and the advertisement in Jackson’s Oxford Journal read:
Sale of HOUSEHOLD FURNITURE and Effects of the late John Tomkins, Esq., at the Mansion, in the Ock-street, Abingdon, Berks, with a valuable collection of rare Britsh BIRDS, in glass cases.
TO BE SOLD AT AUCTION
By Messrs. HARRIS and BELCHER,
On the premises, at the Mansion, in the Ock-street, Abingdon (by order of the executors), on Tuesday and Wednesday, the 26th and 27th days of March, 1850. – All the valuable and useful HOUSEHOLD FURNITURE and effects of the late John Tomkins, Esq.; comprising four-post bedsteads, with dimity and printed furnitures, and mahogany and other posts; invalid bedsteads and easy chairs; fine feather beds, bolsters and pillows; wool mattresses, blankets, quilts, and counter-panes; mahogany and inlaid walnut tree double and single chests of drawers, wardrobes, cabinets, and bookcases; dressing and wash-hand tables, commodes, pier, swing, and chimney glasses, in japanned, mahogany, walnut tree, and gilt frames; mahogany framed scroll pattern settees; lounging, mahogany, bed room, Windsor, and other curious and antique chairs, among which are a drawing room set of eight carved mahogany, hair stuffed, with rich crimson silk damask covers, gilt nailed, and two double elbow or settees to correspond; Harpsichord, mahogany, dinning, loo, Pembroke, pillar and claw, work, and conveniently fitted writing tables; Brussels and other carpets and floor cloths; an excellent eight-day clock, in Indian ornamented case; part of a table service of nankin china (in all 91 pieces), old and modern tea china, glass, &c., &c.; iron-bound casks, washing and other tubs, a general assortment of culinary articles, kitchen requisites, &c., &c.; a well-bred cow, forward in calf; 6-inch wheel dung cart, garden rollers, frames, lights, tools, ladders, &c. &c.; also some splendid myrtles in tubs, and a variety of green-house plants.
N.B. On the second day will be sold, a valuable and rare collection of British Birds, in 60 glass cases, commencing at Two o’clock as near as may be.
The sale will commence the first day in the yard, orchard and offices; including the cow, dung cart, green-house plants, rollers, tools, iron-bound casks, &c. &c., which may be viewed the day previous and mornings of the sale till ten o’clock, at which time, each day, the auction will commence.
Catalogues, at 6d. each (to admit a view), may be had at the Angel Inn, Oxford; Bear Inn, Reading; Jack of Newbury, Newbury; Lamb Inn, Wallingford; Bear inn, Wantage; Railway hotel, Didcot Station; Crown Inn, Faringdon; Marlborough Arms, Witney; place of sale; and of the auctioneers, Abingdon, Berks.
The final results of the sale were described in the newspaper quite simply –
The large freehold mansion in Ock-street, many years in the occupation of the late J. Tomkins, Esq. was brought to the hammer by Messrs. Harris and Belcher, at the Crown and Thistle Hotel, in this borough, on Tuesday last; it was knocked down to D. Godfrey, Esq. for 1570l. The extensive freehold malting and rookery was purchased by a gentleman from Oxford at 760l. There were several other lots, and the sale realized about 3200l.
JACKSON’S OXFORD JOURNAL. – SATURDAY, MARCH 23, 1850, p. 2d
With this sale, the house and its grounds entered a new, and more complicated, phase of existence, which will be described in the next part.
SOURCES
General
- The Story of Abingdon Part IV; Mieneke Cox; Abingdon; 1999
- The Story of Abingdon Baptist Church 1649-2000; Michael Hambledon; Abingdon; 2000
- The malthouse of Joseph Tomkins : 58, 60, East St. Helen's Street : the story of an Abingdon house; Leonard G. R. Naylor; Abingdon; 1965
Wills The National Archive
PROB 11/658 Will of Benjamin Tomkins, Maltster of Abingdon, Berkshire
PROB 11-2036 Will of John Tomkins of Abingdon, Berkshire
PROB 11-2109 Will of Sarah Tomkins, Spinster of Abingdon, Berkshire
Tombstones are next to the Baptist Church, Abingdon
Sun Fire Insurance Records Guildhall Library London MS 11936/335 no. 513260
Jackson’s Oxford Journal and the ‘Abingdon Scrapbook’ on microfilm, and historic OS maps, at Oxfordshire Studies, Central Library, Westgate Centre, Oxford
Plan from 1850 Auction sale at Berkshire Record Office D/EP 7/181/5B
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Abingdon Baptist Church
Written by Michael G Hambleton
Introduction:
The Baptists of Abingdon have been associated with the plot of land which today is numbered 31 – 35 Ock Street for well over 300 years. Their turbulent beginnings lay in the 1640’s – the decade of the English civil wars. Their distinctive views on the nature of the Church and how local churches should be organised and governed led to separation from the Church of England – a freedom for which they had to struggle – and their understanding of the doctrine of baptism soon distinguished them from fellow non-conformists and gave rise to the name by which they are now known.
Both the church as an Ock Street institution and the lives of many of its individual members have influenced the life of Abingdon during five centuries, and in that time various buildings have been erected, replaced or extended on the Ock Street site.
The 17th Century:
When Charles 1 established his head-quarters in Oxford in 1642, there appears to have been quite an exodus of parliamentarian sympathisers from the city to Abingdon. Among them would have been some of Baptist views. Their numbers would have been swollen when parliamentary troops garrisoned the town in 1644. Among these troops, probably as a chaplain, was the young preacher John Pendarves. He began to give regular lectures in St Helen’s. This parish church was without a vicar at the time. The lectures drew large crowds. In 1649, shortly after the execution of the king, we have our first mention of the fellowship which was to become the Baptist Church. Pendarves’ wife Thomasine writes of a people ‘that wait upon God and have fellowship one with another’.
Until his early death in 1656, Pendarves and his large and various congregation are likely to have met for worship in St Helen’s church. A large gathering of radicals came from all corners of England for his funeral, causing such alarm that it was broken up by mounted troops from Wallingford. From then on the Baptists met in a number of private houses and, perhaps to ease the strain of over-crowding, late in 1656 one hundred members of the Abingdon church were sent away to form a Baptist church at Longworth.
With the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, decades of persecutions began for Baptists and other non-conformists and Roman Catholics – involving frequent fines, excommunications and occasional imprisonments. Local leadership emerged, especially John Tomkins, a maltster. He was helped by the appointment of Henry Forty as pastor in 1675. Forty had spent twelve years in Exeter gaol for his faith. Only with the coming to the throne of William of Orange, in 1688, did things begin to improve for non-conformists.
The 18th Century:
In 1700 the first chapel was built on the Ock Street site. The Independent chapel in The Square was erected in the same year. These two houses on the street frontage were possibly owned by John Tomkins. The westernmost of these, now No 35, may even have been an early meeting place of the church. Certainly, in 1731, when John’s son, Benjamin Tomkins, made his will, he left the two houses to the church – no. 35 to continue to be the minister’s house. It could have been so used since 1700. At some time prior to 1774 a Georgian façade was put onto this gabled, timber-framed house.
The Baptists of the 18th century enjoyed two major ministries – those of William Fuller, c 1700-45, and Daniel Turner, 1748-98. Under Fuller the congregation rose to 400. Daniel Turner, remembered as a ‘poet, scholar and pastor’, published several nationally influential works and was able to draw upon a library of some 400 theological books, given by the Tomkins family and placed in 35 Ock Street. Today, known as ‘The Abingdon Library’, they form part of the research library of Regents Park College, Oxford.
The 19th Century
One of the emphases of the church in this century was education. In 1827 the then minister, John Kershaw, called on all non-conformists in the town to launch The British School – ‘for the children of labourers and mechanics’. A large purpose-built school was erected on the site. A house was purchased or built on land to the rear for the head teacher. Additional classrooms were added in the 1870’s. In 1899 the school governors handed the school over to The School Board for Abingdon. The Baptist building ceased to be used when the school was moved to its Carswell site in 1902. It continues today as Carswell County Primary School. Its senior children were moved to form Larkmead School in 1954.
Kershaw was also involved with Benjamin Kent in forming a private school which occupied Radley Hall from 1819-44. The 19th century also saw the growth of large Sunday Schools.
Growing congregations during the early 19th century, coupled with increasing missionary activity at home and abroad, led to the establishing of village chapels at Drayton, Cothill, Fyfield and, eventually, Marcham. Still too small for its Abingdon congregation, the1700 chapel was demolished and the present chapel erected in 1841. The lower courses of the old chapel’s east wall remain.
The 20th Century:
The first half of the 20th century was a time of decline for the Baptists of Abingdon, due in no small part to the two world wars. Money was very short and all the buildings suffered. Both 35 Ock Street and the old British School buildings were becoming unsafe. The 1827 school building was demolished in 1960 and, after the purchase of a manse in Thesiger Road, 35 Ock Street slipped into dereliction. In the early ‘70’s , as the church began to prosper again, the chapel was extended and its interior ‘modernised’. In the mid 1990’s the church was able to restore and extend no. 35 and, as part of its contribution to the recently formed ‘Church in Abingdon’ (a coming together of 14 of the town’s churches) open it as a community house for the people of the town – staffed by a team of 70 volunteers drawn from those 14 churches and others besides. The church forecourt was landscaped, railed and gated at the same time.
The 21st Century:
The church continues to grow numerically. The neo-classical façade of the chapel has been restored. And 35 Ock Street has celebrated the tenth anniversary of its opening.
Sources:
The archives of the church (e.g. complete minute books from 1721 to the present, including lists of church members) are available for reference at The Angus Library, Regents Park College, St. Giles, Oxford. Arrangements to be made with the Librarian/Archivist.
Bibliography (selected):
The complaining Testimony of Some of Sion’s Children London 1656 Angus Library
Munster and Abingdon W Hughes Oxford 1657 Angus Library
John Pendarves, The Calvinistic Baptists and
The Fifth Monarchy, B.R. White Angus Library
A Sweet and Hopeful People M.G. Hambleton 2000 Abingdon Library/Angus Library
Aspects of Abingdon Past vols 1 & 2 Two Lectures from St Nicholas Church, Abingdon |
Tomkins Almshouses
Written by R C M (Dick) Barnes
Tomkins Almshouses on the corner of Conduit Road and Ock Street are listed as Grade II* buildings of particularly important architectural and historical interest. They were built in accordance with the will of Benjamin Tomkins, a wealthy maltster of Clock House in Ock Street, who died in 1731.
He bequeathed land called Steeds or Studs in Ock Street, on which there was then a dwelling, a malthouse, granaries and other premises, and gave his sons precise instructions to erect almshouses consisting of eight tenements in two blocks separated by a courtyard. They were to occupy part of the land, a plot 153 feet in depth and 43 feet wide, on that part of Steeds between “Mrs Simses” house (later the Crown public house) to the left and the existing gateway into the land on the right. Each block was to have four ground-floor tenements, with two rooms 12-foot square and, under an archway in the middle of the block, a pump and a “necessary house”. He also specified that the frontage to Ock Street should have an entrance with two brick pillars and a “proportional low gate”. The builder, probably the same as at Brick Alley almshouses between St Helen’s and the river, produced the well-built tenements in blue bricks, and gave them a handsome architectural effect by decorative features such as red-brick facings to windows and doors, Dutch gables with blind windows facing the street, windows with leaded glazing, and a small parapet in the centre of each block to break-up the roofline. The rear of the courtyard was enclosed by a screen wall with an arched gateway leading to gardens, a small room with window above the archway, and the whole crowned with a clock in an ornamental pediment. The gardens have been converted into a secluded courtyard, but were originally divided into plots, one for each tenement.
Above the arch is a panel recording that :
“These Alms Houses were built in the year 1733 by the Order of Mr Benjamin Tomkins and according to the form prescribed by him to his sons Mr Benjamin and Mr Joseph Tomkins who were Executors to his last Will and Testament by which he gave Sixteen Hundred Pounds to endow the Same for four Poor Men and four Poor Women forever”.
These men and women were to be from the parishes of St Helen and St Nicholas, or any other parishes within four miles of the town. The money was used to purchase a freehold estate at Weald near Bampton to provide an income by which the eight poor people were clothed and given a weekly allowance. Although Benjamin Tomkins was a staunch Baptist he did not impose religious conditions on the occupants of the almshouses. This was in contrast to another of his bequests that provided relief for “such poor Christian people in and about Abingdon as dissented from the Church of England and were not Papists”.
The reference to two pumps suggests that the property might have had a well. There was also a nearby source of water from the handsome brick “fountain” known as the Carswell, which had been erected in Ock Street a few years earlier by Mr Richard Ely, to distribute fresh water from springs in the fields which later became Albert Park. The Carswell was close to the almshouses, just to the west of The Crown. In 1947 it was moved to a safer non-working position on the east wall of the almshouses in Conduit Road, where it forms a decorative feature in the centre of the four windows of the tenements.
In the 1860s Christ’s Hospital developed the farmland to the north of Ock Street as a new residential suburb, away from the overcrowding and industrial smells of Ock Street. By this time they owned the remaining part of Steeds, and demolished the houses and industrial premises on it in order to make the Conduit Road access to the new development. As a result, the almshouses no longer backed onto fields, and had roads on two sides, but their layout facing into the courtyard fortunately retained an air of peace and quiet in an increasingly busy town. Another major change occurred when the administration passed from the individual trust (Benjamin Tomkins’s Charities) to Christ’s Hospital, which now administers all the Abingdon almshouses.
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No 12 Ock Street
 | Written by Bridget Rudge
Number 12 is possibly the oldest building on the south side of Ock Street. Beneath the existing tiled roof are the remaining timbers of an earlier 15th century roof behind a partition in the east gable (on the left in the picture), showing that this was once a twin-gabled house, probably thatched, like other Abingdon houses at this time. The higher roof enabled an attic room to be inserted in the west gable. The staircase to the first floor, the attic room and to an extension at the back is probably 18th century, suggesting that this was when the house was altered to provide more up to date living space. A passage way at the side leads to a long yard, now occupied by “Appledore Cottage”, where there were once workshops and further dwellings.
The Amyce Survey conducted in 1554, which lists Abingdon properties following the Dissolution of the Abbey, shows that George Moore, a shoemaker, occupied the premises. He died three years later, owing rent to Christ's Hospital, and his widow, Margaret, died in 1558, the year of Elizabeth's accession. To the east on the corner of Winsmore Lane was a tenement later known as “The Chequers” and to the west “one tenement... called the sign of the Bear”. Both the “Bear” and number 12 were leased to Thomas Orpwood in 1562; he served as Mayor three times and was Master of Christ's Hospital in 1570-1. He may have sublet number 12.
Both “The Bear” and number 12 came into the possession of the Wrigglesworth Charity set up in 1647 to provide a preacher and alms for the poor. The preacher was John Pendarvis, Presbyterian vicar of St Helen's during the Civil War, who left St Helen's to lead the newly formed Baptist community. In 1653 number 12 was leased by Alice Wise, widow of Thomas who may also have leased “The Bear”. She paid tax on three chimneys in 1663.
William Jarrett,”Trumpetter” of the City of Oxford signed a lease in 1681 though may not have lived in the property himself. A member of a well established Abingdon family, he also rented a house in Oxford where he belonged to the Oxford Waits, a group of musicians who performed on ceremonial occasions. Andrew Etty signed leases in 1693 and 1703. A Sergeant-at-Mace, he was appointed to be in charge of the Gaol in Abingdon in 1689 but moved to Oxford Castle as Keeper of the Prison in 1700 though he continued to lease and sublet property in Abingdon. His son, Charles, may have been the carpenter who worked on the Brick Alley Almshouses and the Council Chamber and perhaps also the alterations at number 12.
Benjamin Tomkins, wealthy maltster and a leading Baptist leased “The Bear” and number 12 in 1735. Both were held and sublet by his family, together with much property in Ock Street, until the death of John Tomkins in 1845. The lease of 1754 refers to number 12 as “a messuage now divided into three tenements now in the several occupations of John Pink, William Tyrell the Younger, and Joan Green widow”. Similarly in 1822 the lease included “a messuage divided into three tenements now Martha Lassar, Abraham Poole and Ann Hohnden”. Most of these names are those of Baptist families.
Later Census Returns also show three separate tenancies at number 12. John Burry, shoemaker, was living in the house in 1851 with his wife, Elizabeth, a nephew and a servant; he employed five men. The two properties at the back were occupied by Jane Giles 75, a widow, and Richard Rose 81, a pauper shopkeeper, and his wife, Harriet 74. The next three censuses, 1861, 1871 and 1881 show Samuel Gardiner, master shoemaker from Tetbury, living in number 12 with his wife, Ann, a son and a daughter and in 1881 with John Burry's widow, Elizabeth, as a boarder. In the yard were Martha Holinder 69 a “late” dressmaker in 1861, two Buckle brothers each with a wife and infant in 1871 and a painter ...? Steane's family and a widow, Hannah ...?, in 1881. Abingdon Directories suggest that Samuel may have carried on his business across the road at number 7 and later at number 5 Ock Street. In 1891 he was living, a widower, with his unmarried daughter, a music teacher, at number 1.
The 1891 census shows the occupants of number 12 to be Robert Gawler 34, a plumber, glazier and painter born in Wantage, his wife, Jane, a confectioner, and their 7 month old son, Alfred. The 1894 Vale of White Horse Directory lists Robert Gawler as a “painter and refreshment room proprietor”. At the back were the family of Alfred Turner 35, a bricklayer's labourer, and Adam Couldrey 26, an insurance agent and organ blower.
By 1901 the Refreshment Rooms were occupied by Thomas E. Bonner 29, a coal merchant born in Shepherd's Bush, his wife Mary, two small daughters and his mother-in-law, Elizabeth Cole 58, from Burford. There is no mention of properties in the yard. An entry in “Endowed Charities of the County of Berks” published in 1908 has “A dwelling house, garden and premises, No.12 Ock St. let to T.E.Bonner for 21 years from Midsummer 1901 at a yearly rent of £25”. An undated photo held by the Oxfordshire Museum Services shows a carrier's cart, “T. Bonner, Oxford and Abingdon,” outside the premises of “BONNER Refreshment Rooms”.
I have not looked in detail at the 20th century occupancy of the property nor do I know when it ceased to belong to the Wrigglesworth Charity whose records are held at Christ's Hospital, but I am told that the premises were used by a chiropodist and later an antique dealer. Recently it was a Video shop and is now once more Refreshment Rooms.
The “Bear” had ceased trading as an inn by 1822 and was largely rebuilt during the 19th century. The former “Chequers” on the corner of Winsmore Lane was also leased and sublet by the Tomkins family from 1722-1837 eventually becoming a butcher's shop, but the Christ's Hospital Ledger in 1880 records, “Tenant insolvent with no assets. Butcher's shop closed, premises being dilapidated and unfit for business. House continues to be occupied as a cottage”, and three years later, “a new house and premises built on these sites”. The occupant in 1901 was Alfred Albright, a draper and outfitter. Today it is an Indian restaurant.
Members of the Abingdon Buildings Record are grateful to Christ's Hospital for a list of leaseholders. Other information was mostly obtained from books and records held by the Local Studies Library in Abingdon where a longer version of the above is available.
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The Lamb Inn
Written by Manfred Brod
The Lamb was a high status property towards the eastern end of the street, facing the Corner House across the Sheepmarket. It was already well established at the Amyce census, which shows it as a 300 by 30 ft property with pertinences and curtilage or close, held by Richard Ely under letters patent of 12 December 1553, and lately in the tenure of John Goodridge; it paid 40s annual rent on a 21 year lease. Ely was a founder member of the Corporation, and, for a short period before his death, a governor of Christ’s Hospital. With the Lamb went a garden or orchard, leasehold, some way to its west and near the Ruddle Cross, which may in fact have been used as a pasture for customers’ horses; its rent was 2s 8d.
In 1577, the double lease was renewed at 46s 8d by Avis Carter, Richard Ely’s widow. She had married Robert Carter, a baker, but by 1589 was again a widow. Her will, when she died in 1594, has an inventory which is very informative on the organisation of a major sixteenth-century inn.
There were two main reception rooms, well furnished with wainscot, glass windows, and painted cloths. The kitchen (or buttery) seems to have been equipped to feed twenty or more people. The three bedrooms were of different classes of comfort, although travellers of the time would not have expected a room, or even a bed, to themselves. The Kingston Chamber had two feather beds and three straw beds, but two of the latter might have to be spread on the floor. The Four-bedded Chamber had four feather beds and three of straw, though again there were, as the name implies, only four bedsteads. Above this was another bedroom, much more spartan but probably adequate for most travellers. It had neither glass nor painted cloths, but there were two feather beds for its three bedsteads. Altogether, the inn boasted twenty pairs of sheets, with one missing.
The living and working quarters were separated from the public rooms. There was a family bedroom which had three bedsteads with featherbeds, and a trundle bed. A son, Robert Carter, had a room to himself; he seems to have been handicapped in some way and his half-brother, Richard Ely jnr, was asked in the will to look after him. The maid or maids had a chamber with miscellaneous furnishings and ‘old’ covers. There was a cellar, a kitchen, a brewhouse, and a milkhouse. Apparently in a separate building were storehouses of various kinds, mostly with lofts for grains and malt. Five hogs, a sow, and six piglets rooted about in the backside, at the far end of which were the stables and a wood store. Elsewhere, there were five ‘beasts’, either horses or cows.
The inventory also mentions a holding in Ock Meade, presumably the orchard, garden or pasture already referred to, which was valued at £9, and ‘a certain mead’ in Wilsham at £10 10s. This may well have been the 1 acre meadow in Wilsham mentioned by Amyce as belonging with Ock Street, and having a rental value of 3s 4d.
The inn remained in the hands of successive Richard Elys until the last of that line died in 1732. In 1676, the lease is made out to a Richard Green, who seems to be financing some modernisation. By 1695, a Richard Ely again had the lease and there had been a partial rebuilding and modernisation; instead of the untidy jumble of sheds in the old backside, there was now a Great Court with a stairway and gateway built over part of the yard. Presumably, Green had provided the funds, and had held the lease as his security. Also, the lease of 1695 indicates, rather ambiguously, that Christ’s Hospital now had ‘lodgings or chambers’ within the boundaries of the inn. In 1715, there was a further mortgage agreement, involving two prominent Abingdon men, Matthew Anderson and Thomas Prince, both sometime mayors, and a London goldsmith. Anderson would eventually take over the inn after Ely’s death. In 1747 a Richard Clement was in occupation. Clement would later go into competition at the Rising Sun, which faced the Lamb from the north side of the Sheepmarket. In 1769, the Lamb passed to a Robert Ridge of Clifton, Oxon, and in 1773, Coventry Hardiman was the landlord and was followed by John Hardiman, presumably his son, in 1801. The father was still alive, and now described himself as a corn factor. In 1815, and again in 1830, the leases were renewed by William Westbrook. At the 1831 census, the inn was home to four adult males of whom two were described as innkeepers, and three adult female servants. Fidel’s valuation of 1835 appears to show the house in the hands of the butcher John Collingwood as owner, which seems to be an error; Westbrook reappears in Read’s valuation of 1838.
The Lamb closed as an inn in 1851, and was redeveloped as a dwelling house, the Square House, with remarkable ornamental brickwork. This was demolished in 1935 to make way for the Regal Cinema, and that in its turn has been replaced by a new block of flats. |
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