Introduction

There has been a settlement in the vicinity of Cottingham, Northamptonshire, long before the Roman conquest of Britain. The Romans were instrumental in facilitating the efficient movement of troops and goods around the country through the building of a network of roads. One such highway was the Via Devana which was believed to connect the towns of Colchester in the south east and Chester in the north west. Its actual route overall has been subject to conjecture and controversy. However, the line through Northamptonshire is acknowledged to connect the strategic Roman centres of Leicester and Godmanchester, outside Huntingdon, and the major arterial routes of the Foss Way and Ermine Street. Cottingham lies astride the Via Devana, its line marked by the present day Corby Road and School Lane.

In the seventeenth century, the cottages of Cottingham were clustered around "The Cross", the meeting of what is now the junction of Corby Road, Rockingham Road, High Street and Church Street. Most of these dwellings were built of a simple wattle and daub construction (1) and housed both peasants and their livestock. The nineteenth century saw an expansion in the building of "one or two up, one or two down" cottages in brick to house the local labourers and their families. These developments spread along the sides of the aforementioned roads and into spaces and closes in between. One such area became known as Barrack Yard and is the area of interest of this article.

Cottingham stands on the escarpment of the southern face of the Welland Valley. Its local geography is surprisingly hilly. The floor of the village is The Cross and High Street. From there, the roads rise steeply up the hillside: Corby Road to the south and Rockingham Road to the east. Blind Lane reaches a peak at about the site where Barrack Yard stood before falling away down Pinfold Bank to reach Corby Road. From this point, the Parish Church of St Mary Magdalene can be seen across the rooftops to where it stands upon its own promontary.

It is not yet clear when the buildings within Barrack Yard were constructed but there is evidence suggesting the cottages were built in stages over a number of years. The cottages on either side of Corby Road were probably started in the last decade of the eighteenth century. The original Weslayan Chapel opened its doors in 1808. The steepness of the road caused some of these dwellings to be built into the embankment, the retaining wall reaching to the height of the first floor. From here, Barrack Yard was reached up a flight of steps and through a narrow tunnel which ran through the buildings which bordered Corby Road. These features can be seen on the old photographs of Corby Road.

These first cottages were built of stone. By present day standards, conditions here were primitive. The first cottages were built up against the retaining wall, leaving no rear exit. There was no running water or formal sanitation. The latter cottages, those at the Blind Lane end, were built of brick. The final four had a small yard space to the rear. The dimension of this can be seen on the accompanying photograph of the only building remaining of the era to this day. On the rear face of the barn (built, we believe, in 1864) are the remains of the wall of the first cottage. The space between this wall and the fence was the width of the yard.

Materials and Method

Two factors have become increasingly clear over time with the study of the genealogy of Cottingham: the dense, entanglement of the families living there through marriage and other liaisons over the generations; and the commonality of an address in Barrack Yard. The study of Barrack Yard itself has been beset with confusion and difficulty. Its extent can be clearly seen on the Ordnance Survey map of 1886 above and its form delineated on the plan of 1959. However, it is not certain that Barrack Yard was ever an officially recognised entity. The name does appear on the census returns of 1871, 1891 and 1911 but is absent from the censuses of 1881 and 1901. The site lies immediately to the east of the Royal George public house, the oldest building in the village which had its origins in the thirteenth century. The Royal George was usually listed as a Blind Lane building although in 1911 its address was given as Corby Road. The returns themselves are also confusing as no house numbers appear in any of the Cottingham census returns. Dwellings were identified only by the serial numbers given by the enumerator (the person filling out the census return). These numbers probably reflect the order in which the enumerator worked his way around the village, so that the same cottage (with the same residents) may well have acquired a different number each decade.

A further source of confusion has been the way in which certain surnames change with the passage of time. We note this particularly with the Beesworth family. The first record of the name in this format was when William Beesworth (said to have been born in Cottingham about 1750) married Alice Sumpter in Bringhurst, Leicestershire in 1797. This version persisted into the latter part of the nineteenth century. Increasingly, individuals became recorded as Beedsworth and Beadsworth and it is this last form which now prevails. There is one further observation of interest. The name Beesworth does not appear in the Cottingham indexes prior to 1750. However, there was a Bosworth family whose name does not appear after than date. Is this a coincidence?

It should also be noted that street names in Cottingham were not stable with time until late into the nineteenth century. As examples, Corby Road was called alternatively George Street and Town Street in early census returns; Rockingham Road was originally Hill Street and School Lane, Dag Lane. Our examination of the census returns initially centred on one known anchor point. Blacksmith, John Claypole, worked from his smithy, a large brick built structure on the corner of Blind Lane and Barrack Yard between 1871 and 1901. This is the only building from Barrack Yard still standing today. We have followed the pattern of numbering of the residences over the decades from the census returns. Coupling this with the numbering on the 1959 plan, we came to the conclusion that from an official or postal point of view, Barrack Yard was merely a part of Blind Lane, although it is possible that the residents were classed as living in Corby Road in the 1881 census. It remains a bizarre observation (to this author at least - ADC) that to this day, the postal address of the village is Cottingham, Market Harborough, Leicestershire!

We cannot hope to trace the minutae of every person or event which has happened in Barrack Yard. We have however traced the residences of each member of the families of interest (**) and their genealogical interconnections who lived there over the census returns between 1861 and 1911. The adjoining table shows these families sorted by decade and enumerator number. This demonstrates the proximity of neighbouring families and because of the way data is stored - female individuals always keep their maiden names, gives a hint of involvement by marriage. Almost every property is linked in some way to one of our families.

** The families of interest in Cottingham are Beadsworth, Binley, Claypole, Crane, Craxford, Jackson, Tansley and Tilley - whose stories can be found in this section of the RED pages - Ed

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Page added: January 10th 2012
Last updated: December 1st 2014

Results from the Censuses

The 1871 census

The earliest record shows a mixture of residents living in Barrack Yard. In the nine houses listed, there were five young families, one adult family and three retirees. Eighty percent of the inhabitants had been born in the village. Two thirds of the cottages housed between 6 and 8 individuals. Half the heads of household were in named occupations or trades (blacksmith, stone mason, shoe maker); the remainder were labourers. One elderly woman was in receipt of Parish Relief. There were 24 children aged ten years and under and two of the ten year olds earned a few pennies acting as bird scarers. Five young women and girls were listed as servants or "assisting at home" including Ann Panter, who was living with the Coles family. The other common female occupation was that of lace runner whose job was to embroider lace items.

Already the intertwining of families can be seen. Blacksmith John Claypole lived at the corner of Blind Lane next door the Coles. Further down the terrace, Alice, the wife of James Tansley, lived next door but one to the family of her brother, Francis Coles. James Tansley was the half brother of John Claypole's wife, Ann Munton (born before his father married Elizabeth Munton). Frances, the wife of James Foster, lived next door to her parents, James and Maria Vickers. At the Corby Road end, lived Anthony Beadsworth with his family. His wife, Ann, was John Claypole's sister.

The 1891 census

Moving on two decades, the results may seem somewhat random but closer examination demonstrates a number of trends. This time, there were eleven houses listed with, overall, 39 inhabitants. Five properties have just two occupants; three have five; and only one, seven. Seven male heads of household were agricultural labourers and only two, craftsmen. Three women were employed by the Cottingham Clothing factory which was rapidly taking over the older cottage based crafts.

We can follow, too, the close proximity of some of the entangled families. Long term resident and blacksmith, John Claypole lived two doors away from his married daughter, Sarah Ann Craxford and her family; whilst the widow, Ann Baker, of his son, Thomas Bellamy Claypole, lived at the other end of the terrace with his grandson, also named Thomas Bellamy Claypole. Two married Coles sisters (Selina to William Maydwell; Barbara Rebecca to John Timson) were next door but one neighbours. So too were Anthony Beesworth and John Bradshaw, the widower of Anthony's daughter, Elizabeth. John and Elizabeth had five children before she died at the age of 39 years. John continued to raise the illegitimate daughter of their daughter. Anthony's niece, Sarah Elizabeth, also lived in the Yard with her husband Solomon Oliver and family. Another long term resident was Ann Panter, by this time the widow of John Jones. She lived with her son and grandson in the cottage between the Timsons and Olivers. We note the presence of John Lewis Binley, a 29 year old carpenter, living with his housekeeper Carrie Townsin, next door to the smithy.

The 1881 census

Although taken out of sequence, we can now attempt to extrapolate our families to the intervening census, where Barrack Yard is not mentioned, before progressing to the twentieth century. The route taken by the 1881 census enumerator is somewhat confused. Assuming that some residents did not move house in the ten years between the listings, there are four families in this return whose positions bear a strong relationship to either one or other of the censuses. All these addresses are given as Corby Road. John Claypole, the blacksmith, lived with his wife and two adult children. Next door to them was the family of Francis and Elizabeth Coles. Their next door neighbours are the Foster household. Frances, now a widow, had been joined by her widowed mother, Maria Vickers. Next in line lived Anthony Beesworth with his wife, Maria, and seven children. There is then a gap of five premises which were unoccupied. At the far end lived Thomas Bellamy and Alice Claypole.

The cottage next door to Thomas Bellamy Claypole was occupied by his younger brother, John and family. John had married Mary Anne Tansley in January 1874. Also of note from the entanglement point of view is blacksmith, John Claypole's, other neighbour. At the time unmarried, Alice Rebecca Beesworth, the niece of Anthony and Maria, was living with her daughter Rebecca and son Ernest. The following year, Alice married Charles Crane.

The 1901 census

Once again, Barrack Yard is not named in this first census of the new century. Using a similar technique, we have attempted to identify the cottages by reference to the positions of previous occupants but the delineation of its perimenter is unclear. John Claypole remains our anchor point. In 1901 he was 83 years of age (his wife: 87) and was recorded as a retired blacksmith. Moving down the enumerator's sequence we pass by several other recognisable families until we come to the home of William and Sarah Jarvis. On the way, there are two unoccupied cottages making a total of nine in all. Reverting back to blacksmith John, the occupant prior to him in the census list was widow Ann Jones (Panter), her son and grandson. Next to her, lived the family of farmer John Claypole, his wife Mary Ann (Tansley) and family. It could be significant that these two cottages are ascribed to Blind Lane whereas the next row between them and Corby Road are called Pinfold Bank.

There are 30 residents in this list, only three are children under the age of ten years. The vast majority (27) are Cottingham cum Middleton born. The average occupancy of each cottage has fallen again with most at two or three persons per dwelling and one only with six. The majority of adult males still work on the farm (two, George Binley and George Maydwell, are described as horsemen) but three are working in the ironstone industry.

The family connections persist between the households. The two John Claypoles mentioned above were father and son. Alfred Tansley had married his second cousin Alice Tansley in 1895. John Claypole's wife, Mary Ann Tansley, was Alfred's aunt and Alice's first cousin once removed. George Maydwell was living two doors away from his first cousin once removed, Alice Maydwell and her son, James. George had married Mary Ann Liquorish in 1896.

The 1911 census

In the final census, Barrack Yard consisted of nine dwellings with numbers from 62 to 70. Our previous anchor resident, John Claypole had died in April 1903, his wife Ann, eighteen months later. The cottage nearest to Blind Lane was occupied by George Maydwell and his family. Their neighbours were Elijah Cooper and his wife, Henrietta Claypole. Henrietta was John and Ann Claypole's third daughter. She was 56 years of age (10 years older than her husband) when they married in 1905. Long term resident, Ann Jones, continued to live at number 64 with her son Thomas. Next door, lived George Liquorish with his wife and daughter. He had married Annie, the daughter of former Barrack Yard residents William Jarvis and Sarah Ann Foster in 1908. Their neighbour was Mary Ann Almond, a widow living on her own. A native of Wilbarston, she had moved with her husband to the village in the 1890s.

Ten years before, John and Barbara Timson (neé Coles) were listed in the Corby Road section of the census. John was now an estate woodman. Next door to them was another returning resident. Sarah Ann, the oldest daughter of blacksmith John Claypole, had married John Craxford in 1871. She was living alone. Although the family lived in Barrack Yard in 1891, she had moved in with her son, William, in Rockingham Road after John died in 1898. Ann Jones' son, Arthur Panter, lived with his wife Clara Rosina Binley and their three young children at number 68.

This census lists 26 residents. Seven properties had three or less occupants. There were three families with a total of eight children under the age of ten years. Of the men of working age, six were employed in the ironstone industry and four worked on the land.

Two up, two down

This is my personal recollection of the cottages of Barrack Yard. I visited two or three of them - JB

The majority of the houses in Barrack Yard were only two bedroomed. The front door opened straight into the living room which was the main room used for dining and sitting. When my grandparents lived there, cooking was also done in this room on a big black range. In later years, the ranges were taken out and ordinary tiled fireplaces were installed. There was a dark, cold and small scullery at the back with a sink and little else apart from a tiny fireplace similar to the ones which used to be in bedrooms. The stairs to the bedrooms led off the kitchen. Some of the houses had a few feet out the back where the meat safe was kept because it was cool out there, but there was little room for anything else.

The houses had no bathrooms. The wash houses and the toilets were situated in rows in front of the houses and gardens and at the edge of the roadway from the Blind lane end down to the Corby Road end of Barrack Yard. In the wash house there was a copper which gave hot water if a fire was lit underneath it. Water initially had to be carried from the pump situated on the pound, but certainly in the 1950s there was water laid on in the scullery over the kitchen sink.

Ruth and Jack Harrison's house, the first one from the Blind Lane end, seemed to be the biggest. It seemed to have a sort of barn attached to the side which eventually became their kitchen and was quite large. From the kitchen (to the side) there was a tiny front room and I think the old scullery still led off from that to the back.

The toilets, even in the 1930s, were not water closets. Whilst my family lived in Barrack Yard, the loos were definitely the pit variety. There was a large galvanised bucket which was enclosed in a pine box-like structure with a lid with a circular hole in the centre which served as the toilet seat. I think the lavatories were emptied by the night soil men. By the 1950s these had been replaced with the ceramic toilets we use today. However, there was no mains water attached for flushing and this was achieved by tipping a bucket of water down the pan. My neighbour (niece of Ruth and Jack Harrison) remembered her Aunt Ruth's loo being like this and several others living in the Yard until it was demolished confirmed the same.

Despite all their failings, I always loved those houses, they really seemed to be cosy and the little enclave had a nice atmosphere. My grandparents already had four sons and when my mother was born in 1923, my grandfather went up and down the Yard telling everyone that "They had managed it this time and produced a girl." The neighbours were all delighted by the news.In the 1950s the community spirit was still there and the residents used to sit on the garden walls to chat and laugh together. They were happy times.

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The long slow goodbye

Concern about the living conditions in Cottingham generally, and in Barrack Yard in particular, were being expressed before the Second World War. In its Annual Report for 1935 (2) delivered to Northamptonshire County Council in June 1936, the Health Department noted "A recent newspaper article referred in unflattering terms to the conditions obtaining in Cottingham ... Many of the houses are practically built into the ground, without any protection against damp. As one enters the village from the Corby Road the first row of cottages affords a striking example of this: at one end the ground level is above the line of the first floor ... Barrack Yard consists of a row of five houses facing the street and a block of seven behind, at right angles. The latter are approached by a narrow entry and face a yard obscured by barns and closets. The sanitary arrangements are disgusting - delapidated pit closets, often shared by two, even three families. In some cases they are close to the only house-door. The brick structure in front is fairly solid-looking but the prevailing dampness, bad sanitation, and lack of space and amenity render these houses fit only for demolition. Below and in front of this is a row of four slum cottages which, I understand, have been scheduled for demolition, but are still occupied. Their condition beggars belief."

Only modest changes occurred in the years after this report. The economy generally had collapsed as a result of the depression and within four years the country was at war. Running water and water closets were installed which may have helped to ameliorate the worst of the conditions.

Barrack Yard stood for another 25 years before it was finally condemned in 1959 and the demolition work was carried out in the early 1960s. At the time of its demise, the cottages were owned by the Simpson family and all were rented out, often on short term tenancy agreements. There was a lot of movement in and out of the Yard, frequently by single people or families with one child, as they waited for better accommodation to become available. Two cottages were occupied by decendants of the Claypole families whose story is recounted in The Sorrows of Mary Atkins. Once cleared, the resulting land was bought by the Crane family who built a single detached property on it which is still there today.

Corby Road Now

At the turn of the last century, the old village water pump and trough (the locals called it the Wellhead) and two cottages stood on the left hand side of the road at the Cross. Until the 1950s, the road forked at its junction with Rockingham Road with the right hand limb passing behind the Wellhead. When the road was redeveloped, the area was grassed over leaving a footpath behind the green.

There is now a pretty painted sign depicting a village scene with a man on a horse and a stone monument of a cross and the word Cottingham painted underneath. This stands by the side of a flag pole.

Corby Road was widened as part of the village improvements when the cottages in Barrack Yard were demolished in the 1960s. A little further up Corby Road from the Cross on the left hand side the upper storey of Philpott's old bakery (which became Smith's chippy in the 1950s) has been converted into a tasteful apartment. The bus stop has a wooden shelter which nestles against the backdrop of the Royal George Inn.

After that, and directly opposite the Weslayan Methodist Church and The Nook, the embankment has been reinforced with a retaining wall complete with railings on top. Within this the inner wall was part of the front of Barrack Yard and the arch of the tunnel into the inner yard can still be seen in the brickwork. The roof and upper storey of the house which was built on the cleared site is visible above the embankment. Adjacent to this another house has been erected on the waste ground in Blind Lane where the residents of the Yard used to hang their washing. Next to this is the house called Bag End.

Where Blind Lane meets Corby Road below Pinfold Bank there is a green area to the right called the Pound where there used to be another pump. A seat has been placed here which looks across the valley to St Mary Magdelene Church.

The Residents Remember

Mr Maydwell's home made wine

This event happened about 1928. Mum was my mother, Olive Binley; Nan was my grandmother, Amy Ann Jackson. - JB

Mum had already started school (she was only about 5 years old at the time) and came home for lunch. Nan, Amy, was busy washing and Mr Maydwell had seen her busy with all the laundry and came up with a cupful of his home made wine for her elevenses "to help her along". She thanked him kindly and took it into the house and left it on the table knowing full well that if she drank it, the washing would never get done. It was potent stuff.

Nan made Mum a sandwich and left her to eat it whilst she went over to the wash house to tend her laundry. Mum was thirsty, so drank what she thought her mother had poured into the cup for her and went off back to school. Within half an hour or so she was woken at her desk by Miss Simpson (the school marm) who decided Mum had better go home because not only had she fallen asleep at her desk, she was very flushed. Miss Simpson thought she was sickening for something. Later Miss Simpson called round to the house to see how she was.

Nan was thoroughly embarrassed when she realised what had happened. So she told Miss Simpson that Olive hadn't quite been herself and she was in two minds whether to send her back to school again that afternoon, but that Mum had wanted to go so she gave in. Mum was quite all right once she had slept off the effects of the wine and the whole family, especially Mum's four brothers, thought it a huge joke. Years later Mum asked Miss Simpson if she remembered the incident. Miss Simpson did remember and Mum told her the truth. It made Miss Simpson's day.

Acknowledgements *

We acknowledge the work of Raymond Douglas Davies, CBE as the inspiration for the title of this article. A particularly evocative rendering of the song can be seen in the first of these two video presentations. A live performance (the title track from the eponymously named 1968 album) by the original band members can be seen in the second clip.

References

1. A composite building material: Wattle and daub on wikipedia
2. Barrack Yard, Cottingham: detail from adjacent 1886 Pre-WWII 1:2500 Northamptonshire and Leicestershire maps: Old-Maps © Crown Copyright and Database Rights Ordnance Survey 2012. All rights reserved.
3. Health Department Annual Report 1935 to Northamptonshire County Council. Delivered June 1936.
4. Detail Map. Barrack Yard Clearance Order 1959; Kettering Rural District Council

The text of this article appeared in two parts in Footprints, The Journal of the Northamptonshire Family History Society, Vol 36 No.4 (May 2014) and Vol 37 No. 1 (August 2014)

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