Old Yard Farmhouse in Creampot Lane 

At the northern edge of Cropredy there was an Allotment field directly behind Old Yard Farm in Creampot Lane.  It is not known why this piece jutted out into the fields or if it was a late settlement of land. After the enclosure of the Open Fields in 1775 some of the Elkingtons moved out of Old Yard to build Oathill Farm on their newly purchased land, but Elkington’s continued to rent the ancestral home and kept their Allotment.  The family had been in the area since before the registers began in 1538, but they had not been responsible for the rebuilding in stone of Old Yard Farmhouse. 

It is possible that it was the Kynd family who began the rebuilding.  The earliest reference to the Kynds was when John and Alyce had their son Richard baptised in 1576.  The father John had been able to release his son from farming to become a scholar at the Williamscote public school. Both John and Alyce’s executors were to have inventories made which reveal them to have been fairly substantial husbandmen (Kynd John, husb., Cropredy, 1592. Will. Inv. Peculiar 1.28: Pec. 44/3/4. Kynd Alyce, widow, Cropredy, 1598. W. I. Pec.44/3/6).  Richard took over the lease and although he was in Cropredy at Easter 1613, married with at least six children and his mother-in- law to support, they departed that year and his name was erased from the baptism register.  For some reason Richard and a few others had questioned the church and been excommunicated and unable to renew their leases, or was it due to some other crisis?  The house now fell empty and Thomas Wyatt, who had a forge on the later Brasenose Inn site, seized the opportunity to combine farriering, smithing and farming by moving up to Old Yard where he greatly improved the property.  In three generations his descendants who had also been educated at Williamscote and elsewhere considered themselves to be gentlemen.  They took up leases for the best farms in Cropredy. 

In Kynd’s time his farmyard was set in front of the house with the barn forming an east range and possibly the stables in front by the road.  Thomas Wyatt must have retained the inglenook chimney but used it to provide two more fireplaces. Heat was important to this farrier.  The kitchen was given a furnace and out the front he added the necessary chimney to his smithy, possibly extending the stables towards the well (Wyatt, Thomas, Blacksmith, Cropredy, 1635. W. I. Pec.54/3/29).  This may have been the “barn” taken down in Colin Shirley’s life time. 

By 1669 Thomas’s son John Wyatt had added a wing to the house according to the inventory made 8 years later (Wyatt, John, farrier, Cropredy, 1677. W. (2) I.(2) Comm. Pec.55/1/6). Having five hearths placed them third in the 1663 Cropredy list of taxable hearths (4. Hearth Tax 1663 [E.179 255/4 P.R.O.] John Wyatt Snr 5 Hearths. 1669 Vicar’s tithes MS dd Par Cropredy c25 f13 Widow Wyatt had 3 yardlands). The hearths were surely built by his father Thomas who was ahead of local tradition having already advanced in the use he made of rooms.  The hall was no longer the entertaining room, being kept for cooking and eating for Thomas and Ursula had a parlour to withdraw to.  They had moved the joined bedstead upstairs to a chamber with a fireplace and wainscoting. The furnishings for his joined bed and room were prised at £17-10s-4d, which was an astonishingly high total for that time.  There was also a loft over this chamber with two beds, perhaps for his apprentices.  Other rooms included in his 1634 inventory (Wyatt Thomas 1635 see 2. Also P.Keegan Town of Cropredy 1570-1640) were the usual buttery behind the parlour, a kitchen for preparation and a darye house.  In addition they had two other chambers for the six sons and two daughters.  All these sons stayed longer at home while they studied and learnt a trade or profession.  When he died aged about 60 Thomas left his wife Ursula, a son aged ten, two teenage daughters and his twentysix year old married son John who was a farrier, all living at home.  His other sons had taken over good leases in Cropredy. 

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John Wyatt the farrier’s first wife had died and his new young wife Sarah had moved into the farmhouse.  Most young couples fortunate enough to carry on the lease took up residence and now widow Ursula was easily accommodated within the larger than usual house. John was the father of five sons and three daughters. His family had continued to add and alter their house.  By the time John died in 1669 (Wyatt John’s Will 1677 see note 3. His widow  Wyatt, Sarah, Cropredy, 1683 Bd I. Acct. Pec.55/2/15) he had built a new parlour with a parlour chamber above, as well as a chamber with another over that. There were now two butteries a brew house and a kill [kiln] house with room over so they were malting their own barley on their three yardlands (An average Brasenose College Yardland came to 32 acres. Wyatts could have farmed around 96 acres).  The dairy was kept for the milk processing and had no loft over, though the cheese, since Thomas’s time, had been maturing on racks in the loft over his bedroom next to the chimney breast. 

The Allotment out the back showed that buildings had been built on it, but gave no surface clues of what lay beneath or who was responsible for them. The Allotment was projecting beyond the town’s north boundary.  The eastern field boundary had a definite bank dropping down to a close leased from the Brasenose College, but without a fence to define the freehold from the copyhold until in 1900 the College purchased the stack yard and Allotment for £200, but that was in the future.  The small freehold stack yard to the east was next to Read’s College farm down the Lane.  The old wooden and thatched building with mangers, or one like it, may have been the one used by the Wyatts for cattle.  They leased sufficient land to own 12 cows. 

Although all the farmers are listed in the tithe accounts up to 1775 (Vicar’s Cropredy Tithe Accounts. MSdd Par Cropredy c25-c27: 1669-1675,1694-1784) - (when their open strip land was enclosed), without manorial rent lists on the Boothby Estate it has not yet been possible to establish which farm belonged to which family.  In 1775 the landlords for the two Cropredy manors allotted to their tenant farmers parcels of land.  Some on the Boothby estate were able to buy their farms.  Elkington’s, as mentioned above, had Oathill, in the northern part of the parish, but continued to rent their ancestral home, now the property of John Chamberlin of Cropredy Lawn Farm, and take on land allotted to Read’s farmland from the Brasenose College, Oxford (Oxon Archives: S & F.Box 98 Sir Wm Boothby to Jn Chamberlin 1775 & Jn Chamberlin to Wm Hunt Chamberlin 22 Nov.1795.  Also BNC. Archives: 18A).  Elkington was to turn Read’s house into two cottages.  By 1809 Chamberlin’s son William Hunt Chamberlin sold Old Yard to Edward Elkington for £210 and at last it becomes a freehold property.  The deed states that “All that messuage tenement and old Farm House with home close orchard stack yard barns stables and buildings thereto belonging …in occupation of Edward Elkington…” (Sale of Old Yard Farm Allotment & Stack yard BNC 18A Doc.2.  20/06/1809. Wm Chamberlin to Edward Elkington. & Doc.5 Wm Elkington  recovers his half moiety from father’s will & takes out a mortgage to buy off siblings).  

The property passes down the family with a mortgage being taken out whenever the inheritance is divided amongst the widow and children.  Edward son of Thomas, son of Edward had his moiety and in 1846 converted the farmhouse into three cottages.

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Edward appears to have kept the parlour side of the main chimney and removed the fireplace in the hall.  There is some evidence in the stonework that the rear wall may have had a oven projection removed, for there is a perpendicular line in the stone rows to the east of this chimney.  The biggest cottage, was as Mr Shirley wrote, at the west end.  The other two were narrower with their stairs and kitchen to the rear and lit by one light windows.  The front rooms may have kept the original windows with their seats and shutters and perhaps a new surround.  Mr Elkington had a brick wall dividing the two smaller cottages.  In this was a new chimney with back to back fireplaces so that their layout upstairs and down was the reverse of the other, even to the position of their wooden front doors.  The east cottage needed three stone steps to enter.  All three cottages had south facing three light windows down and up on the front elevation and a stone lintel, which stretched the width of the cottages.  Springfield Farm had a similar stone lintel of ashlar stone.  It is not known if this was part of the original Thomas Wyatt wall, but the Boothby Estate did have more ashlar stonewalls than the Brasenose College properties.  This more expensive stonework did not reach the rear wall or the gable ends.  A date stone was let into the front wall just below two extra rows needed when the thatch was replaced by slate.  The chimnies above the roof were built in stone.
Fig. 1: Sketch of The Hollies, once Old Yard Cottages, in 1983. Note the lintel above the doors and windows and the middle door replaced by a window.

Edward’s own cottage placed the kitchen at the west end with the stairs up to a landing. The main bedroom with the elm floor boards supported on joists set from front to back, with perhaps newly imported wood, and not on a traditional spine or later transverse beam?  What happened to the wainscoting Thomas had added?  His fireplace remains.  A cupboard was made in front of the bricked up doorway blocking the entrance into the middle cottage.  This was repeated downstairs.  His cottage had an old two light window downstairs, near the fire, which looked out over the fields behind.  This too had a window seat.  Near by was a built in floor to ceiling corner cupboard.  His second bedroom upstairs had a two light window facing west (The Scamen family kindly allowed permission to make a rough sketch of  Old Yard now The Hollies. and  BNC: 18A Doc. 12).  

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Mr Shirley explains about the garden on page 16. By 1910/11 each cottage was to have purpose built outside kitchens which Colin calls wash houses. The delicate subject of the toilets, which I asked about, he also kindly spoke about.  Mrs Gwen Honey nee Thomas whose parents once lived in the middle cottage and Colin’s nephew John A. Taylor from his time spent there with the Shirleys, have both added more information.  The photographs John and his sister Betty have lent for copying also show parts of the building before it was again altered after 1973, when Mr and Mrs Bernard Coles retired from the Red Lion and opened a guest house there.  They added an extension which replaced the Shirley’s wash house and workshop.  After the Coles had built a new bungalow at the west end of the garden they sold the rest to the Scamens who remodelled the west addition into part of Mrs. Scamen senior’s home.  The Coles had blocked off the middle cottage front doorway, but the Scamens added a new porch and made it their entrance along with other alterations.
Photo 2: The garden on the site of the barn once in front of Old Yard cottages.

The Stack Yard.

In the Brasenose College archives in Oxford are letters about Old Yard and the stack yard as well as the deeds providing information as far back as 1775.  The barn in front remained after the 1846 alterations, but the east barn seems to have vanished, leaving a boundary wall that needed replacing in 1900. The stack yard still had an ancient timber building with a thatched roof and was used to farm Read’s land.  The College deeds occasionally mention who occupied the properties (Deeds in 1860 BNC: 18A second schedule of Doc.8).  In 1860 living in Old Yard cottages were Mrs Elkington, George Haslewood, George Sumner and William Cherry.  One of which must have been a sub tenant or lodger? 

Elkington’s stack yard was sold in 1877 to Edward Borton, farrier and farmer of Monkeytree House, and he also purchased the three Old Yard cottages in occupation of Edward Elkington and others.  Read’s Farm was now two cottages which were occupied by Thomas Haslewood and Daniel Wells, and the land (17 acres 1 rood and 29 perch) was then leased from the Brasenose College by Edward Borton (1877 Purchase by Edward Borton, farrier. BNC: 18A Doc.11 from Wm Elkington). 

When Edward Borton died in 1900, the College took back the leasehold property and bought the freehold Allotment north of Old Yard with the stack yard and attached them to Andrew’s Farm at the bottom of Creampot Lane (1900 Sale of leasehold & freehold Stack yard and Allotment 18A Doc.12 to BNC. Bursar wrote to Wm Anker Jany 1901 Get Smith to tender for the needful repairs to the yard. B36.11 p64). This is how the stack yard became known by the name of the farmer who was the tenant.  The well and pump on the boundary between Old Yard and the stack yard became a shared responsibility and the cause of long delays in getting it repaired.  Both owners had to pay one “moiety of the expense of keeping said pump and well in repair.” (Letter dated 28/01/1901 A.J.Butler (BNC Bursar) to College Agent: Mr Alfred Smith B36 11 p96).

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The stack yard was now attached to twenty-one and a half acres of land.  Several people wanted to lease this unit.  Mr James Pargeter who lived at Constone on the Green offered the highest rent of £53 15s per annum which was accepted. He remained as tenant of Andrew’s Farm until 1907 when Wm. Eagles took over (Pargeter’s Rent BNC: 217 no.23 dated 25/06/1900 plus schedule).  The College used Read’s old rick yard to double the size of the stack yard for they lay side by side facing south onto Creampot Lane.  Mr William Anker of Beech House Farm acted for the College and he contacted Mr Alfred Smith the Cropredy builder and farmer who did alterations for the College (Letters in BNC: 210 Anker to College 14/01/1901).  Mr Smith then asked Mr John Allitt of Home Farm Cropredy, who had by then purchased Old Yard cottages, to inspect the pump.  Apparently a new party wall was required and he proposes half a brick thick with supporting pillars and minor repairs to the pump (Letter relating to the dividing brick wall dated 14/01/1901and BNC Bursar’s letter book B36.11 p88).  By January the College Bursar agrees.  As to the suggested plan for the new shed he wanted something more substantial than wood and iron.  Brick and slate would add permanent value to the property. The shed eventually came to £73 and the wall cost £14-10s, but the wall and the pump were shared with Mr Allitt ( Letter about Pump & shed dated 14/01/1901 and BNC Bursar’s letter book B36.11 p74).  A year after the purchase the old cowshed received a hard brick floor for £3-12s-6d (Letter about cowshed brick floor dated 15/11/1901 and Bursar’s letter book B36.11 p89). 

In March 1910 Alfred Smith wrote to the College Bursar to say  The Wardington Lodge of Oddfellows had purchased the three cottages at the late Mr Allitt’s sale adjoining the Borton property, now used by Mr Eagles of Andrews Farm.  “The trustees of the Lodge proposed to build kitchens for their tenants and utilise the boundary walls that we put up at the joint expense of the College and the late Mr Allitt.”  The Lodge secretary also wrote “The water in the well is not considered good for drinking or cooking purposes, but serves for washing and cleaning….”  “We propose cleaning out the well, sinking it and if necessary putting in a new pump piece, to obtain good drinking water if possible.”  Will the College pay half?  “Also until the works carried out, will you kindly allow the tenants to fetch water as hitherto” (Letter Lodge going to provide Old Yard cottages with Kitchens 1910 BNC: 211 dated 18/03/1910  A.Smith to H.C.Wace, Bursar. & BNC:211 Lodge to A.J.Butler, Bursar 1910) from the College tap.

 One of the trustees told Mr Smith that the cottages paid 10s rent for using the College water tap, which was down the Lane at Read’s cottages.  As Mr Smith dealt with water rents as well as repairs he wrote to the college  “If used for all purposes for the three cottages and Mr Eagle’s yard, it would be a much greater strain on the supply.”  He meant the rent was insufficient.  A plan was also requested by the Bursar for the little back kitchens and put before the Board, but it lacked enough information.  In July a letter following a visit informed the Lodge secretary that they could not agree to the kitchens being built on the party wall and they should pay 10s per cottage for College water. In September 1911 the trustees asked to meet the Bursar about the pump.  “Residents of Cropredy state that the water from the pump, jointly used by the tenants of the college and our Lodge, was formerly of the best.  Practical business men are of the opinion that the well requires cleaning out and the pump put in order and the water would in all probability be as good as ever it was.”   In October the trustees wrote “Mr Lambert -a practical business man in wells and pump work (whom you met as a trustee) –says he will arrange to have the well opened, and ascertain what is really required and approximate cost.” He enclosed 30s for the water rent.  Apparently Mr Lambert went with Sumner and Neal and  “they gave an estimate of the cost:  repairing pump pieces and bucket, cleaning out the well, refixing pump, new oak covering to well with bricks etc and labour £2-17-6d.”  In the end it was less troublesome than estimated and came to £2-10s. It was no wonder the well figured so large in everyone’s memories (Water Letters: Dated 1/07/1910 Bursar to Lodge B36.15 p334. Lodge to A.A.Aldridge Bursar dated 4/10/1911.Re. Visit of Sumner & Neal  BNC: 211 dated 5/09/1911 Lodge to A.J.Butler. Estimate dated 9/10/1911 BNC: 211 Lodge to College.  Final Bill 13/11/1911 Lodge to A.A.Aldridge Bursar).  While everyone debated the issue and wrote several letters the housewives staggered back up the Lane with bucket after bucket in all weathers.

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Going back to the wall: The Lodge built the back kitchens for all three cottages and for the two by the wall they changed the plans and tied an inner wall to the four and a half inch thick brick wall and the College finally agreed, providing the eaves did not project beyond the middle of the wall and were properly spouted so as not to shoot water into the yard (Eaves & water letter dated 11/08/1910 and Bursar’s L.Bk. B36.15 p386).

During a gap in the Brasenose College records dealing with these sites, the pump must once again have failed leaving the tenants to use the tap. It would seem that whenever there is a shortage of money the Lodge wishes to stop paying rent for College water.  In January 1923 the Lodge decides to put a pump down the well and discontinue the cost of paying the annual 30s water rent, for their three cottages in Old Yard.  Fred K. Pechover, their secretary, wrote to ask the College to pay their share of the cost of reinstating the pump.  The College tenant Mr A.P.McDougall thought the College water sufficient for the yard, but it would be unwise to loose the right to the well.  In March Mr Pechover sent an estimate from Mr Neal for supplying and fixing a pump in Creampot Lane to the College, but they declined to help with the costs and presumably lost their yards’ right to it?  In 1936 when a Sterilising House, costing £19-15s, was built in Read’s old half of the yard the College took a pipe from their own water supply to the yard (Letters re. pump  BNC 214 29/01/1923 Lodge Pechover to H.C.Wace Bursar. BNC: 214 McDougall to H.C.Wace. Estimate dated 20/03/1923 Lodge to H.C.Wace. Letter of refusal dated 22/03/1923 College to Lodge.  Sterilising House 1936 Specification & estimate + plan. BNC: 127). Was this when a college water tap was finally installed by the south gable of the middle cottage’s wash house, between two soft water tanks? This was by the shared water trough and well pump.  

Pamela Keegan 2003. 

 
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