2. THE BAKEHOUSE Page 37 The earliest people known to be living here were the young Bayly (Bagley) couple, who had moved in to care for the elderly William Hudson [14]. As they married in 1612 that was possibly when they arrived. By 1624 Richard Andrews had taken over and then the records stop. What trade did they have? Or who did they work for? All we know is that they kept a cow and paid their poultry dues by sending over a "coke or a cople of cockerels" each year to the vicar [15]. Justinian Hunt who died in 1650 left the house to his widow Ffrancis. She then married Richard Elkington and their only daughter Elizabeth was entered onto the copyhold lease [16]. Ffrancis died and Richard then married Ann. The daughter Elizabeth married a John Gardner of Williamscote -in-Cropredy. His parents Thomas Gardner and Martha nee Wyatt had farmed there up to 1702 [17]. John farmed Wyatt's land in Cropredy and moved into the farm house. The landlord was not pleased with his farming. He began at a time when stock was not paying and several others in Cropredy fell into arrears. The landlord, Sir Wm. Boothby, was therefore glad when John was forced to quit [18]. Boothby asked the bailiff to find a good tenant for he had spent much in repairs. He hoped that John would get his little house right, then he could leave. With their four children they may have moved into Church Lane. John continued from time to time to lease land and acquire extra cow commons. He was a farmer by trade but may have had to widen his skills. We know he had attended, like most of the brighter Cropredy boys, the Williamscote school, and because he leased land he had to take his turn on the vestry, with his father, where his signature appears in the church accounts [19].When his parents sold up and went to Charlton in Northamptonshire, he continued as the only Gardner to sign the accounts up to 1706. Page 38 In 1692 Richard Elkington, to clarify his wife's position, made his will leaving his wife and John Gardner as joint executors. Four years later he died and his wife had an inventory made. It is interesting as they appear to have divided the house so that only some of the rooms appear:-
The heifer is their prize possession. Notice that the Hall fire is not mentioned [20]. Presumably the daughter is using that room. The grandrnother is left to help bring up the children, for Elizabeth Gardner died in 1700, a full 13 years before her stepmother. The children were John (1679) and three girls, Elizabeth, Anne and Martha. John went off to farm in Wardington, but inherited the copyhold when his father died in 1717. He entered his youngest son, Roger, onto the copyhold when he renewed his own lease in 1717. It was this life, Roger Gardner, who had the property in 1775 at the Inclosure of the Open Common Fields. At that time he seems to be connected with Slat Mill and may not have lived in Church Lane. Yet he paid the tithes for the Bakehouse and in 1757 was mentioned in the College valuation of the property. Perhaps he lived there during his first marriage. He was married twice and had many children. His descendants lived in Cropredy until recently. Roger died in 1782. Page 39 The Checkleys buy into the Bakehouse copyhold which still paid only 6s- 8d a year rent [21]. The entrance fines were rising until they reached a labourer's wage for four rnonths by 1834, so the rent set by ancient custom did not give a true picture. The landlord could also refuse to allow a new life to be entered if the building was badly in need of repairs. This happened to the Checkleys. They had bought the Rose and Crown Inn when William Hemmings fell ill. They did not live in Church Lane but let it, though descendants did move in later. Thomas Checkley gave up the licence of the Rose and Crown, later called Home Farm, for he was a farmer and butcher. His wife was an Elkington and her Father had left them a legacy which may have helped them purchase the farm. Mrs Checkley also wished to be buried in the Elkington grave space to the east of the public path leading from Church Lane to Church Street. From then on the Checkleys and Allitts descendants from the Bakehouse and Home Farm are buried with grave stones in this area [22]. Mr and Mrs Thomas Checkley entered their 14 year old son Thomas onto the copyhold of the Bakery site in 1782. This son Thomas married in 1791 and he and Elizabeth had six children of which four survive. The two sons remain bachelors carrying on the butchering and baking from Home Farm. The two girls marry. The eldest Mary married James Allitt and it is her son John who eventually went to live in Church Lane and who is mentioned in Gardener Godson's piece. We have already recalled that the second Thomas and Elizabeth died young leaving a ruinous building which their son Thomas, then only 18, had to get rebuilt before he was allowed to take possession. His rent was pushed up to 20s because of his repairs! However he could also command a higher rent from a sub-tenant. Trying to gain permission from the College must severely have taxed his slender resources for he wrote to them in 1814:-
The College's reaction was to ask William Chamberlin the farmer and surveyor of Cropredy Lawn to make a thorough survey and estimate its present value. Apparently it was a house with a small cow house or stable and a yard [24]. There was a small garden and a tiny field of just over half an acre. Thomas moved in perhaps to reduce his expenses. It was now worth £5 per annum. In spite of his repairs he had to pay £30-12s to enter the copyhold. The profit margin on property for the copyhold tenant must have been almost nil. When his nephew, John Allitt was entered they had to pay a further £7-10s [25]. Page 40 John Allitt lived in Copes' Cottages with his parents. His father was a carpenter and his mother had a shop there. John's sister was living in the cottage when Dr. Bartlett used one of their rooms to hold his surgery in Cropredy. Each morning, John, who had trained to be a butcher and baker with his uncles at Home Farm, used to walk round there past his neighbour the blacksmith at Constone. There lived Ann Haynes born the same year as John in 1822. They eventually married in their early 30's and set up a bakehouse and butchers in Church Lane. Was it John who built the oven extension at the back and raised the loft over the bakehouse? The wash house at the west end used the same bricks as over the bakery so all the improvements may have been done to impress the Haynes that the property was suitable for their daughter. When Thomas Checkley had altered the house in 1814 he had given not only the front a brick wall but also a new brick inner gable so that the parlour could have a fireplace. Either Thomas or John added a chamber over the gatehouse and a way through to the flour loft from this room. The baker could slip down to light the fire from the innermost room without going through all the rest of the upstairs, down to the main hall, out the back and into the bakehouse through the gatehouse door. The gatehouse was only closed on the street side by two big doors. It was quite open at the rear. The Godson's had cupboards to store the bread in this cool entrance. There was also a hatch made into the buttery through which cakes could be served from the buttery shelves. The Bakehouse shop had an outside door for customers to come and buy bread. The door and window lintels of the lower part of the shop were old and the walls of stone, although not like the original thick back wall on the south of the house. John Allitt had converted the small barn from the next door cottage into a butcher's shop. Eventually he turned this into a Sunday school. The Allitts were great church goers, being churchwardens and bell-ringers. He used the Sunday school as a reading room to try and give people a chance to see the papers. Most read them at that time at either the Brasenose Inn or the Red Lion and of course had a drink at the same time. When he managed to buy the freehold of the Bakehouse (which cost him £84 to acquire [26]) and the Sunday school, he had the latter pulled down and commissioned W E. Mills, the Banbury architect to design the Church Rooms. Cropredy was very fortunate to have this building as it is an excellent example of Victorian architecture. Nothing was spared in its design. Most of the features have been retained except for one unfortunate window replacement. The Reverend Dr. Wood is seen on the photograph out the back with John Allitt in his best smock. John was careful to suggest that a relative must always be one of the Church Rooms trustees. Page 41 John may have kept his house in good repair but the stone stable was, in 1872, old and dilapidated. It was left to his tenants the Godson's to try and get it put right. They had this done with engineering bricks and a metal ladder made to reach the new loft. In the stable is an unusually large candle alcove by the door. The floor was made of brick sets and the stable divided in two by a wooden standing. Next door was the cart shed. William Godson purchased the Bakehouse and later their son, Gardner Godson, joined them. In 1950 it was sold to Mr. and Mrs Welford who kept the business until 1974, when it closed. |