Benges Cottage (Donacons)
Benges loosely covers the area of land behind the church in Priors Norton where there have been several properties sharing the name over the years; Benges Farm, Little Benges, Benges Cottage(s), Benges Bungalow, etc. It is also not always clear who lived at the farm or the cottages with addresses often being recorded simply as Benges and some owners not living in the village at all. The following is a ‘best guess’ for the surviving Benges Cottage compiled from a number of different sources.
[1806]
When the Inclosures came to Norton in 1806 the above plan was produced and this shows the properties that could be found in this part of Priors Norton at that time. For orientation what is now Benges Farm was Plot No 321, and Ivy House Farm was at Plot No 288. The surviving Benges Cottage is at the bottom of this extract at Plot No 315. It was described as a house, garden and orchard, 0-1-28 in area, and was owned by James Bird. James Bird also owned Plot No 314, adjacent, an orchard 0-0-23 in area. Plot Nos 317 and 319 were also described as houses and gardens so may also have been Benges Cottages. These properties will be included elsewhere.
The Bird family appear in Norton parish records through the latter eighteenth century. In June 1757, James, son of James and Sarah Bird was baptised at St Mary’s, the first of five children baptised here to the couple. It appears that wife Sarah died in 1768, shortly after the baptism of their last child and only one week later a son was also buried at St Mary’s. In March 1769 the following notice appeared in local newspapers; “Whereas James Bird, of Norton near Gloucester, has run away and left his family chargeable to the said parish, having sold his house and goods. Whoever will apprehend or discover the said James Bird, so that he might be brought to justice, shall receive one guinea reward from the churchwardens of Norton. NB He is about 35 years of age, five feet six inches high, and had flaxen hair”. Father James’ departure was followed by the burial of three other children at St Mary’s in the following ten years. In 1771 a James Bird is buried at St Mary’s but it is not known if this was the father or son. In October 1812 another James Bird was buried here, likely the owner of this plot of land in 1806, but again it is not known if this was the father or son.
On 25 June 1828 at the Kings Head Inn, Gloucester, Thomas Cooke was authorised to sell, by auction, the Manor of Priors Norton along with Norton Court Farm, the water corn and grist mill, and several other properties at Benges. The auction leaflet included the following plan which is slightly confusing in that north is at the bottom and south at the top.
What is now (Little) Benges Farm belonged to Anthony Ellis Esq, is marked on the map with his name and didn’t form part of this sale. Next to this piece of land was Plot No 39, known simply as Benges, with a titheable acreage of 1a 1r 2p with no suggestion that there was a house on this site. A little further along the lane is Plot No 36, then known as Donnacann’s Ground, in which is a very small plot marked as Plot No 37, a cottage and garden with a titheable acreage of 17 perches. Plot No 43 was ‘Home Ground’ with a titheable acreage of 5a 0r 22p. Each of these properties were associated with Thomas Charter at Norton Court Farm, which extended over 900 acres. On the site of what is now Benges Cottage, to the top left of the plan, is Plot No 35, described as a cottage and garden of 17 tithe free perches unfortunately the occupier isn’t named.
Dated 1838, we have a surviving ‘terrier and valuation of the messuages, lands, and other hereditaments liable to poor rate in the parish of Norton’. From this source we can again identify Plot Nos 314 and 315 which were known as Donacons at that time. Plot No 314 was still an orchard of 0-0-23 and Plot No 315 was a cottage and garden of 0-1-28. Both were owned by William Bick with the cottage let to Joseph Baylis.
William Bick cannot be positively identified and although there were several Joseph Baylis’ at Norton, neither can he.
In the 1870s there was still more than one ‘Benges Cottage’ with the address ‘Benges Farm Cottages’ appearing on a number of occasions. In 1871 William and Ann Curtis were in residence at one of these cottages with their son with Thomas and Jane Juggins living in the second of the Benges Farm Cottages. It is not possible to identify which lived in the surviving cottage.
On 22 November 1862, Thomas Juggins, labourer of Norton, was brought up at Gloucester Court. He was described as being 42 years old, 5ft 7½ ins tall, dark hair, grey eyes, oval visage, pale complexion, with a large mole on his back and two on left thigh. He was a native of Norton, single, and employed as a farm labourer with various people. He was charged with stealing one quarter of a peck of apples, the property of William Butt, at Norton on 16 November, and was sentenced to 10 days’ hard labour. Thomas was born at Withington in 1818, son of Daniel and Hannah Juggins. The family came to Norton and in the late 1830s and were living at Smithfield Gate. Thomas married Jane Dawe at St Mary’s in 1857 and by 1860 was living in one of several cottages on the site of what is now Green Corners. In 1871 they were living at Benges Farm Cottages, Priors Norton, with an expanding family and in the early 1870s they moved to The Leigh where Thomas died in 1882.
The cottage can next be identified in the Gloucestershire Chronicle newspaper of 5 July 1879 when it reported the sale of Benges Farm by auction; “Bruton, Knowles and Co have received instructions to offer for sale by auction in three Lots, on Saturday, the 19th day of July, 1879, at the New Inn Hotel, Gloucester, at three o’clock in the afternoon.
Lot 1. A valuable freehold estate, known as Benges Farm, desirably situate in the parish of Norton, about four miles from the city and port of Gloucester, comprising a convenient Farmhouse, Cottages, and Agricultural Buildings, and about 170 acres of productive Pasture and Arable Land and Orcharding, now and for many years in the occupation of Mr Thomas Long.
Lot 2. A cottage and garden and good orcharding, adjoining Lot 1, in the occupation of Mr Hayward.
Lot 3. A cottage, garden, land and premises, adjoining Lot 1, in the occupation of Mr Freeman”.
This also confirms that there were two cottages associated with the farm at this date. I believe Lot No 3 was what is now Benges Cottage which was described as Plot No 41, a cottage and garden, still 0- 0-17 in area.
The above sale was described in more detail in a notice that Bruton, Knowles & Co circulated to advertise the auction; “Lot 3. A Cottage with garden, land and premises, containing three-fourths of an acre or thereabouts, adjoining Lot 1, and now in the occupation of Mr Freeman, as yearly tenant, at a rent of £7. There is a good supply of water and the land is productive and in a high state of cultivation, and well timbered”.
Unfortunately ‘Mr Freeman’ is never referred to with a forename or even an initial but I believe him to have been John Freeman. John was born in 1811 at Bledington, son of William Freeman and Elizabeth nee Herbert. John was already living at Norton employed as a labourer when he married Jane Parker in 1839 at St Mary’s, Norton, and they were to have eleven children; Jane, Emma, Rose Ellen Jane, Elizabeth, Mary Ann, James, Thomas, Sarah, Daniel, George Edwin and Caroline. I believe that they originally lived at what is now Jasmine Cottage along the lane from the church but sold this property in 1877 possibly moving then to Benges Cottage. In 1881 John was living with his family ‘by the church’ at Norton employed as a farm labourer and carter, and he died at Napier Street, Gloucester as a result of senile decay in 1893 and was buried at St Mary’s. Widow Jane died in 1912, no longer at Norton, but was buried with her husband.
John and Jane Freeman with daughter Caroline possibly stood outside Benges Cottage.
It is possible that with the death of John and Jane leaving Norton to live with a daughter in Gloucester that their son James took on the cottage. Born in 1845 at Hempstead, Gloucester, he grew up with his parents likely at what is now Jasmine Cottage. James married Alice Matty in 1878 at St Mary’s, and they had five children; Francis Tom, Lily Elizabeth, Laura, Sidney and Sidney William. In 1901 and 1911 they were living in a four room property at Benges Cottage, with James employed as a drainer and farm labourer. James was living at Little Benges Farm when he died in 1927 and his son Sidney took over at Little Benges Farm where Alice died.
The following advertisement from 1920 records the sale of the cottage; “Bruton, Knowles and Co are instructed to sell by auction at the Bell Hotel, Gloucester, on Monday, 22nd March, 1920, at 3 o’clock punctually, - a brick built and tiled cottage, known as Benges Cottage, Norton, containing 2 bedrooms, kitchen, pantry, and back kitchen with boiler and oven grate. There is a good garden with pump and well. It is let to Mrs Freeman at a rent of £6 a year, tenant paying rates. The total area of the property is 0a 2r 25p. Further particulars may be had of Messrs Ball, Smith and Playne, Solicitors, Stroud, or of the auctioneers, Gloucester”.
Between at least 1925-38 Frederick, a County Council roadman, and Beatrice Alice Franklin were at Benges Cottage.
With the coming of the Second World War, residents at Norton were asked to take in evacuees from the Birmingham area. Each household who took in an evacuee was given a booklet stating; “In pursuance of the Defence Regulations, I hereby require you to receive the following children into the above-mentioned premises, and to provide them with board and lodging, and to care for them to the best of your ability until relieved of the obligation”. The following booklet was issued to Mrs Scrivens of Benges Cottage, Priors Norton, on 28th March 1940. It was authorising the payment of 10s 6d per week in respect of a Peter Doak to be collected from Norton Post Office. From the second page of the booklet we can see that the payment was only collected on two occasions; 29th March and 5th April 1940.
Confusingly, whilst the notice clearly states ‘Benges Cottage’, in 1939 Frank, a County Council labourer, and Dorothy Scrivins had been living at a property described as The Bungalow, Worlds End, and the list of Norton properties from that year does not include a Benges Cottage.
In 1940 Benges Cottage was up for sale. On 24 October 1940, Gordon Heynes & Co, chartered accountants of Guildford, Surrey, sent the following unfavourable report to Bruton, Knowles & Co who were acting as agents for the sale. Amongst other details it states that Benges Cottage had been unoccupied for the previous eighteen months; “Acting upon instructions received from Lt S Bell, RN, of CB Projections, Guildford, we have made an inspection of the above property with a view to advising as to its value. The property is situated on the outskirts of the scattered village of Norton, about 4 miles from Gloucester and half a mile from the main Gloucester-Tewkesbury Road. It consists of a small farm workers cottage which has been the subject of certain improvements. It is a detached brick and tiled structure standing some distance from a roadway and its only means of approach is over a pasture field, and it is understood that proper legal rights-of-way are reserved, but as there is no lane or roadway approach it would be difficult to obtain vehicular approach to the cottage. The accommodation comprises :- Ground floor: living room with tiled floor and range, lobby with tiled floor, sink (h&c), semi-rotary pump and ‘Ideal’ domestic boiler; bathroom with bath and lavatory basin (h&c) and wc with low flushing suite. There is in addition a small bever board lined back lobby. On the first floor: two small bedrooms, one of which has a fireplace. There is a piece of garden ground and a small paddock orchard comprised in Ord Nos 271 & 272 and having a total area of about 0a 2r 25p. In this connection we were told by Lt Bell that he was informed the total area was about 2 acres, whereas you will see from the above that the area is, in fact, a little under ¾ acre. There is no lighting to the cottage; the drainage is to a newly constructed cesspit and the water supply is derived from a well. With regard to the water – the well has recently been sealed and as no water could be drawn off in the house owing to some defect in the semi-rotary pump, no opinion could be formed as to the quality of the water or otherwise, but we have since made certain enquiries from former occupants of the cottage who state that they were never actually short of water, although of course there were no baths or other sanitary fittings then in use, but that each year at the end of the summer when the water in the well fell below a certain level, the remaining water had a strong salty flavour, and we believe this is not uncommon in this particular district. With regard to the question of repair – the cottage has been redecorated throughout but owing to the fact that it has been unoccupied for some eighteen months a number of the decorations have suffered from dampness. There appears to be a considerable amount of rising dampness due, no doubt, to the fact that there is no damp course; the roof appears to be in fair condition with the exception of some loose and slipped tiles but the front wall is bulging and should be attended to. We are informed that there are no tithes or other outgoing affecting the property. In view of the fact that there is some doubt as to the adequacy and purity of the water supply and the very inconvenient means of access to the cottage, we do not think your client would be well advised to purchase at any price in excess of three hundred pounds and we did, in fact, advise him at our meeting yesterday that in the circumstances as explained to us, the purchase of the property was not a sound economic proposition”.
In 1949 Heinz Norton was at Benges Cottage but may have been there a few years earlier. A Public Notice was published in The Citizen newspaper of 20 June 1946 reading; “Notice is hereby given that Heinz Hermann Otto Ehrecke of ‘Benges Farm’, Norton, Gloucestershire, is applying to the Home Secretary for naturalisation, and that any person who knows any reason why naturalisation should not be granted should send a written and signed statement of the facts to the Under Secretary of State, Home Office, SW1”. Heinz Ehrecke had married Ella Marjorie Bignell at Gloucester Rural Register Office in 1944 and the couple had at least two children; Shirley and Robert. In May 1948 someone was advertising the sale of geese and goslings from Benges Cottage. An article in The Citizen newspaper from September 1949 suggests that the Ehrecke family may have changed their surname to ‘Norton’; “Heinz Norton of Benges Cottage, Norton, was bound over by Gloucester County Magistrates yesterday for assault, and ordered to pay £2 7s costs. He was stated to have taken a gun from Walter William Soley, of Benges Farm, Norton, by force. Soley, employed on the farm as a labourer by his uncle, said he was out shooting, and had fired two shots on another part of the farm. He was walking through an orchard near Norton’s cottage when Norton came out, asked him if he had a licence, and grabbed the gun. Norton pushed him into the hedge and his trousers were torn. Fortunately the gun was not loaded”.
By 1954 Arthur and Doris Wood were living at Benges Cottage with Wilfred and Edith Wrench also in residence. Arthur and Doris Wood remained at Benges Cottage and were still here in 1966 and probably later. Wilfred and Edith Wrench had moved to Hammonds Mead by 1960 and by 1962 to High View.
[2002]
In 1985 William Andrew and Dawn Sonia Keel-Stocker were in residence and their family were still here in 2023.
[2021]
