Bradley Cottages (Norton Court Estate Cottage No 24)
It is not until more recently that these cottages have been identified individually by Estate number and their early history will be taken in common.
At the time the Inclosures came to Norton in 1807 Plot No 69, where the three Bradley Cottages can now be found, was recorded as a single house and garden in the ownership of Edward Webb of the Norton Court Estate. The representation of the Plot on the following map extract shows a number of buildings and it is assumed that this was a farm with associated outbuildings at this time.
[Inclosure Map 1807]
The next helpful document after the Inclosure Act is found in 1838 with a Poor Law Terrier for Norton. This identifies ‘Bradleys’ as No 57, 1 rod 20 perches, with two cottages and a garden plot all owned by Edward Webb of the Norton Court Estate. The first cottage and garden was let to John Bailey, the second cottage and garden was let to Hannah Roberts and the garden was let to Richard Taylor who was at Green Farm.
The census of 1841 confirms that Hannah Roberts, aged 60, was widowed and living here with her son Thomas, an agricultural labourer. Hannah’s husband Thomas had died in July 1835. Next door was John Bailey, a 40 year old agricultural labourer with his wife Hannah and baby son George. John Bailey had married Hannah, the daughter of Thomas and Hannah Roberts, in October 1838. Samuel Roberts, a 70 year old brushmaker, was also in this area with his wife Esther, two adult sons and daughters.
A document that appears to date from the late 1840s, when Miss Elizabeth Frances Webb held the Norton Court Estate, records who occupied each of the farms on the estate and who and how many people lived in the cottages that were located on each of the farms. The first three cottages were located at Bradley’s and in the first of these we have Hannah Roberts, her son and his wife, the second John Bailey, wife and child, and the third Samuel Roberts with two sons and a daughter.
The census of 1851 has Hannah Roberts, aged 75 and a retired shopkeeper, living with her now married son Thomas, his wife Hannah and their three young children. John Bailey is still next door with his wife Hannah and two children. Samuel Roberts, now 81, a widower, and still a brushmaker, was also still here with son Charles.
The Census from 1861 has Hannah Roberts, now 86, still living with son Thomas and his family of five children. John and Hannah Bailey are still next door with one child. Samuel Roberts died, aged 89, in April 1859 but son Charles is still here living alone.
Things have changed by 1871. Hannah Roberts died in September 1862 but her son Thomas and family are still here. John Bailey died in June 1867 and although widowed Hannah and daughter Eliza are still in the area I believe them to have been living elsewhere. Charles Roberts is now living at Smithfield and it is not clear who was living in his cottage at Bradleys. Thomas Bainbridge jnr of Benges Farm, Priors Norton, married Louisa Hayward in May 1863 and they moved to what was then being called Bradley Farm, most likely what was to become No 22. By 1871 Thomas and Louis, who was using the name Susan, had three children. The property adjacent to them was recorded as being ‘void’.
[2nd Edition, OS 25” Map, 1844-1888]
Thomas Bainbridge died in November 1880 and by 1881 widowed Susan Bainbridge had moved to Yew Tree Farm. James Piff, a 50 year old market gardener from Staverton, is at Bradley Farm Cottages with his wife Emma and seven children. This is the only property recorded as Bradley Farm in the census.
In 1901 there are four properties described as Bradley Farm Cottages. Samuel and Sarah Preston were in No 22, Charles Griffiths, a farm carter, wife Mary Ann and five young children in another, William Piff, a market gardener, wife Esther, four children and William’s father James in No 23, and William Stubbs, 83 year old living off his own means, with his wife Comfort, a daughter and grandson in the fourth.
In 1903-04 Charles Probert was here and at the time of the Norton Court Estate Ladyday rents for 1908 No 24 wasn’t recorded.
We are now reaching the time when the cottages can be identified by Norton Court Estate Nos and the following account will be tailored for each cottage. Whilst it becomes possible to identify the occupants of individual cottages this isn’t always possible and the following were all living in one of the Bradley Cottages but it is not known which one.
In 1924-26 Arthur Sims and wife Susanna who died aged 67 in July 1924.
In 1924 Edwin Shadrack and Margaret Alice Beard.
In 1924 William and Elizabeth Mary Freeman.
In 1924-26 Seth Roberts.
In 1926 Evan Phillip, Emily Mary and John Samuel Coles
In 1927-29 Albert, Leah, Adelaide and William John Giddings
In 1927 Jack Redvers Stubbs.
In 1939 Walter and Athelinda Daisy Roles were here. Walter was originally from Deerhurst / Apperley and had married Athelinda Freeman, of a Norton family, in 1929 at Tewkesbury having four children; Athelinda Joan, Marian Myrtle, Violet Joyce and Dorothy Grace. In 1936 they had been at Smithfield so had only just moved in.
In 1948 James Fuller was here, in 1949 Ethel Marion Emily Hoepfner, and in 1951 ‘Mills’.
In June 1952 the Norton Court Estate was sold at auction and the cottage, associated with Yew Tree Farm at that time, was described as follows; "A room (no fireplace), kitchen with fireplace and oven, larder, scullery with furnace and two bedrooms, one having a fireplace. Garden, EC, and pigscot. Water is obtained from a well with pump and is shared by the adjoining house known as No 23".
In 1985 Alan and Monica M Cook were in residence.
