LEE - Farmington Cotswolds => Dean, ironminer, why ? (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Thursday, October 25, 2012, 15:46 (4407 days ago) @ m p griffiths

Thanks M, I was wondering where Farmington was/is !. The earlier post suggested Herefordshire, which I didnt recognise but the name did ring bells in my hollow head, so ??. When I Googled "Farmington Herefordshire" the first of not many hits was intriguing wrt "Bourne" (BourneRob?), however this is probably irrelevant.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=135712
[UPDATE: Oops sorry Robin, it's "Bourton" not Bourne, so the above is clearly "irrelevant", ah well. I guess that means you maybe still in the Cotwolds area then and not Birmingham!, my brains fuddled from another late night, sorry for the confusion].

Ah well, trust you to make sense of it all MPG, it's near Northleach north Glos.
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/GLS/Farmington/Gaz1868.html

I've driven the A40 thro Northleach probably hundreds of times enroute twixt Middlesex & Dean, guess I saw a Farmington signpost ?.
I wonder why Albert found himself moving from a wellknown sheep farming area to become a Dean ironminer ? As much as the Cotswolds are beautiful, areas such as Northleach can be very harsh, windswept and snowbound in the wintertime - I know I'm biased but I fully agree with his moving to Dean ;-)
Knowing Annie's home the Lea as I do I presume he was still in the farming business when he met her, perhaps via the GWR at Longhope ?.

Then again I see Farmington also has a long history of stone quarrying, perhaps that was Albert's skills, so very akin to Drybrook with it's quarrying and local iron mining too ?.

"The lord of the manor leased a stone quarry on the common downs at Farmington to two Northleach masons in 1634, and a quarry or 'mine' was recorded on the Fyfield family's estate in 1639. The principal quarry in the parish was later the Foss quarry, which was opened before 1707 beside the Foss way at the north-west boundary. It was probably an area where stone had long been dug in many small pits, for the part of the open fields adjoining the quarry on the south was known as the Diggings. The Foss quarry, where the old extensive workings had been closed and replaced by new ones to the south before 1882, was leased to a Farmington mason Caleb Joynes from the mid 19th century. He was succeeded there before 1876 by Stephen Joynes who worked as a mason in Farmington until the early 1930s, presumably still leasing the quarry. The owners of the estate, the Barrow family, took the quarry in hand before the Second World War and worked it subsequently on its own account. From 1991 Capt. J. J. D. Barrow made it his principal enterprise, modernizing the equipment and expanding the business. In 1999, when 70 people were employed there, including 15 qualified stonemasons, the business had two main branches, the supply of building stone, including ashlar and rubble walling stone, flagstones, and architectural dressings, and the production of a range of fireplaces in traditional styles."

From: 'Parishes: Farmington', A History of the County of Gloucester: volume 9: Bradley hundred. The Northleach area of the Cotswolds (2001), pp. 69-81. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=66463
Date accessed: 25 October 2012.

There is still a Farmington Natural Stone company in the area.

Hope my muses are of interest, thanks again M !