Charles HARPER c 1795 Blacksmith (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Friday, November 29, 2019, 01:21 (1830 days ago) @ NElkins

Sorry Norman,
I cannot find any specific mention of it in the British History website for the area, or marked on any of the old O.S. maps. But that of course isn't saying it's not there !.

The earliest detailed O.S. map I can access online is here, from 1878, so sadly after Charles Harper's time;
https://maps.nls.uk/view/109725478
(The next edition from 1901 shows the Steam saw mill as disused).

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The 1868 Slaters Trade Directory for the Westbury on Severn area, so including Chaxhill, lists the following blacksmiths (and no Harpers at all);

CLUTTERBUCK Wm., blacksmith, Northwood
GABB George, blacksmith, Longney
MERRATT William, blacksmith, Elmore
SMITH George S., blacksmith, Bollow
WILCE James, blacksmith, Westbury

So perhaps by the above 1878 map there wasn't a smithy in Chaxhill itself ?.

http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~cbennett/genealogy/westburyonsevern1868.htm

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Chaxhill looks like a busy and properous place so must have had a smithy.

Word-searching the British History site text for Chaxhill gives these excerpts;

"Of the seven tithings which formed the great manor of Rodley, Rodley, Elton, Adsett, Chaxhill, and Stantway were settled by 1221, and Cleeve and Bollow by 1300.

"The 106 able-bodied men listed under Rodley in 1608 probably included those of all five tithings; c1710 48 families were recorded in Rodley tithing, 14 each in Chaxhill and Bollow, and 12 in Cleeve.

"The main settlement in Chaxhill tithing is a group of 18th- and early-19th-century farm-houses and cottages at a by-passed bend in the main road; two of the houses are of local stone but with brick fronts. The pound for the tithing stood by the roadside there in 1879. Other cottages, mainly of the 19th century, are scattered along the main road eastwards to where it runs close to the river at the place known as the Flat.

"The predominant building material is brick, although in the south of the parish a coarse blue Lias stone, which was being quarried at Chaxhill in the later 19th century, has also been fairly widely used for houses, farm buildings, and walls, and there are some cottages of the Old Red Sandstone in the east. Relatively few timber-framed buildings survive, but there are more than is immediately apparent because of the use of rough-cast and other facings."

https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/glos/vol10/pp79-85

"An estate of 85a based on CHAXHILL HOUSE was owned by Benjamin Hyett in 1780. He sold it in 1809 to Thomas Elliot, and Elliot sold it in 1817 to Joseph Bennett whose family was in possession of an adjoining estate at Chaxhill by 1789. In 1839 Joseph Bennett's estates comprised c190a. By 1863 they had passed to Joseph Richard Bennett who retained them until c1910. In 1918 his trustees put the estate up for sale; it was split up, the house and c80a being bought by J. W. Bennet who sold it in 1924. That part of the estate passed through various ownerships until c. 1951 when it was bought by Mr. L. J. Hyslop who added to it a former part of Walmore Common and in 1969 owned the house with a farm of 215a. Chaxhill House is an early 19th-century threestory brick house with a stuccoed front; it has a cornice and parapet and a porch with pediment, pilasters, and fan-light."

https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/glos/vol10/pp85-93

Sorry couldn't be more helpful,
J