Pound House at Longhope, adjoining the home of Alfred Beard (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Monday, June 06, 2011, 15:52 (4923 days ago) @ admin

Hi David/Ian,
yes thats a great photo. It's actually taken from within the walled "Pound" across the road from Pound House. I guess there wasn't a traffic problem then ! My stepsister & her Beard cousins haven't yet identified the people or dates, we'd love to know. Here's a more recent shot, still a nice old house. Sorry, despite my best efforts I'm still unable to post the photo direct!.
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/836303
Note the caption:
"Stands opposite a field which was known as The Pound which was used to pen animals found wandering in the village. The house bears an inscribed tablet which reads,
'The Pound House destroyed by fire 19 October 1851 was rebuilt for Hannah Bright Aged 71 years by the Norwich Union Fire Office 1852.'

I presume the animals were merely escapee cows etc from the nearby fields & smallholdings. I wonder if their owner had to pay for their return ?

In actual fact the Beards lived in Pound Cottage, attached to the right of Pound House to right of tall chimney stack. My halfsister lived there with Henry & Bertha until aged 7 when she moved to cottages near the "Farmer's Boy" pub with our father when he remarried to a Longhope girl, my mother, in 1953. My halfsister recalls helping her grandad with his photography: Henry aka "Harry" Beard owned a big box camera & tripod and photographed local scenes, printed the photos at home, and sold them as postcards locally including at my ancestor Mrs E.Wright's Longhope shop. He also photographed local events such as weddings, the cricket team and so on, he's listed in local Trade Directories. When he died in 1967 Bertha moved out of Pound Cottage, but her son Cyril renovated it and lived there afterwards. For a while Cyril was the landlord of the "Lamb" pub and then Ranks Social Club, both in Mitcheldean. Before that Cyril and friends had worked in London right after the war, Cyril became head barman at the renowned Carlton Club. While there he befriended & played squash with world-famous actor Boris Karloff, who visited Cyril at Mitcheldean a few years later. (Boris aka William Henry Pratt was born-in & died-in London, an Englishman thro & thro). Cyril Beard & wife Nancy died just a few years before Bertha in the 1980s. My Wright grandparents on mum's side were landlords of the "Nags Head" at nearby Longhope thro the mid 50s - 70s; we're not all career-drinkers but there must be something in that fresh country air to create a thirst !