Is this Rock Cottage Joyford? (General)

by nigeldownunder @, Australia, Tuesday, November 06, 2012, 01:14 (4396 days ago)

I have a couple of legal documents dating to 1901 and 1903 which were passed on to me years ago by my mother, who thought they related to Rock Cottage, Joyford. The first is a mortgage document, and the second is a conveyance document, which shows that the mortgage of 1901 seems to have gone bad, and the property was sold by auction, but was purchased from the successful bidder by the 1901 mortgagee's son, Timothy Jones Vaughan.
I would like to confirm the actual property referred to in the documents as:

ALL THAT Messuage or Cottage and the Garden and piece of Orchard Land thereto adjoining and belonging containing altogether by admeasurement two roods and four perches or thereabouts situate in Worcester Walk in the Forest of Dean in the County of Gloucester at a place there called Joyford and numbered 238 in Worcester Walk aforesaid in one of the Plans annexed to or which accompanied the Second Report of the Dean Forest Commissioners and therein coloured partly red and partly blue and also delineated in the plan annexed to an Indenture dated the seventh day of March one thousand eight hundred and sixty four and made between Thomas Allcot otherwise called Thomas Hawker of the one part and John Vaughan of the other part Together with the Shop and other Buildings since added to the said Messuage or Cottage the whole now being in the occupation of Timothy Jones Vaughan and the said Charlotte Vaughan and bounded by property of John Cooper by the road leading from Joyford to English Bicknor and by Forest Lanes on all or the most parts and sides thereof

I have googled Worcester Walk Joyford, but the closest one I can find is in Broadwell, which is obviously not the one.

Can anyone help with identifying this property?

Rock Cottage Joyford & "Worcester Walk"

by Jefff @, West London, Middlesex, Tuesday, November 06, 2012, 03:02 (4396 days ago) @ nigeldownunder

Hi Nigel,
Apologies if I tell you what you may already know, but .....
First, while searching this website for a formal definition of Worcester Walk the first hit was this, ie "YOUR" aforementioned document. Did you know it was in the site's Documents files ?, or how it got there ? (I don't).
http://www.forest-of-dean.net/downloads/Miscellaneous/VAUGHAN_Charlotte_Mortgage_Papers...

I'm thinking perhaps you don't understand what "Worcester Walk" means in the old Forest of Dean sense ?. It doesn't refer to a house address such as a road or street, as it may perhaps sound nowadays (altho' I guess there may be one in Broadwell judging from your post?). It refers to a large area of the western Forest, if you like it's one of the first local government Districts, long before the Census' and "Newland" or "West Dean" etc.

In this site is an early reference book to the Forest which is recommended reading, accessed from the Home Page under "e-books".
"The Forest of Dean, An Historical and Descriptive Account" by Nicholls, H. G. (Henry George), 1825-1867.
http://www.forest-of-dean.net/ebooks/gutenberg/24505/24505-h.htm
This text can be searched and one of the hits for Worcester Walk is below, which hopefully explains itself.
(or if you prefer to see images of the old book itself, complete with illustrations, this version is also completely searchable, see
http://www.archive.org/stream/forestdeananhis00nichgoog#page/n9/mode/1up

From this book, I think the name was also related to one of the early Constables of St. Briavel’s Castle, so Wardens of the Forest of Dean "was John Tiptoft Earl of Worcester, from 1459 to 1466 under reign of King Henry VI." St Braivels is at the southwestern side of the Forest between ancient Newland(hence Joyford, Christchurch,Broadwell etc) and important Chepstow Castle on the Severn/Wye.

"On the 28th of September, 1675, at the recommendation of Sir Charles Harbord, to whom the plan was probably suggested by the precedent of the ten bailiwicks into which the district had been anciently divided, the Forest was formed into six “walks,” or districts, a keeper being appointed to each. Six lodges were built for their use in convenient situations, with 30 acres of land attached, “for the better encouragement and enabling of the said keepers to attend and watch over the said enclosures within their several walks, and to preserve the same, and the young springs of wood and trees thereon growing, and to grow from time to time, from spoil and harm.” The names given to each of the six divisions were derived from some of the most eminent living characters of that day. Thus, the Speech House, or King’s Walk, was so called after Charles II.; York Walk and Lodge after the Duke of York; Danby Walk and Lodge after the Earl of Danby, prime Minister at the time; Worcester Walk and Lodge after Henry Marquis of Worcester, the then constable of the Castle of St. Briavel’s, and warden of the Forest; Latimer Walk and Lodge after Viscount Latimer; and Herbert Walk and Lodge after Lord Herbert; in the two last instances, out of compliment to the Worcester family apparently. The Speech House was so called from its being intended for the use of the ancient Court of “the Speech,” as mentioned in the Laws and Franchises of the Mine."

Another piece of recommended if not essential reading is "The Forest of Dean" by Arthur O.Cooke, pub 1913.
http://archive.org/stream/cu31924028028920#page/n7/mode/2up

All of these books have been reprinted and are still available to buy.

I would love to be able to post a map showing the area's of the various Walks, but sadly cannot find one (perhaps Slowhands etc could help, please ?).
However I do know from my old Ordnance Survey Map that Joyford (altho' not nowadays within the wooded part of the Forest as such) is near to and was considered part of the Worcester Walk area, as is all of that Hillersland area towards Symonds Yat.

Another ever-reliable source is the British History site, if you search the text for "Rock" you'll find it mentions
"Early settlement on the hillside at Joyford, north-east of Berry Hill, included by 1758 several cottages on Crown land overlooking buildings belonging to English Bicknor and a detached part of Newland. In 1782 there were 40 cottages within the Forest at Joyford, including 12 up the hill in the area known in 1804 as the Lonk. On the lower part of the hill a beerhouse, later called the Dog and Muffler, opened before 1838. In 1851 there were eight houses to the east in Ninewells bottom, then known as the Mire.
North of Berry Hill, cottages had appeared within the Forest at Short Standing, near a farmstead belonging to English Bicknor, by 1758 and there were 12 there in 1782. Northwest of Short Standing at Hillersland, on the road from Coleford to Goodrich (Herefs.), several cottages were recorded from 1565 on a green, where an inn or beerhouse called the Cock in 1748 was renamed the Rock in the mid 19th century. There were a few cottages strung out along the road in 1787 and their number had increased to 17 by 1834. Further north at Redinhorne, near Symonds Yat rock, there was a cottage on the road in 1608. Three cottages were recorded there in 1792 and the few houses there in 1992 included a wooden bungalow used as the Symonds Yat post office.

From: 'Forest of Dean: Settlement', A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 5: Bledisloe Hundred, St. Briavels Hundred, The Forest of Dean (1996), pp. 300-325.
URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=23266
Date accessed: 06 November 2012.

I assume the name Rock was chosen in the mid 1800s to reflect the then-growing popularity of Symonds Yat Rock as "the" local beauty spot and magnet to the newly invented Victorian "Tourists" enjoying the Wye Tour ?
http://www.forest-of-dean.net/gallery/symonds_yat/

According to tinternet Rock Cottage is at:
JOYFORD HILL,
COLEFORD,
GLOUCESTERSHIRE,
GL16 7AR.

I am unable to find any online photos of it (altho searching this postcode on Google Streetmap will probably help !!), so I cannot say for certain whether the current "Rock Cottage" is indeed the same property the mortgage documents refer to, although it seems plausible. Perhaps searching the people named on the Mortgage Document within the 1901 Census will help build a mental picture or even map ?

I hope this has helped you, if only a little !
Jeff.

Rock Cottage Joyford & "Worcester Walk"

by nigeldownunder @, Australia, Tuesday, November 06, 2012, 05:08 (4396 days ago) @ Jefff

Thanks Jefff - more information than I expected!
I uploaded the mortgage documents onto the FOD website some time ago.
I have a photo of the front of Rock Cottage dated from around 1900. The house has been extensively re-built in the 80's and nineties, but the front of the house is still recognisable - even the front wall, fence and gate remain. My picture is a "photo of a photo" shown to me by the present owner of Rock Cottage, and was given to him by a relation of my grandmother, about ten years ago. He has promised me a scan of his photo, which would be better than my version, and I'll ask him if he will give permission for it to be uploaded onto the FOD site. Incidentally, the photo includes four people standing in front of the house, a middle-aged man, a more elderly woman, a younger woman and a young girl. I'm assuming at this stage that the man is the Timothy Jones Vaughan mentioned in the mortgage documents, and if that's the case, the elderly woman would be his mother, Charlotte Vaughan, my ggg grandmother.
My family seems to have been associated with at least two cottages on Joyford Hill - Rock Cottage and Boiling Well Cottage (since demolished).

Thanks for your great input.

Rock Cottage Joyford & "Worcester Walk"

by m p griffiths @, Tuesday, November 06, 2012, 08:34 (4395 days ago) @ Jefff

By using the Advance Search : Worcester Walk (possibly, up to 1911 these families are located on census returns)

Baptisms

1915 JOHNSON - Harold Lewis - parents: Lewis Thomas & Lucy Jane, residence: Worcester Walk, Lydbrook (Lydbrook Chapel)
1911 Wales, Monmouthshire census, living at Upper Lydbrook, Coleford Nr Ross, Herefordshire Ernest HILEY + his family are living quite close 1901/1911 census District 21

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1840 FLETCHER - Hannah - parents John & Ann, residence: Worcester Walk Cottage, (Ledbury Chapel) *

1840 FLETCHER - Phebe - parents John & Ann, ditto

1843 FLETCHER - Sydoney - parents John & Ann, ditto

1846 FLETCHER - John - parents John & Ann, ditto

1853 HILL - Frederick, Josiah & Elizabeth, residence: Conygre Cottage, Worcester Walk, (Ledbury Chapel)


This FLETCHER family are on the 1841 - District 8 Ledbury (1851 Worcester Walk Cottage District 5h - Ledbury)

'All that part of the parish of Ledbury comprising Haffield Division as far as the Lower Road leading from Ledbury to Donnington to the Worcester Road to the Crofs & Hands'

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Marriages

1850 DAVIS James - residence, Stoney Hill, married FLETCHER, Mary Ann - Worcester Walk Cottage, (Ledbury Chapel)

1858 EVANS George - residence: Worcester Walk Cottage, married Emma FLETCHER, ditto

1937 THOMAS Morton Henry, married Kathleen Dorothy PORTER, Worcester Walk, Broadwell, Coleford, (Coleford Chapel)

1941 LEWIS Arthur Leslie, married Doris PORTER, Worcester Walk, Broadwell (Coleford Chapel)

1942 WILKINS Victor Robert, married Millicent Elizabeth Maria HAWKINS - Worcester Walk, Broadwell (Coleford Chapel)

Burials

1871 POWELLS Eliza - Worcester Walk age 73, (Ledbury Chapel)

1951 DAVIS Gertrude Hetty - The Cottage Worcester Walk Broadwell Glos age 60 years (Christchurch Chapel)

1951 PORTER - Richard White - Worcester Walk Broadwell Glos age 76 (Christchurch Chapel)

1942 BALL Edward, married Ivy Leila MERRY - Worcester Walk, Broadwell, Nr Coleford, (Coleford Chapel)

Worcester Walk

by slowhands @, proud of his ancient Dean Forest roots, Tuesday, November 06, 2012, 08:16 (4395 days ago) @ nigeldownunder


I have googled Worcester Walk Joyford, but the closest one I can find is in Broadwell, which is obviously not the one.


Worcester Walk a portion of West Dean


In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described West Dean like this:


DEAN (West), a township in the district of Monmouth and county of Gloucester; averagely 1½ mile E of Coleford.
It consists of the western portion of Dean Forest; and comprises Worcester-walk, York or Park-end-walk, and parts
of Denby and Speech-House-walks. Acres, 19, 035. Real property, £33, 104; of which £22, 870 are in mines,
£449 in quarries, and £810 in ironworks. Pop., 8, 254. Houses; 1, 655.

http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/GLS/ForestofDean/Gaz1868.html
WORCESTER WALK, an extra parochial liberty in Dean Forest, county Gloucester, 6 miles W. of Newnham. It includes the village of Lidbrook."
Encroacment in Worcester Walk


Many were in Worcester walk where much early building took place in the Berry Hill and Lydbrook areas.
The cottages of the period, still often termed cabins, remained primitive low dwellings, sometimes erected
hastily in the widespread belief, recorded in the mid 19th century, that the Forest authorities had no power
to pull down those built overnight. Some were of turf and a few of wood, mud, or rushes, but most had dry
stone walls and turf roofing.[/i

From: 'Forest of Dean: Settlement', A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 5: Bledisloe Hundred, St. Briavels Hundred, The Forest of Dean (1996), pp. 300-325. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=23266 Date accessed: 06 November 2012.

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Ἀριστοτέλης A Gloster Boy in the Forest of Dean ><((((*>

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