Agriculture and a traditional rural way of life
dominated this part of the parish where farmers and farm workers lived and
worked during the 1840s.
The main visual differences compared with today were
dirt tracks instead of roads with horse drawn transport, more barns, thatched
cottages and fewer orchards. According to contemporary maps and land records
the area had mixed farming, consisting mainly of arable, pasture, some orchards
and a small acreage of hops with sheep grazing on the marshes. Many of the
fields were not enclosed until the Enclosure Acts of the late 1840s.
According to the National Census of 1841 ninety two
people lived at Ham Green and fifty at Wetham Green. Most of these were farm
workers and some resident farmers. Of the resident farmers Stephen Hedgecock
who lived at Ham Green House owned about forty acres which his wife Jemima took
over after he died and continued with the assistance of her son Stephen. The
orchard opposite Ham Green House is still referred to as 'Hedgecocks.'
Farmer Richard Mitchell moved to Ham Green from
Holywell in the 1840s. He lived in the house which is today named 'Mitchells' along with the
adjacent barn (now converted) and the land behind. He previously owned a large
acreage at Holywell which Henry Miskin then James Stevens bought and farmed. Richard
Mitchell became well-known in the parish and served as a churchwarden at
Upchurch church and as a governor at Holywell School.
Of the other farmers
Thomas Hadlow lived at a dwelling that stood on the
site of the present day Greylag Cottage and he owned several fields. At seventy
he was the oldest resident in Ham Green. A widow from Yew Tree Cottage named
Catherine Coveney also farmed several fields while John Walter from Gore Farm
owned Bayford Marsh. Thomas Dodd also owned a large amount in the area but he
resided in Rainham.
The majority of other Ham Green residents were farm
workers. Some of these included James Medhurst, John Thacker, Edward Chambers,
Isaac Wildish, James Hart and Moses Hopper. During the winter months when farm
work became irregular farm workers were employed to maintain the sea wall and
cut hedges. Surveyor of Highways account books for 1845 show that workers were
paid 1/8d a day for this work. When crops like fruit were available fruit
pickers took their children to work so that extra money could be earned as
school attendance did not become compulsory until 1882.
The houses from the period that still exist today are
Mitchells Cottage, Callows House and Ham Green House at Ham Green, Yew Tree
Cottage and Bayford farmhouse at the bottom of Poot Lane and the cottages in
Shoregate Lane.
During the 1840s Shoregate Lane extended to the island
of Greenborough where two dwellings stood belonging to Robert Timson and
shepherd James Woolley. Sheep grazed on the island. Sheep also grazed on
Burntwick Island, officially part of the parish of Upchurch until the early
twentieth century. In 1845 Sidney Bernard RN was placed in a tomb surrounded by
metal railings on the island. He had served as a ship’s doctor but after
boarding HMS Éclair at Stangate Creek to treat the crew infected with yellow
fever he caught the disease and died aged twenty seven. He was buried on the
island in a tomb that has been maintained by the Royal Navy up to the present
day.
The residents of Wetham Green were mainly farm workers.
In 1841 several thatched cottages existed on the site of the present bungalows
with a small hop garden on the left where hops can still be seen in the hedge
today. On the next corner at Wetham Green Farm where a farmer named Thomas
Castle resided, a barn, pond and outbuildings existed. Opposite and on the
right past the green going towards Susan’s Lane stood another set of thatched
cottages. The farm workers who lived there included John Hart, Robert Ransley,
John Penny, Daniel Hollands, Mary Seager and James Coppen.
Because of the seasonal nature of farm work which led
to periods of unemployment, some farm workers had to spend time in the
Siittingbourne area workhouse known as the Milton Union. Mary Seager from
Wetham Green became the most regular visitor there and according to the
workhouse records once had to be removed and incarcerated in Canterbury prison
because of her bad behaviour.
Ague became the biggest health problem in the Ham Green
area, a form of malaria rife during the summer months that caused a high fever,
contracted from marsh mosquitoes. This became common along the banks of the
Medway and Swale rivers. Upchurch vicar John Woodruff regularly gave ague
medicine as alms to the poor during the 1840s and 1850s and the disease
continued up to the early twentieth century.
Although many aspects of the area have changed since
the 1840s with local farm workers replaced by Eastern European labour and many
farm workers cottages and barns converted into luxury homes, the rural
character remains.
About David
David Wood was born and raised in Upchurch and is able to write from personal experience about many people and aspects of the village and of changes that have taken place over the years making ‘Memories of Upchurch’ a very readable book and a detailed historical study of the village. David's book ‘Memories of Upchurch’ is available direct from David at: david3702001@yahoo.co.uk or from us here at Upchurch Matters. Price £12 + £3.50 postage and packing.
David Wood
