Today, The Old Bakery is a detached house with sixteen rooms but two adjoining cottages originally formed the property with an entrance on the left side and another at the front. On the left side at ground level an open entry area allowed horses and implements to pass into a forge at the back of the building. The old fireplace in the forge area is still present.
At the back of the house adjoining the forge on the right is an area that served as a carpenter’s shop. In the garden area there is a brick outbuilding with a stable door where horses were kept. A well can also be found in the garden.
Under the floor on the left side of the house is a steel lined tank about ten feet in diameter and eight feet deep which possibly served as a water storage tank for the Upchurch Fire Brigade in 1902 and 1903. Above this on the ground floor a water pump once stood.
The Old Bakery as it is today. |
During the 1830s and 1840s Edward Anderson worked as the village blacksmith and lived on the site with his wife Jane and son George. When he left Tom and James Kerslake took over and resided there during the 1840s and 1850s.
In 1857 businessman and blacksmith Edward Cozens who lived in Newington bought the property from Upchurch landowner Giles Hilton and had a new building made up of two adjoining cottages constructed on the site. A forge and carpenter’s shop were later added to the back of the building. Cozens sold one of the cottages to Mary Ludgater in 1867 and the other to John Jackson in 1876. At the same time Cozens continued to run the blacksmith’s business at the property.
With the arrival of grocer and baker Horatio West during the 1860s, the house, which he rented, was converted into a bakery. An oven built into the chimney stack is located upstairs and at a later date when the blacksmith’s business finished, the fireplace in the forge area was converted into an oven. Horatio West became the first recorded baker to live there. He also worked as sub-postmaster and grocer at the shop now known as Terrys until the mid-1870s. During the same period a chemist from Sittingbourne named Thomas Cocking resided on the right side of the property. Large numbers of medicine bottles found in the well indicate that he may have turned his cottage into a chemist’s shop for a short period.
Edward Cozens who had maintained a blacksmith’s business in Upchurch, Lower Halstow and Newington bought the house for the second time in 1881. He purchased it from Thomas Cocking and Walter Strouts for £1,600. His purchase included two adjoining cottages, a forge, a carpenter’s shop and an acre of land that had formerly formed part of Forge Field to the right of the house. He retired and moved to Brompton in 1886. Later, in 1904 when he died he was buried in the churchyard overlooking Forge Lane.
Ann Prentis bought the property in 1886 but Ernest Cozens, son of Edward Cozens, lived in the house and ran a bakery business there. In 1904 the post office transferred from Wraight’s shop to The Old Bakery for a short period and Ernest Cozens ran it as the sub-postmaster. He later converted one of the rooms into a photographer’s studio and worked part time as the village photographer. In 1903 he allowed the Upchurch Fire Brigade to keep their equipment at the house on a temporary basis. A room directly above the open area on the left side of the building served as the fire brigade office. The horse would probably have been kept in the stable located in the back garden. Ernest Cozens also served as chairman on the parish council but moved to Rainham in 1905 when he became postmaster for the town.
Tom Wraight's bread delivery cart. |
William Neame, a baker, and his wife Margaret lived and worked at the bakery with the Wraight family from 1927 until 1938 then they moved into the ‘The Upchurch Stores’ opposite the church in The Street. They remained there until the late 1950s.
Following the death of Tom Wraight the bakery business finished, the family moved out and were replaced by Louis and Kathleen Davey who bought the property in December 1946 and lived there until 1954. Mark Harland-Thomas and his wife Alexandra then moved into the house. Mark Harland- Thomas, an architect, drew up the plans for a new village hall and housing estates built by E C Gransden Limited during the 1960s.
Terry Knight. |
Terry Knight has renovated the house while maintaining its old character and continues to reside in what remains an interesting and historical village building.