My ancestry - My most remote and famous ancestor
'Planning' and 'The County Plan'- amend page textIn his eighties
Billy was frequently invited to speak to community groups on all
sorts of topics. He frequently spoke about his experiences in the
building trade and about some of the great houses he had renovated.
On this occasion he shared a few tales from his early childhood in
Steyning, West Sussex.
My most remote and famous ancestor disappeared at about the time
of the Assizes. He was a blacksmith at the old forge opposite
Brotherhood Hall, Steyning Grammar School.
The Old Forge, Steyning
He was also a notorious poacher – not a night poacher. He used to
collect all the likely dogs in the parish and go “dogging” on the
Downs hunting hares and rabbits until he was caught by Sir John
Goring’s keepers. He was a magistrate who sentenced him there and
then to transportation - in Sir John’s dining room, so the story
ran. This was in the early days of the nineteenth century. He is
said to have gone to Australia – could not read or write, aged 34,
never heard of again. His wife, Nan Godley, was left with 4
children. She was a hefty wench and rather a character, and carried
on the blacksmith’s business actually shoeing the horses herself
with the aid of a boy!
Billy's Grandmother's house,
Steyning.
My Grandmother’s house was on the bank in Church Lane, Steyning. It
still stands, but has been irretrievably spoilt by a recent
addition of two flat-roofed, dormer-type windows. The result is
horribly ugly. Except for that I would have bought the place to
live in some ten years ago. My Great Grandmother also lived in a
little cottage in the continuation of Church Lane [1].
I met a son of this “boy” in the summer of 1889 who gave me more
information on this than I was ever able to obtain elsewhere. My
Great Grandmother[2], and
Grandmother[3] who live in the house
on the bank in Church Road Steyning, were always rather “mum”, felt
I think never to have outgrown the stigma of having a relative
transported. My grandmother was a tenant of the Gorings of Wiston.
I went with her as a little boy to the coming of age of the Rev.
Sir John Goring’s son, and remember this episode being talked about
over the tea table, in a marquee. My impression was Nan Godley’s
man had at least committed murder!
Elizabeth Hoad (Langford), Billy's
paternal Grandmother.
My paternal Grandfather[4] I never
knew. He and his son, my Uncle Tom, worked on Maudlin Farm on the
Downs between Steyning and Bramber. Maudlin Farm[5] was at one
time owned by Magdalene College, Oxford and so gave its name and
Oxford pronunciation to the farm.
William Hoad, Billy's paternal
Grandfather.
My Uncle Tom used to plough with oxen. He was a great lumbering
chap with a queer sense of fun. He delighted to take me in his arms
and scrub my cheeks with his 3 or 4 days growth of black beard. I
suppose he thought it funny, seeing how he laughed. My Grandmother
would say, “Give over, Tom, don’t terrify the boy”. I think to her
“terrify” was to tease. Uncle Tom was reputed to be a great man
with horses, but he once explained to me that ’osses was alright if
you wanted to get a load of corn down to “Suthick” Basin in a
hurry, but they was not much good for ploughing, tearing about in
such a tarnation hurry. “For ploughing goo’ long steady like, same
as oxes do”. Uncle Tom’s reactions to tractor ploughing would be
illuminating!
- [1] Ann Langford was 76
and a widow at the time of the 1871 Census, living in Mill Row,
Steyning, and described as a “pauper (living outdoors)”. She died
in 1880 when Billy would have been seven.
- [2] Ann Langford (née
Godley, 1798 – 1880).
- [3] Elizabeth Hoad (née
Langford), 1821 - c.
- [4] William Hoad,
1821-1869.
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