Box People and Places
Latest Issue 31 Spring 2021 
  • This Issue
    • Celebrity Visits
    • Middlehill Tunnel
    • Doris Pepita Chappell
    • Local Roman Finds
    • Gingell
    • Jut the Ticket
    • Straightening & Levelling
    • Tottle Family
    • Rudloe Part 2
    • Bowdler
    • Bullocks Worldwide
    • James Shell of KIngsdown
    • Bill Peter Recalled
    • Rudloe WW2 Remnants
    • More Stink Pipes
    • Northey Tankard Found
  • Early Medieval
    • Britain in Late Antiquity
    • Box after AD 350
    • Why Speak English?
    • Art and Craft
  • Previous
    • Issue 30 - Georgian Rudloe
    • Issue 29 - Darkest Hour
    • Issue 28 - VE Day
    • Issue 27 - Northey
    • Issue 26 - Heritage Trail
    • Earlier Issues 1 - 25 >
      • Issue 25 - Slave Owners
      • Issue 24 - Highwaymen
      • Issue 23 - Georgian
      • Issue 22 - War Memorial
      • Issue 21 - Childhood 1949-59
      • Issue 20 - Box Home Guard
      • Issue 19 - Outbreak WW2
      • Issue 18 - Building Bargates
      • Issue 17 - Railway Changes
      • Issue 16 - Quarries
      • Issue 15 - Rail & Quarry
      • Issue 14 - Civil War
      • Issue 13: Box Revels
      • Issue 12 - Where You Live
      • Issue 11 - Tudor & Stuart
      • Issue 10 - End of Era 1912
      • Issue 9 - Health & Leisure
      • Issue 8 - Farming & Rural
      • Issue 7 - Manufacturing
      • Issue 6 - Celebrations
      • Issue 5 - Victorian Centre
      • Issue 4 - Slump after WW1
      • Issue 3 - Great War 1914-18
      • Issue 2 - 1950s & 1960s
      • Issue 1 - 1920s
    • Index By Author
    • Partner Sites & Book Reviews
    • Currency Converter
  • People
  • Places
  • General
  • Series
    • Northeys >
      • Early Family
      • World of the Northeys
      • Unpaid Bill: Smith & Northey
      • Family Tree
      • George Wilbraham
      • Life in Box
      • George Edward
      • Safe & Steady Son
      • Army Life
      • Theatrical Events
      • Rolls-Royce Pioneer
      • Northey Donkey Cart
      • Other Children
      • Later Family
      • Selling Up
      • Northey Legacy
    • Box School Series >
      • Box Charity School
      • Formation of Box Schools
      • Schools WW1 to WW2
      • Box Schools, 1920s
      • Boys' School, 1927
      • Evacuee Schoolboy 1941
      • Box School 1945-83
      • Class of 1954
    • Box Farms >
      • Weavern Farm and Mill
      • Old Jockey Farm
      • Hill House Farm
      • Coles Farm
    • Box Library Project
    • NATS Trails >
      • Heritage Trails 2019
      • Conservation Areas
      • Box NATS Trails 2018
      • Alcombe and Shockerwick
      • Mills on Box Brook
      • Saxon Footpaths
      • New History Trails 2017
      • Roman Road
      • Box Hill Trail
      • Georgian Middlehill
      • History Trails 2016
      • Mad House
      • Thomas Railway
      • Market Place Origins
    • Prehistory >
      • Kingsdown's Menhir Secrets
    • Roman >
      • Early History Hoard
      • Roman Road Finds
      • Ancient Discovery
      • Roman Mosaics in Box
    • Early Medieval
    • Feudal >
      • Magna Carta in Box
      • Monk's Tale
      • Norman Conquest of Box
      • Tracing Bartholomew Bigod
      • When it Rained and Rained
    • Late Medieval
    • Tudor & Stuart >
      • Box in Civil War 1642 - 51
      • Wolf Hall and Box
      • Marsh Family
      • People during Civil War
      • Original Box Revels
      • Tudor Local Government
      • Ordinary People
      • Religion in Box, 1475-1660
      • Where You Live in 1626 >
        • Ashley
        • Central Box
        • Ditteridge
        • Hatt, Old Jockey and Blue Vein
        • Hazelbury
        • Henley and Washwells
        • Kingsdown
        • Middlehill
        • Rudloe
      • Hugh Speke Shaped Box
      • Walter Bushnell
      • Reformation in Box, 1535
      • Ten Tudor & Stuart Mansions
      • Death at Thomas à Becket >
        • For Whom Box Bell Tolled
      • Tudor & Stuart Timeline
      • John Aubrey's Box
    • Georgian >
      • Napoleon versus Box
      • Revolutionary Times
      • Coaches in 1830
      • Agricultral Census 1803
      • Tithe Apportionment
      • Slavery Families
      • Mullins Family, Schoolmasters
      • Box Churchyard
      • Sheridan's Duel
      • Tree of Life at Middlehill
      • Box's Highwayman
      • 1752: Very Odd Year
      • Witches, Quakers and Chapels
      • The New Road, 1761
      • Vulgarity in Box
      • Rebuilding the Village
      • Speke Family
      • Georgian People
      • Georgian Timeline
    • Rail & Quarry >
      • Crane 57
      • Railway Men Remembered
      • Old Clay Pipe
      • Recalling Box Quarries >
        • Oily Series
      • Quarrymen and their Families
      • Built in Stoneyards
      • Quarries in 2000
      • Single Ticket
      • Trainspotting in Box
      • Light Through Box Tunnel >
        • More Light on Tunnel
        • Brunel Myth
        • Sunrise at Box Tunnel
      • Marl at Middlehill
      • James Moodey
      • Railway Staff in Box
      • Impact of Railways
      • Vivash Follow-up
      • Underground Quarries
      • Lambert's Stoneyard
      • Cranes at Work
      • Railway Policeman
      • Terror in Tunnels
      • Vivash Family
      • Railway Buildings and More
      • Why Railways Came to Box
      • Box in 1830
      • Building Box Tunnel
      • Boxing and Quarrymen >
        • More Jem Mace
      • Clift Quarry Steam Loco
      • Timeline 1830 - 1870
      • Trial Shaft
      • Underbridges
    • Late Victorian >
      • Edwardian Love Story
      • Northey Estate Sale 1912-1923
      • Box Fete & Friendly Societies
      • Methodism in Box
      • George Reeves, Quarryman Ganger
      • Dipsomania in Box
      • 1870 Start of Era
      • Victorian Farming
      • Ashley Leigh
      • Steam Mill and Cottages
      • Class Division
      • Grove Inn
      • Box House
      • Celebrations >
        • Jubilee Mug 1887
      • Parish Magazine History
      • Postcards of Box >
        • Postcard Solved
      • Skeate, Speck and Ponting
      • 1899 A Year of Festivities
      • Valens Terrace
      • Village Outings >
        • Excitement for Outings
        • Cycling Craze
      • Timeline 1840 to now
      • Local Pubs
    • Great War >
      • Photos 2014
      • Cecil Lambert's War
      • VAD Working Parties
      • After the War
      • Box School Research
      • School WW1 Projects
      • List of Servicemen
      • Embroideries
      • In Memoriam
      • Never Forgotten
      • Where They Lived
      • Christmas 1913 and 1914
      • Children in WW1
      • Neighbour Against Neighbour
      • Home & Far Away
      • Finding Private Hall
      • Box Before the War
    • Inter War Years >
      • Shops in 1920s
      • Fascism
      • Sports Day 1931
    • WW2 Index >
      • Land Girl Remembers
      • World War 2 Scrapbook
      • Box in 1943
      • Aircraft Factories
      • D Day Implications, 1944
      • Peace
      • VE Day 1945
      • After the War
      • Epitaph to WW2
      • Wartime Memories
      • Wartime People
      • Bath Blitz 1942
      • Invasion Threat 1942
      • Children in War
      • Air Raids on Box
      • Military Camps
      • Royal Visits
      • Your WW2 Tributes
      • Dunkirk Evacuation
      • Box Home Guard >
        • Home Guard Names
      • Life at Home
      • Evacuee Children
      • Village & Ammunitions Depot
      • Memories of WW2
      • In Service at Home
      • At War
      • Lead up to War
      • Servicemen & Women
      • Timeline 1939-45
      • VE Day Remembered
      • Dennis Moss >
        • Hazelbury Air Crash
        • Air Crash Wreath
        • Flight Crew Lost
        • Graham Brayshaw
      • Evacuated From Belgium
      • WW2 Resting Place
      • Sherman Tank Disaster
    • Modern >
      • Modern Art
      • Centre of Commerce
      • Shoe Sculpture >
        • Stiletto Sculpture
      • Characters in 1940s
      • Teenage Rebels, 1960s
      • Swingin Sixties or Not?
      • A Box Childhood
      • Box People from 1950s
      • Shops in 1950 Box
      • Box in 1950s
      • Village in 1950s
      • Summer of 1959
      • reCollections
      • Residents After the War
      • Coach Trips 1950s
      • Never Had It So Good !
  • Contact
    • Blog
    • Q&A
Barn Piece, Quarry Hill                      Mark Jenkinson                   February 2018
Picture
Possible photo of Hill Barn (courtesy David Pollard)
In 1933, two sisters went into labour at a similar time and were put into adjacent beds at the Royal United Maternity Hospital, Bath. It made a small article in the local paper, which recorded that one sister was having her first child, whilst the other had unfortunately just lost her sixth baby.[1] The parents were Mr and Mrs Hawkins of Drewetts Mill House and one of the sisters, Mrs Winnifred White, lived at number 7, Council Houses, Box, meaning Barn Piece.
The Rural District Council approved the first twelve tenants to go into the houses in November 1931 as:[2]
WE Mortimer, from 3 Prices Buildings
VG Sandell, Fairfield, Bath
H Simpkins, Box Hill
FT Strange, Mill Lane
WH Bollen, Pickwick
SJ Brunt, The Parade
AW Boulton, Queen's Square
H Hawkins, Kingsdown
F Hancock, Box Hill
A Phelps, Market Place
AHC Taylor, Box Hill
AAP Vaughan, Potley Lane
The houses were built by Wiltshire Council as social housing to try to alleviate the crisis of inadequate homes after the First World War. Numbers 1 to 12 had been built by 1932 and the remaining eight houses followed.[3] Mr Brooke, chairman of Box Parish Council, confirmed that the tenants were not selected as persons, but was based on information about the number and sexes of the children, the type of existing accommodation and the reason for wanting a move. Applicants were restricted to those living or working in the Rural District Council area, who had paid existing rents on time.
 
They were possibly completed in a rush as by 1937 tenders were invited for repainting the first 12. They were also built before modern facilities were standard in houses. By 1953 several tenants wanted improvements, probably meaning indoor toilets, bathrooms and modern kitchens.[4]
 
Speculations on the Name Barn Piece
My interest in the origins of Barn Piece overlaps with my interest of old quarry graffiti. There is a quarry inscription, G Smith killed [in] Barn quarry July 20th 1896.[5] Barn Quarry is not a widely used label, unlike many of the quarries around Box Hill that were individually named but ultimately merged into the later maze-like complex. I cannot recall its being referred to in any other graffiti although Liz Price gave it a general name-check, Others (smaller quarries) include Barn Quarry on Box Hill.[6]
Picture
The 1896 underground graffiti is in the Lower Hill Series (the Quarry Hill area rather than further north), so putting two and two together, along with a bit of wishful thinking, I’m wondering if the naming of Barn Piece suggests a notable barn at the southern end of the quarry workings, perhaps Hill Barn shown in the map of 1900 below. The word piece was often used to describe plots of land adjacent to specific workings or an industrial area, such as a mill and, as the map below shows, there was an adjacent area of land called Barton's Piece.
Picture
Courtesy Wiltshire History Centre
We can speculate that part of the purpose of the barn may have been to house quarry horses and agricultural equipment because in 1907 the auctioneers Tilley & Parry held a sale of Horses etc Barn Piece, Quarry Hill.[7] Was this the last agricultural use of the barn? The horses had probably gone by the time the houses were built but there were still fields and Mr Strange of number 2 advertised Two hives of hardy bees.[8]
 
Anna Grayson Wrote
I have come to the conclusion that in all probability the Barn in the photo at the heading is the one that Uncle Cecil Lambert talked about. I say this because the other side of the valley is in the correct alignment. It could have been taken from what is now the large field and was the stony area in the photo. The stone in the foreground looks like quarry waste not quarrying, which would have followed beds of stone. I remember them as about chest high and forming the boundary to a paddock area. I wonder if any of the quarry stones remain.
 
Marriage of Residents 1939 - 45
Many of the children were now young adults by the start of the Second World War. Miss K Mortimer of number 1 was appointed one of a dozen assistants in the 1938 Bath Carnival Queen contest.[9] Many sought a marriage before war took their spouses away. Betty Constance Grace Smith, youngest daughter of Mrs Bray at number 16, was married to Stanley Arthur Gale of Corsham in 1939.[10]
 
Children of the newer houses were also marrying by 1940. Elizabeth Lydia Frayling of number 17 married Charles Helps with difficulty when the gates of Bathford churchyard were locked and the couple had to endure a prolonged confetti barrage.[11] Phyllis Ivy May Johnson of number 13 married on Boxing Day 1940.[12] Iris E Phelps of the Post Office telephone and engineering department, who lived at number 6, married an active serviceman.[13] Nancy E Moody of number 18 married David Glover who was working at Eastlays quarry.[14] James Mitten, a bus conductor employed by Bristol Tramways, of number 19 married in July 1941.[15]
 
The list of occupiers in 1939 is shown in the dropdown below:
barn_piece_occupiers_in_1939.doc
File Size: 25 kb
File Type: doc
Download File

After the War
We get some idea of the poverty which existed after World War 2 when Gwenilian Thomas, a former resident of the Thorneypits Hostel now living at 19 Barn Piece, was charged with stealing a towel and a pair of gloves from another resident of the hostel.[16] In the scarcity of houses in post-war England, disputes arose over the disclosure of information by prospective tenants in 1950, which shows the esteem in which these properties were held.[17]
Picture
Aerial view of Bargates (courtesy Hugh Sawyer and Roy Bradley)
Many of the houses in the lane are more recent in-fill properties. In the 1950 aerial photo of Bargates you can see that the houses on the upper/east side of Barn Piece are already there, but many of those on the west were built later. Those on the downhill side of the road were built in 1960s.
References
[1] Bath Weekly Chronicle and Herald, 9 September 1933
[2] The Wiltshire Times, 28 November 1931
[3] Donald Andrews, who lived at number 8, quoted in https://www.francisfrith.com/uk/hawthorn,wiltshire/memories
[4] The Wiltshire Times, 11 July 1953
[5] RJ Tucker, Scripta Legenda Vol I, 1974, Free Troglophile Association Press, p.16
[6] Liz Price, Bath Freestone Workings, 1984, The Resurgent Press, p.57
[7] The Wiltshire Times, 21 September 1907
[8] The Wiltshire Times, 31 March 1934
[9] Bath Weekly Chronicle and Herald, 21 May 1938
[10] Bath Weekly Chronicle and Herald, 28 January 1939
[11] Bath Weekly Chronicle and Herald, 30 March 1940
[12] Bath Weekly Chronicle and Herald, 28 December 1940
[13] Bath Weekly Chronicle and Herald, 18 April 1942
[14] The Wiltshire Times, 8 June 1940
[15] The Wiltshire Times, 19 July 1941
[16] The Wiltshire Times, 5 March 1949
[17] The Wiltshire Times, 25 March 1950
Back to Issue 22