The following transcript is kindly prepared and provided by local resident

Dr.Joe Betty who recently gave a talk on this subject .

The World we have Lost: Compton Dando in the Nineteenth Century

As well as the parish registers, churchwardens' accounts and records of poor law administration for Compton Dando, there are two other major sources of information on the people and conditions in the parish during the 19 th century. The first is the Tithe Map of 1842 which shows all the land in the parish and provides details of ownership, tenants, land-use and tithe obligations. The other is the Census of 1851, which was the first census to give precise details of age, place of birth, occupation and family relationships. The following account uses all these sources to show the massive changes which have occurred in the parish during the past 150 years.

Population

The first major contrast is in the population of the parish. In 2001 there were over 650 people in Compton Dando. The population in 1801 was 330; thereafter it rose to a peak of 384 in 1851 at the height of Victorian prosperity when farming was flourishing and there were ample opportunities for employment in the parish. From the 1870's English agriculture experienced a long and profound decline in the face of cheap imported foodstuffs of all sorts, and this is reflected in the population of Compton Dando which rapidly diminished as men sought work elsewhere, so that by 1901 it had dropped to 284.

Year Population

1801 (330 )

1851 (384 [peak] )

1901 (284 )

2001 (650 )

During the mid 19 th century the labour-intensive farming of the time employed many men and 63 labourers are listed in the 1851 census. In addition there were brass and copper works in Woollard and Publow, and the tannery in Woollard employed 6 men and 2 boys in 1851. There were corn mills in Woollard, Compton Dando and Tucking Mill, and many men found work in the Pensford coal mine or in the numerous small-scale coal mines in the district.

Occupations

Compton Dando in 1851 was a remarkably self-sufficient community with a range of craftsmen and services. The 1851 census lists the following occupations:

Sawyer & Carpenter

Shoe-maker Wheelwright

Coppersmith Blacksmith

Tailor Baker

Coal-miners Shop-keeper

Tanners Beer seller

Brass-workers Coal-carrier with 3 donkeys

Millers Laundress + Dress-maker

Labourer on Parish road Painter & Glazier

Postman

Brick & Tile-makers

63 Labourers

Particularly interesting are the two Brick and Tile-makers listed in the census. They were William Woolsey, who had come from Long Melford in Suffolk with his wife and two young sons, and Richard Cadby, a single man, who came from Letchworth in Hertfordshire. They had presumably been brought to the parish by the Popham family and set up a brick and tile-making enterprise at Compton Green Farm, exploiting the nearby supply of clay and the local availability of coal. It was their work which began the slow process of replacing the thatch which covered the roofs of most of the houses in the parish, thereby making a dramatic change in the appearance of the landscape.

Ecclesiastical Census 1851

At the same time as the census of population was conducted in 1851, there was for the first and only time a census of places of religious worship. This asked for details of the buildings, the number of sittings and whether the seats were free or were reserved for those who paid a pew rent. It also asked for the numbers attending services on Sunday 30 March 1851. For Compton Dando the vicar, the Revd Wilson Pedder, refused to answer most of the questions on the grounds that it was not the business of the government to concern itself with religious matters. He merely consented to inform the census authorities that his church contained seating for 115 people and that 40 pews were free. There was a Wesleyan Methodist chapel in the village, though its location is not revealed in the return. It was within a private house or perhaps a barn, since it was said to have seating for 70 people and the number attending the service on 30 March 1851 was 50. The return was signed by John S. Jones, Wesleyan Minister of Midsomer Norton. A new Methodist chapel was to be opened in the village in 1859. John S. Jones also signed the return for the chapel at Tucking Mill, which had been built during the early 19 th century by the Bince family. In 1851 the small building was said, surely with some exaggeration, to contain 120 seats, of which 100 were free. The congregation on the Census Sunday was said to have been 50, a remarkable coincidence with the number attending in Compton Dando. The only other nonconformist place of worship was a cottage in Burnett where there was a congregation of 25 Primitive Methodists.

Earlier in the 19 th century nonconformist meeting houses were required to be registered by the bishop of each diocese. An application to the bishop of Bath & Wells for the chapel at Tucking Mill was made in 1807 and was signed by James Bince, John Pointing, William Boulting, George Coombs, James Weaver and Robert Ennicott. Gravestones of several members of the Bince and Pointing families can still be found in the ruins of the former chapel.

Contrasts in Wealth

Most of the land in the parish was owned by the Popham family, whose wealth vastly exceeded that of everyone else in the parish. Their estate at Hunstrete included much of the neighbouring parishes and comprised 3,500 acres, providing an annual rental of £5,750. This was in addition to their estate at Littlecote, Wiltshire, and considerable land and property elsewhere. One of the most affluent residents in Compton Dando was the vicar, the Revd Wilson Pedder. For many years the vicarage house had been so small and in such a bad condition that few vicars had lived in the parish. A report on the vicarage in 1848 stated that:

The house is unfit for the residence of the incumbent and cannot

be made habitable. The ground floor is three feet below the level

of the garden and the thatched roof has from time to time admitted

so much damp that the timbers of the roof are useless.

Materials which can be re-used estimated at £116.

Estimate for building a new vicarage £996.

It is a measure of the greatly increased tithe income enjoyed by the clergy during the mid 19 th century, and the availability of advantageous mortgages, that the Compton Dando vicarage could be rebuilt on a grand scale in 1850, dwarfing the former vicarage which had previously occupied the same site. In the 1851 census the Revd Wilson Pedder was already occupying the new house, with his wife, four daughters, a nursemaid and three indoor servants. It was the Revd Pedder who took the initiative in establishing a school in the centre of the village in 1859.

The 1851 census provides details of the tenants of all the large farms in the parish, and as well as listing the families and the household servants, gives the acreage of the farms and the number of labourers employed. A large part of the income of most farmers came from the production of cheese, and later, following the arrival of nearby railway links, from the despatch of milk to the towns. One farmer in the parish had acquired national fame for his work on the production of a standardized Cheddar cheese, using scientific methods in place of the old haphazard practice which depended upon the cheese-maker's skill and judgement. This was Joseph Harding (1805-76) who lived at Manor Farm with his wife, Rachel, and ten children, having a governess and two servants in the house. The farm comprised 240 acres and gave employment to eight labourers. A cousin, Richard Harding, occupied Compton Farm, which was the largest in the parish with 500 acres and 13 labourers. Richard Harding and his wife had five children and employed a governess and two household servants. Henry Stokes at New Farm had 209 acres and 12 labourers; he was a widower with 11 children. A widow, Caroline Dredge, occupied Wick Farm which comprised 263 acres. She had two children and two household servants and was described as ‘Dairywoman'. John Thompson at Knoll Farm had 147 acres; his household consisted of his wife and five children. The older children no doubt worked on the farm, so that he employed only one labourer. At Burnett Henry Packer farmed 379 acres, employing 14 labourers. His household comprised his wife, three children and three servants

There were numerous farmers with smaller acreages, but the number of small farms had diminished following the enclosure in 1845 of the large area of common grazing land on the western side of the parish. This was accomplished after protracted negotiation between the Popham estate and the Feoffees of the Church Estate Trust. On the eastern side of the parish the Tithe Map of 1842 shows that some of the strips of the former open fields still survived, although they were no longer farmed in common. There was an enormous gulf between the income and comfortable life-style of the occupants of the large farms and that of the smaller farmers, dairymen and craftsmen in the parish. An even greater contrast was with the condition of the 63 labourers listed in the 1851 census whose wages averaged little more than 12s 6d in winter, 15s 0d in summer, with slightly more for the strenuous work of the harvest month.

Cottages

It is difficult to appreciate the condition of many of the cottages in the village during the mid 19 th century. They were of flimsy construction, all were thatched, several have been demolished and others totally rebuilt and enlarged. Without adequate drainage, with earth closets, and dependent on water from frequently polluted wells or streams, many were exceedingly unhealthy. An indication of the general standard can be obtained from a report of 1878 on the 18 cottages belonging to the Church Estate, which was compiled by Henry Spackman, land agent of Bath. He reported that the cottages were old, in bad condition with defective thatched roofs and no drainage. Most consisted of two rooms downstairs and two bedrooms above, often accommodating very large families. At one he commented on the dreadful stench, and accumulations of dung and filth close to the well. Another had a pig-sty with 12 pigs situated close to the well. Elsewhere he found rotting thatch, decayed roof timbers and badly leaning walls. He concluded that 10 of the cottages should be retained and put into good repair, but that the worst eight should be sold. The Feoffees accepted his advice and a sale was held at the Grand Hotel in Bristol in 1878. Most of the cottages were bought by sitting tenants and made between £50 -£70 each. Some have since been demolished, but others were completely rebuilt by the new owners.

The Poor

The starkest contrast between conditions in the parish during the early 19 th century and those during the early 21 st century is to be seen in the treatment of poverty. The Elizabethan Poor Law of 1601 had placed on each parish the responsibility for the care of the poor, sick and helpless. Annually each parish appointed Overseers of the Poor who collected rates from householders and were responsible for the care of the poor and destitute. This system which was a mixture of charity and harshness, administered by Overseers who were well acquainted with those applying for help, lasted until 1834 when it was replaced by the system of relief only available in the dreaded workhouse. The Overseers' accounts for Compton Dando are kept in the Somerset Record Office in Taunton and admirably illustrate the working of the system. The following extracts are taken from the accounts for 1817.

The Overseers made regular small weekly payments to 19 people, and gave occasional assistance to others as in these examples:

Gave John Bees in distress 2s 0d

Gave Thomas Bryant in distress 6d

Gave Ann Green, her son ill 6s 0d

Thomas Ladlaw to pay house rent 10s 0d

John Bees family 3s 0d

Ann Clements for putting John Bees

wife to bed 5s 0d

John Bees wife in her lying in 5s 6d

Gave John Bees wife in distress 4s 0d

Many further payments to John Bees wife

Paid Thomas Pointings Sparrow Bill

245 sparrows 13s 5 1/2 d

Gave John Bees for burying his child 13s 0d

Paid at the Justices meeting concerning

Fanny Radford £1 3s 0d

Paid for serving James Price with a

special warrant 5s 0d

Gave towards the burial of

Fanny Radford £1 3s 0d

Paid for the rent for the Poor House £3 8s 0d

Gave Mary Lloyd with a bad arm 2s 0d

Paid for mending Ann Templer's shoes 2s 4d

Paid for John Foord's washing 2s 0d

Gave Sarah Grimstead to buy clothes

for her Boy 6s 6d

Paid John Thomas for building an

Oven in the Poor House £1 0s 0d

The payment for ‘sparrows' was in consequence of a 16 th century Act of Parliament which was still in force. This ordered that a small bounty should be paid on all vermin caught within a parish, and rewards continued to be paid for birds and animals of all sorts, small birds all being described as ‘sparrows'. Fanny Radford had asked for parish assistance being unmarried and pregnant. James Price was named as the father and would have been forced by the Justices to maintain the child, but the situation was resolved by Fanny Radford's death in child-birth. The Poor House mentioned in the Accounts was in Cockers Hill and as a last resort any parishioner who was homeless could be temporarily accommodated there. The harsh side of poor law administration is to be seen in the treatment of orphans or illegitimate children left as the responsibility of Overseers. The concern to keep rates to a minimum meant that such children were apprenticed and thus removed from parish care as soon as possible. This can be illustrated from the following example of an Apprenticeship Indenture of 1810.

Apprenticeship Indenture for Compton Dando

29 June 1810

This Indenture witnesseth that Thomas Pointing, churchwarden, and William Taylor and George Parsons, overseers of the poor, do put and place Mary Green of the parish of Compton Dando, aged seven years, a poor child of the said parish, apprentice to Daniel Hedges of the parish of St Thomas in the City of Bristol, whipmaker. To dwell with and serve him until she shall accomplish her full age of twenty one years.

She shall during all that time faithfully serve him in all business according to her power, wit and ability, and honestly, orderly and obediently in all things demean and behave her self towards her said Master and all his during the said term. He shall and will teach and instruct her in the trade or business of whipmaker, and shall allow her meet and competent and sufficient meat, drink, apparel, lodging, washing and all things necessary and fit for an apprentice.

Signed by two Justices of the Peace

A.A. Baker & James Ireland

Signed by Daniel Hedges

Following this Indenture, Mary Green would cease to be the responsibility of Compton Dando or to have any claim on the parish. Overseers of the Poor had the difficult task of providing reasonable charity for the deserving poor who were legally settled within their parish, while attempting to keep the rates charged on householders to a minimum. Thus they were reluctant to see any newcomers who might become a burden on the rates attempt to take up residence in their parish. The 18 th century accounts for Compton Dando have numerous instances of families being denied settlement, as in the following example:

Order from the Justices of the Peace to the Overseers of the Poor

at Keynsham 4 November 1757

They are to receive from Compton Dando Thomas Sweet and Betty

his wife, and their children Mary aged 15, Hannah aged 13, William

aged 11, Thomas aged 8, Robert aged 5, Martha aged 3 and Betty

aged four months. They have lately come into the parish of Compton

Dandon and endeavoured to settle there as Inhabitants, not having

a legal settlement there and likely to become chargeable to the Poor Rate.

They must return to Keynsham and be accepted by the Overseers there.

Compton Dando in 1780

The earliest detailed description of the parish was made by Edward Rack of Bath. He was responsible for the successful establishment of the Bath and West Agricultural Society, and became its first Secretary. He described Compton Dando as ‘a long straggling parish of mean houses'. He commented on the rough, stony and narrow roads, the poor thatched cottages, but was impressed by the industries, especially the tannery at Woollard. The poor were mostly employed on spinning for the Shepton Mallet clothiers, and the poor rates were much higher than in neighbouring parishes. In a lighter vein, he observed that a ‘revel' or ‘fair' was held in the parish about a fortnight after Michaelmas.

Former residents of Compton Dando would be greatly surprised at the number of people, the variety of employments, the small size of families, the houses and facilities existing now. Perhaps above all, they would be amazed at the provision of water, electricity, education, medical treatment and a social security system no longer dependent on reluctant charity.

We are very greatful to Dr Joe Betty for providing this wonderful synopsis of our interesting parish History