The team at Gloucestershire Archives dust off the documents

Photograph of the Month

This photograph of the shopfront of T & H Wilkins of Bourton-on-the-Water was taken around 1896. It shows H. B. and C. V. Wilkins, grandsons of the founder, Thomas Wilkins, in the shop doorway. Trade directories for Bourton provide details for the development of this family business from the 1840s onwards. The earliest directory (for 1842) simply lists a ‘Thomas Wilkins, miller’. In the 1851 census Thomas is described as aged 47, a miller and farmer of 110 acres, employing 4 labourers. His wife was Sarah and the couple had eight children: Eliza (aged 25), John (18), Thomas (16), Edward (13), Henry (11), James (8), Letitia (5) and Ellen (3). The bakery business was established in the late 1850s, and by 1868 `Wilkins & Sons’ were trading as bakers and grocers. The name ‘T. & H. Wilkins’ first appears in the mid-1870s, when a directory entry lists them as ‘millers, bakers, corn dealers, grocers, cheese factors and makers’! They were also agents for W. & A. Gilbey, wine and spirit merchants (as can just be seen on the stringcourse above the shop name) and for the London & Lancashire Fire Insurance Co.

Great British Life: Plan shows part of the gardens of Hatherop Castle, c.1873Plan shows part of the gardens of Hatherop Castle, c.1873 (Image: Gloucestershire Archives D540/P24)

Spotlight on Maps

This plan shows part of the gardens of Hatherop Castle, circa 1873. The house – which was not a castle but a Jacobean country house – was part of an estate bought in 1867 by Thomas Sebastian Bazley, who inherited the baronetcy of Tolmers (Herts) in 1885. There are gardens all around the east and north-east sides of the Castle, where the kitchen garden and church are located. This plan however shows the west side and the Italian Garden. This rectangular parterre had two terraces, with flights of stone steps, formal beds and gravel pathways. This plan is doubly interesting as it not only shows the layout of the garden but also some of the planting plan – which is something not usually recorded. This includes Cotoneaster microphylla (now C. microphyllus), Erica carnea (aka Alpine Heath), Mahonia aquifolium (aka Oregon Grape) and Pernettya mucronata (aka Prickly Heath). The house remained in the hands of the Bazleys until 1972, when it was sold to Owlstone Croft School, a girls’ public school now known as Hatherop Castle School. If you are interested in gardens then why not come along to Gloucestershire Archives’ Flora & Fauna event on Saturday, August 6 from 1-4pm where we will have garden-related talks, stands from the Gloucestershire Orchard and Wildlife Trusts, a beekeeping display and an exhibition of garden related records held at Gloucestershire Archives.

Great British Life: The ‘Cotswold Pixie’, a sprout created by John Jeffries & Son of Cirencester in 1939The ‘Cotswold Pixie’, a sprout created by John Jeffries & Son of Cirencester in 1939 (Image: Gloucestershire Archives D6464/5/4)

Document of the Month

This is the ‘Cotswold Pixie’, a sprout created by John Jeffries & Son of Cirencester in 1939, and the picture comes from the company’s archive. Founded in 1795, the firm was based at the Royal Nurseries & Seed Establishment in Castle Street, whilst its main nursery and seed warehouse (which was converted into flats in 1991) was in Tower Street. The company also maintained nurseries in Somerford Keynes and Siddington. In 1980, the firm opened the Kingsmeadow Garden Centre in Cirencester, but in 1985 it was taken over by Country Gardens PLC (ultimately passing into the hands of Wyevale Garden Centres Ltd, which went into administration in 2019). The Pixie was a dwarf sprout variety that was only about 0.5m (21”) in height but, despite this, Jefferies stated that each plant would still produce ‘50-60 good sized sprouts of exceptional quality and flavour’. In addition, the plants could be grown closer together than usual, so allowing a better yield. The Pixie was sold direct to customers and a packet cost 1s/6d (about £3 today). It was intended to compliment the firm’s two other popular vegetables, the Cotswold Queen Cabbage and the Victory Onion. It is not known today whether the Cotswold Pixie survives – perhaps readers can let us know?

Great British Life: Stratton Folk Dance Club’s No.1 Dance team, 1912Stratton Folk Dance Club’s No.1 Dance team, 1912 (Image: Cheltenham Chronicle & Gloucestershire Graphic, April 1912)

Gloucestershire Characters

These are the Stratton (Cirencester) Folk Dance Club’s No.1 Dance team who won the first prize in the Open Competition for Country Dances held at the Bingham Hall in Cirencester in 1912. The dancers (standing in the back row, from left to right) are Miss Smith, Miss Cambray, Mrs Williams and Miss Minchin. Sitting in the front row are (from left to right) Messrs Taylor, Curtis, E. Stratford and J. Hayward. This period marked the start of a revival in English folk dancing, for the year before the English Folk Dance Society was founded both to collect folk dance – including Morris, sword and country dances – and to publish and teach the dances. The organisation was following in the steps of the Folk-Song Society which had been founded in 1898 to collect, publish and teach folk songs. Judging by the outfits of these dancers, which appear to be a generic ‘milkmaid’ for the ladies and generic ‘agricultural labourer’ for the men, it is likely that they danced a ‘country dance’ rather than a Morris dance, although sadly we do not know what dances or tunes these were.

Gloucestershire Archives, Clarence Row, Alvin Street, Gloucester, GL1 3DW, gloucestershire.gov.uk/archives