Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Fanny Batchelor

1856 –17/11/1945

Strawplaiter from Nettleden, later publican in Hemel Hempstead, mother of eight children

Relatives

John Batchelor — husband

• Christopher Dolton

Fanny was born in Nettleden in 1856, the third child of five children born to John Mead and Sarah Mead. Her father was a shepherd and her mother a straw-plaiter.  Her two older brothers, Thomas and William were born in 1843 and 1849 respectively. Her younger sister, Anne was born in 1858 and her younger brother Alfred in 1861.  In 1861 the family were living in Pitstone.  The family was recorded as living at the Blacksmith’s shop in Pitstone in 1871. Her father, John, was no longer a shepherd; his occupation was given as agricultural labourer. Her older brothers were also agricultural labourers. Fanny, age 15 years and Anne age 13 years, like their mother, were straw-plaiters.

Straw-plaiting was a profitable cottage industry for women and girls in Victorian times, supplying plaited straw to the hat makers of Luton and Dunstable. The craft was passed on from generation to generation and children were sent to dame schools to learn the craft. Children started straw plaiting at the age of 5. The work was well paid, “…it was a profitable occupation and in the first half of the 19th century many women and children earned more than men who laboured in the fields. A good hand at Berkhamsted could earn about 15s a week-then a handsome wage-…Farmers complained that straw plaiting “did mischief, making the poor saucy, rendering the women adverse to husbandry and causing a dearth of indoor servants and field labourers”.

In 1876 she married John Batchelor, a carpenter.  Their first child, Martha, was born in 1879 and their second, Jane, in 1881. By the time of the 1881 census the family was living in the High Street.

In 1891 the family were living in Charles Street, by which time the couple had a further four children; Mary, born 1883; Nellie born 1885; Louie born 1888; Joseph born 1891 . The 1901 census reveals another daughter, Mabel, born in1896. The family had moved again by 1901, this time to Prince Edward Street and had three lodgers living with them. Fanny was not at the property in Prince Edward Street on the night of the 1901 census. She was instead visiting Fryth, where her two oldest daughters worked, Martha as housemaid and Jane as cook. Fryth was a large house on Berkhamsted common, It still stands today, just behind the golf clubhouse and is now known as “Lauderdale”.  It was occupied before the First World War by Henry Robert Sauve Pulman. He was a Captain in the Royal Fusiliers who was killed in action at Neuve Chapelle in 1915. At the end of the war Fryth was being used to house thirty German prisoners of war who worked for local farmers and who also helped construct sewers.

In 1902 John and Fanny’s youngest child Bertha was born.

Ten years later the family were living at the Bee Hive Public House in Redbourn Road, Hemel Hempstead where her husband described himself as “Beer House Keeper”.  Her husband died on 21st December 1924 and Fanny, then age 62 years, continued to run the Bee Hive, becoming the licensee on the 4th February 1925 . The Post Office directory for 1926 gave Fanny’s address as the Bee Hive , but she gave up running the pub shortly afterwards and on 5th January 1927 the license was transferred to Herbert Rush. Herbert Rush had married in Berkhamsted in 1904. His wife, Sarah, was born in 1881 and her marriage certificate gives her maiden name; Sarah Jane Batchelor. Her address was Prince Edward Street, Berkhamsted and her father is named on the certificate as John Batchelor. Sarah is therefore presumably John and Fanny’s second daughter, who appears in earlier censuses as Jane and Herbert was therefore Fanny’s son in law.

In 1939 Fanny was still living with Herbert and Sarah at the Bee Hive, although by then “incapacitated” . Fanny died on 17th November 1945, age 90 years. Her son Joseph was granted probate on 2nd February 1946, her estate being worth £238/19s/1d. She was laid to rest with John.

John Batchelor

1855 –21/12/1924

Carpenter, convicted poacher and publican, father of eight children.

Relatives

Fanny Batchelor — wife

• Christopher Dolton

John Batchelor, born in 1855, was the third of four sons born to Joseph and Hannah Batchelor. Joseph was born in Hawridge, in 1830 and Hannah, nee Scales, in Chesham in 1827. John’s two older brothers, Joseph, born 1858, and Thomas, born 1851, were both born in Chesham, but by the time John was born the family had moved to Berkhamsted where both John and his younger brother Edward, born in 1865, were registered. John was not baptised until 1866, the year following Edward’s birth.

The censuses for 1861 and 1871 record the family as living in Castle Street. John’s father, Joseph, was by occupation a carpenter.  It is probably not coincidental that the family moved to Berkhamsted as the town saw an expansion of the wood working industry in the mid 19th century. There had been small scale wood workers in the town for centuries, but the industry expanded substantially after Job East moved from Chesham in the 1840 and took over a small shovel maker and wood turners business.   With the outbreak of the Crimean War in 1853, East won contracts to supply the army with lance poles, artillery rammers, shaving bowls, tent pegs and poles and the business grew from employing 10 men to nearly 100. William Key founded another timber yard, which subsequently became J Alsford Ltd. By 1880 these and other smaller businesses employed over 200 men and yet others worked as coach builders and boat builders.

John, by age 16, had followed his father into the same trade  and all his brothers were also carpenters.  The work demanded hard physical labour and long hours. Joseph Tufnell, who was born in 1862 worked as a carpenter in the town and “…had interesting recollections of the time he was apprenticed to one of the town’s master-craftsmen, Mr John Sills…There Mr Tufnell learnt his trade the hard way. He often had to help fell and cart the trees to the workshop, where pit sawing was the vogue and little use was made of the circular saw. Hours were from 6 in the morning until 6 at night except on Saturdays when the men “knocked off” at 4.00pm. Sixpence an hour was considered a good wage for a skilled craftsman. ”

In 1876 he married Fanny Mead.   Their first child, Martha, was born in 1879 and their second, Jane, in 1881. By the time of the 1881 census the family was living in the High Street. As well as Fanny and the two girls, John’s parents (his mother Hannah now referred to in the census by her second name of Martha) and his younger brother Edward were also living in the same household. John’s two elder brothers, Joseph and Thomas, were no longer living with family.

John was evidently an associate of Charles Coughtrey, a fellow Berkhamsted resident and well known poacher, who is also buried in Rectory Lane cemetery (plot 743). John and Charles were convicted and fined in 1889 for trespassing on land belonging to Mr T. A. Smith Dorrien in search of conies. John and Charles were again brought before the court in 1891 charged with trespassing in search of game and conies on land in Northchurch. Charles Coughtrey was discharged, but John was convicted and fined 25 shillings.

In 1891 the family were living in Charles Street, by which time the couple had a further four children; Mary, born 1883; Nellie born 1885; Louie born 1888; Joseph born 1891 . The 1901 census reveals another daughter, Mabel, born in1896. The family had moved again by 1901, this time to Prince Edward Street and had three lodgers living with them. Fanny was not at the property in Prince Edward Street on the night of the 1901 census. She was instead visiting The Fryth, where her two oldest daughters worked, Martha as housemaid and Jane as cook.

In 1902 John and Fanny’s youngest child Bertha was born.

At the age of 55, having lived all his life in Berkhamsted, and worked as a carpenter, John, together with Fanny and the two youngest children, Mabel and Bertha, left Berkhamsted and moved to Hemel Hempstead where John became a publican. He was granted the licence to the Bee Hive Public House in Redbourn Road, Hemel Hempstead on the 9th February 1910 . The 1911 census confirms the move: the address at which John, Fanny and the two youngest children, Mabel and Bertha were living was given as Bee Hive Hill, Hemel Hempstead.  John’s personal occupation is still described as “carpenter”, but the industry or service with which he described himself as connected was recorded as “Beer House Keeper” and he was working on his own account. The Post Office Directory reveals he was still at the Beehive in 1922,  only two years before his death on 21st December 1924. His estate, worth £487/7s/4d, was left to Fanny. John was 69 years of age when he died.