Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Caroline Bird

1828 –1904

Wife of Richard Bird and straw plaiter

Relatives

Richard Bird — husband

• Christopher Dolton

CAROLINE BIRD; 1828 – 1904.

Caroline was born on 20^th March 1828 and she was baptised at Ivinghoe on 7^th September 1828. Her parents were Joseph and Hannah Weedon. (The surname appears as “Weedon” in some records and “Weeden” in others.) The Weedon family lived on Moneybury Hill at Aldbury and her father was an agricultural labourer. We learn from the 1841 and 1851 censuses that Caroline was the second of nine children born to Joseph and Hannah. The oldest two children, Jane and Elizabeth, were born in about 1826, followed by Caroline herself in 1828. Her younger brother William was born about 1832, then Eliza, 1834; David, 1836; Sarah 1839; Isabella, 1841 and Emma in 1846.

1n 1849, at the age of 21 Caroline married Richard Bird. The marriage was celebrated in Berkhamsted. Richard had been born in Berkhamsted and we know from the 1839 Tithe map that Richard’s mother lived in a cottage in Red Lion Yard, off Berkhamsted’s High Street. (Richard’s father had died in 1832.) We also learn from the census of 1851 that Caroline’s parents had moved from Moneybury Hill and they too, with a number of Caroline’s younger siblings, also lived in Red Lion Yard. The 1851 census reveals that Richard and Caroline themselves also lived in Red Lon Yard at that time. Caroline had given birth to two children, Ellen, who was three years old in 1851 and Sarah, who was one. Caroline was to give birth to two more children, Emma and Louisa.

Whilst John was working as a labourer in 1851, no occupation is noted against Caroline’s name; no doubt her time was spent caring for her two young children, but that had changed ten years later in 1861. The family moved from Red Lion Yard and were living on the High Street. Richard’s occupation is noted as “scavenger” and Caroline was working as a straw plaiter.

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. Percy Bitchnell wrote in his book, A Short History of Berkhamsted,  “…it was a profitable occupation and in the first half of the 19^th 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”.

Caroline was not the only member of the family engaged in straw plaiting. So too were 11 year old Sarah and nine year old Emma. Caroline’s eldest daughter, Ellen, then age 13 years, was working as a servant and Louisa, only two, was too young to work. The children were not attending school, but compulsory education was not introduced until 1870. The Elementary Education Act of 1870, known as the “Forster Act” after its sponsor, William Forster, was the first of series of acts that made education compulsory for children, initially between the ages of 5 years and 10 years, latterly increased to 13. When introduced, many poorer parents were opposed to compulsory education as it meant that children who otherwise might have been in gainful employment earning an income for their families had to attend school.

The family had moved to Highfield Road by 1871 and Richard was again working as a labourer. Ellen and Sarah were no longer living with the family. Caroline and Emma were still working as straw plaiters and the youngest daughter Louisa had also taken up straw plaiting. Also living with the family was a grandson, 1 year old John Bird. John Richard Bird was born in Berkhamsted in the 1869. His baptismal records reveal that his mother was Emma. She would have been about 17 when John was born. The baptismal records do not provide a name for John’s father and we learn from the 1871 census that Emma was unmarried.

A further ten years on and the 1881 census informs us the family had remained in Highfield Road. Caroline, now 53 years old, was still working as straw plaiter. Their children had all moved on, but a 10 year old granddaughter, Rose Adams, was living with them.

By the time of the 1891 census Caroline and Richard had moved from Highfield Road and were then living at 3 Back Lane adjacent to the Court House, where they were both to live for the remainder of their days. Also living with them, in no doubt cramped and overcrowded conditions, was their daughter Louisa, her husband Frederick Edmonds, and their two children, 4 year old Richard and 3 year old Caroline.

Richard died in 1897 at the age of 72 and was buried in Rectory Lane Cemetery on 29^th April 1897.

The last census in which Caroline appears was that of 1891. Although Louisa and Frederick had moved on, their daughter Caroline was still living with her grandmother, as was a younger child of Louisa’s, David Edmonds.

Caroline died at the age of 77 in the fourth quarter of 1904. She was buried on 5^th January 1905.

Richard Bird

1826 –1897

A Labourer who lived a life of poverty and hardship and also a keen cottage gardener

Relatives

Caroline Bird — wife

• Christopher Dolton

RICHARD BIRD; 1826 – 1897

We know from baptismal records that Richard was baptised in Berkhamsted on 27^th March that year. He was buried on the 29^th April 1897 and the Burial Register records his age as 72. From that we can deduce that he was born late in 1826. The baptismal record also gives us the names of his parents; his father was John Bird and his mother Ann Bird (nee Grove).

Burial records for Northchurch note the burial of John Bird, age 40, on 27^th September 1832, his abode being “Berkhampstead, living in Northchurch.” Richard’s widowed mother, Ann Bird, features in the 1839 tithe records living in one of four cottages owned by James Austin situated at the end of Red Lion Yard.

The Red Lion Public House stood on Berkhamsted’s High Street until it was closed in the 1870s.  It stood on the site where HSBC Bank stands today. To the side of the pub was a gateway which led into Red Lion Yard. Percy Birtchnell, writing in 1975 as “Beorcham” in the Berkhamsted Review noted that there had been as many as 18 cottages in the yard which were rented to several families. Amongst these were small cottages erected on garden ground, four had been stables and others wooden houses on the property. An article on the Berkhamsted Local History and Museum Society website written by Linda Rollitt describes Red Lion Yard and the poverty of its inhabitants (https://rollitt.co.uk/poverty/). She describes conditions that were overcrowded and insanitary. The Kingston family lived in a house in the yard and between 1870 and 1897 they had 16 children. Four died and ten were sharing the house with their parents. In 1874 typhoid fever broke out in the yard caused by bad drainage and dirty water. In 1886 four houses were reported as “filthy and dilapidated and quite unfit for human habitation. That same year the Sanitary Authority inspector reported that several houses in the yard were overcrowded and orders were made to abate the overcrowding. With the inhabitants living in such cramped and filthy conditions, it is not surprising that disagreements and fights often broke out and there are reports in the Bucks Herald of inhabitants of the yard being brought before the court for breaches of the peace. In 1911 there were still 15 cottages in the Yard, housing 77 people.

In 1840 Ann married John Daniells. John was a widower who lived in Northchurch and was a lime burner by occupation.  His wife, Elizabeth had died in 1832 and he had one son, Joshua. Thus the 1841 census reveals that Richard, then 13 years old, and his eight year old brother Harvey, were living with their recently remarried mother, together with her new husband, John Daniells, and their step brother Joshua. Richard, although only 13 years old, was working as a labourer and Richard may have been working as a labourer for John Daniells, burning lime.

The job of a Limeburner was both dangerous and unpleasant. The job involved the production of quicklime which was achieved by first crushing limestone, chalk or sea-shells, No doubt it was the chalk of the Chiltern Hills that was used in this instance. Once crushed, the chalk was heated in a kiln until red hot over the course of many hours. The chalk was converted by this process into quicklime which was used in tanning and dying.

Quicklime can be turned into slaked lime by adding water, which was used to make plaster and mortar for building and when further thinned with water, limewash, or whitewash. Quicklime however reacts violently with water, spitting and spluttering and even, if not careful, exploding. Lime can also be used in manufacture of soap and fertilisation of fields. If quicklime comes into contact with skin it can cause caustic burns. The kilns burn at high temperatures so there is a risk of burns and the process produces carbon monoxide which can cause poisoning or even death in sufficient quantities. Not a pleasant job for an adult, much less a 13 year old boy.

In 1849 Richard married Caroline Weeden. The marriage took place in Berkhamsted and we learn from the 1851 census that Richard and Caroline, together with two daughters, Ellen then age 3 years and Sarah, age 1 year, were themselves living in Red Lion Yard. Also living in the yard in 1851 were Caroline’s parents, Joseph and Hannah Weedon and a number of Caroline’s younger siblings. Richard was then working as bricklayer’s labourer.

Ten years later Richard and his family had moved from Red Lion Yard and were living in the High Street, but they had certainly not escaped from a life of poverty. Richard’s situation was if anything worse than it been in 1851 when he was working as a bricklayer’s labourer, as we discover from the 1861 census that he was then living as “scavenger.” As the name suggests, scavengers would scavenge through rubbish on the streets looking for things to sell that might include animal carcasses which could be rendered into glue and manure for fertiliser.

By 1861 Caroline had given birth to another two daughters. With the exception of the youngest, Louisa, who was then only 2 years old, the older girls, although themselves still young, were all working. Caroline herself was working as a straw plaiter as were Sarah, then 11 years old and Emma who was only nine. The oldest daughter, Ellen, 13 years old was working as a servant.

In 1871 Richard had found work again as a labourer. The family had moved to Highfield Road. The eldest daughter, Ellen, was no longer living with the family. Caroline and Emma were still working as straw plaiters and the youngest daughter Louisa had also taken up straw plaiting. Also living with the family was a grandson, 1 year old John Bird. John Richard Bird was born in Berkhamsted in the 1869. His baptismal records reveal that his mother was Emma. She would have been about 17 when John was born. The baptismal records do not provide a name for John’s father and we learn from the 1871 census that Emma was unmarried.

A further ten years on and the 1881 census reveals the family had remained in Highfield Road. Richard, now 58 was still working as a labourer. Their children had all moved on, but a 10 year old granddaughter, Rose Adams, was living with them.

The last census return in which Richard features is that of 1891. At 67 years of age he was still undertaking hard physical work as a labourer, now described a “road labourer,” otherwise known as a roadman. He and Caroline were then living in Back Lane adjacent to the Court House. Also living with them in no doubt cramped and overcrowded conditions was their daughter Louisa and her husband Frederick Edmonds, and their two children, 4 year old Richard and 3 year old Caroline.

Bert Hosier, in his book “Hedgehog’s Northchurch” recalls “…the rural roadman, the lone labourer with his barrow and hand tools who kept the hedges, banks, verges and gutters far tidier than mechanisation does today. With stout broom and shovel, hooked stick and faggin hook, siding pick and spade – he could cope with most jobs and most conditions. At ‘bever time’ not for him the works canteen or mess room, but the barrow tipped at an angle, handles on the ground to form a seat, coat across the shoulders, under wind and in full sun. A bottle of tea and bread and cheese and an onion. I remember this breed of worker so well”.

Hosier also quotes from a booklet produced by the county council in 1899 entitled “Hertfordshire Main Roads, General Instructions to Roadmen.”

“Roadmen paid by the day or the week worked from 6.00 a.m. to 5.30 p.m., half an hour being allowed for breakfast 8 – 8.30 a.m. and one hour for dinner 1-2 p.m. During the winter months, however, work was from daylight until dusk with just three quarters of an hour for lunch ‘breakfast to be taken before going to work’. Meals had to be ‘taken at the roadside or immediate neighbourhood thereof’ and when leaving the roadside ‘he must so place his tools as to show where he may be found.’ Only Christmas day and Good Friday were allowed as holidays … Repairs to road surface are the next instructions, stating no material was to be spread on the surface of the road until it has been thoroughly broken to such a gauge that the Surveyor may direct, and in every case to such a size that the largest stones can be easily placed in a man’s mouth.”

(As an aside, male occupants of the workhouse were often put to work breaking stones for road surfacing.)

Although Richard lived a life of seemingly unremitting hardship, he was nevertheless a keen gardener and took many prizes at Berkhamsted and Northchurch Cottage Garden Society shows.  The Bucks Herald reported on the society exhibition in 1856. Richard won 5^th prize for the best cottage garden, 2^nd prize for his potatoes, 3^rd prize for onions and 1^st for his savoy cabbages. In 1872 he won Lady Alford’s prize for cottage gardens and the Bucks Herald, reporting on the society’s show in 1891, wrote that “The market hall was occupied by the cottagers’ products the best collection of which was sent by an aged man, Richard Bird, a road man, who has frequently taken first prize before.” No doubt it was pleasing to Richard to win these prizes, but one suspects that his interest in horticulture was motivated by the more pragmatic need to feed his family.

The Bucks Herald also reports that in 1893 Richard won a prize of a different nature. Every year the Parish Vestry awarded Easter gifts, the recipients being chosen by vote. The paper reports that Richard was the winner that year, receiving 76 votes and a gift of £1. 10s. 6d.

Richard died in 1897. The Burial Register recorded that his address at the time of death was Back Lane. He was buried on 29^th April 1897. He was 72 years of age and given the poverty in which he lived and the hard nature of his work, it is perhaps a testament to his strength of character that he lived as long as he did.