People of Berwick
LOCAL HISTORY. 4TH JULY 1776
Whilst something was happening on this date, half way round the world, what was happening in Berwick in 1776?
On 4th July 1776 Stephen Draper and Ann Dowty married at Berwick Church. They went on to have 5 children but unfortunately their son Stephen died aged 1 in May 1787, and then Stephen in October 1787. Ann remarried to William Haskins in May 1790. There were 9 babies christened, 13 people buried, and 2 weddings in 1776. There were more people here than now, 137 in 2021 census, and 226 in 1801 (only 25 years after 1776).
The church had been here for at least 650 years, and a 1773 map shows houses on both sides of the road, from the mill at the south to the crossroads at the north and down Asserton Lane. Some of these houses are still here, although much changed over the years. These include The Dairy House, Magna House, The Clock House, Goodwins, The Boot Inn (it wasn’t a pub then), and others, and Berwick House which was rebuilt around 1800 so would have been very different. Many of the others were changed, mended and adapted but were there in 1776, and are still, kind of, here. Others were newly built on sites of old houses or barns. The main landowners were James Harris Lord Malmesbury, and John Howe Lord Chedworth. Neither lived in the village. The farmer (tenant) was Richard Coombs (who lived in the Dairy House), and there were several people who tenanted small farms. There had been a mill since at least 1257, and in 1776 Thomas Miles took the lease of the mill at a rent of £1-5s-6d per year. The Powell family ran a shop, and the Dyer family were the blacksmiths, the forge being at what is now Shepherds Cottage. There were boot and shoe makers too. Most people worked in farming.
And did the people in Berwick know what was happening in North America? I think they probably did, the Salisbury Journal was founded in 1729, along with other newspapers, many Berwickers were literate, and people weren’t much different 250 years ago.
Researched and written by Nicky Street.
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LOCAL HISTORY
John Felix Dunbar Kilburn
I wrote about Richard Alexander Saunderson in a recent magazine. His nephew John Kilburn is commemorated on the same plaque as part of our War Memorial.
The Saunderson family lived in Godwins House in Berwick between 1939 and 1951.
When Richard Saunderson senior retired he and his wife Alice moved to Berwick, and their adult children stayed at times.
Mary Saunderson, their daughter, was born 8th August 1907 in Kensington London. She married Felix Bertram Dunbar Kilburn on 13th Oct 1929 in Kensington. Their banns of marriage were published in the 1929 Singapore Gazette as Felix lived in in Singapore.
Mary and Felix had two children, Johnny (born 12th December 1930) and Anthony. Felix died 5th Sept 1937 leaving Mary with two small children. They came to Berwick before 1939 to live with her parents Richard and Alice. Later Mary married Charles Brooke and had two more children Oliver and Thomas.
John Felix Dunbar Kilburn Joined the Royal Artillery in 1949, and was killed in action in Korea at the battle of Imjin River, on 25th April 1951, he was only 20. (He would have been 21 in December). He was buried in the UN Military Cemetery.
His grandparents Richard and Alice both also died in 1951.
Written and researched by Nicky Street with many thanks to Peter Saunderson