The Stratton connection with Badsey Silk Mill

Brian Smith wrote to us recently concerning the early days of Badsey Silk Mill. He had been reading E A B Barnard’s Notes and Queries concerning Evesham and the Four Shires' and in a piece written by G M Stratton in 1908, he found a reference to Badsey Silk Mill and the Stratton family:

My father, Charles Frederick, when quite a young man was appointed foreman of his grandfather's (Matthias Stratton's) Silk Mills, situated at Badsey, where he remained until he married Miss Ann Knight, daughter of Mr Knight, a famous long-wooden plough maker. He then took a beer-house in that village, where he remained for two years.

Brian wondered if we had more information about the Strattons and Badsey Silk Mill. So who was Charles Frederick Stratton?

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Charles Frederick Stratton’s Early Life

Referring back to G M Stratton’s 1908 account, he says:

My father, Charles F Stratton, was born at Chalford, Gloucestershire; he was about four years old when his father, George Matthias Stratton, died. There were four children – viz, George Matthias, Charles Frederick, Matthias, and Ann Minchin. My father, C F Stratton, was adopted by his grandfather, Matthias Stratton, gin distiller, wine and spirit merchant, Vine Street, Evesham, where he remained for some years. My father used to relate how in 1813 he had a holiday from school on purpose to make balls of clay to stick against his grandfather’s house (who was that year Mayor), to place candles in to illuminate on the occasion of peace caused by victory over the French at Waterloo.

According to his son, Charles Frederick Stratton was born at Chalford, Gloucestershire. However, unlike his siblings, where baptismal records have been seen, no documentary evidence has been found so far concerning Charles’ exact date of birth and birthplace. Census returns and age at death give an approximate birth date of 1808. The 1851 and 1861 census returns give his birthplace as Evesham, but this information is not always accurate.

G M Stratton said that his father was the son of George Matthias Stratton, but all the records give his name simply as Matthias. Matthias Stratton was born at Evesham in 1780, the second of three sons of Matthias Stratton and his wife, Sarah (née Atkins). Matthias married Ann Minchin at Stow on the Wold in 1804. Three of their children – George Matthias (1805), Ann Minchin (1806-1850) and Matthias (1810-1882) – were baptised at Stow on the Wold. Charles would have been born in the years between the births of Ann and Matthias.

Also according to G M Stratton, Charles Frederick was four years old when his father died, but no record has been found so far to corroborate this. He was then adopted by his grandfather, Matthias. Whether the other siblings were adopted by Matthias is unknown.

Matthias Stratton was a notable person in Evesham. He filled the office of Mayor of Evesham several times (1791, 1792, 1795, 1813) and was a member of the Corporation of the borough for almost 40 years.

Charles Stratton’s move to Badsey

According to G M Stratton, Charles was appointed foreman of his grandfather’s Silk Mill at Badsey. From what we know of the former Silk Mill, Matthias Stratton was never the owner. It was John Thorp, a silk manufacturer from Coventry, who bought the corn mill at Badsey in 1818 and proceeded to convert it into a silk mill.

The Strattons did, however, have a connection with the silk trade. It was Matthias Stratton’s eldest son, Anthony (1777-1807) who, according to the historian, George May, carried on the business of silk-throwing in Evesham after it had been introduced into Evesham by Thomas Mann in 1792. A little later, again according to May, it was carried on by James Atkins, presumably after the death of Anthony Stratton in 1807. It is thought that James Atkins was Anthony Stratton’s cousin. Anthony’s mother was born Sarah Atkins (1749-1810); James was probably her nephew.

By January 1819, John Thorp was in partnership with James Atkins, who was to become his brother-in-law three years later. In 1822 at Evesham, John, a widower aged 49, married James’ sister, Frances Atkins. After their wedding, John and Frances moved to London where the Thorp family had mills, so it was presumably James Atkins who oversaw the management of the mill and, at some stage in the 1820s, appointed his cousin’s son, Charles Frederick Stratton, to be foreman of the mill.

In 1829, the partnership between John Thorp and James Atkins was dissolved, according to the following notice which appeared in several Gazettes of the time:

On 16th June 1829, the partnership between James Atkins and John Thorp, Evesham and Badsey, silk throwsters, was dissolved.

John Thorp then entered into partnership with Wingfield Gee, a silk throwster of Overbury and Murcott. It may have been at that point that Charles Stratton became publican at a beer-house in Badsey. This was most likely The Bell Inn, now a private home and situated on School Lane.

On 8th January 1831, Charles married Ann Knight at Badsey. Ann was the daughter of Thomas Knight, a builder, and lived at the house on the junction of Mill Lane and High Street (now four cottages). This was conveniently situated between Badsey Silk Mill where Charles first worked and The Bell Inn where he later worked. Their first child, Emily Anne Minchin Stratton, was born at Badsey and baptised there on 30th November 1831. Charles’ occupation was given as publican at the time.

The move from Badsey

By May 1834, Charles and Ann had moved from Badsey as their second child, Frances Maria, was baptised in Evesham on 30th May. Charles was by now publican at The Plough and Harrow in Vine Street, Evesham (Vine Street was where his grandfather, Matthias, lived).

Some time between 1834 and 1838 (possibly after the death of Matthias Stratton in September 1835, the Strattons moved to Cropthorne where Charles was the publican at The New Inn. Four more children were born at Cropthorne: Louisa (1838), George Matthias (1841-1932), Charles Frederick (1845) and William Henry (1847). (It was George Matthias Stratton who provided information in 1908 about his father’s early life.)

Charles remained as innkeeper of The New Inn for the rest of his life, dying at Cropthorne on 11th October 1862. The notice in The Worcestershire Chronicle said:

After a lingering illness aged 55 yrs, sincerely regretted by all who knew him Mr Charles Frederick Stratton of Cropthorne in this county, grandson of the late Matthias Stratton.

Ann Stratton died at Cropthorne two years later.

A further Stratton connection with Badsey

In 1851, Robert Mansell Stratton (1782-1869), a widower in his late sixties, married Elizabeth Thorp (1819-1853), a widow with three young children and 36 years his junior. There was also a family connection by marriage. Elizabeth was born at Coventry in 1819, before John was married. According to the late Kate Pearce (née Thorp), who has done extensive research on the Thorp family, he was very fond of his “natural daughter”. Three years later, John Thorp married Frances Atkins. It is thought that Frances’ father was the brother of Robert Stratton’s mother, Sarah (née Atkins) who married Matthias Stratton.

Following the death of her father in 1834, Elizabeth had become the owner of Badsey Silk Mill. On her own death in 1853 at the young age of 34, her two surviving children by her first marriage, Eliza and Frank, inherited the mill but, by this time, the mill was in its dying days. The mill was sold in January 1864 and was converted into residential accommodation.

Robert Mansell Stratton remained living in Badsey for a number of years after Elizabeth’s death. He was still resident in Badsey at the time of the 1861 census but died in January 1869 at Stow on the Wold.

Maureen Spinks, September 2025

Acknowledgements

With thanks to Brian Smith for alerting us to this entry in E A B Barnard’s 'Notes and Queries concerning Evesham and the Four Shires'. The piece was written by G M (George Matthias) Stratton (1841-1932).