Amongst the details of the Wills of residents of Wickhamford, the Will of William White is of particular interest given its detail. The inventory showed that the value of his estate was worth £603-16s-06p. A large sum of money compared to the value of the other inventories around that time and the equivalent of about £80,000 today in terms of purchasing power.
St James’ Church, Badsey, was again the venue for a reading of letters from a family who lived in Badsey a hundred years ago.
After a gap of 30 years, it was carnival time in Badsey again. Seven floats took part in a procession which wound its way from the Remembrance Hall, down Synehurst and into the High Street, along Brewers Lane, Chapel Street, School Lane, High Street and back into Brewers Lane, ending up at Badsey Community Sports & Social Club.
The church bells were ringing as people made their way to the Recreation Ground on the morning of the 114th Annual Flower Show – either to enter their exhibits or to set up their stall.
John and Alice Idiens lived at Wickhamford Manor for a short period around 1901. He had an interesting life in the area and eventually emigrated to British Columbia, Canada.
In March of 1898 Mary Huxley brought two of her sons to be baptised at the Church of St John the Baptist, Wickhamford. She did this on separate days, the 8th and 29th, and in the Baptismal Register there is no father’s name and, against both entries, is recorded “Married woman living apart from her husband”. The first child was given the name “Albert Huxley” and the second was entered as “Richard Hardiman Huxley”.
Elizabeth Huband was baptised in Wickhamford on 30th June 1799. She married twice and had four children by each husband. She emigrated to Australia in 1855 and died in Brisbane in 1876.
In the second half of the eighteenth century, Wickhamford Manor was occupied by a branch of the Holland family of Cropthorne. At that time the Manor was usually referred to as Manor Farm.
Dr H. L. Heath lived in a house on the top of north side of Longdon Hill in the 1930s and 1940s. He was a General Practitioner and Surgeon working from premises in Bengeworth and practised in Evesham from 1926 to 1948.
Harry Leslie Heath’s paternal grandfather was Thomas Heath who was recorded in the 1871 census as living in Oldbury Road, Harborne. He worked as a commercial traveller in wines and spirits. With his wife, Henrietta Letitia, he had three children by this date – Harry Edwin, aged 4, Amy Florence, aged 3 and one-year-old Beatrice.
Norris Haines, often known by the nickname ‘Buckley’, was a chauffeur and gardener to the Lees-Milne family of Wickhamford Manor and then Hody’s Place. He worked for the family from 1906 until Helen Lees-Milne’s death in 1962.
