Herald - Issue 415

Page 12 • The HERALD • 18th November 2021 v EMAIL YOUR STORY: editor@herald-publishing.co.uk v Kitchen & Bathroom Showroom with free design service Tel: 023 8084 3787 Email: showroom@pcbuildingsupplies.co.ukWeb : www.pcbuildingsupplies.co.uk PVCu FASCIAS & GUTTERING CLEANING SERVICE Gutters checked for leaks and repaired Also new installations Driveway, Patio and Decking Cleaning and Restoration Service Very reliable and fully insured Good Rates and Professional Service Special Rates for OAP’s Call us now for a free quote Holbury 07884 112416 DECORATING Interior and Exterior Established 1985 07867 528307 mark.blake.decorating@gmail.com The next Herald is out on 9th December THE SPEDDING DESCENDANTS IN EXBURY AND LEPE by Robin Somes, Fawley & Blackfield Memories Previously, we explored how the Spedding family came from Northumberland to Exbury in the early 1800s; time now to view a little of their lives, and the village they lived in. John and Isabella Spedding, my 3rd great- grandparents, had 10 children (some of whom returned to Northumberland), and subsequent generations were equally fruitful – though of course not all children survived into adulthood. Censuses from 1841 onwards record most of the men as ‘Agricultural Labourer’, with the occasional ploughboy, carter and mariner thrown in. e women, where employed at all, were generally servants for the local appearance of any nuisance from the street, than to supply each tenement with a sufficiency of garden ground; he has therefore turned the rear of these cottages upon the street, and their front upon the gardens: these cottages are also built on the weather side with a double wall” . Given the demand for labour, the rural population then was far higher than now. With low wages and several poor harvests, the English countryside was turbulent in the late 1820s; increased mechanisation of farming, especially horse-powered threshing machines, was met by strong, sometimes violent, opposition. In the Swing Riots of 1830, machinery was destroyed, and farms set alight, across the country. In November that year, James Dickson was sentenced to 6 months’ imprisonment with hard labour; Dickson “ assaulted John Spedding, at the parish of Exbury and Lepe, and forced him to join with other persons, riotously assembled together ”. Eventually farming conditions improved, the riots faded away, and mechanisation became more accepted. e original John Spedding’s grandson, George (1827 – 1897), ran a steam plough, and married into another well-known local family, the Kitcher’s. We will look at his life in another episode. Harvesting in Exbury, photograph by E. W. Mudge Mitford’s approach was di erent. In 1810, Charles Vancouver’s “ General View of the Agriculture of Hampshire ” recorded: “ This county seems generally to be much better supplied with comfortable dwellings for the peasantry, than many others in the Kingdom, much attention being paid by most country gentlemen to this important point … Colonel Mitford, of Exbury, has also erected several new and convenient cottages. In placing these buildings, the Colonel has had it no less in view to prevent the estates. Exbury as we know it was built to house estate workers in the 1800’s. ough workers’ housing in those times was rarely generous, it seems William