The Estate in Transition
The moving village
The old village was almost completely removed over a fairly protracted period after Richard Benyon inherited in 1789 with some of the old houses remaining at least as late at 1870 and some in the main part of the village inhabited to this day.
There was no census in Englefield in 1801, the first year one was taken, and individual details were not recorded until 1841 but the census of 1811 shows 68 inhabited houses in the parish and 70 uninhabited ones with a total population of 291. From the numbers of inhabited/uninhabited houses we may suppose that this may have been the turning point between the old and new villages with some new houses built and occupied but the old empty ones not yet demolished.
The main clearance presumably took place over the next ten years for in 1821 there were 78 inhabited houses and just 4 uninhabited ones with a population of 343. Over the next 10 years the number of houses fell to 69 and the population rose to 411. In the census of 1841 the number of houses had risen again, to 74, but the population had shrunk to 373.
A sketch map of the estate exists, probably drawn by Richard Benyon himself, which shows not only the location of all the houses but in a key at the bottom gives the names of the various tenants with some biographical notes. From the notes we learn, for example, that Mason, who lived in Pound Cottage just beyond the turning to Tidmarsh (not shown by Ballard but on the site now occupied by numbers 16 and 17) was deaf and that William Painter who lived where the modern Bradfield Lodges now are, had a “girl at school”. Near to William Painter was a block of four houses exclusively tenanted by the widows Wilkins, Waters, Bushel and Plum. Three of these widows’ names have what appears to be a code in Greek letters after their names.
The plan is undated but shows the new road down the north side of Common Hill so must be after 1802. On the other hand, it still has the old Tidmarsh Road and not current one so it must be before 1825. Richard Benyon obviously updated some details later because original information in ink has been amended and supplemented by later pencil entries. For example, the names of Robert and Ann Giles, living at Piper’s Farm, have been crossed through with “Dead” inserted against Ann (who died in 1819) and “now Paulin (indistinct word) child” has been added. Also in a pencil entry John and Hannah Horne are noted as having five children and Daniel and Mary Mildenhall have “3 little children”. The Mildenhalls had their third child in 1823 and John and Hannah Horne their fifth in 1824. Widow Deborah Giles is shown living with son Charles in one of the new houses in the Street (now No 25) and she died in 1826, as did widow Lucy Simmonds at Common Hill, though neither of these is crossed through.
Considering all this, the probability is that the plan was originally drawn sometime about 1810, and it was then at least partially updated until about 1823.
It seems that some of the new houses were short lived for they appear only on Richard Benyon's plan and are not shown on either earlier or later plans and this probably accounts for the drop from a total of 82 houses in 1811 to only 69 in 1821. Certainly by 1851 relatively few of the houses were in the village itself for the census for that year shows while there 74 houses (the same number as in 1831) in the parish, only 24 of them were in Englefield village itself, the remaining 50 were around the periphery at Hogmoor, Piper's Lane, Parker's Corner, Common Hill, and three still on the site of the old village.
Some variation in the numbers of people is obviously due to the fact that official census records only those actually in the house on the night in question so the numbers include any casual visitors staying the night and do not include anyone away from home. In the 1851 census, for example, the only occupants at Englefield House are two servants, and Mary Ann Smales, a coachman's wife, is alone in her house in the village. Mr Benyon was away at his London House, 34 Grosvenor Square, with 18 servants including James Smales. By contrast, 10 years later his successor, Richard Fellowes Benyon was in Englefield with his wife, a daughter, his wife's young brother and 19 servants.