House History     7 The Green

The listing text above, written in 1988, adds weight to local belief that this house was originally built some time in the mid 17^th century. We know from the roof descriptions that it was thatched in the first instance, as seen in the postcard below, from the early 1900s.

From the garden the nature of the stonework to the front of the house looks too fine to be a cottage property, and the window in the ground floor gable end appear at some time to have been a doorway. One might suppose that at the time the front garden walls and gates were erected the entrance to the house may have had a south facing aspect, whereas we know that when it was divided into two cottage dwellings, they faced towards the well in the garden to the west, which they probably shared.

In the 21^st century the owner of this house removed some plaster in an upper room to embed a mirror in a bathroom wall.

A handful of screwed up paper was pushed into a plaster cavity, which proved to have handwriting on it, transcribed below:

A plan of The Green, West side, drawn in 1884, shows the house as a single property, sitting in piece of land apparently including the four cottages to the east.

Thomas Packer

We believe that Thomas may have been a long term occupier of the house now called 7 The Green.

Thomas’s birth may only have been registered in Potterspury in 1814 – as Thomas was later a boatman it is possible that he was born on the canal. He may have had a sister, Margaret, born in 1817.

Harriet was Harriet Henson before marriage in 1839. She was born in Cosgrove. Thomas Packer was a boatman at the time of his marriage, and signed the register with his mark, as he could not write.

In 1841 they were sharing a property in Cosgrove with the Buckingham family.

In 1851 Thomas and Harriet don’t appear in Cosgrove Census. From 1853 to 1856 Thomas was paying £2 pa rental for a cottage in Cosgrove belonging to the Mansel / Cosgrove Hall Estate.

In 1861 Thomas was on his own in a cottage in Cosgrove which may or may not have been 6/7 The Green. He does not appear on the Mansel Estate rentals further. The “Burnal” family did not live next door to him at this point – but were either Packer or the Burnals at 6/7 The Green?

In 1871 Thomas and Harriet were described as both living in a cottage in Cosgrove. It is possible the cottage was the same one but sold to a different owner. Their immediate neighbours in this Census were the Burnells, so this was probably 6/7 The Green, as confirmed by the 1881 Census.

1881 Census

Harriet Packer was buried in Cosgrove Churchyard 29 August 1888. A Margaret Packer was buried in Cosgrove in 1888 – was Harriet’s middle name Margaret?

In the 1891 Census Thomas was living at 6 The Green West Side (later renumbered to 7). Aged 77, he was a domestic gardener.

On 12 April 1902, aged 88, Thomas was buried at Cosgrove Church from the Workhouse at Yardley Gobion.

The Burnell Family

We can see from the Church registers that the Burnell family had nine children, the oldest boy of which, Robert, and the youngest, William, died in infancy, as well as a baby girl, Eliza, who lived only a week. This family occupied at least half of the property 6/7 The Green.

On 1^st March 1882 William Burnell was buried at Cosgrove Church. His family appear in the following census in 1891 in the Workhouse Yard cottages. Despite her skills as a Lacemaker Elizabeth was reduced to charring work. Handmade lace was already a declining industry in the village as the fashion for machine made lace increased. Her remaining son Charles was in trouble in 1883 for stealing wood, presumably for the fire, from John Clarke’s farm. He was fined 10 shillings.

The missing children, Elizabeth and Eliza, do not appear in the Cosgrove Census for 1891, so it is possible that they were working outside the parish.

During the next ten years Charles Ernest became a brass fitter – probably at the Railway Works - married and went to live in the Blacksmith’s cottages behind the Barley Mow, where his wife had four children. We know from newspaper reports of 1890 that he sang in the Church choir and was an able runner in sports races. By 1911 he had returned to farming work and was a horseman at Cobbs Bush Farm.

Elizabeth Burnell had been in service with Major Grant Thorold for 40 years when she died in 1919 at the age of 82. She had been given a cottage in the Hill Houses group by the Cosgrove Hall family, for whom, her daughter Mary Anne was still a laundress. Major Grant Thorold attended her funeral.

Northampton Mercury - Friday 18 July 1902 COSGROVE, Northamptonshire, Two and a-half miles from Stony Stratford, and two miles from Castlethorpe Station, and N.-W. Ry. Main Line. DESIRABLE FREEHOLD ESTATES AND COTTAGE PROPERTIES TO BE SOLD BY AUCTION, BY PEIRCE and THORPE at the GEORGE HOTEL, NORTHAMPTON, on Saturday, August 2nd, 1902, at Three o'clock precisely, by order of the Trustees of the late H. P. Gates, Esq. Lot 1 The GREEN FARM, COSGROVE, a compact and highly desirable small Freehold Farm, comprising a substantial stone and slated House and Homestead, with gardens and appurtenances and Two Enclosures of rich old PASTURE LAND, the whole containing 15a. 1r. 27p. or thereabouts, now in the occupation of Mr. Geo. Valentine, as yearly tenant. Lot 2 Three brick and slated and two stone built COTTAGES, adjoining Lot 1, with gardens, barns, and appurtenances, and small piece of Grass Land the rear. Tenants: Messrs. Briggs. Johnson, Toombs, Swain, and Moore. Lot 3 An Enclosure of Rich Accommodation PASTURE LAND, near to Lot 1, containing 3a. 3r. 32p., now occupied by Mr. Geo. Valentine, as yearly tenant. In the centre of this Lot is the well-known and never-failing chalybeate spring, St. Vincent's Well. Lot 4 —Three stone-built COTTAGES, with large and productive gardens, situate adjoining Lots 1 and 3, the occupation of Messrs. Chapman, Beasley, and Green, and containing an area of 2 roods 38 perches. Descriptive particulars, with plan and conditions of sale, are being prepared and may be obtained of Messrs. PERCIVAL and SON, Solicitors, Priestgate, Peterborough; Of Messrs. Durham, Gotto, and Samuel, Land Agents and Surveyors, Northampton, Stony Stratford, and Newport Pagnell; or of the Auctioneers, Northampton.

This plan shows detail of the properties alongside Green Farm, mapped at some time after 1903. The house now called 7 The Green lies at right angles to the lane nearest the Mission Hall path, and appears to be divided into two cottages, which would agree with the 19th century records.

The deeds of no 7 The Green show that after Henry Pearson Gates died on 6^th May 1893, John Andrew and Herbert Percival, and Henry William Gates of Peterborough, his executors, acted as Trustees, and eventually, following the death of Eleanor Gates on 30^th April 1902, conveyed the house and its appurtenances to A F Jell(e)y, for £480.

At that time the property included [text extended]

“All those five several messuages or tenements and garden with the appurtenances to the same respectively belonging situate at Cosgrove in the County of Northampton in a certain place there called The Green in the occupation of Messieurs Briggs, Johnson, Tombs, Swain and Moore and also all that small piece of grass land adjoining the North side of the said hereditaments as then staked out All of which said hereditaments intended to be thereby conveyed were more particularly described on the map or plan drawn on the 3^rd page of those presents and thereon coloured pink.

Together with the full and free right and liberty to pass on foot or with horses, carts and other carriages when necessary by over and along the strip of land on the south side of the said hereditaments extending from the eastern boundary of the land thereby conveyed to the public road within the dotted lines shown on the said plan end to end from the land thereby conveyed to and from the public land.”

The deeds record that Arthur Frederick Jelley died intestate on 17^th September 1938 and probate was granted to Constance Louise Markham the wife of Arthur James Markham of Newnham Lodge Daventry, and Irene Margaret Ruff the wife of George Williamson Ruff of The Brewery House, Cosgrove.

This document excepted and reserved from the property “a portion of two small pieces of grass land which with a 6 foot pathway was sometime since the 11^th October 1902 conveyed by the said A F Jelley to the Trustees of The Cosgrove Mission Hall.”

On 11^th October 1941 a conveyance between Irene Margaret Ruff (vendor), Amy Luie Heggs of Park Crest, Weston Road, Northampton (mortgagee) and Alice Theodora Feil, widow, of The Green, Cosgrove (Purchaser) transferred a mortgage of £150 to Mrs Feil to purchase the property, described as having “formerly consisted of two cottages occupied by Mrs and Mr Stewart” coloured Red and Pink on the plan “Together with the use of the Lavatory accommodation on other land of the Vendor”.

The document reveals that Arthur Frederick Jelley had mortgaged the property several times from 1906 onwards.

The Feil Family

The postcard above was written by “Sarah” to a friend. Sarah Valentine was buried from a house on The Green on 1^st December 1931 at the age of 84. We now know that an Aubrey Valentine later lived in one of the low thatched cottages on the opposite side of the Green.

Alice Feil was a Valentine before her marriage. She was often known as “Dora” for Theodora, in the village.

NRO NBP 55       Econ Hist Inns  1924                 

Philip Riden’s notes record:

We don’t yet know why Alice held this piece of land, apparently unconnected with other property.

The Feils were great senders of postcards, particularly views of Cosgrove in the first decade of the 20^th century. Much of the photographic archive compiled by Colin Kightley comes from their postcards.

Many of these cards were sent to friends and family in Balham, mostly to Joseph Feil, Alice’s husband.

Posted to Mr. J. Feil 15 Oakmead Rd, Balham, S.W. February 10th 1909

Text on the postcard: This shows the "Broadwater" on the right hand side. It sometimes flows right into the river Ouse which is underneath the "Iron Trunk". The river separates Northants from Bucks. You will notice "Cosgrove Lodge" Mr. B's [Branson's] House on the right hand side and as you know our house is just behind it. You can also see the locks and lock house at the side of the canal. The "Towing path" is terribly rough and used to cut the tyres of my bike when I rode along here to the shop. I often used to ride over the "Trunk" to save the trouble of getting off my bike. I have left off doing it though now as I once had rather a bad accident I escaped but damaged the bike rather badly. This is of course looking towards C. [Cosgrove]

The Feils were great fund raisers and would loan their piano and organise events, like concerts, for Cosgrove causes and national charities.

In 1943 Mrs Feil was Churchwarden, described thus “She was a stout lady, but such a beaming smile, it made you happy to look at her,” on the occasion of Joan Higgins wedding to Cyril Brockway. Mrs Feil had to collect the Rector, who was somewhat drunk and had forgotten that he had a wedding to perform, but who evidently succumbed to Mrs Feil’s exhortations to attend.

In 1946 Alice and Marie Feil are recorded as living at 7 The Green on the Electoral Roll. Alice was about 63 and her daughter Marie was about 42. Alice’s husband, Marie’s father, Joseph Henry Julius Feil, who had been a shipping clerk in London when he married Alice in 1910, had died in Northampton in 1940. It seems from their dates that Alice’s marriage came after Marie’s birth and that of another daughter, Laura, born in 1901. All Joseph’s estate was left to Alice, a total of £777 10s.

Joseph Henry Julius Feil appears to have had a previous marriage in 1899 to Eleanor Amelia Mayhew, who gave birth to a daughter, Laura, in Balham in 1900. Eleanor died in 1903 and is buried in Camden, by which time Joseph Henry Julius apparently already had two daughters by Alice Theodora [Valentine]. We believe that Dora Feil is the same person as Alice Theodora Feil.

In the Wolverton Express 17th March 1950 Mr L Feil is described as a talented show producer. We do not yet know of his connection to Alice’s family.

We have a photograph showing the Women's Institute summer meeting at The Priory, Cosgrove, June 1950. Dora Feil is fourth from the left in the back row.

Back row left to right: Miss Gertrude Marlow, Kathleen Jones, Ethel Gallop, Dora Feil, Joan Brockway, Edith Brockway, Daisy Davis, Gertie Chown, Miss Ruby Kitsor (of New Zealand), Wyn Childs, Mona Hickford, Agnes Elderton, Alice Fitzgibbon.
Middle row: Mrs Proudfoot, Linda Lyman, Daisy Gascoigne, Florrie Castle, Mercy Clarke, Mrs. Bill Ratcliffe.
Front row: Mrs. Malcolm Jelley, Dorothy Hebson, Olive Johnson, Nellie Whitaker, Annie Tompkins

Mrs Feil was a very active member of Cosgrove WI, and would frequently give the votes of thanks to speakers and donate competition prizes. She was voted delegate to the annual meeting at the Albert Hall in 1956.

In 1952 the Electoral roll shows Alice T Feil, Marie J Feil and Richard J Feil at the Green, although Richard was recorded as resident in Kensington. It seems likely that Richard was the second son of Alice, referred to in the article following, although no corroboration has been found.

Mrs Feil regularly played the organ at Cosgrove Church

Both the Feil daughters were in Cosgrove in the mid 1950s, and supported Cosgrove Church like their mother.

Alice Feil was buried at Cosgrove Church on 31 August 1961 at the age of 78, in the middle churchyard. Marie Josephine died in Dacorum, Herts in 1981. Alice’s son Gordon married in 1939, moved to Devon from Streatham, and died in Exeter in 1986.

The interesting features noted were

A bake oven behind the newly exposed parlour ingle nook – this is back to back with an inglenook fireplace in the next room, having an eight foot beam of solid elm;

A “priest hole” door and lock mechanism

A cupboard door on the first floor (of three floors) which is cut down from a door from an earlier period and made to fit by being positioned upside down

The finials on the beam ends in all the rooms; Oak floors in all the upper rooms; A window in a top floor room half original and half 20th century; Period windows on all levels;

There is a small building with a slate roof in the garden, possibly the “lavatory” described in the previous conveyance;

A well in the garden This document implies an owner after Mrs Feil, possibly “Mrs Mack” (Mrs MacLean) before owners Matthew and Catherine Cole who evidently altered and renovated the house between 2002 and 2004. The current owners in 2019 have further restored and furnished the house to an exceptional standard to preserve and display its historical story.