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Maresfield in 1840 

Read a snapshot of Maresfield's history in the booklet ''Maresfield in 1840" written by Clive Brooks. The booklet is available to purchase in Maresfield post office for £4.

Also available from sheila.sunlands@btinternet.com or caroljefree@yahoo.uk.

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Below is Clive Brook's foreword to the 1997 edition and his footnote included in the 2017 edition.

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"​FOREWORD

Since moving into Church Cottage in 1984, I have been curious about the people who lived there in former times, but it was not until quite recently that I consulted the tithe map of 1840, discovering the names of the householders who lived in the two parts of the present house. In the census return of 1841, a great deal of information was found about the two families who lived there at that time. I then suggested to the Maresfield Parish History Society that the same process could easily be repeated for all the other houses in the centre of the Village and an accurate picture of village life would emerge. With the active help of the Society I then began this modest piece of research.

 

I am greatly indebted to Marion Russell, Chairman of the Society, for her encouragement and in particular for carefully tracing the tithe map which is reproduced here, and also to Alec Loten, the Treasurer, for researching the houses from Sandrock to the Chequers. Warren Butcher, archivist to the Society, chose suitable illustrations for the text from his large collection of old photographs. John Wrake read the draft and used his deep knowledge of Maresfield history to suggest a number of amendments. Betty Turner's history of Maresfield was full of useful information. Finally, Harry Bruford, vice-chairman of the Conservation Group, took charge of layout and printing. I am enormously grateful to all of them.

 

Clive Brooks

Church Cottage, Maresfield 1997[1]

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[1] In 2017, 20 years after the original publication of “Maresfield in 1840“, the Chairman of the Maresfield Conservation Group, Sheila Cumming, and her committee, offered to meet the costs of reprinting this booklet in the hope that it would be of interest to a new generation of members and residents of the village. I am most grateful to the Conservation Group and in particular to Stan Sadowski, who has undertaken the task of preparing the text and illustrations for publication and has made many suggestions for clarifying and amending the original text. Without his care and encouragement the complications of reformatting the original booklet would have been overwhelming."

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