My Cotswolds Connections :The Horse and Groom Inn, Upper Oddington, Gloucestershire

Upper Oddington, Gloucestershire is the type of village that Americans think of  when conjuring up an iconic image of  "British Village Life" . Sunshine glints from the golden hand hewn stone buildings. Tidy flowering gardens with fruit trees adorn the ancient Grade II listed homes which cluster between farmlands where sheep and fat spotted pigs graze. The 500 or so residents  have a Village Hall, a Womens Institute an "Old" and a "New" Church:the old being Norman in origin and built about 1100 and the new having been built in 1852. At the heart of the village is the local Public House "The Horse and Groom" and this is where my story takes me.

The Horse and Groom is a functioning pub with rooms which has been serving the locals in some capacity since the mid 1600's. I am descended from the Bould family who lived here and welcomed weary travelers since at least 1690 until its sale in 1898. It has taken me more than a decade to collect enough documents to put together the story of my familys time in Upper Oddington. This has included the usual birth, marriage and death certificates, land deeds, poll taxes, church visitations. old maps , antiquarian books and early newspapers. My favorite part of the research was visiting the village in person, traipsing around the cemetery at the Church of St. Nicholas , sitting in the family pew and of course stopping in for Steak and Ale Pie at the Horse and Groom.

Simon Jackson and his lovely wife were the owners on the occasions when I visited. They gave me the grand tour and shared anecdotes about the recent history of the place. I was surprised to find that the pub no longer had a cellar. The cellar figured prominently in the documents I had.This was where they brewed their own recipe of ale. The ale was served in the pub and there is a connection to another direct ancestor named Breakspeare associated with the brew house. Purveyors of brew will know the name. The particulars of sale of the property from 1898 describe the location of the cellar. After comparing notes we discovered that a large dip in the land behind the building (which Simon had thought was at one time a pond,) was actually where soil had been removed to fill in the cellar. Below is an 1898 description of the property which included land depicted on the map below.

A document search performed for me by author and genealogist Elizabeth Jacks of the Gloucestershire Archives turned up several maps including this one from more than a century earlier. Comparing it to a modern day Google Earth map is astounding as the village has seen very little significant changes in the landscape.

1787 Map of Upper Oddington

The 2017 Google Earth Map of Upper Oddington

 By 1841 the Bould family were no longer listed as Yeoman in the censuses as they had been since early records and the interest by the current generation in being publicans seemed to wane. Johnathon Bould passed away in 1848 and his wife Lousia ran the pub for another 29 years. Mary Bould Baker was left the properties at Louisas' death in 1877. Mary rented them to various tenants. She neglected to pay the inheritance taxes and there are many years of litigation between her and the tax board. Fortunately, she married an attorney who was able to straighten it out and she held onto the property until 1898 at which time it went up for sale. My gggrandfather Richard Bould took his inheritance and came to the United States in 1850 settling in New London ,Ohio. Once there he bought 80 acres of land to farm, several town plots on which he built houses and a property to run as a pub. His eldest son William served in the American Civil War and later ran the pub alongside him. His youngest son George was my ggrandfather.

 In 2016 the H & G changed hands and I understand the new owners are doing a fabulous job of maintaining the historic atmosphere and adding their own flair to the menu. I can hardly wait for my next visit!


I wonder if they have met the resident ghost? More tales to come!

Auction of the Horse and Groom, Upper Oddington, Glos. 1898

Note: The Bould family spelled their names a number of ways including Bowles, Bowls,and Bolds. For simplicity I have used the spelling most commonly seen at the time.

The Glamorous Genealogist visiting the Ancestral PUB!

The National Archives and The 1939 Registers

Before the UK became embroiled in WWII, the British Government made a record of  the civilian population for the purposes of controlling rationing and issuing identity cards. Beginning 29 September 1939 every individual was asked to register. Name, sex, age, occupation, address, marital status and military service, if any, was recorded.
These registration records fill the gaps for historians and family researches because there was no census taken in the UK in 1941 and the census records from 1931 were destroyed. Findmypast.com and The National Archives are working together to digitize and publish these records and expect to have them available in two years. You can sign up Here  to be notified when the records become available.
If you are desperate for information and cannot wait the two years for a record, they are available for purchase individually through the Health and Social Care Information Centre

World War II era Ration Books

World War II era Identity Card

In Honor of Harriet Tubman: A Hero For All Generations

Harriet Tubman has been a hero of mine since childhood.
 As a student,I did several book reports on her life and achievements.
I wanted to refresh my memory about her and so I decided to approach the research 
in the same way I would if I wanted to learn more about my own relatives.

 I went to Ancestry.com and input her given name of Arminita Ross and 

her aka Harriet Tubman, and received zero search results. Next I looked for her in the 

public member tree section and found only a handful of rather barren trees. From 

those trees and several other sources online, I discovered that her father was Ben 

Ross and her mother was Harriet Greene and that they hailed from , 

Maryland. I learned that she was married twice, first to John Tubman and later to  

Nelson Davis, a Civil War soldier from Company G,8th U.S Colored Infantry.

Arminita Harriet Ross and First Husband John Tubman.

I then went to Genealogy Bank and did an newspaper and historical document search. 

This was a treasure trove of information and I learned many things about her that was 

"new to me".Although well known as the engineer of the Underground Railroad and Civil 

War spy, she was also a nurse in the Civil War and paraphrasing statements by 

officers who vouched for her in pension applications, did so at great risk as she 

personally saved mens' lives. In 1888, her spouse Nelson Charles Davis died and in 

1890, Harriet applied for a pension as his widow. She received the standard $8 per 

month. She applied for and received her nurses pension of $12 per month. In 1899, a 

petition was submitted in her behalf to make an exception and raise her monthly 

pension to a total of $25 per month. This was an unprecedented request. Illustrious 

individuals wrote letters of commendation including William Seward, General Rufus 

Saxton and Colonel James Montgomery. These letters described her as having worked for 

Govenor Andrew who sent her to the front where she worked as "nurse, cook and 

spy".She nursed men as the musket balls flew past. It is stated that she worked for 

Major General Hunter,General Stephens, and General Sherman.

In the newspaper section, I found fascinating articles about her work in helping to 

free slaves after she escaped her own slave master in 1849.She was said to be pure 

African and from the Ashantee tribe and was described by many as having a great 

physical strength and stamina.It was said that in rescuing slaves that she had gone 

hand to hand with some slave masters and was the victor. I read current articles 

which credit her with helping to free 70-80 slaves however that does not match up 

with the articles of that time which credit her with assisting as few as 300 or as 

many as 1000 slaves via the underground Railway. Rewards were offered for her capture 

"Dead or Alive" and the combined $40,000. bounty reward might lead one to believe in 

the higher number of escaped slaves.She was also an active committee member of The 

Canadian Fugitive Aid Society of St. Catherines' which offered assistance to sick or 

indigent slaves who had fled to Canada.

Amongst all of the adventures, intrigue and travels, there seems to have been a space 

of time when she lived a somewhat average life living on a farm and engaged in brick 

making with her husband Nelson and her parents whom she had bought from 

slavery.Although her life was more normal than it had been when she traversed swamps 

and rugged terrain helping slaves escape, she was now known around the world.Even 

Queen Victoria had read her book and sent her a commemorative medal.

After her husbands death in 1888, her philanthropy continued and she turned her own 

small home in Auburn N.Y,into the Harriet Tubman Home for Aged Negroes, where she 

ended her days at the age of 98 in 1913. She was said to be quick witted and with a 

healthy appetite even to her end days. She died a free woman and a land owner having 

purchased the house with the proceeds of a biography written about her by Mrs. Sarah H.

Bradford called Scenes From The Life of Harriet Tubman.

I am glad that the internet allows so many avenues for research and am amazed at the 

details I collected in one hours time. Having said that, my admiration for Harriet 

Tubman is again inflated beyond all measure.I see a picture of a woman who truly 

rolled up her sleeves and personally put herself in harms way for the sake of others on many occasions. 

Harriet Tubman far left with adopted Daughter Gerttie and husband Nelson Davis. The elderly people of the right are assumed to be her parents whom she bought out of slavery.
Photo from the Library of Congress

Here are some links if you would like to do further research on Black Soldiers in The Civil War.

Links:

Family Search United States Colored Troops in The Civil War

The Fight for Equal Rights: Black Soldiers in the Civil War

PBS African Soldiers in The Civil War

The Importance of African-American Soldiers in Civil War History

Sources:

Harriet Tubman. An Hour With Harriet Tubman

 Saturday, September 30, 1911 The Indianapolis Freeman  

Harriet Tubman Timeline 

http://www.math.buffalo.edu/~sww/0history/hwny-tubman.html

https://familysearch.org/african-american-genealogy

http://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/

http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/bradford/menu.html

Thanks for stopping by!