A Farm Labourer c 1890

The photograph on the left is not of Richard Stentiford but it might as well have been. The working clothes, a stack knife hanging from the belt to cut the bands around the hay, the pitchfork, even the task in hand - fetching turnips from the clamp to feed the sheep - all these things would have been familiar to Richard. So too would have been the low wages and the dreary, seemingly endless hours that constituted the agricultural labourer's day - day in, day out, with no respite.

Like his uncle, James Stentiford, Richard too married a local girl - Elizabeth Holloway- soon after he arrived. Their family soon grew - and grew - and grew. Richard would seldom have earned more than 7  to 8 shillings a week while he was bringing up his young family and they would have known some very hard times.

Thanks to information supplied by the current owners of Quick's cottage, we know that the cottage came into the possession of the local landlord, Lord Clifford and that it must have been a tied cottage - that is, it went with Richard's farm job. 

"Quick's Cottage" or "Cobwebs" as it is now known, was built side-on to Sandpath and is now considerably larger than it was in the 18th and 19th centuries. The present owners' research has revealed that when the Stentifords lived in it, the cottage had two rooms on the ground floor and two rooms above. Cooking would have been done on the inglenook fire seen in the picture above.

When Elizabeth Holloway died and Richard was married again to a widow who was his  neighbour - Elizabeth Greenslade (née Carpenter) - Quick's Cottage became home to the younger children of her family too.

Towards the end of his life, when Richard could no longer work on the farm, this new family were forced to leave Kingsteignton and move into rented accommodation in Newton Abbot with Richard's son Sidney and his young wife.

Sandpath looking south

When  family historians look at the dates of second marriages, we do sometimes think how closely they follow the funeral of the first husband or wife. Those terrible Poor Laws continued in force well into the 20th century under the guise of "Parish Relief" and really, there were few choices for men and women who were widowed with children. Both Richard Stentiford and Elizabeth Greenslade had children under 9 when their respective partners died - he could put a roof over the heads of the Greenslade children (who would have lost their own home when John Greenslade* died) and she could provide care for his children while he worked long days on the farm. The only other alternative for her would have been to have sought shelter in the Workhouse in Newton Abbot.

The year following their marriage, Richard and Elizabeth Greenslade had a son who was named Felix Arthur Greenslade Stentiford. There is considerable evidence in the Parish Registers and the Census Returns, that the group of children who formed this new family, maintained close relationships throughout their lives. They were witnesses at each other's weddings and then godparents to their respective children. They housed one another at various times and then set up homes in Kingsteignton or the near vicinity so they could keep in touch.