|
|
The dwellings in
the Parish of Eggbuckland did not form a cosy group or
cluster around a church or a green open space as happened in so many
Devon villages. Instead, they were well spread out, encompassing a
considerable distance. The 1841 enumerator travelled east, west and
north from a pre-selected central point. To
the north, lay a farming area on the lower slopes of Dartmoor. The
people there were either tenant farmers or their employees, the
agricultural labourers.
|
(Cottage on road between Stony Bridge
and Frogmore)
Archelaus
Stuttaford (60) Farmer
Mary
Stuttaford (55)
Richard
Stuttaford (35)
Jane Spry
(18) Farm Servant
Catherine
Riley (40)
Andrew
Stuttaford (60) Farmer
Mary
Stuttaford (60)
Anna
Stuttaford (25) Schoolmistress
|
|
In the
Census extract above, all answered "yes" to the question "Were
you born in Devon?" but we must research Parish Records to try to
discover the birthplace of each. Without the relationships asked for in
later Census questionnaires, we can only guess that this group consisted
of two brothers and their families. The curious rules adopted for the
1841 Census for returning the age of each adult, created the same age
for Archelaus and for Andrew whereas the Parish Registers indicate that
Andrew is the older brother by a year and that their true ages are
probably 61 and 62 respectively. The ages of the children mentioned
below seem to be reliable.
|
|
Tor Cottage, east of Stony Bridge
on the track to Longbridge
Andrew
Stuttaford (32) Mason
Jane
Stuttaford (30)
Mary
Stuttaford (5)
Thomas
Stuttaford (3)
William
Stuttaford (9 months)
Cottage
on track from Stony Bridge to Knackersknowle
William
Stuttaford (70) Mason
Mary
Stuttaford (70)
Margaret
Giles (12)
Cottage
at Knackersknowle
John
Stuttaford (45) Mason
Mary
Stuttaford (13)
John
Stuttaford (9)
Lavinia
Stuttaford (7)
Amelia
Stuttaford (5)
|
Rumple Quarry lay between the Enumerator's eastern and western
routes so in those areas, we find many cottages housing stonemasons who
worked there. This part of the Census reveals that a miniature
industrial revolution had been taking place in Devon in the early years
of the 19th century. Since time immemorial, the men of the Moors had
possessed skills to cut and dress stone for house building, walls, sheep
folds and bridges. This had been a normal farming task, undertaken as
part of a range of skills expected from an agricultural worker.
By 1841, many men had left the harsher life of the Moors behind and
were selling their stone-working skills to employers quarrying stone for
commercial reasons.
|
Click
here to continue
|
