| NEWPOTS FARM
Newpots Farm photographed in 2006
© Copyright Glyn Baker and used under
Creative Commons License
The photograph is also available on www.geograph.org.uk/photo/218817
Newpots Farm in Peldon is now little more than a few modern barns while its land has been assimilated into the
Brick House Estate farmed by Robert Davidson & Sons Ltd. The name persists in the names Newpots Lane and
Newpots Close, the latter a 1960s cul-de-sac off Lower Road, Peldon. Over its history the farm has been spelt
Newports, Newportes, Newpots, New Pots and Newmans and it is suggested by P H Reaney in his 1935 The
Place-names of Essex that the first owner was Thomas de Neuport who is referred to in a subsidy roll of 1327.
Newpots is one of the very few farms in Peldon whose name has persisted over the centuries to the present day. In 1399 it appears as Newportes in Court Rolls. On the Chapman and Andre map of 1777 as Newmans and on the OS map of 1875 as Newpots. In this article I will refer to the farm as it is spelt today - Newpots - unless when quoting older documents.
The farm's history is tied up with that of Brick House Farm, White House Farm and Sampsons - today all these
are farmed as one by the Davidsons, a farming family originally from Scotland who moved to Brick House Farm,
Peldon, in 1946. Now, White House Farm house, is a private domestic dwelling with a garden but no land and
since the 1950s has been known as Sampton Wick, confusing, because Sampton Wick was also an old name for Sampsons.
Newpots is one of the few farms in the whole of Essex to appear in a 1517 survey called The Domesday of Inclosures.
Sir Thomas More was involved in establishing this Commission of Inquiry to assess how best to tackle rural decline and a shortage of grain. The Inquiry only encompassed nine counties, Essex being one, but its entries were very few and incomplete. In all of Essex, it was the Winstree Hundred that had most of the entries, Peldon, Little and Great Wigborough, Salcott Virley, Langenhoe, Fingringhoe and Layer Marney. Two entries for the half-hundred of Clavering complete the entire Essex section.
The Commission was set up as the rural community was leaving the countryside and moving to the towns. Small farms were being ingrossed with large areas of land being taken over by one hand. Some copyhold tenants were denied their usual inheritance rights or charged unaffordable 'fines' upon transferring property but it was freeholders who enclosed a great proportion of the land. Farmland, hitherto ploughed and used for arable crops, was being enclosed and converted to pastureland and many farmworkers were evicted. Homes were being allowed to fall into decay, and, indeed, the few entries for Winstree Hundred tell of this widespread decay of the buildings, indicating too how many people had been turned off the land.
The following is a transcript from a book produced by the Royal Historical Society in 1897. Notes by I S
Leadam. Following it is a translation into modern English.
The parrech of Peldon
Item whe fynd that ther ys a ferme with a c acars of erable lande therto belonging of won Esebell Scharpe gentylwoman Caled Newportes within the said parrech and the houses therof ys decayed and fallen down and non Inabytacyon on yt and yt hath ben decayd this x yers and oon Gregory senyor ys fermer of the land And occupieth it with his own hous and it was wont to have a houshold vppon it and vi or vii persones vppon it
Note The family of Tey or Teye, enclosers in the next parish of Moche Wygborrow held the manor
The Parish of Peldon
Item: we find that there is a Farm with 100 acres of arable land belonging to Isabel Sharp, a gentlewoman, called Newpots within the said Parish and the house there is decayed and fallen down and uninhabited and it has been decayed the last 10 years and Gregory Senior is farmer of the land and occupies it with his own house. It used to have a household upon it and 6 or 7 people.
So it would appear that the original medieval farmhouse had become derelict by 1517.
In Philip Morant's history of Essex (published in 1768) he writes that Newpots was held by Thomas Tey as tenant and that Newpots (and Sampsons) had been owned by the Abbey of St Osyth. Ownership by the abbey ended at the dissolution of the monastery in 1539 when Henry VIII, confiscating all its holdings, granted most of its possessions to Thomas Cromwell; on the latter's fall from favour and subsequent beheading in 1540, the abbey and its estates were returned to the Crown.
Thomas Tey, of Layer Marney Esq; who died 20 April 1543, held lands and tenements called Newports, in Peldon;
and a capital messuage called Samptons Wyke in Peldon and Sampton; and all those lands, tenements &c.
belonging to the said capital messuage and the Wyke; and closes called Abbotts nine acres, Abbotts twenty
acres, Abbotts seven acres, and Abbotts four acres called Woodcroft, in Peldon and Sampton, with
appertenances, formerly belonging to the Abbey of St. Osith.. [Philip Morant The History and Antiquities
of the County of Essex]
A 'capital messuage' was a messuage (or dwelling) that included a house of high status, often the manor house
itself. Here Sampsons, referred to by Morant as 'Samptons Wyke and Sampton', was the high-status house, of
sufficient importance to be itemised in the Domesday Book as 'Samantuna' and it would seem from Morant's
history that Newpots was a part of Sampsons holdings. All the 'closes' (enclosed fields) with the name
'Abbotts' clearly reference the abbey's ownership - these names did not persist.
In 1583 a house called newportes with all the growndes is bequeathed in the will of a Peldon yeoman - probably a leaseholder.
In Thomas Page's will written in 1583 and proved in 1591, he bequeaths his properties including 'Newportes' to his sons.
Item I give to Stephen Page my sonne all that my messuage or tenemente lyinge in Peldon aforesaid called
newportes with all the growndes and other the appurten[au]nces belonginge thereunto (except before given and bequeathed to him and to his heires for ever) Item I give to the said Stephen my son[n]e all those two parcells of land with theire appurten[au]nces called great faire feilde and
Witcherlond in Peldon aforesaid as they are nowe devided to him and to his heires for ever..
[National Archives PROB 11/77/407 ]
Sampsons, (spelt Samptons in his will), is bequeathed to Thomas Page's son, Brian. We know Sampsons - and presumably Newpots - had been in the Page family's ownership since at least 1532 and in 1602 Brian Page was to bequeath Sampsons to his brother, Stephen, thus bringing both farms together again into Stephen Page's ownership. At this point the paper-trail for the Page family comes to an end.
In 1772 a marriage between William Fraser and Sarah Martin appears in a document now held by Essex Record Office and it would seem that Sarah was bringing three Peldon Farms to the marriage, 'Samptons Wick, Newports & Walnetts'. (The latter farm has not so far been identified). Sarah's aunt and uncle, George and Hannah Martin, had already held Sampsons in Peldon from 1715/16.
In 1777 Chapman and Andre map produced a map of the area and Newports is marked as 'Newmans'.
The next document found that refers to Newpots is held at the London Metropolitan Archive [Ref:
MS 11936/391/608023]. This is an insurance document, dated 13th November 1792, for Samuel Bullock,
farmer, issued by the Sun Fire Office. The other occupiers listed are Abbot, carpenter; James Wells,
carpenter; Robert Crick, carpenter, and the properties are Newports Farm, Sampsons Wick Farm.
Samuel Bullock (1736 - 1814) was the last of several generations of his family to work as carpenters in
Peldon and so successful was he that he became a significant employer and landowner. It is known that he
lived in Brick House Farm also farming the adjacent farms of Newports, and Sampsons. When Samuel Bullock took on the lease for both these farms has not so far been discovered - clearly by the insurance application in 1792 - but an advert in the Ipswich Journal on 11th May 1799 reveals he was giving up the lease at Michaelmas in 1800.
FARMS NEAR COLCHESTER
To be SOLD by AUCTION
SOMETIME THIS MONTH
Unless sooner disposed of by Private Contract
(Of which due notice will be given)
TWO Capital Farms adjoining each other, called
SAMPSONS and NEWPORTS, situate in the
parish of Peldon, containing near 400 acres of land,
now in the occupation of Mr. Samuel Bullock, under
a lease which will expire at Michaelmas 1800.
The Whole discharged of Land-tax. A part of the
purchase money may remain on the security of
the premises.
For further particulars enquire of Messrs.
Bullock and Arnold, Bedford-Row, London, or
Messrs. Josselyn, Belstead, Suffolk
The will, held by the Essex Record Office, of farmer, James Wiles, reveals he was the owner of Newpots at the time of his death on 12th April 1823 and it may have been James Wiles who was the successful bidder at the 1799 auction.
James Wiles' will tells us he was residing in Colchester but was formerly of Peldon and indeed his name appears in the vestry minutes as churchwarden at Peldon Church between 1802 and 1815 which would argue he had lived in the village for over two decades. The vestry accounts reveal he repeatedly served as Overseer, Surveyor and Tax Assessor for the parish. He also appears in the poll book entries for Peldon in 1812, 1818 and 1820, which means he voted in those elections for Members of Parliament, his land holdings rendering him eligible to vote. He appears as half of the homage or jury (along with Samuel Bullock) for the Peldon Rectory Manor at the Court held on 14th January 1813 and again on 7th January 1817 with John Simpson. So James Wiles could definitely be regarded as being among the wealthier and more important residents of Peldon.
In his will James Wiles names John Dakins and Bezaliel Bloomfield executors. We learn he was formerly of Peldon but late of St James (crossed out then St Martins inserted). He only has one child, daughter Phoebe Ann May, married to a Peldon Farmer, James May. He requests his executors get him the best price for his two freehold farms and stock and are to sell them either as a whole or in parcels
The witnesses are Isaac Webb, Thomas Bray Dakins and William Fisher Brill. '
All my Freehold Estates known by the Names of
Sampson's Wick and New Ports in the Parish of
Peldon, together with all my Stock Crops and
property of whatsoever kind thereupon Shall be
Sold by public Auction or private Sale [ERO Dl/C/484/130/1]
In the year following the death of James Wiles, an auction is advertised in the newspaper for the whole estate in one Lot comprising Brickhouse Farm, Sampsons and 'Newport' Farm described as
Important and Valuable Freehold Estates ...containing Four Hundred and Eighty Six Acres of rich Arable and Pasture Land, with two highly respectable Residences thereon, the whole promising an excellent Investment for Capital
BRICK-HOUSE Estate, desirably situated in
the pleasant and healthy village of Peldon, within seven miles
of Colchester, twelve of Maldon, and twenty-one of Chelmsford; it
contains twelve acres of arable and pasture land, on which is a res-
pectable Family Mansion, approached from the road by a gravel
walk, and lawn in front. The mansion commands fine views of Mer-
sea Island, the Blackwater River, and beautiful scenery, as far as the
eye can distinguish of the surrounding country; double coach house
and stable, with granary over, chaise-house, riding house, stable,
cow-house, double cottage, and extensive garden, tastefully laid out,
and in part inclosed with a brick wall, clothed with choice fruit
trees. Sampsons Farm, containing three hundred and sixty acres of
fine rich arable and pasture land, on which is a commodious Farm
House, fitted up with requisite domestic conveniences, chaise-house,
and riding-horse stable; the agricultural buildings comprise two
barns, stables, bullock and horse sheds, cart and waggon lodges, fowl-
house, and piggeries. Newport Farm, containing one hundred and
fourteen acres of rich arable pasture, and marsh land, with double
cottage residence, garden and orchard; barn stable granary, cart
lodge, and inclosed cattle yard. The whole of the above property is
lying within a ring fence; the buildings are in substantial repair and
the land in a superior state of cultivation, surrounded by good hard
roads, and at convenient distances from excellent market towns.
There is a wharf on the estate affording every facility for shipping
corn, etc to the London markets. The land has been farmed in a
manner which renders it equally desirable from its cultivation as also
for its fertility of soil. The estate will be sold, subject to a lease be-
ing granted to a most respectable tenant, for a term of 14 or 21 years,
at a rental which will be stated in the particulars. [Morning Herald London August 1824]
This gives us the most detailed description of Newpots as a separate entity we have. It comprised 114 acres
of arable land and marsh, the farmhouse is described as a double cottage residence with garden and orchard; barn, stable, granary, cartlodge, and cattle yard. One can only presume that this double cottage was the building still standing when the Davidson family arrived in 1946. From at least 1824 to the present day, Newpots has been included as part of the Brick House Estate.
Phoebe Wiles, the widow of James, appears in the 1831 Land Tax assessment along with the Reverend John Dakins with reference to the three farms and it seems likely she was still tenant of Brick House Farm after her husband's death while Dakins, curate at Peldon Church and rector of St James in Colchester, was tenant of Sampsons and Newpots.
In 1832, Phoebe Wiles died and a sale of her effects at Brick House Farm was advertised the same year; that year the land tax assessment simply names Dakins.
By the time Peldon's 1838 - 1840 tithe map and awards were surveyed and assessed, the three farms, Brick House, Sampsons and Newpots along with a fourth, White House Farm, were owned by Saffron Walden businessman, Wyatt George Gibson (1790 - 1862). Gibson owned a huge acreage locally and it is possible he bought Brick House, Sampsons and Newpots farms from the executors of James Wiles.
Gibson's tenant of the farms listed in the tithe awards was the medical doctor, Edward Smythies Dakins, son of the Reverend John Dakins. The tithe awards reveal he had five houses in the village. He and his wife Harriet, who married in 1836, were to have a daughter, Francesca, in 1839, who sadly died at only 15 months. Her baptism and death are both listed in Peldon's parish registers as is the baptism of her sister, Francesca Maria, in 1841.
In an old guidebook for St. James Church, East Hill, Colchester, (now out-of-print) John Dakins' son, Edward,
we are told, owned houses with gardens in Peldon.
Looking at parish registers, electoral rolls, lists of who had Games Certificates locally and incidents reported in newspapers it would seem Edward Smythies Dakins and his family lived in Peldon from at least 1833 to 1843 although which of his houses he lived in is not known. While he was in Peldon Edward did, by the way, wade into the row over the application for a pub licence for what was to become The Plough in 1839 (he was against!)
The Dakins did not have any more children and by the 1851 census they were living in Kent where they were to stay. In the censuses, Dakins is described first as a GP, then as a surgeon and on his probate he is described as a surgeon and apothecary.
In the Electoral Rolls Newpots, Whitehouse and Brick House are all listed as being owned by Wyatt George Gibson from 1845 to the year of his death in 1863.
In Peldon's 1851 census Henry Woodward is living at Brick House Farm and is listed as the farmer of 470 acres employing 20 men. He is living with his wife, Lucy, and three children. His brother-in-law and business partner, Stephen Waller, is living with the family and also listed as farming 470 acres and employing 20 men!
Both Henry and his brother-in-law had clearly been farming in Peldon before then because they appear in the 1844 Kelly's trade directory as farmers, no farm specified. I suspect Woodward was a long-term tenant of Sampsons.
Henry and his family, including Stephen Waller, are to be found in the 1861 census living on a farm in Stanway. The report of the shooting of a rare Egyptian Vulture at Sampsons Farm, Peldon, in 1868 confirms Henry Woodward was living at Stanway Hall Farm; the newspaper report describes Sampsons Farm as his 'off-hand' farm. He can also be found living in Stanway Hall Farm in the 1881 census.
Game Certificates listed in the local newspapers reveal Stephen Waller of Peldon was licensed to shoot game between 1843 and 1851 and he is listed in the Electoral Rolls for Peldon as occupier of Brick House from 1847 to 1854.
In the Essex Herald of 21st September 1852 there is an advert for an auction on 29th September of live and
dead stock at Brick House Farm by direction of the Proprietors, Messrs Woodward and Waller whose tenancy
terminates at Michaelmas. Along with Brick House, the advert includes 'Newports' and White House.
In April 1864 the partnership between Henry Woodward of Stanway and Stephen Waller of Peldon is dissolved with Woodward undertaking to pay any business debts. Woodward kept on Sampsons Farm in Peldon as an 'off-hand' farm while residing at Stanway Hall Farm.
Farmer, Stephen Overall (1806 - 1877) who was a farmer in Mundon near Maldon, probably took over the three Peldon farms, Brick House, Newpots and White House in 1852; he was living at Brick House Farm in both the 1861 and 1871 censuses. His daughter, Sarah Overall had married in 1851 in the Maldon area and Stephen Overall entered into partnership with his new son-in-law, Joseph Snow.
Overall is listed in the Peldon Electoral Rolls as being occupier of Brick House from 1854; his landlord is Wyatt George Gibson.
Overall's son-in-law, Joseph Snow, is the tenant farmer of Newpots listed in four Electoral Rolls between 1854 and 1857 and appears in the 1855 Kelly's trade directory as the farmer of White House Farm.
In 1855, Joseph's wife, Sarah Snow née Overall died at the young age of 22 leaving two young daughters, one a baby; a year later Joseph was to marry again.
In 1858 the newspapers record the dissolving of the partnership between Stephen Overall and his son-in-law, Joseph Snow. The report confirms that their business encompassed Brick House, White House Farm and 'Newports'. Stephen Overall became the sole tenant of the farms and agreed to pay all the debts of the partnership
In the 1871 census, based at Brick House, tenant farmer, Stephen Overall, had 551 acres and employed 25 men, 11 boys and 4 women. He also appears listed as a farmer in Peldon in trade directories in 1862, 1863 (White's) 1867, 1871 (Post Office) and 1874 (Kelly's).
Throughout the 1860s the vestry minutes for Peldon show that Overall was elected each year as the Guardian of the Poor, the village representative to the Stanway Union workhouse, responsible for looking after the old, infirm and those unable to work.
Stephen Overall was to die on 28th December 1877. His nephew was his sole heir. The three farms, Brick House, 'Newports' and White House, were to be auctioned. The auction was on 27th September 1878 as published in Chelmsford Chronicle.
As for his landlords, the three farms remained in the possession of the Gibson family, being passed on through inheritance and continuing to be farmed by tenant farmers. Wyatt George Gibson died in 1862 and his son George Stacey Gibson inherited.
In George Stacey Gibson's will (he died in 1883), having made provision for wife and daughter, he leaves to his cousin, Edmund Birch Gibson, unnamed farms at Peldon ('south of Colchester') occupied by Golden Fairhead and Henry Woodward. (These are likely to be Brick House Farm where, by then, the Fairhead family lived and Henry Woodward's 'off-hand' farm, Sampsons). It is interesting to note that George Stacey's daughter, Mary (1855 -1934) still had land in Peldon in 1920 - copyhold of the Rectory Manor - and used to visit White House. In a letter from Mary Gibson kept with the house deeds of the White House, all of which are now missing, Mary asked after a pair of gloves she'd accidentally left behind at the farm on her last visit!
Although Gibson rented to tenant farmers who farmed the land some of the farmhouses were used to accommodate the workforce.
In the 1861 census, the first of the censuses to name Newpots, it is clear the farmhouse is multiple occupancy, as was the case with many of the local farms which were often divided up and used to house the agricultural labourers.
In 1861, James Pucksley [probably Puxley] aged 27 an agricultural labourer, with his wife Sarah, aged 21, a son and daughter, all born in Peldon, are living in Newpots. John Reynolds, aged 58, an agricultural labourer born in Peldon with his Nayland-born wife, Ann, their daughter and four sons, all born in Peldon (the oldest is 24) are also living there. The third household is headed by 68 year old Thomas Talbot born in 1793 in St Giles, Colchester, an agricultural labourer and his wife, Sarah, aged 67, born in Great Wigborough.
The next census which names Newpots is that of 1881. George Ponder aged 47 an agricultural labourer, born in
South Benfleet, his wife Mary, 46, born in Abberton are living there with 3 sons and 3 daughters. There is
second dwelling also listed as Newpots but it is empty; as we know from the 1824 auction notice it was a double-cottage
residence.
By 1891, living in 'Newpots Farmhouse' are James H Alderton aged 39, born in Layham in Suffolk, Mary his wife, 43, born in Raydon, with their 3 sons and a daughter. A second household is living there headed by agricultural labourer, Thomas King aged 43, born in Peldon, his wife Esther, also born in Peldon, and their 4 sons and a daughter.
In 1901 John Butcher, a shepherd born in St Osyth aged 43, Annie, 34 and 2 sons and 3 daughters are in Newpots. The rest of the accommodation is listed as 'cottages' on Sampsons Lane - Henry Alderton is still there, George Ponder Senior, George King and George Ponder junior it seems like there was quite a stable community of the same families over a period but maybe moving between the two farmhouses, Sampsons, Newpots and another nearby 'cottage' on the lane, now known as Englesbatch.
In 1911 at 'Newports' are Wilfrid Appleby aged 38 born in Langenhoe and a stockman on farm and his wife 'Florance', aged 34, born in Great Wigborough with 2 sons and a daughter.
In the 1918 electoral roll Charles Frederick and Eliza Everitt (the surname is spelt several ways on documents) are living in 'Newports' and again in the 1921 census they are living there, Fred (for that seems to be how he was known) described as a stockman.
When Fred Everitt's wife, Eliza, is buried on 24th September 1927 in Peldon Churchyard her address is given as 'Newpots'.
In 1929 Frederick Charles is living with his daughter Doris in Newpots. Doris was to marry Luther Smith on 10th September 1932 and her address is given as Newpots Farm.
By the 1939 register Newpots is uninhabited and Fred was living with a housekeeper in Whitakers Cottages on Lower Road in the village. In his seventies he was still working as a general labourer. What happened to him subsequently has so far not been found but it would appear he lived to the grand old age of 94 in the Colchester area.
It may be the Everitts were the last to live in Newpots and left some time between Doris's marriage in 1932 and the register of 1939. The house was left to deteriorate and fall into disrepair.
Alan Cudmore, who lived in what is now Honeysuckle Cottage, Lower Road and is now in his 90s, remembers, as a boy in the late 40's/early '50s, looking inside the derelict farm.
I can remember on walks from the cottage down to the seawall rummaging around the rooms at Newpots and seeing the oddments left behind and the styles of wallpaper not to mention the sanitary arrangements. It was just the same with Sampsons and it is amazing today to think that such places were not attractive or useful for the making of a home.
However, I did meet people who had lived there for example Luther Smith and his wife Doris (née Everet) of Forge Cottage, and then there was Ethel King at the cottage opposite The Plough [Brick House Cottage]. She married Jim Purtell and they had her Mum and Dad living with them.
I put out an appeal through the Village News (November 2024) for any old pictures of Newpots farmhouse or
knowledge of when it was demolished and received e mails from Liz on behalf of the Davidsons who, as we have
seen, arrived at Brick House Farm in Peldon in 1946 and have farmed Brickhouse, Newpots and Sampsons ever
since, together with land acquired from other Peldon Farms, Ransomes, White House and Grove Farm (most of the latter in Little Wigborough).
Newpots was originally Newport & we have some very rich dark soil next to the old creek where the barges used
to bring manure out of London & then take hay back. We have no pictures of Newpots Farm house but it was
similar (apparently) to the old part of Englesbatch which is on the south side. Roberts father demolished
it in the 50s as derelict. But there are still remains of the old bricks & black earth from the garden where
it used to be. Liz Davidson by e mail
The image below is of Englesbatch close by, this has been greatly extended in modern times and this is the old part on the south side of the modern extension referred to by Liz. Although not Newpots, this is how the Davidsons believe it to have looked.
Englesbatch, a cottage on Newpots Lane; Newpots Farm is believed to have looked similar
Newpots is at the end of a private lane and nowadays is a cluster of modern barns. While arable crops are
grown on the surrounding acres, diversification has led to a company, Deltapoint Limited, renting the modern
barn as business and storage premises. The company imports various plastic household wares, paper and
cardboard cartons and boxes and aluminium casks and containers.
Many in Peldon remember going to see spring lambs in the big modern barn at the end of the lane until the foot and mouth outbreak of 2001 caused the loss of the Davidsons' flock; they were to turn to arable farming.
Elaine Barker
Peldon History Project
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