Victorian vandalism

During the nineteenth century, the tenant farmers at Wisson Hill carried out some very basic repairs and alarming alterations. It says a lot about the solidity of the original building that it has been able to withstand such dramatic changes to the timber frame structure. Here are some of the ‘highlights’ of Wisson’s Hill’s alterations and maintenance during the nineteenth century:

  1. The gable wing purlins, which had freed themselves from the southern truss, probably due to a combination of earlier alteration and movement, were balanced on little piles of bricks leaning out from the chimney breast.
  2. Another tie beam was cut through to create a larger doorway into the gable bedroom. Both ends of the cut tie beam are visible across the doorway.
  3. The sitting room window was extended…but the lintel was not. A small metal bracket was used to take the load of the stone wall and roof above, which it apparently did, for nearly 200 years. A sturdy support has now been jammed into the window opening for additional support.
  4. A large window frame was inserted into the timber frame in what is now the kitchen’s northern wall. A structural post was removed and the ceiling beam, supporting the floor above, was balanced on the top of the window frame, which had developed an outward bow, but had amazingly coped.
  5. Presumably in order to improve headroom, the bressumer of the sitting room inglenook was hacked out, to little more than a third of its original depth, and was painted over. As the chimney breast above had caused the bressumer and brickwork above to sag, the bressumer was replaced and the old one has a new life holding up part of the gable bedroom floor, in the corner of the study.
  6. More hacking is to be seen under the tie beam at the top of the stairs and on the post which supports it. A brace – the opposite number of the remaining one between the linen cupboard and middle bedroom – was presumably also thrown out. The position of the Victorian staircase is not known, but it may have been in this position and timbers were cleared to improve headroom. Although significant depth has been hacked out of the tie beam, it does at least still connect the two wall plates.
  7. It seems that the southern wall plate broke many years ago. Rather than repairing it, the opening crack was filled with stone and plaster, allowing the roof to spread further and further, creating the roof’s jolly curve, until the problem was identified and the wall plate properly braced a few years ago.
  8. The tie beam of the central truss in the gable bedroom was cut out, allowing the truss to spread under the weight of the roof, to create more headroom. It is possible that the tie beam was cut earlier but the lowered ceiling has the hallmarks of a Victorian alteration (hacked timbers).

The Victorian tenant farmer

William Tipping grave at Bidford-on-Avon

William Tipping emerges as our tenant farmer in 1841. From his gravestone in Bidford-on-Avon churchyard (died aged 72 into 1858), he would have been 55 years old. The 1841 census shows him living at Barton with his wife Ann, daughter Hannah aged 19 (whose memorial can be seen in the foreground of the churchyard photo), son William aged 17 (who took on the tenancy after his father), and son John, aged 15, as well as 26-year old Sarah Gibb and two young servants, Elizabeth and Charles.

William had been in the area before he took on the farm, as in 1834 he was:

  • Churchwarden of St. Laurence in Bidford-on-Avon, making agreements with builders from Stratford-upon-Avon to alter and enlarge the parish church (Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Archives ER3/822). To modern eyes this was not a sympathetic piece of work and I read somewhere that the medieval sculptures from the church were used as hard core for the new church pathway.
  • One of the jurors confirming the lunacy of the previous tenant’s son, Henry Hurst, in a Writ de Lunatico Inquirendo.

The Tipping family clearly enjoyed a strong social standing and details drawn up on his death by his solicitor include:

  • Horses, Carriages, Farming Stock, Implements, etc worth £2,293
  • Furniture, Plate, Linen, China, Wearing Apparel worth £124
  • £40 Cash in the House and £462 in the bank
  • Debts including £9 to the Wine Merchant, £7 to Charles Miles Tailor, 17 shillings for Porter, 11 shillings for Newspapers and £3 to Henry Cowper Shoemaker, as well as £24 for Artificial Manure and £12 to the Seed Merchant

Undoubtedly many of the items on display in Wisson Hill’s study – including china, glass and clay pipe fragments -date from this period.

William Tipping the younger took on the farm and is named as the tenant for interested buyers to view the farm when it was sold by Alice Deacon’s absent landlord descendants. This is the last glimpse of the thriving farm, sold to Samuel Walker – an industrialist from Birmingham – at an auction starting at 4pm on Friday 20th May 1870 at the Red Horse Hotel in Stratford-upon-Avon, for £9,000. Someone has recorded bids in pencil on the auction documents held at Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Archives (DR165/807), which almost takes you into the auction room. The sales particulars focus on nearby rail connections and local hunting and shooting for ‘a gentleman desirous of acquiring a FREEHOLD ESTATE’.

Wisson Hill was built in 1530 and is available for weekly holiday rental.