By Linda Mowat.
In the eighteenth century, the south-west corner of the Playing Close belonged to the Bowerman family. The earliest record we’ve found so far is a manor court roll of 1718 when Elizabeth Bowerman, a widow, died leaving two houses on this corner to her two sons Edward and Thomas. Edward’s house, which was probably the bigger one, seems to have been where Milton Cottage is now, and included a piece of land to the east, where Wormwood Cottage is now. Thomas’s house, later described as a ‘little cottage’, was south of Edward’s and included a workshop and an orchard. Between the two houses was a piece of land 18 feet square. The two brothers shared their water supply, and Edward had to go through Thomas’s yard to get his water.[1]
Over the next few decades the manor court rolls tell us that Edward and Thomas passed their property on to their descendants, and by 1756 Thomas’s son John seems to have owned everything: the larger house, the cottage, the workshop, the orchard and the piece of garden ground on the other side of the road.
The 1761 map of Charlbury, which is the earliest one we have, shows two small buildings on the site of Milton Cottage, which very likely were the Bowerman houses, though it doesn’t say so. On the other side of the lane is an unnumbered plot of land which was probably their piece of garden ground.[2] Most plots of land on the map are numbered and their owners identified, but frustratingly not this one!
We know from the parish registers that John Bowerman got married in 1758,[3] and shortly afterwards he put his property into the names of himself and his wife Ann.[4] In time they would have at least five children. John was a carpenter by trade, which we know because when he died in 1791, he wrote a will – he was the only Bowerman to do so.[5] John’s will indicates that his two sons John and Thomas were also carpenters, so it is likely that this trade had run in the family for generations. The 18-foot square piece of land between the house and the cottage was probably a carpenter’s yard; one of the manor court rolls mentions the ‘great gates’ that may have led into it[6] – possibly where Milton Cottage’s big gates are now?
The Playing Close was popular with men who worked in wood, because they could use the space for preparing and storing their material. At different times there were also carpenters at Sycamore House, Egypt and Little Egypt; Egypt also had a wheelwright and a timber dealer. In 1818 we know from the Minute Book of the Plain Close Trust that the younger John Bowerman had constructed a sawpit on the Close in front of his house, for which he had to pay rent of five shillings a year. At that time the Close was wider than it is today, so the sawpit might have been about where the end of the row of retirement houses is now. John had to agree to keep his timber close, so as not to obstruct the roads; and when there was a fair on the Close he agreed to remove any timber he had there.[7]
The Charlbury map of 1820 shows us that the Bowermans had sold their buildings and land to Thomas Trendell.[8] By 1830 the house belonged to George Baughan the ironmonger[9] – who had his shop where Fairfax now is – and by 1847 the Tithe Map shows us that Baughan had built six tenements with yards and gardens on this corner,[10] which would eventually become Milton Cottage.
The plot on the other side of the road, where Wormwood Cottage is today, continued for a while as a garden, and even the map of 1857[11] shows no building on it. However, we know from the Plain Close Minute Book that there was a plan for a ‘blindhouse’ or lock-up to be constructed on this site,[12] to incarcerate drunks or troublemakers until they could be dealt with. Its situation on the Playing Close was probably appropriate in view of the various fairs and entertainments that took place here!
The map of 1880[13] shows two buildings on this site, one of which is labelled the Lock-up, the other one presumably being the cottage behind. But as we know from the inscription, which says ‘Engine House’, the building at the front was eventually altered to house Charlbury’s horse-drawn fire engine. The Volunteer Fire Brigade was founded in 1881, so it must have been after that.[14] The 1898 map shows the Fire Engine House on this site.[15]
[1] Charlbury Manor Court Rolls 1719 03 30(b) p132 Bowerman to Bowerman – Out of Court 26/7/1718
[2] Thomas Pride map, 1761 (The Bodleian Library)
[3] Charlbury Parish Registers
[4] Charlbury Manor Court Rolls 1759 04 16 (16) Bowerman to Bowerman – Out of Court 21/10/1758
[5] Will of John Bowerman, CH427, 1791
[6] Charlbury Manor Court Rolls 1756 04 19 (06) Bowerman to Bowerman – Out of Court 8/4/1743
[7] The Plain Close Trust minute and account book 1816-1827, Section A p13
[8] John Allen map, 1820 (Blenheim Palace Heritage Foundation, ref Shelf C3 42)
[9] The Plain Close Trust minute and account book 1827-1854, Section B p3
[10] Tithe Award map, 1847 (The National Archives, ref. IR30/27/30)
[11] Land Swap map, 1857 (The National Archives, ref. MAF 11-994)
[12] The Plain Close Trust minute and account book 1827-1854, Section B p11
[13] Ordnance Survey map, 1880 (Blenheim Palace Heritage Foundation)
[14] Lois Hey 2001 A History of Charlbury pp 92-93
[15] Ordnance Survey map, 1898 (Oxfordshire History Centre, ref DV-X-35)