ROADFIELDS (successor to NEW INN FARM), Holt

New Inn Farm does not exist today. The farmstead appears to have been located where Roadfields now stands. Mrs. Pennel held the farm in the 1750s. John Croft may have held it when he married Ann Green in Holt in 1765. He served as a parish constable in 1775 and was certainly at New Inn Farm by 1787. In 1793 there were a full range of bui1dings, all old, and a small, but new, house. The farm was a substantial 101 acres in extent. It seems to have been lost its identity fo1lowing the 1810 enclosure act, when several parcels of land associated with New Inn were redistributed.

Roadfields was subject to leasehold from the Lord of the Manor. Wainwright possibly held it in 1745. John Wainwright is known to have held it from at least 1787 to 1799. In the early 1790s he let it to John Thrupp, then Edmund Thrupp in the mid1790s. By 1798, until at least 1817, Edmund Thrupp acquired the leasehold in his own name. John Croft farmed it before his death in 1818 when Thomas Tombs succeeded him who from 1828 farmed in partnership with Cowell, at which time the farm was referred to as The Road Farm. Sarah Thrupp retained the leasehold until at least 1841, letting the 17 acres under the name of Roadfields to John Winnall. 70 years old Sarah was living at Roadfields in 1841 with her son Thomas, an agricultural labourer, and John George, a blacksmith. George had moved in to the village proper by 1851 to become the blacksmith and postmaster. For two years, 1859 to 1861, William Thrupp, presumably Thomas’ brother, was at the principal occupier at Roadfields. By 1871 Sarah had died, but her widowed daughter Mary Beach had taken over the holding. In 1873 Mary was one of only four landowners named in the Holt ‘List of Landowners’. She owned four acres, whilst Ann Brookes owned only one acre, Charity Trustees owned nearly four acres, the Earl of Dudley owned the rest.

Farming the families’ four acres, Mary's brother, Thomas succeeded her, but by 1881 there were no Beachs remaining in Holt parish. The succession is then unclear. Samuel Bourne may have had Roadfields in 1904. The village blacksmith and postmaster George Steadman Munslow Sen. (b. c1857) certainly held it at the time of the sale in 1920. He probably had it prior to 1912, as well as other small pastures and orchards in the parish.

Holt Forge
(photo courtesy of Mrs D Addison)

In 1885 Munslow took on an indentured blacksmithing apprentice, Samuel Charles (known as Charlie) Gregg, from Shelsley Walsh. Charlie Gregg married Ellen Clarke in 1905. Ellen, the daughter of Benjamin and Harriet, was brought up in Orchard Cottage, next door to the forge. Benjamin Clarke, like his father (John) and brothers worked for a time at the local stone quarry. Harriet was the village nurse. In later years Benjamin and Harriet ran a grocers shop from their home. They had to compete with Mary Ann Goodwin, who ran a similar business, and probably also the village post office, from the property on the other side of the smithy. Charlie and Ellen had two daughters, Olive Doreen (Reenie) and Vera Rosina. Reenie was eight and Vera only fourteen months old when their mother Ellen died tragically after an accident. Charlie and Ellen were on their way to market at Worcester in their cart when the pony shied. Charlie was unhurt, but Ellen died within minutes from shock. Reenie never married and lived at the cottage all her life. She died in 1992, at the age of 84, having lived as a recluse. Following her death the cottage was found to have changed little since the 1930s when it was last used as the village shop. The cottage was demolished in 1994. It has been replaced by a modern housing development.

George Steadman Munslow Sen. died in l920, leaving Charlie Gregg to carry on as village blacksmith. George Steadman Munslow Jun. (b c1888) continued on at Roadfields, as a market gardener until at least the end of the Second World War, at which time he had two German prisoners of war, Hans and Fritz, working on the farm.

In 1985 the present owners sold off the ten acres of land associated with Roadfields since the 1920 sale.