ROW(E) FARM, Holt

Row or Rowe Farm probably owes its name to 'ruh', Old English for rough. Its long boundary with Ockeridge Wood may indicate that it was once scrubland between the ancient settlement at Bentley and the woodland proper. Crop-marks visible from the air in dry summers indicate that the vicinity of the farmstead was possibly being farmed in the Iron Age, over two thousand years ago.

With the exception of an incline to the top of 'Huck's Hill' the modern farm is on flat ground bounded by Ockeridge Lane and Ockeridge Wood, and the source tributaries of Grimley Brook.

In 1745 Row(e) was farmed within a ring fence, but did not include Huck's Hill. Thomas Holloway was farming Rowe in 1768, until his death in  1820 at 63 years old. He was buried in Holt churchyard. He served as churchwarden three times; from 1768 to 1772,  1782 to 1783 and 1809 to the time of his death. He served as Overseer of the Poor in 1798, 1807 and half of 1815. The farm was 132 acres in extent, for which he paid a rent of £56/6/- until 1793, rising to £90/-/- in that year. From 1787 the annual land lax payable for Rowe was £6/14/1.

Holloway had 19 acres of grass, 100 acres of arable and a 6.3 acres hop yard in 1793. By 1793 Row included the two larger fields at Huck's Hill, 'Five Acres' and 'Eight Acres'. The latter rented from Winnall of Rowley Farm. At that time the house that stands today had been newly built, but the other buildings such as hop-kilns, stable/barn and beast house were all described as being in a poor state of repair. The red brick buildings that adjoin the farmhouse today were probably built soon after.

Samuel Goodwin took over directly from Holloway in 1820-21 and farmed Row until 1828 or 1829. Samuel married Ann Holloway in Holt church on 22nd September 1818. Hence he was probably Thomas Holloway's son-in-law. Samuel was a son of William Goodwin of Holt Mill. Samuel and Ann had seven children; Elizabeth in 1820, Samuel 1822, John 1824, Mary Ann 1825, Sarah 1827, and twins, Ellen and Jane in 1830. On leaving Row the family went to the Three Tuns, opposite The Red Lion Inn, on Holt heath. Samuel was widowed soon after.

For three years Thomas Powick took the tenancy until Edward Powick superseded him 1833. Edward Powick was born in neighbouring Shrawley in 1780, his wife Anne Maria was from Wimbourne, Herefordshire and was two years his senior. His father, Edward, farmed the Knowle in Shrawley.

By the tithe assessment of 1839 some field boundary re-alignment had taken place. William Ford of Wood Farm was farming Huck’s Hill At that time Row had 55 acres of grass,  88 acres of arable and still retained the old hop yard; a total of 152 acres. The annual Land Tax was £6/4s/11d. Another 5 acres were added to the farm in the spring of 1847 when neighbouring Rowley Farm was split up. The field, 'Barn Close', was opposite Rowley's farmstead, but formed a natural part of Row Farm.

In 1850 21 acres of Huck’s Hill were again annexed to Row.

In 1841 Powick was a churchwarden. In that year the Powicks had two lodgers, Samuel Ford and George Hill, both teenagers who probably laboured on the farm. By 1851 a total of four labourers were employed on the farm, and a house servant, Mary Tuberville. Edward served as Overseer in 1832 and 1852, with Thomas Gardener of the Holt Fleet serving on his behalf in 1842.

Edward Powick died in April 1860, three years after his wife. They had no children. He willed his whole estate to Samuel his brother. Samuel was born in Shrawley in 1793. He started his working life as a woodsman in Shrawley Wood. On his fathers death in 1841 he took over the nine acres family holding, at The Knowle. Samuel remained there, installing his sons as managers at Row. His eldest son Edward was the first. At the time of the 1861 census as well as Edward and his wife, Maria of Whitbourne, there was a dairymaid, Ann Harley; carter's boy, Harry Allen; a visitor, Emma Packwood who was a dressmaker; two lodgers, Henry Wilson a land drainer and his wife, Mary; and a nephew of Edward Powick's, William John Kenswick. William Morris of the Red Lion served as Overseer on behalf of Samuel in that year. During the period of tenancy transition no one from Row was mentioned in the electoral register of Holt. In the 1861-62 register however Samuel Powick, not his sub-tenant son Edward, of Dod Oak was granted a vote for his holding at Row. Dod Oak probably is one in the same as The Knowle.

Samuel's second surviving son William took over from his brother Edward. William had a property and family at the Burff, Astley, but lived in Row house at times. He was there in 1871 with his eldest son, Edward, who was acting as a general servant. There were other occupants at that time, namely farmer’s widow Mary Hughes, her children, Emma, Joseph, Elizabeth and a grandchild, Charles. There was a second general servant, Samuel Freeman, from Grimley. Emma was a dairymaid on the farm. Her father, John Hughes, died at Row in 1870 age 58 and her mother in 1879 age 64. John Hughes probably ran the farm for Samuel Powick after Edward's departure. Hughes' death may have necessitated William's moving in. In  1871 the farm was correctly described as being about 150 acres with two labourers and two boys employed. Whilst William was at Row his wife, Hannah, and their seven children remained at Astley.

In  1872 Samuel himself may have taken up residence for a time. He served his own term as overseer in that year, indicating that he was probably living in the parish. The house was unoccupied by the spring of 1881 however, Samuel living back at The Knowle. He put his mark to his will in June 1881, dying in November of that year, at The Knowle. His estate had a  gross value of £551.18/6, net £535.13/6. In his will he ordered that his Freehold tenement, Park Cottage, in Grimley be sold, along with all stock, crops and furniture at The Knowle. The residue was to be divided between his surviving offspring, Edward, William, Samuel, Ann Jones, Hannah Guest and Sarah Etheridge[?Betteridge]. William took over The Knowle where he lived with Hannah until his death in 1903.

The tenancy of Row turned over to Thomas William Jones on Powick's death in November 1881. As was often the case there were family connections between the old and new tenants. Jones' father, Thomas, married Margaret Powick of  Shrawley in St Nicholas', Worcester in 1835. Margaret was first cousin to brothers Edward and Samuel Powick who had occupied Row from about 1820 until l881. Hence Thomas William Jones was second cousin to Samuel's sons, Edward and William. Thomas Jones was obviously close to his wife's cousins for he witnessed Edward Powick's will in January 1860 and was an executor of Samuel Powick's will in November 1881. At those times Jones was farming Bonefields Farm in Shrawley, which was some 36 acres in extent.

Bonefields Farm was taken over by Thomas Jones when his wife's brother, James Powick, vacated it in 1855. Powick emigrated to Nelson, New Zealand in that year. At the sale of Powick's stock and machinery Jones was the principal buyer, spending over £100. Where he obtained the monies to make such an investment is not known, for four years previously he was an unemployed labourer. Perhaps he had inherited money from his father, William, or managed to save money in the previous thirty years, during which time he was a woodsman. This latter option is quite unlikely however. Thomas and Margaret remained at Bonefields until their deaths in 1886 and 1871 respectively.

Thomas William Jones was born on 10th, January 1846 in Shrawley. He had only one sibling, Rebecca Powick(e) Jones, who died in January 1849 at the age of nine years. Thomas William grew up at Bonefields Farm, marrying Eliza Duggan of Astley from there in 1866. He remained at that farm until about 1872 during which time Eliza had born three children. The young family then moved to the sixty acres Glazenbridge Farm, again in Shrawley. Another four children were born there before the family moved to Row in 1881. Five more children were born at Row or Rowley Farms up to 1891. May, the ninth child, was apparently baptised from Rowley in February  1886 despite having been born at Row in May of the previous year. Jones took on the largest part of neighbouring Rowley in 1884, farming it from Row. The family may have spent a little time in the house at Rowley, hence May's baptism from there. They were back at Row by 1887 however.

Thomas William Jones was a very proficient farmer. He bred shorthorn cattle, hunters and shire horses. He was a good breeder of the former and noted judge of the latter. A local tale tells how Jones and another horse owner raced their horses, presumably hunters, against each other on an unofficial point-to-point course in Hurst field, which runs along the north side of Rowley Brook. Bets were placed on the outcome of the race but the meeting was cut-short by the arrival of the local constabulary! He was  a keen sportsman, riding to hounds and shooting.

As Thomas William’s sons grew up they took more active roles in running Row and Rowley. His second son, Thomas Henry farmed Rowley around  1904 then Row it's self by 1905. Soon after he moved to Sankyns Green farm in Shrawley. His daughter, Margaret Elizabeth Howe Jones, married Thomas Henry (Harry) Cooper who later became stud groom to Thomas William's youngest son, Joseph, at Rowley Farm. They lived at Gatley at that time.

The First World War took large numbers of young men from the land, many of whom were never to return. Such was the fate of Thomas William's second to last son, James. In more peaceful times James ran the pig enterprise at Row. In 1916, at the age of 27, he answered the call and joined the 14th Worcestershire Regiment, taking his own horse. The quality of his mount obviously reflected his father’s judgement, for James won a fine silver cup for possessing the best horse in the regiment.

James returned home only once, shortly after joining up, to see his wife Annie and nine month old daughter, Florence. The rest of the war was spent in France with his comrades in-arms. He survived the battlefield carnage and mayhem only to succumb to influenza in the terrible epidemic that swept through war weary Europe. James fell ill as the allied troops were starting to return home from the battlefields. He died of pneumonia in a military hospital in St Pol, France, on  2nd November 1918, nine days before the armistice. He is buried in the British War Cemetery in St Pol; one of 'the lost generation’. He is remembered on a marble plaque in Holt Church along with thirteen other of his comrade fellow parishioners who died in the Great War.

Shortly after the First World War, the Witley estate was broken up and sold off piecemeal. Row Farm did not attract any bids at the 1920 auction. There were 102 acres of pasture, 65 acres of arable and 12 acres of orchard at that time. The total lot came to 189 acres, all being farmed by Thomas William Jones with the exception of a 1.5 acre orchard and 7.5 acres of rough grazing that made up Huck's Hill, which were being farmed by Glover. Jones paid an annual rent of £100 for his portion of the farm. There was £205 worth of standing timber at the time of the auction. The farmstead consisted of the six-bedroom house, including two attic rooms, a number of barns and cart sheds, stabling for five horses, stalls for 16 cows and six pigsties. Jones chose not to bid for Row after purchasing Rowley on the previous fall of the auctioneer’s gable. Perhaps he was looking to take on the smaller of the two farms in his advancing years.

Jones stayed on as a tenant at Row until it was sold privately in 1921. He held  a sale of surplus stock and equipment on 26th October of that year at the farm. The stock included 53  Dairy Shorthorn cattle, 71 Shropshire and crossbred sheep and 50 store pigs. There were also 10 carthorses and colts. The oldest was only  6 years old and the largest stood 17 hands tall. Jones' reputation as a breeder of quality horses was noted in the sale catalogue. The large amount of machinery and equipment included a plough, seed-drill, binder and dray. A cider press and over 480 gallons of perry were also sold. Thus ended nearly a century of Powick/Jones occupation of Row.

The farm was bought by a partnership, namely A Munn and Son. They quickly sold-out to Herbert Mottershead. By 1932 I Field, from Quinton had purchased Row. His son, William Ewart, soon took over the farm and remained there until his death in 1991. He remained active well into old age, running a small pedigree sheep flock of his own and travelling alone to Canada in his latter years. His two sons, Peter and Raymond, took over the day to day running of the farm. Their partnership ended when Raymond took a farm near Monmouth in the 1960's. Peter remains at Row, now farming in partnership with his son, Mathew.

Whereas a large number of farms in the area specialised as either livestock or arable holdings in the 1960's, Row retained a variety of enterprises. Until the 1990's sheep were reared and fattened, Friesian cows milked, and cereals grown. Stick beans too were grown. Sheep were regularly kept at Gatley and cattle kept on let grazing at Rowley. By 2000 the only enterprise was dairying.

The main part of the farm has changed little in shape over the past 200 years, and now includes the whole of Huck's Hill. A field opposite the Red Lion Inn, once known as the 'Three Tuns', and another next to the millenium green are now also farmed.

The house and some of the farm buildings are grade II listed buildings. The listing for the house reads 'Rowe Farmhouse GV II Estate farmhouse. Mid-C18, mid-C19 alterations. Brick, tiled, parapets with kneelers at gable ends, brick stack at right gable end and to rear left. Two storeys, attic and cellar; brick modillion eaves cornice. Three bays; all windows have cambered heads, 3-light casements in outer bays, first floor left window is blocked. Central bay has a 2-light first floor window and doorway with broken pediment on console brackets and C20 glazed double doors. Attic lights in gable ends. Interior not inspected. Two storey rear wing with dentilled eaves cornice. Formerly part of Dudley estate.'

The listing for the farm buidlings reads 'Detached bakehouse with granary, stable and hop GV kiln to rear Rowe Farmhouse II Detached bakehouse with granary, stable and hop kiln. Bakehouse late C17, altered in mid-C18 and in mid-C19 when granary and stables added. Hop kiln late C19. Red brick; bakehouse gable end of small, handmade bricks, tiled roofs; slate roof and cowl to hop kiln. Two storeys; dentilled eaves cornice to stable and granary. Stable with granary above of 3 bays and has irregular fenestration; south elevation has 2 casements to each floor, with cambered heads on ground floor and door with cambered head. Bakehouse at east end slightly lower in height; at its gable end is a large external chimney with tiled offsets and including a large oven; a queen strut truss is exposed in the gable. There is a planked door and casement in the south elevation and a heated chamber above the bakehouse. Square-based hop kiln adjoins stable and granary to north..