Stewkley Drovers

(This article has been contributed by Jill Scott, of Stewkley.  She has my sincere thanks and appreciation for agreeing to write it.)

DROVERS IN STEWKLEY, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE

I have been back on the trail of my family history and branching out I find that one of my ancestors was a drover. This got me wondering how many Stewkley drovers I could find in the records that are on hand to investigate.

Some time ago I think I told you of the Stewkley drover within living memory, James 'Ashy' Ashpool and his pomeranian dog (#1). He lived until 1949, reaching the good age of 86 years.

Using the censuses I have found 13 more village men listed as drovers from 1841 to 1921: Joseph Sharp, John Dimmock, William Carruthers Kesey, George Wenman, Richard Wenman, Thomas Capel, Robert Dickins, John Keen, Robert Walter, Thomas Mead, Ernest Dickens, John Dickens and Joseph Randall. Of the Stewkley men, one was a drover for over 30 years in the mid to late 1800s. How many were long distance drovers I don't know.

Part of the drovers' way in Stewkley runs along Ivy Lane before turning into Garners Lane (#3). At one of the cottages in Ivy Lane a blacksmith named Dickens had a forge and would shoe cattle as they continued on their journey. A number of old cattle shoes, in the shape of a comma, have been found there over the years.

Further along Ivy Lane is the Rose and Crown inn and it is adjacent to Garners Lane where the drovers' way heads off into the fields. In 1851 there were two drovers lodging there: Abbs b1795, place of birth unknown, and Greffrey b1811 in Malden Suffolk, presumably they were passing through as neither are local names. (Also staying there were a travelling doctor and his assistant!)

At one of the London cattle markets, Islington, the landlord of the White Horse Hotel there also had a pub in Stewkley where he brewed his beer. It is reported that when drovers reached that destination they would request "A pint of Old Stewkley"!

Going back to James Ashpool, when I looked for him in the 1901 census he was in Oxford gaol. I then found his offence recorded in newspapers (March 1901) from London to Penzance. I attach one of the reports (#2).

Were you aware of this perk of the drover's job? I wonder how much the ring would have been worth? I was surprised to hear of cattle being transported from this area to Doncaster.

Jillian Scott