Uxmore Farm Ipsden

A Memory of Ipsden.

Any news /photos/records of Uxmore Farm, Ipsden would be welcome. I have been to Ipsden Heath and Stoke Row, visiting relatives but not actually visiting Uxmore Farm. since my father and grandfather farmed there in the early 1900s I have a particular interest in the area.

The Read family owned the farm for hundreds of years then it fell into being not cared for and was eventua'ly rented/sold to Robert James Hayward and Frances Emily Hayward (nee Cotterell). The Haywards farmed there till 1925 when Robert Hayward died. Frances died about 1914. The farm was probably bought via Cotterell money as Robert's father John of English Farm, Englefield died broke, brother-in-law Ernest Cotterell being a mortgage trustee to the Uxmore Farm with sons ands daughters of Robert and Frances. Under Read ownership the farm was about 500 acres on an old Roman site. In fact my father said when a tennis court was made, Roman gold coins were found. What happened to the gold coins I don't know.

When Robert died his son George was made manager, then he bought the farm. His business partner brother-in-law Wally Biggs backed out and bought Stagg Farm instead. The farm was mortgaged and security for several farms and properties in the Hayward family. When George took over he had these responsibilities and bought the farm as a home for unmarried brothers and sisters.

Robert paid about 80 pounds for Ipsden Heath Farm for his oldest son John. Robert junior had Timbers Farm at Nuffield. No doubt money was given when Robert's daughters were married off. George made the mistake of carrying on the old mortgage,with his own on top, instead of paying out the old mortgage and getting rid of all the interested parties. These interested parties foreclosed on George, including trustees/brothers/sisters/in-law Ernest Cotterell and the bank.

George born in 1897 at Uxmore Farm Ipsden was about 28 years old when Robert died in 1925, for all those years working  on the farm with his parents he got nothing but keep and spending money and twenty pounds if he stayed with his dad to farm, when Robert died in 1925, while the farm was used to set up his brothers and sisters etc as they married and left home. Such is fairness in life.

George was a volunteer in the armed forces and was honourably discharged then at around 29/30 years age he migrated to Canada twice, returning to england in 1939 before war broke out. In June 1939 George married Gladys Simons in Oxford, a daughter of an Army Officer and had 6 children, George, Richard, Raymond, Evelyn, Mary, and Rowena. George died in Suffolk after a very eventful life. One thing George owned from the Uxmore Farm was a right of way which his trustee relatives offered him to buy back. He never did.

For those interested, George's ancestors came from Loders in Dorset where they farmed. The last ancestor we traced is Thomas Hayward who married Mary Anne Dodge in Sherborne church in 1808, in November.

Since then Uxmore Farm of 500 acres has been split up and sold off in bits and pieces and would probably be worth millions today if it had been kept in the family.

The Wells family was closely associated with Uxmore Farm, Ipsden as well, and I think I met one of the Wells family at Berkshire Institute of Agriculture in 1964/65. I would welcome their history of Uxmore Farm, Ipsden.

Yoga-prakash saraswati lunarorange20022@yahoo.com.au/sfrancesten@gmail.com

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