Introduction
Ernest Richard Sandiford, known as Ernie, spent nearly seventy years living at Hardington, where he became a familiar figure in village life. An only child who never married, he devoted much of his adult life to caring for his widowed mother while also pursuing a lengthy career as a clerk with the Martock tent contractors Paull & Co. Although private by nature, he cultivated enduring friendships within the village and ultimately left a substantial legacy to Pendomer Church.
Early life
Ernie was born on 11 August 1902 at Pendomer, the only child of Henry Sandiford and his wife, Frances Mary (née Brooks).[1] On his father’s side, he belonged to a local family. His grandfather, Henry Sandiford, was the licensee of the New Inn, Hardington and the tenant of Pen Farm, Pendomer, where Ernie was probably born. His mother, by contrast, had no local roots. Born in Notting Hill in 1876, she was the daughter of a plasterer originally from Ilfracombe. During her childhood, she relocated to Ilfracombe with her family. She later moved to Cardiff, where she met Henry, who worked as a railway stoker.
In 1904, Henry Sandiford senior gave up his tenancy of Pen Hill Farm and sold his livestock and equipment.[2] Around this time, Henry junior found work as a domestic gardener at Sherborne. The 1911 census recorded the family living at 7 The Grove, Westbury, Sherborne, in a modest terraced house close to Sherborne Abbey.
The family’s circumstances changed in 1911 when Henry Sandiford senior died on 9 June. He left an estate valued at £1,892 6s 7d, much of which was bequeathed to Ernie at the age of twenty-one.[3] Following his father’s death, Henry junior returned to Hardington to take over the New Inn. In the Portman estate sale of October 1920, he secured the family’s position by purchasing the inn together with two acres of land for £1.050.[4]
Early adulthood
By early 1921, Ernie was employed as a clerk by Petters Ltd at Westlands, Yeovil. At 6.30 p.m. on 18 January, he was stopped while riding a bike without lights and subsequently fined 10 shillings.[5] By the time the census was taken on 19 June 1921, he was unemployed.
The following two years were particularly difficult for the family. On 9 April 1923, his father became the subject of a bankruptcy order, and died five days later from heart disease.[6] Ernie registered his father’s death. Four months later, at the age of twenty-one, Ernie inherited the residue of his paternal grandfather’s estate, probably worth about £1,200, which provided him with some financial security.
After leaving the New Inn, Ernie and his mother moved to a cottage at Hardington Marsh owned by Theophilus White.[7] Mother and son remained there together until Frances’s death more than thirty years later.
Career
By 1939, Ernie was working as a clerk for Paull & Co of Martock, one of the country’s leading manufacturers of marquees and tents. He remained with the firm for many years and was well regarded. His close association with the Paull family is reflected in his attendance at the funerals of William Henry Paull, who had served as managing director for forty-three years, and his daughter, Miriam Lockhart.[8] He also represented the firm at the funeral of Ernest Cecil Williams, the local farmer and Somerset County councillor.[9]
He also paid his respects to a prominent local family by attending the funeral of Miss Amy Vassall, the daughter of Hardington’s former rector, which took place at Martock in May 1950.[10]
Frances died on 18 May 1956 at the age of seventy-nine and was buried at Pendomer.
Later life
Around 1960, Ernie purchased Jubilee Cottage, renaming it St. Brannock’s Cottage, probably after the Celtic saint associated with North Devon. He hired Arthur Rawlins to undertake improvements to the property during the 1960s and, for several years, allowed Frank Danes of Barry Lane to cultivate part of the garden.[11]
One of the most significant relationships in Ernie’s life was with Bertram Leonard Watts, a piano tuner and band leader. The two men maintained a close companionship for many years. Given the social attitudes of that time and the illiberal and discriminatory legal position, the precise nature of their relationship has to be characterised with care. However, their enduring friendship would probably be regarded as a same-sex partnership today.
Those who remembered Ernie recalled him as rather fussy and self-regarding. In later life, he drove a Morris Minor car, keeping it in a garage attached to his house. He was unable to reverse the car out of the garage by himself and would pay the postman to do it for him.
Bertram Watts died on 19 July 1973 at the age of sixty-nine. He appointed his sister Violet and her husband as his executors and left his estate to her and her children. Ernie was neither an executor nor beneficiary of his will.[12]
Ernie himself died on 1 May 1979 at the age of seventy-six, leaving an estate valued at £35,669 86p. In his will, he expressed the wish to be buried at Pendomer in the grave of his mother and have his name inscribed on the headstone. He directed his trustees to use £175 to place either a memorial window or a plaque in Pendomer Church dedicated to his mother and himself. He left the residue of his estate to the Rector and churchwardens of Pendomer Church to create a maintenance fund named “The Frances Mary and Ernest Richard Sandiford Memorial Fund.” He also remembered numerous relatives and friends with individual legacies.[13]
Conclusion
Ernie spent almost all his life at Hardington, where his world centred on his mother, his work at Paull & Co. and a relatively small circle of close friends. His long relationship with Bert Watts was evidently an important part of that life. Although he left no immediate family, his will remembered many relatives and friends and ensured that his name, together with that of his mother, would remain associated with Pendomer Church.
References
[1] Birth certificate of Ernest Richard Sandiford.
[2] Western Gazette, 15 January 1904, p.1.
[3] The will of Henry Sandiford, dated 4 May 1911, proved at Taunton on 18 July 1911.
[4] Eddy Colin Turner’s copy of the estate sale catalogue.
[5] Western Chronicle, 4 March 1921, p.11.
[6] London Gazette, 13 April 1923, p 2783; Death certificate of Henry Sandiford.
[7] Hardington rate book for 31 December 1923.
[8] Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser, 31 December 1949, p.7; Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser, 4 April 1959, p.10.
[9] Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser, 2 February 1957. p.9.
[10] Western Gazette, 5 May 1950, p.4.
[11] Recollections of Desmond Danes.
[12] Will of Bertram Leonard Watts, dated 9 January 1948, and codicil dated 18 December 1964, proved at Winchester on 2 November 1973.
[13] The will of Ernest Richard Sandiford, dated 26 June 1978, proved at Bristol on 17 July 1979.
