Introduction
Frederick John Marsh was born into a farm labourer’s family in Hardington Mandeville. He began his working life as a bricklayer’s apprentice before embarking on a long career as a railway platelayer. Although his first marriage placed him under the influence of his wife’s parents, he later divorced and remarried.
Early life
Frederick was born on 19 March 1904 at Hardington Mandeville, the eldest of five children born to Albert Marsh and his wife, Emma Jane (née Axe).[1] His father worked as a farm labourer, and the family lived in the High Street.
On 9 September 1907, Fred entered Hardington School at just three years of age.[2] His childhood was disrupted when his father enlisted in the army during the First World War, leaving the family for more than three years.[3] The Marsh household had to adapt to the prolonged absence of its principal wage earner.
Fred left school on 1 February 1916 under a labour certificate.[4] By the time of the 1921 census, he was serving a bricklayer’s apprenticeship with E. R. Bartlett, a Yeovil builder, while his younger brother, Albert George, worked as an apprentice coach painter in the same town.
Marriage and family life
In 1924, Fred married Ethel Annie Moon, the only daughter of Frederick William Moon and his wife, Edith Jane (nee Roskelly). Fred was twenty years old, while Ethel was twenty-seven.
The marriage brought him into the orbit of one of Hardington’s more ambitious property owners. Four years earlier, Frederick Moon had purchased several village properties and land for a smallholding during the Portman Estate sale, and his influence would remain an important feature of Fred’s later life.[5]
Fred and Ethel established their home at Hardington, where they had two children: Wilfred Albert, born 20 June 1924, and Winifred Mary, born 22 May 1926.
The family suffered a tragedy in 1928 when Fred’s younger brother, Albert George, drowned while swimming with friends in the lake at Fonthill Park, Wiltshire. He had only recently taken employment at Tisbury as a driver.[6]
Outside work, Fred was a keen bellringer. In December 1935, he was one of five Hardington men who rang an eight-bell peal lasting three hours and eight minutes at Buckland Newton Church in memory of the late Bishop of Salisbury.[7] Such performances required considerable skill, stamina and teamwork and reflected the strong tradition of change-ringing in the local churches.
Move to Corscombe
In 1936, Frederick Moon sold his livestock and farming equipment before moving to Pitts Farm, Corscombe.[8] By September 1939, Fred, Ethel and their children had also moved into the farmhouse.
Although living on a farm, Fred did not become a farmer. Instead, he earned his living as a railway lengthman, or platelayer, responsible for inspecting and maintaining a section of railway track. This outdoor work was demanding and required constant attention to ensure the safe passage of trains.
Fred’s efforts were recognised after the Second World War. In December 1948, the Sutton Bingham gang of railway platelayers, of which Fred was a part, was awarded second prize for achieving one of the greatest improvements in track maintenance during the wartime period. Fred and Edward Sidney Charles of Hardington had each supervised the gang for part of the year, and the award acknowledged the high standard of their work.[9]
Family life continued to revolve around Pitts Farm. In June 1948, Fred gave away his daughter, Winifred, when she married George Ellis, the son of a local farmer, at Corscombe Parish Church. [10] Their first child was born at Pitts Farm the following year.[11] Fred’s son, Wilfred, married in 1951 before emigrating to Canada.
Later life
At some point between 1948 and 1957, Fred and Ethel divorced. In 1957, Fred married Alice May Constance Gough of Halstock, a farm labourer’s widow with four children, and the couple established their home at Halstock. When Fred obtained probate for his father’s will on 26 November 1962, he was a railway platelayer living at 8 Bransford, Halstock. His father left an estate valued at £746 14s 1d, of which Fred inherited one quarter.[12]
Fred remained at Halstock for the rest of his life. In November 1964, he was prosecuted following a serious road accident on the Chard–Crewkerne road. He was accused of pulling out from a side road into the path of another car, forcing its driver to brake sharply and overturn the vehicle. The magistrates found him guilty of careless driving, disqualified him from driving for three months, and ordered him to pass a driving test before he could regain his licence. He was also fined £3 and ordered to pay costs of £27 10s. Fred maintained that no other vehicle had been in sight when he emerged from the junction and denied causing the accident. The newspaper report described him as a railway sub-ganger.[13]
Alice died in November 1974 at the age of sixty-five, while Fred died at the Yeatman Hospital, Sherborne, on 27 May 1980, aged seventy-six, leaving an estate valued at £1,298.[14]
After leaving Pitts Farm, Ethel lived at Brook Cottage, Corscombe. She passed away on 2 February 1970 at the age of seventy-two, leaving an estate valued at £1,822. [15]
Conclusion
Fred Marsh spent his working life in occupations that demanded practical skill and physical endurance, first as a bricklayer’s apprentice and later as a railway platelayer. Although he lived for many years at his father-in-law’s farm, his career followed a different course, centred on railway maintenance rather than agriculture. Beyond his work, bellringing offers one of the few glimpses into his personal interests. After the breakdown of his first marriage, he remarried in 1957 and established a new home at Halstock, where he remained for the rest of his life.
References
[1] British Army World War I Service Records, 1914-1920: service record for Albert Marsh; Civil registration birth index; civil registration death index; family reconstitution.
[2] Hardington School admissions register.
[3] British Army World War I Service Records, 1914-1920.
[4] Hardington School admissions register.
[5] Portman Estate sale catalogue of October 1920; Hardington Poor rate book for 31 December 1923.
[6] Western Gazette, 7 September 1928, p.6.
[7] Western Gazette, 20 December 1935, p. 12.
[8] Western Gazette, 15 May 1936, p.1.
[9] Western Gazette, 24 December 1948, p.7.
[10] Western Gazette, 18 June 1948, p.2.
[11] Western Gazette, 2 December 1949, p.10.
[12] The will of Albert Marsh, dated 4 December 1944, proved at Winchester on 26 November 1962.
[13] Bristol Evening Post, 19 November 1964, p.27.
[14] National probate calendar; Western Daily Press, 3 June 1980, p.12.
[15] National probate calendar.