Introduction

This article examines the life of Frederick Samuel Dare, who farmed at Kingswood Farm, Hardington, from 1921 to 1934. It places his life within the context of his family’s history, starting with his paternal grandfather and continuing with his father. Three questions guided the research that forms the basis of this article:

(a) Was Frederick’s father a “gentleman”? (The marriage records for three of his children—Henry, Margaret, and Leonard—identify his occupation as “Gentleman.”)

(b) Under what circumstances did Frederick become a farmer?

(c) What happened to Frederick after he left Hardington?

Isaac Dare (Frederick’s paternal grandfather)

Frederick’s paternal grandfather, Isaac Dare, was a farmer who occupied various farms in Devon, Dorset and Somerset. His last farm was at Ubley, a parish in the Mendip Hills, where he died in 1849. After his death, his widow and children moved to his home parish of Chardstock.

Robert Dare (Frederick’s father)

Isaac’s son, Robert, moved to London, where he found work as a waiter. There, he met Sarah Elizabeth Dunn, the daughter of a Northampton cabinet maker. The couple married at St Giles, Northampton, on 3 January 1871.

Just before marrying, Robert had become the landlord of the Tytherleigh Arms Inn, Chardstock, taking it over from Patience Follett (nee Dare), who was probably a relative. He remained there until 1875 when he became the tenant of the White Horse Inn at Ilminster.[1]

During his time in Chardstock, Robert came closest to being a gentleman. In July 1871, he organised a picnic for seventy people in a marquee, followed by dancing in the evening. During the subsequent winter, he hosted a series of public readings at the inn.[2]

In May 1873, he may have faced a rude awakening when acting as his mother’s sole executor. She had left him her freehold cottage and land at Honeyhill, Chardstock, but this was subject to him paying the principal sum of £40 and any arrears of interest on a mortgage and legacies of £25 each to two sisters. As his mother’s estate was valued at under £20, nothing remained for Robert.[3]

By 1885, Robert was deeply in debt and attempted to elude his creditors by taking on the tenancy of the Queens Arms Hotel, Bleadon, near Axbridge, in 1885.[4] However, his debts caught up with him. In 1886, he went bankrupt and was forced to sell his stock and effects at Ilminster and his freehold and copyhold property at Chardstock. Instead of providing proper accounts for the previous three years, as the law required, he submitted estimates of where his money had gone: between £50 and £60 in trading losses, £20 to £30 on the White Horse Inn about three years earlier, £20 to £30 on doctor’s bills for his family and a loss of £12 on the sale of a pony, trap and harness.[5]

Despite his bankruptcy, Robert remained at the Queen’s Head until 1888, after which he and his family moved to Bristol.[6] There, he had one more try at running a pub, taking on the Frome Tavern in Frome Street for a mere seven months in 1889.[7] After leaving the Frome Tavern, he became an insurance agent, a precarious livelihood where his earnings would have depended solely on the value of the policies he sold.

Robert died at 32 Trinity Street, Bristol, on 24 March 1892 at the age of 64. His widow, Sara, survived her husband by nineteen years, passing away on 6 August 1911 at the age of 63.

Frederick Samuel Dare

Childhood

Frederick Samuel and his twin brother, Robert Marwood, the children of Robert and Sarah Elizabeth Dare, were born at the Tytherleigh Arms, Chardstock, on 26 November 1872. The 1881 census recorded them living with their grandparents in Northampton, where they may have gone for the sake of their education.[8] A decade later, they both worked as grocer’s assistants in Bristol.

Cycling

From 1894 to 1898, Frederick was a keen cyclist, winning numerous prizes.[9]

Grocery business

By June 1900, Frederick and his twin brother were running grocery shops at 351 Gloucester Road and 5 Newfoundland Street.[10] The closure of the latter shop in August 1900 probably marked the end of the partnership, after which Frederick continued on his own.[11] In early 1905, he moved to new premises at 377 Gloucester Road, but this proved to be a miscalculation, as he went bankrupt in August 1907.[12] Although his grocery business failed, Frederick gained valuable lessons he later applied when establishing a milk distribution business.

As for Robert, he gave up being a grocer and became a cabinet worker. In 1903, he married a parlourmaid named Edith Dyke, and Frederick was one of the witnesses to the wedding. Robert and Edith emigrated to Canada soon after.

Marriage

In the meantime, on 23 December 1900, Frederick married Clara Beatrice Moore at St Andrew’s, Montpelier, Bristol. Clara was a teacher, and her father was a policeman.

Venture into farming

Following his bankruptcy, Frederick and his family moved to Woodside Cottage, Almondsbury.[13] By April 1911, they lived with Clara’s widowed father at Patchway Farm, Patchway.[14] By November 1912, they lived at Almondsbury, and by June 1921, at Cross Farm, Aylburton.

On 23 September 1921, auctioneers held a sale of Frederick’s livestock and implements at Cross Farm, which included 27 cattle, three horses, 24 pigs and 1,300 gallons of cider. Advertisements for the sale stated that the auctioneers were instructed by “Mr. F. S. Dare, who had purchased a farm in Somerset.” [15]

Kingswood Farm, Hardington

Frederick quickly became part of the farming community in South Somerset, sending livestock to Yeovil and Crewkerne markets. The first recorded instance was in December 1922, when he sent ten bacon pigs to the Yeovil Christmas Fatstock Sale and Show.[16] In November 1926, Frederick was pushed over and injured by a bull at Yeovil Market. He had taken the bull there with its head covered in a sack, and when he took the sack off, the bull broke free, knocking Frederick over, and rampaging through the town until the rope around its neck became entangled in a lamp post. Shaken but not badly hurt, Frederick was later treated at the hospital for minor head injuries and bruises to his legs.[17]

Frederick actively participated in the Crewkerne branch of the National Farmers Union and was vocal in his criticism of the methods used to set milk prices.  In January 1928, he seconded a resolution calling for changes to the NFU committee that negotiated the price of milk. He also spoke against a new milk scheme in September 1929,[18]

Frederick continued to make large amounts of cider, advertising 1,000 gallons for sale in September 1923.[19] On two occasions, he had a surplus of hay and grass, which he sold at auction.  In January 1928, he sold 24 tons of 1926 hay, 12.5 tons of 1927 hay, a rick of 1926 hay (14 tons) and 15 acres of grasskeep.[20] In February 1931, he sold two ricks of 1930 meadow hay, weighing 11 tons and 8 tons.[21]

Frederick employed labourers at the farm and advertised in newspapers to find new workers. In February 1925, he sought a man and a lad for general farm work and milking.[22] In June 1934, he advertised for a man to perform the same duties.[23]

After thirteen years at the farm, Frederick decided to leave and held a sale of his livestock and implements at the farm on 8 November 1934.[24]

St Margaret’s at Cliffe

Frederick and his family moved to Wallett’s Court Farm on the cliffs east of Dover. The farm, comprising 230 acres, a farmhouse and three cottages, was advertised in August 1934 as available from Michaelmas.[25] Frederick’s sister, Evelyn, who lived in Dover, probably sent him the property details.

Within two years, Frederick and his two sons began a milk delivery business (the logical outcome of Frederick’s long-held grievance about the price farmers received for their milk). From 1 October 1936, they commenced twice-daily milk deliveries to residents of St Margaret’s and the surrounding district.[26] In January 1939, they commenced daily milk deliveries in Dover.[27]

Wallet’s Court Farmhouse is a historic building with parts dating back to the early seventeenth century. In October 1938, when the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Cosmo Lang, visited the parish to attend a thanksgiving service for the restoration of the church roof, the clergy and choir put on their robes in the farmhouse before walking in procession to the church.[28]

During the Second World War, the military requisitioned Wallett’s Court Farm, compelling Frederick and his family to move to new premises at St Radigund’s Abbey, Dover. They did not return until after the war had ended.[29] After the war, the Dare family may have sold their milk rounds to other operators, as the last advert for their milk was in the Dover Express on 7 May 1948.[30]

Death

Frederick died at Wallett’s Court Farm on 15 March 1951 at the age of 78. He bequeathed his entire estate, valued at £5,037 13s 10d gross and £4,244 19s 10d net, entirely to his wife.

Clara remained at the farm until her death on 24 June 1961 at the age of 84. She bequeathed her estate valued at £5,237 17s gross and £4,710 1s net, primarily to her four children.

Children

1904-Marjorie Beatrice Christobel (became the head of Temple Ewell School. Dover; died unmarried in 1972);

1911-Frederick Charles Leonard (worked in the family business until Wallett’s Court Farm was sold in 1973; married Vera May Simmonds in 1940; died in 1975);

1912-Kathleen Nora Emilie (a singer who trained at the Webber Douglas School of Music and Dramatic Art, London; a member of the Chanticleer Opera Company; married Stanley Charles Robert Wells of the Royal Corp of Signals on 1 February 1940; he was killed at Dunkirk on 26 May 1940; she died 2005);

1916-Robert Henry John (worked in the family business until Wallett’s Court Farm was sold in 1973; married Elsie May Wise, a land girl, in 1947; died in 2004).

References

[1] Western Gazette, 14 May 1875, p.8; 2 July 1875, p.7.

[2] Western Gazette, 28 July 1871, p.8; Pulman’s Weekly News and Advertiser, 23 January 1872, p.3; Western Gazette, 23 February 1872, p.8.

[3] The will of Joan Dare, dated 28 February 1873, proved at Blandford on 17 May 1873. The valuation of under £20 would have been after deducting the mortgage and arrears of interest. She also instructed Robert to pay her other son, Richard, 2s a week for two years.

[4] Western Daily Press, 25 August 1885, p.3.

[5] Weston Mercury, 30 January 1886, p.8.

[6] Weston-super-Mare, and General Advertiser, 17 November 1888, p.8.

[7] Bristol Times and Mercury, 17 January 1889, p.5; Western Daily Press, 29 August 1889, p.7.

[8] Their sisters, Emilie and Ada, were at that time at a school at South Petherton run by the Congregational  evangelist, John J Jordon.

[9] Western Daily Press, 24 July 1894, p.4; Horfield and Bishopston Record and Montepelier & District Free Press, 27 August 1898, p.3; and many other references.

[10] Horfield and Bishopston Record and Montepelier & District Free Press, 2 June 1900, p.3.

[11] Western Daily Press, 4 August 1900, p.1

[12] Horfield and Bishopston Record and Montepelier & District Free Press, 25 February 1905, p.5; Birmingham Daily Post. 7 August 1907, p.6.

[13] Birmingham Daily Post. 7 August 1907, p.6.

[14] Clara’s father, Charles Moore, went with his daughter to Kingswood Farm, as his death was registered in the Yeovil district in Q2 1924.

[15] Gloucester Journal, 10 September 1921.

[16] Western Gazette, 24 November 1922, p.1.

[17] Langport & Somerton Herald, 4 December 1926, p.6.

[18] Western Morning News, 17 January 1928, p.11; Langport & Somerton Herald, 14 September 1929, p.3.

[19] Western Gazette, 7 September 1923, p.7.

[20] Western Gazette, 20 January 1928, p.1.

[21] Western Gazette, 30 January 1931, p.1.

[22] Western Gazette, 6 February 1925, p.8.

[23] Western Gazette, 22 June 1934, p.8.

[24] Western Gazette, 26 October 1934, p.1; 16 November 1934, p.15.

[25] West Sussex Gazette, 16 August 1934, p.7.

[26] Dover Express, 4 September 1936, p.10.

[27] Dover Express, 27 January 1939, p.16.

[28] Dover Express, 14 October 1938, p.13.

[29] Daily Express, 26 October 1945, p.6; Faversham News, 2 November 1945, p.6.

[30] Dover Express, 7 May 1948, p.8.