Introduction
Jim and Mabel Short were the first tenants of 4 Hill End, the Swedish council houses at Hill End, Hardington.
Early Childhood
Mabel Congdon was born on 1 September 1906 at Fifield, Berkshire, almost certainly at the White Hart Inn, where her father, Henry George Congdon, had recently become the licensee.[1] Before moving to Fifield, Henry served for 21 years with the Royal Engineers, achieving the rank of Company Sergeant Major before his discharge in August 1905.[2] His wife, Mary, came from Battle in Sussex, where she was born to Sarah Jane Ransom, a single woman, in about 1867.
After about five years at the pub, the family moved to Maidenhead, where they initially lived at Forest Green, and later at Littlefield.[3]
First World War
At the outbreak of the First World War, Henry volunteered for military service, joining the 12th (Eastern) Division of the Royal Engineers at his previous rank. By May 1917, he had attained the position of Acting Regimental Sergeant Major.[4] He was mentioned in dispatches on 15 June 1916 and 18 May 1917, and in April 1918, he was awarded the Croix de Guerre.[5] Henry was killed on 28 May 1918, during the German Spring Offensive, and he was buried in Varennes Military Cemetery.[6]
Postwar period
Henry’s death was a devastating blow for his family. In addition to his widow and Mabel, there were three older daughters: Gwen, Daisy and Edith. By April 1918, they were living at Battle, and by June 1921, their address was Telham Court Lodge.[7] They were reasonably secure financially, as the War Office compensated them with over £70 in back pay and a war gratuity after Henry’s death, of which Mabel received £7 3s 10d.[8] However, Mary was in poor health and died from heart failure on 26 February 1922.[9]
With her mother’s death, Mabel became an orphan at the age of 15. By then, she was already working, as the 1921 census recorded her as an apprentice making fur gloves and hats.[10] Initially, she and her sisters stayed in Battle, but when Gwen’s husband, Henry Wheeler, left the navy in 1924, they all relocated to his home parish of Watton-at-Stone in Hertfordshire.[11] At the start of the Second World War, Mabel was living at 14 St Paul’s Road, Windsor, and working as a draper’s assistant.[12]
In 1944, Mabel married Albert James Short, known as Jim, in the Colchester area.[13] He came from Oakford in Devon, where his father worked as a farm labourer.
Hardington
By 1948, Jim and Mabel moved to Somerset, although the circumstances of their move are unclear.[14] They secured one of the Swedish-style prefabricated council houses built at Hill End, Hardington Mandeville, after the war, living at number 4. These houses were part of a government initiative to address the housing crisis, and although intended to last ten years, they remain in use today. They attracted tenants with stable incomes who could afford the rent.
Albert worked for Westlands, sweeping up machinery debris, while Mabel became a housewife and participated in Women’s Institute activities. She was remembered locally as somewhat highly strung, with an abundance of nervous energy.
In the early 1970s, they moved to 2 Ruddock Way, West Coker. Mabel died on 2 May 1988 at the age of 81, and Jim died on 11 May 1989 at the age of 77.
Conclusion
Mabel’s life, modest in outward scale, was nonetheless shaped by significant historical forces: military service, the upheaval of the First World War, early bereavement, wartime marriage, and post-war migration. Her eventual settlement in one of Hardington’s Swedish houses places her within the wider reshaping of rural England in the mid-twentieth century.
References
[1] Voters’ Lists.
[2] Royal Hospital Chelsea Pensioner Soldier Service Records, 1760-1920
[3] Voters’ Lists.
[4] London Gazette, 18 May 1917, p.4879.
[5] London Gazette, 15 June 1916, p.5932; 18 May 1917, p.4879;12 April 1918, p.4530.
[6] Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914-1919; Find a Grave® Index for Burials at Sea and other Select Burial Locations, 1300s-Current.
[7] London Gazette, 12 April 1918, p.4530; RG15, Battle, schedule 138.
[8] Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects, 1901-1929.
[9] Death certificate of Mary Congdon.
[10] RG15, Battle, schedule 138.
[11] Royal Navy Registers of Seamen’s Services, 1848-1939; 1939 Register.
[12] 1939 Register.
[13] Civil Registration Marriage Index.
[14] Swedish houses were built in the UK between 1946 and 1948.
