Parker's Corner in 1810

 

The Parker's Corner area of the time is shown left. Creeping into the bottom left-hand corner is Cranemoor Pond and near it (31) the lodge just inside the park at the junction of Ridgeway Lane (Bostock Lane), Blyth's Hill and its new extension back to the Bath Road. This is a new addition since 1762. The other houses between the junction and what was probably the original Parker's Corner are shown much as in 1762 but the large block of four seems only to have two tenants, the other two houses indicated "E" and "F" though the meaning of that is unknown. Number 30 is occupied by John and Hannah Horne with their five children and 29 by George Harper (?) and Lucy. There is a pencil entry that looks like "Robert Horne" and "2 children" with some other indistinct writing. All four were occupied in 1844. At 28 are Daniel and Mary Mildenhall with their "3 little children" and at 27 we have Smith crossed through with Henward inserted. Thomas and Elizabeth Cox are at 25 and Welch at 26. John Welch owned the house and some land nearby in 1844, though both were rented out then, and this may have been part of Parker's Farm at the time of this map.

 

Further up the hill, on the road running along the base of the slope is a single block of three houses (21-23) home to Cox, Wells and Nash, the latter crossed through and something indistinct (Harman?) inserted. In 1762 there were two other buildings here but they may have been barns or sheds and there are some other building sin pencil here. At the end of the track as shown, though it actually continues into the wood, is what we know to have been called Blyth's Cottage, but now home to John and Thomas Knight.

 

Further up the hill again is a single house (20), occupied initially by Povey but then by Mildenhall and also, apparently, James Woodley. Whether these last two were consecutively or concurrently is not known. Again there are buildings shown in pencil here, which may be barns and shed accounting for the extra ones shown in 1762 since we do not know thta ll buildings shown by Ballard were necessarily dwellings.

 

In a separate pencil sketch is apparently a whole complex of roads and buildings. From the layout of the roads this looks as though it may be Mareridge Farm.

 

Neither Bostock Cottages nor Bostock Lodges are shown, though the cottages are seen in the 1811 enclosure plan for Sulhamstead and the lodges were built between the closure of the turnpike in 1826 and the drawing of the Englefield enclosure map in 1829. They were probably built in about 1827 following the court case brought by Richard Benyon in the summer of 1826 against defendants Welch and another for breaking down of gates and fences at this point in order to continue use of the closed turnpike.