Louisa Baker

We have a very soft spot for the Baker family in Market Lavington. They have always been exceptionally kind to us. Today we look at the matriarch of the family – Louisa.

Louisa Baker at about the time of her wedding

Louisa was born in 1857 (or thereabouts) in West Lavington but in 1877 she married John Baker. The photo dates from about the time of the marriage.

John, according to the 1881 census was a dozen or so years older than his wife and was a ‘whitesmith’. This meant he made and traded in tinplate and enamelware. His premises were in what remained a hardware shop until quite recent times – opposite the present Co-op and next to the entrance into Woodland Yard.

Bearing and caring for children must have occupied much of Louisa’s life. The 1891 census lists Annie (12), Margaret (11), Hilda (9), Mabel (7), John (5), Archibald (3), Ida (1) and Amy (3 months).

The final child, Mollie, was born in about 1905 and sadly she never knew much of her parents. In fact her father died in 1903 so either her birth date is wrong or she actually had a different father. Louisa died in 1910. Both John and Louisa are buried in Market Lavington churchyard.

A number of the children emigrated to Canada and took family treasures with them. Quite a few of these have re-crossed the Atlantic and now have a home at the museum.

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Pond Farm for sale

Today we look at an extract from the Bath Evening Chronicle for Monday June 11^th 1877.

Masthead of Bath Evening Chronicle – 1877 style

Little details are always of interest. This paper, it says, was produced every afternoon at five o’clock and sold for the princely sum of one halfpenny. For those who don’t remember our pre-decimal currency, if you had a pound you could have bought 480 copies of the paper.

But it is one of the adverts that adds to the interest, big time, here.

Pond Farm – for sale by auction

This was a sale by auction of an Easterton property. This was the farm known as Pond Farm which once stood up on Salisbury Plain.

We have photos of the farm, but a written statement adds extra information.

Lot 1 – Comprising a comfortable well-arranged farm residence containing sitting room, kitchen, back kitchen, dairy, wash house, wood house, four bedrooms, attics and WC and having good yards, barn, stabling for nine horses cow house to tie eight cows, calf house, piggeries, waggon house &c together with about 52 acres of valuable rich arable, orchard and garden land now in the occupation of the Messrs Hampton

Lot 2 – Three well erected freehold cottages and gardens in the occupation of respectable tenants and at present let at a rental of £11 12s (£11.60) per annum.

This was all being offered for auction by Messrs Marsh and Dawes with the sale to be at The Green Dragon in Market Lavington on Tuesday 26^th June 1877 at three for four o’clock in the afternoon precisely.

So here we get information about the rooms in the house and the farm out buildings and cottages. One of the cottages was in the possession of a member of the Burnett family and another member added ‘Gran’s Home’, in hand writing.

It all makes for a fascinating document.