Timothy Orchard (abt. 1873 - abt. 1950)

Born about 1873 in Potterne, Wiltshire, England, United Kingdom

Ancestors

Husband of Lucy (Pleasance) Orchard — married 22 Jun 1895 in St Saviour's Parish Church, Brixton Hill, London, SW, England, United Kingdom

Descendants

Died about 1950 at about age 77 in Wexcombe, Grafton, Wiltshire, England, United Kingdom

Problems/Questions Profile manager: John Orchard [send private message]

Biography

Timothy was the youngest child of John Orchard and his wife Eliza Ellen Gingell.

He was born in Potterne in Wiltshire, where his father traded as a grocer and tailor. His father had been an apprenticed tailor and having completed his time as a journeyman settled in his home village of Potterne and supplemented his trade by selling groceries.

Timothy attended the village school and went to work on the local farms handling large animals, horses and cows. In time he became involved with driving cattle to Smithfield market in London, about eighty miles to the east. Whether it was on the first drove or a subsequent one, but at some point he stayed in London where he already had some relatives living.

The first known job that he obtained there was based on Brixton Hill in south-west London. His job was Cock-horse man for the wonderfully named Ball's Brothers Omnibus company whose livery stables were situated near the junction of Brixton Hill, Streatham Place and Streatham High Road (what was to become the South Circular Road). His role was to be in charge of a spare horse which was attached to the horse drawn omnibuses to climb the slope of Brixton Hill. According to the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden the company was the scruffiest and held the worst reputation of any bus company in the capital.

Timothy was probably assisted in getting his next job by his brother-in-law William Peters who was an established milk delivery roundsman for the Express Dairy company. Timothy took on a round in the Brixton Hill area. It was whilst working this round with his horse-drawn milk float, dispensing milk by ladle from a churn, that he met an under-stairs maid at a house on St Saviour's Road. This was Lucy Pleasance whom he was to marry on 22nd June 1895 in St Saviour's parish church ^[1].

Both Timothy and Lucy were recorded as having been resident at 39 Bartley Street, which was immediately south of the church near to the entrance of Brixton prison (it no longer exists). This was an address occupied by Lucy's aunt and her husband from the Soham and Isleham area of Cambridgeshire. There were several relatives living in this small street at the time.

The couple went to live in Potterne, first with his parents and then in a cottage close by. It was in Potterne where the first two of their eventually thirteen children were born.

It became essential for Timothy to attend the regular 'hiring fairs' that were held around rural counties where seasonal work was on offer. He shortly obtained work on a farm near Etchilhampton, a few miles to the east of Potterne, and the family moved there. Four children were born in this small village but by May 1905 they had moved again, this time to Milton Lilbourne just to the east of Pewsey.

The cottage in Milton, which is close to where my cousin, Timothy and Lucy's great-granddaughter still lives, is still standing but has been enlarged by the merging of two adjoining cottages. Their cottage must have been crowded, especially after the birth of Alfred, the seventh child, because they sent their first daughter, Ellen Maud Orchard to stay with Lucy's aunt at 39 Bartley Street, Brixton Hill. Sadly whilst the intention was to help preserve health, Ellen contracted TB (tuberculosis) and died aged 6 years - the only one of the children to die in childhood.

The move to a new job and a new home came soon after. Timothy went to work at beacon or Bacon's farm, which is a part of the Fosbury Estate. They took up residence in a tied cottage which I have been able to visit by courtesy of the current occupier. It is still a cottage owned by the Fosbury estate; a picture can be seen on the profile of Lucy Pleasance .

Later in life they took on a very old cottage, probably built in the sixteenth century in nearby Wexcombe. The immediately neighbouring and adjoining cottage was about two hundred years younger and occupied by their eldest son Herbert Orchard and his small family.

Timothy and Lucy lived to celebrate their Golden Wedding here in June 1945. Timothy died in 1950 and is buried in the local parish church at East Grafton ^[2]. Family lore has it that there word words said between Timothy and the Sexton of the parish during his life, and for that reason when the Sexton prepared the grave it was in the most inauspicious site in the whole churchyard. The grave is unmarked.

^[3]

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Sources

1. ↑ parish register for marriages, Parish of St Saviour, Brixton Hill, London SW, 22 June 1895
2. ↑ St Nicholas, East Grafton churchyard burial list
3. ↑ First-hand information as remembered by John Orchard, Monday, December 22, 2014. Replace this citation if there is another source.

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