Dodford, Worcestershire

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Dodford
Worcestershire
Holy Trinity and St Mary's church, Dodford.jpg
Holy Trinity and St Mary, Dodford
Location
Grid reference: SO931731
Location: 52°21’23"N, 2°6’9"W
Data
Post town: Bromsgrove
Postcode: B61
Dialling code: 01527
Local Government
Council: Bromsgrove
Parliamentary
constituency: 		Bromsgrove

Dodford is a village in Worcestershire, some three miles north-west of Bromsgrove, from whose greedy suburbs it is separated by the M5 motorway and a belt of farmland.

The village as it is today was founded on 2 July 1849 by members of the Chartist movement.[1] It was one of five settlements created in the land scheme and retains a characteristic grid street plan, along with narrow lanes and many plum and pear trees from its market gardening past.

The civil parish of Dodford, which includes Grafton, had a population of 731 at the 2001 census.

Name

Place-name scholars argue that it is derived from Old English Dodda’s Ford, although there is no evidence of pre-Norman settlement in the area.[2] Grafton means "settlement at or near the wood" and may indicate a role in woodland management within a larger estate, for instance.[3]

History

Mediæval and early modern Dodford

Dodford was the site of Dodford Priory.[4] Dodford for a time fell within Feckenham Forest, when its boundaries were extended hugely by King Henry II, to encompass much of North Worcestershire, including Dodford and Chaddesley Corbett. The area was removed from forest law in 1301 in the reign of King Henry III, when the boundaries were moved back.[5]

Chartist Dodford

The Chartist movement set up the Chartist Co-operative Land Society in 1845 to settle working-class families on four, three and two acre plots, where it was hoped they would be able to make a reasonable income. Around 70,000 members paid subscriptions in the hope of gaining a plot, which were allocated by the drawing of ballots.[6] Five settlements were made, at Herringsgate (Heronsgate) in Hertfordshire, Minster Lovell in Oxfordshire, Snig's End in Gloucestershire, and two in Worcestershire: Redmarley d'Abitot and 'Great Dodford'.

Chartist leader Feargus O'Connor bought the site of Dodford Priory and 273 adjacent acres from a wealthy local farmer Benjamin Bomford for £10,546 in January 1848, hoping to settle 70 families. Equipment and horses were moved from Snig's End to prepare the site that summer. 5,000 Midlands Chartists met at Dodford in July, where O'Connor assured them that the settlement would be completed, despite interference from a Parliamentary select committee and a "lying and slandering press".[7]

The Select Committee ruled that allocating plots by ballot was a violation of the Lottery Acts, so allocation of plots at Dodford was made to those who paid the largest advance deposits:

members would in effect have to outbid each other to gain plots. O'Connor proposed this system reluctantly and really wanted one that would be legal and at the same time would not rule out the acquisition of plots by the "blistered hands, fustian jackets, and un-shorn chins."[1]

'Location Day', when settlers were welcomed to their new plots, was 2 July 1849. Unlike other 'Location Days' it was not celebrated in the Chartist newspaper the Northern Star, which instead began to print the complaints of settlers. The settlement's 44 plots were ill-prepared, with open wells and no water pumps. Crops of wheat had not been planted:

The first year at Dodford was very hard for the settlers: one of them, John Wallace, said that they had had only dry bread to eat. For some years afterwards they did badly too, growing cereals and potatoes. Many supported themselves at their old trades, at home or in Bromsgrove, and hired labourers to work their plots.[8]

The company – now known as the National Land Company – was dissolved, in part because no rents were paid from Dodford residents. The tenants were given the chance to buy out the ground and avoid rent, or to continue paying it to a new owner.

Chartists from Birmingham and the Black Country lent practical help with tools and regular visits in the early, difficult years.[9] A special 'Dodford digging fork' was made in Stourbridge to deal with heavy red soil.

However, unlike other Chartists settlements, which continued to do badly, largely because the plots were too small,[10] Dodford could access the growing Birmingham and Black Country markets.

John Wallace realized that with careful treatment the heavy soil was suitable for the cultivation of strawberries and other market-garden crops: early in the 1860s their growing was begun at his suggestion. From then until about 1920 strawberries were the staple crop at Dodford; 'Joseph Paxton' was the favourite variety.[1]

The small holders sold market garden products, particularly strawberries, but also flowers, peas, beans and shallots. Orchards of pears and plums were planted. An annual 'Strawberry Wake' was held on the second Sunday of July, where visitors could eat as many as they liked for 6d, until 1922. Garlic was also sold to Lea and Perrins in Worcester. The plot holders also continued with other trades to supplement their incomes, such as nailmaking, making gunlocks and running a grocers' shop. One of the plot holders, John Ward, a butcher from Bolton, ran a pub, now the Dodford Inn.[11]

Because Dodford enjoyed success, it became used in 1880s campaigns by Jesse Collings and others, calling for land reform:

these small cultivators are only acquainted with poor rates from the fact that they have to pay them. What I want to see, and what the working classes, if they are wise, will insist on securing, is that there should be three or four thousand Great Dodfords in England.[12]

The Dodford settlements remained prosperous, and retained their radical character until the 1890s. Ironically, the advocates of land reform successfully established allotments at Catshill, which grew strawberries earlier on lighter soils, pushing prices down. Dodford experienced a brief moment of prosperity during the First World War, as strawberries were sold to Cadbury's for jam, but the tradition died post-war, for a number of reasons. Plots were bought as rural retreats. Strawberries suffered lower quality due to disease and the use of artificial fertilizers. Better wages could be found in the Austin factory at Longbridge, and the cheap labour force of pickers disappeared, as the Bromsgrove nailmaking industry rapidly declined.[1]

Parish church

The Church of the Holy Trinity and St Mary was built in 1907–1908 with money donated by the curate of St John’s Church Bromsgrove[13] Walter Whinfield.[14] The architect was Arthur Bartlett[15] who constructed it in the Arts and Crafts style, with decoration work created by the Bromsgrove Guild.[16] Bartlett was recommended by Walter Gilbert. Much of the woodcarving, including the pulpit, altar rails and organ case is credited to Celestino Pancheri.[14]

The church is a Grade II* listed building.[15]

Its listing document states: "The church is one of the best of its date in the county. Its plan form and tower are of an unusual and most effective design and the understated but thorough attention to the decorative detail of the interior is particularly interesting".[15] Simon Jenkins relates that the ceiling ribs represent "the fruits of Dodford" and the front bench-end features "John Bungay, the first child born in the Chartist village in 1849".[14]

Dodford today

Rosedene

Dodford is now a conservation area, with a number of listed buildings, including a number of Chartist cottages and the parish church.

Rosedene, an example of a Chartist cottage at Dodford, is owned and maintained by the National Trust, and is opened to visitors by appointment.[17]

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Outside links

Further reading

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Searby 1968, pp. 32–45
  2. ↑ The Place-names of Worcestershire A Mawer and FM Stenton Cambridge University Press 1927
  3. ↑ Watts 2004, p. 257
  4. ↑ Dodford Priory: Heritage Gateway
  5. ↑ Humphreys FSA, John. "Forest of Feckenham". Transactions and Proceedings (Birmingham and Warwickshire Archaeology Society) 44–45: 115–132.  (page 120)
  6. ↑ Searby 1968, p. 32
  7. ↑ Fourth Report of the S.C.: H.C.503, 1847–8, XlX, p.75; Northern Star, 22 July 1848; quoted by P Searby
  8. ↑ Searby, p42
  9. ↑ "Socialism in Birmingham and the Black Country 1850–1939 Chapter 1 Working-class Politics 1850–69 – Chartism and Secularism, George Barnsby". http://www.gbpeopleslibrary.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=20&Itemid=26&limitstart=1. 
  10. ↑ Searby, page 39
  11. ↑ "Dodford Inn history". http://www.thedodfordinn.org/about/about.htm. 
  12. ↑ Jesse Collings, quoted in The Gardens of the British Working Class by Margaret Willes, p136.
  13. ↑ Holy Trinity and St. Mary, Dodford, Diana Poole, Bromsgrove Society Newsletter June 2001
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 England's Thousand Best Churches, Simon Jenkins, Allen Lane, p746 ISBN 0-7139-9281-6
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 National Heritage List 1100097: Church of the Holy Trinity and St Mary (Grade II* listing)
  16. ↑ Bromsgrove Parish pamphlet
  17. ↑ Rosedene: National Trust
  • Watts, Victor Ernest, ed (2004). The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781107196896. 

Further reading

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