n A family’s fascinating history through war and peace

Fascinating history of farming family

The Knott family is probably one of the oldest farming families in Sturminster Newton. Philip Knott steps back in time after spotting his great grandfather, Tom Knott, in our cover photograph in a recent edition. Tom is fifth from the left behind the gate.

My great grandfather, Tom Knott (snr) lived in a house at the top of Newton Hill, now known as Larkspur. He rented farm buildings and a cow stall, adjoining Stalbridge Lane, from the Pitt Rivers Estate, along with fields in the Colber area, known as Oaks Farm. Before taking on the Oaks Farm tenancy he rented one of a pair of cottages at Broadoak, along with two small orchards and a paddock on the road towards Dirty Gate, where he kept horses used for his contract haulage business. The two main contracts were hauling gravel from the quarry at Okeford Common, where the car scrap yard now stands, for council road building and for the milk factory at Butts Pond. On alternate days he hauled coal from the railway goods yard to fire the factory boilers. Tom’s brother Walter lived in a shepherd’s hut in the orchard at Broadoak, where he kept a pony, a donkey, geese and poultry. The pony was used for towing his cart on his Western Gazette delivery round every Thursday. Tom married Emma Pope in St Mary’s Church,

Sturminster

Newton, in 1883 and the couple had eight children, sadly two died in infancy. Ivor and Lily never married and worked together on the family farm, taking over the tenancy of Oaks Farm, when Tom Snr retired. My grandfather Herbert and his brother, Tom (Jnr), enlisted for service in the Dorset Yeomanry at the start of the First World War, taking their own horses with them, serving in the Middle East and the Gallipoli landings, in the Dardanelles, with Hebert transferring to the Royal Flying Corps in 1916.

On his release from the forces, Herbert decided that he wanted to become a farmer, like his father before him, and, shortly after my father Ken was born, he moved from Broadoak to Rolls Mill, adjoining the A357 Ralph Down, where he rented a house, and erected a cow shed on the land from the Pitt Rivers Estate. After the First World War, Tom Jnr, became landlord of The Red Lion Inn at Newton before moving to Rockhill Farm at Stourton Caundle in

n Tom Knott, circled, with a group of farming friends on a rabbit hunt

n Pumping water from the Stour at Newton and, inset, Herbert Knott with the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War

blackmorevale.net

New Blackmore Vale, November 12, 2021 35 History through times of war and prosperity

1940. Herbert’s sister Maggie married Ron Guy and took over the tenancy of the New Inn and attached farm, at the far end of Crown Road at Marnhull. The brother of Tom Snr, John married Sarah (née Chinn) from Hinton St Mary and they had 13 children. The year before his death, in 1956, aged 96, he accepted and won a challenge to jump a five-bar gate – the catch being that the gate was lying flat on the ground! Herbert’s cousin Olive Knott, was born in Rixon Cottage in 1902. After leaving Blandford Secondary School she taught at Hazelbury Bryan. She wrote 12 books about Dorset, including Down Dorset Way, Tales of Dorset, More About Dorset and Dorset Again. After retirement later publications include Witches of Dorset, and A Pictorial History of Sturminster Newton, using historical photographs from the Raymond Rogers Collection. Cousin Sydney, a cattle and hay dealer, was indeed a colourful character. He married Matilda Rose, widow of James Rose of Fiddleford Mill who died in 1875. Sydney was the Master Miller and Leaseholder of Sturminster Newton Mill where he installed hydroelectric turbines in 1904. My father remembers Sydney in his memoirs: “The highlight of Christmas in our school days was the visit of a cousin of my father’s by the name of Sydney. A few days before Christmas he would make the journey to Rolls Mill, bringing all four of us children a toy. Times were hard for us, but Sydney was a relatively wealthy man, who owned parcels of land around Newton and Fiddleford. He was also the leaseholder and Master Miller for Sturminster Mill and lived in Newton House. When he retired he moved to Bonslea House at Bath Road. When living at Bonslea House he would often send his chauffeur/gardener out to my father to borrow his horse and putt or wagon, usually he wanted to haul some manure for the garden. Sydney would bring out the toys at Christmas as a sort of payment to my father. “On one occasion, when Sydney’s chauffeur was driving him to Blandford, a car sped past him. Sydney instructed his chauffeur to speed up and overtake. The chauffeur however was unable to – which made Sydney furious – so he immediately purchased a more powerful Bentley. “Sydney was also a lover of horses and kept one or two excellent racing types. “Another owner challenged Sydney to a race over a mile on Blandford Downs one Saturday morning and Sydney readily accepted. Sydney’s horse won, which must have been a relief to his stable staff.” Sydney passed away in 1946, aged 91. In his will he left bequests of land and money to the town, which made a significant contribution to the building of the new hall in 1967. My paternal grandmother, Mabel, was the daughter of Arthur and Mary Quick. Arthur was appointed as the headmaster of Child Okeford School in 1905 and Mary was a teaching assistant. Mabel survived scarlet fever in 1908, which left her with a severe hearing disability. Two of her sisters had passed away alongside her, when all three of them were sharing the same bed. Her sisters are laid to rest, in a marked grave, in Child Okeford churchyard. Mabel was a student teacher at the school, until 1917, when her father was forced to resign, following an altercation in the village high street. He was on his way to the church for a Sunday morning service, when he was confronted by the father of a boy pupil he had caned during the previous week. At the start of the First World War Mabel’s brother Albert enlisted in the West Somerset Yeomanry. He lost his life in the November of 1915, as a result of dysentery, after being evacuated from the trenches to a hospital ship anchored off of the Gallipoli peninsula. He is commemorated on the war memorial at Child Okeford.

n Pupils at Child Okeford Primary School

n The A357 through Newton in the early 1960s

n The Red Lion pub at Newton