Great Boydens – The Row (now Forge Square): also Little Boydens

The area at Forge Square had once been known as Great and Little Boydens.

Great Boydens (also known as The Row) was part of the Hall Place estate – and this area is now formed by Forge Square and the house and front garden at South View.

Little Boydens – the area now running along the main road east of South View was land held by the Leigh Vestry and where three Vestry cottages used to stand.  It was part of Hall Place, but had been given to the Church for the use of the poor by William Saxby of Ramhurst (prior to that they had been held by a Richard Brook until 1655 when he had passed the house and gardens to his daughters.)  In 1665, Little Boydens was aliened to William Saxby, who in 1675 aliened it to Henry Saxby and some other gentlemen (including Richard Goodhugh, John Martin, John Wicking, Edward Waller) to the ‘use of the poor of Leigh: premises is near churchyard’ – in the Manorial Records, there is a handwritten scribble stating Trust of Poor.  From the Reports of the Charity Commissioners 1815-1839 (see Leigh Parochial Charities),  it is stated that there is a deed dated 28 February 1675 by William Saxby and William Wood, which granted to trustees named therein a messuage at or near Leigh Green, in the parish of Leigh, in trust to permit the churchwardens and overseers of the said parish to receive the rents and profits and thereout weekly to provide three twopenny loaves of bread, and to disposes of the same to three poor inhabitants of the said parish . . .  It continues:  the property consists of five tenements with gardens, adjoining the churchyard, two of which are supposed to have been built at the expense of the parish.    According to Lawrence Biddle (Leigh in Kent 1550-1900 p. 133), these cottages were pulled down in the middle of the nineteenth century and replaced by three attached cottages.  In the 1872 Drainage Report they are occupied by a Mr Pearson, a Mr Peerless and a Mr Fowler.  The Report describes them as “well guttered, downpipes delivering into water butts.  Three sinks, all connected.  One common privy for the three houses.  One well in front, constant soakage from the high ground of Churchyard behind.  The privy has recently been laid dry and a pipe to carry off slops etc added and connected with main drainage”.   These three cottages would eventually form part of Leigh United Charities when it was formed in the late 19th century.  They would be pulled down in 1913 following an exchange of land and cottages between Leigh United Charities and Hall Place when they were exchanged for two cottages owned by Hall Place, namely Cherry Tree Cottages.

Great Boydens, sometimes called the Row, was, according to Lawrence Biddle in Leigh in Kent 1550-1900 (p.132), the property to the east of the Forge and consisted of a block of three cottages and two semi-detached cottages.  The property was part of the Manor of Leigh Hollanden and passed down by copyhold – the Manorial Records shows who held the property from the 16th century.   In 1750 Great Boydens was held by James Young of Westerham.  It was passed in 1765 to John Crowhurst.  He in turn passsed it in 1769 to Samuel Mills who had substantial estates centred at Poundsbridge in Penshurst.  In 1781 Samuel Mills passed it to Thomas Nightingale who died in1817, leaving the property to his son, Thomas, who still held it in 1840. At some date before 1846 the property was passed to William Constable.  When he died, Great Boydens passed to Henry and Humphrey Constable.  In November 1867 Joshua, the heir to Henry, and the executors of Humphrey Constable passed the property back to Thomas Baily.  The cottages at Great Boydens then formed part of the 1870 sale to Samuel Morley and were pulled down when Forge Square was built.

However, further information on the cottages that formed the Row/Great Boydens can be gauged from the 1870 Sales Particulars of Hall Place as well as a pastel picture that has come into the possession of the village by Edith Hine.   When the new homes were erected at Forge Square (along with South View) they replaced the seven cottages previously known as the Row or Great Boydens.  The cottages are described under Lot 5:

Firstly a pair of cottage dwellings under one roof, with 9 rooms, no. 54 on the plan – which in 1870 was occupied by Richard Tidey (5 rooms) and George Sales (4 rooms);

Secondly, a further detached cottage dwelling situated close to this with 5 rooms, no. 55 on the plan, occupied by William Shoebridge.

Thirdly, a further four cottage dwellings under one roof, no. 56 on the plan, let in four occupations to George Simmons (4 rooms); Thos Batchelor (5 rooms); John Turner (3 rooms); Mr & Mrs Rye (3 rooms)

(In the 1872 Drainage Report we have only information on the first pair of cottage dwellings – no. 54 above:  on the drainage map they are cottages 63 and 64: no. 63 is occupied by a Mr Ellison and no. 64 by Mr Sales.  (both owned by Mr Morley).  No. 63 is described as follows:  “Sink and WC with pan, both connected to main drainage.  Guttering fairly good, delivering by down pipe into water butt, with overflow into drain.  The adjoining cottage, no. 64, is described “no sink.  Down pipes overflows over brick path into cesspool.  One common privy for 64 and 65 (note: no. 65 is occupied by Shoebridge).  Eaves gutters in front.  A new dry earth closet has been added here.”  Unfortunately we have no further information for the other cottages of Forge Row, except that no. 65 is occupied by Shoebridge as stated; and nos. 66, 67, 68, 69 are occupied by Mr Simmons, Mr Batchelor, Mr Turner, and Mr Rye – which correspond to the 1870 Sales Particulars information).

All these three buildings  can be seen on the Edith Hine pastel which was probably painted around 1888.  Edith Hine was a daughter of Mrs Agnes Heath who lived at The Woods).   On 1 October 1887 Edith Heath married William Egerton Hine at Leigh:  hence as the picture is signed Edith Hine, it is unlikely to have been painted earlier, but would have had to have been done before the erection of the new Forge Square and South View.  Edith Hine, in the 1901 census, is staying at the Woods (then known as The Cottage) and describes herself as an artist/sculptress.  Her picture is below, and describing it face on, the three separate buildings which formed the Row can be seen to the left of what would have been the Vestry’s charity cottages and at the furthest left in the picture and indistinct would be the Forge.  The road would not have been a made-up road as today, but more a track which went down towards Powder Mills.

 

Joyce Field (August 2017)