Another week, another walk Pt IV

Continuing my walk from Old Town to West Swindon I cut through the underpass beneath Great Western Way and emerge at Mannington House. Today Mannington Lane is a bus lane, which seems pretty fortunate as back in the day this route appeared to cause a lot of problems.

In 1884 summonses were issued at Cricklade Petty Sessions on behalf of Miss Julia Strange, tenant at Mannington Farm, against William F. Large, Walter Ody, and John Knapp to show cause why a road leading from the Swindon and Wootton Basset Road towards Purton, should not be declared a public highway, and repaired as such.

Miss Strange was responsible for the repair of a half mile length of road on her land for which she received an allowance of £14 a year so to do.

However, there was growing pressure for an end to this ‘anomalous state of affairs’ and bringing responsibility for the road under the control of the Highway Board. Other farmers in a similar situation had already complied but like her father, Julia was sticking out to keep responsibility for the repair of the road herself and avoid having to pay highway rates.

And twenty years later Frederick Moody, a GWR employee living at 70 Stafford Street, caused a stir when he pulled down thorn bushes which had caused a V stile to become impassable and therefore blocked a right of way.

The case was heard at Wootton Bassett Petty Sessions and lasted several hours, after which no conclusion was arrived at and the case was adjourned. At a second hearing a month later yet more witnesses were called, giving evidence that the disputed right of way had existed for more than 50 years. Moody was found guilty and fined 1s (5p) damages and 4s (20p) costs.

Fortunately neither an unadopted road nor an obstructed footpath cause me any problem as I continue my Harold Fryesque pilgrimage.

Mannington Farm, along with others at Toothill and Whitehill, once formed part of the Charterhouse estate in Lydiard Tregoze. Thomas Sutton bought the three farms in 1605 to help finance the hospital and school for 40 poor boys he founded on the site of a Carthusian Monastery in the Smithfield area of London.

One of the early nineteenth century tenants at Mannington Farm was Richard Dore King. In 1835 Richard Strange signed a 12-year lease on the 237-acre farm and lived there until his death in 1883 when his daughter Julia took over the tenancy.

Mannington Farm was sold to Wiltshire County Council in 1919, parts of which were turned into small holdings for servicemen returning from the Great War.

Join me tomorrow on the last leg of my journey ... but have I saved anyone's life?