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Buckden Roundabout
September 2018
A Buckden House
By John Thelwall
A couple of years ago, the then owners of a house in Lucks
Lane were kind enough to give their old title deeds to Buckden
Local History Society. These deeds tell the story of the house
and how they were bought and sold in the 19th Century.
In 1861 Charles Mehew,
a harness maker sold the
house to Thomas Adams,
a baker, for £220, a sub-
stantial sum for a small-
ish cottage, but the sale
included just under an
acre of land at Hardwick
Dene. Charles owned the
Copyhold in the proper-
ty. The freehold was
owned by the Lord of the
Manor and Charles had
to pay a rent of 8d per
year.
The transfer took place
at The George Inn, Buck-
den, where the manorial
court was held in the
presence of the Steward to
the Lords of the Manor.
In manorial courts there was also a representative group of
tenants known as the Homage, who had local knowledge that
the Steward didn’t. Thomas Adams probably bought them all
a drink for their trouble.
Today, if you are selling your house, the Transfer deed is a
simple exercise in box filling. The money is sent between the
lawyers and the seller’s lawyer sends the Transfer deed to the
buyer’s lawyer. In 1861, life was not so simple. Usually a sale
of land took place on or within sight of the land being sold.
The seller would give to the buyer a handful of soil, taken
from the land, or perhaps the keys to the house. That consti-
tuted delivery of the property. The buyer then handed over
the purchase price in cash. The seller might show he had given
vacant possession by, for example, jumping over a hedge on
the boundary to the land.
Thomas wanted to be really sure Charles acknowledged he
had been paid in full, so the Admission includes this receipt:
“to him [Charles Mehew] in hand [i.e. in cash] well and truly
paid by Thomas Adams of Buckden aforesaid a Baker at or
immediately before the signing or passing of this Surrender
the receipt whereof the said Charles Mehew doth hereby
acknowledge and of and from the same sum and every part
thereof doth hereby acquit release and forever discharge the
said Thomas Adams his heirs executors administrators and
assigns”
That’s 65 words. In 1994, the last of the deeds, the receipt
says:
“the receipt of which is hereby acknowledged”
- seven
words. So the legal language had become much simpler.
The house is described as being formerly in the occupation of
Sarah Moles widow, deceased, then of Thomas Mehew, also
deceased, who was the father of Charles, the seller, and who
inherited it in 1827. In those days, when everyone knew eve-
ryone else’s business and the village was a small community,
such a description sufficed as the Homage knew exactly who
owned what and which cottage was being sold.
In 1869 Thomas died and
his widow, Susannah
inherited it.
Then in 1873, Susannah
sold it to Frederick Mid-
dleton. Fred is described
as a gardener. The price
was £150.00. William
Bowyer, Merchant of
Buckden, agreed to lend
Fred £100 to buy the
cottage at an interest the
rate 5%. By 1882 Fred
had paid off the debt but
In the late 1890s all was
not well with him and in
April 1897 he had to bor-
row £70 from Susan Middleton, his
sister. Susan however only got 2%
interest.
The mortgage also refers to Fred having built another house
on the land, so Fred was an entrepreneur as well as a garden-
er.
In December 1897, Fred died. Perhaps he was ill when he bor-
rowed the money from his sister and it was to help him
through his illness because he couldn’t work. In 1898, Susan
inherited both houses. In the documents Fred is described as
a “Gentleman” so he had gone up in the world. Susan inherit-
ed on condition that she maintained and provided “a home
for my mother” so long as she (her mother) shall live.
In 1909 Susan died, without leaving a will. She was a spinster
and the cottage was inherited by her eldest brother Charles
Middleton, also a gardener, but who lived in Derby.
Then in 1920 the property was sold at auction at the George
and we are lucky enough to have a copy of the auction partic-
ulars. The auctioneers were Dilley Son and Read. The two
houses were sold as one lot.
One had a sitting room, kitchen and bedroom, pantry, barn
and earth closet. It also had a yard with brick and tile wood
place, carpenters shop and loft over. It was rented out at 12
shillings (60p) per lunar month.
The other house had two sitting rooms, kitchen, three bed-
rooms, scullery and pantry, a small garden, earth closet and
two brick and thatched barns. It was let at two guineas
(Continued on page 14)
A view of Lucks Lane from the north: these cottages are
perhaps like the one described in this article.
A Buckden House