A History of Pirbright Properties

Richard Thompson (1805 – 1887)

Richard is the first Thompson known to have lived in Pirbright.  His origin can be traced back to his grandfather, Peter Tomson, who lived in Aldershot, Hampshire.  (The name was spelt Tomson in the 1770s, added “p” by 1800 and an “h” by 1820).  Peter was either born in Odiham, (about 8 miles from Aldershot) or Farnham (about 3 miles away).  The Peter in Odiham was born in 1725 (when both he and his father spelt their name Peetar).  The Peter in Farnham was the father of a

Peter born in 1759, but his own birth is not recorded.  Either could have moved to Aldershot in about 1760, been married to a woman named Elizabeth and then had 6 children between 1764 and 1774, including Thomas (1766) and James (1771).  Peter was buried there in 1786 and Elizabeth in 1797.

In those days, a century before Aldershot became the home of the British army, it was a small farming community surrounded by heathland.  Peter’s position in society is not known but he probably worked on the land, like his sons, and may have rented some land himself.  His son James, moved as a young man to Tongham about 2 miles away, just over the county boundary in Surrey while his brother, Thomas, moved to Ash, a further mile away. Tongham was a hamlet within Seale parish, but it had been a manor, by 1800 known as Poyle House. In  1793 James married a local woman, Ann Harris in St Laurence, Seale and their 8 children were all baptised in the same church. At the later baptisms, where occupation begins to be recorded, James is described as a labourer.  James’s younger sister Ann, had been a witness at the marriage.

James and Ann’s children, including Richard, were brought up in a cottage on the Street, which was later redeveloped as Manor House Flats.  But in 1818 James bought some land with a cottage and garden attached, now known as Makepeace Cottage in Poyle Road.  This smallholding would not have provided an income sufficient to support a large family and James, together with his sons William, George, Richard, Stephen and Charles would have worked on the neighbouring farms in Tongham and Ash.  This would have included Poyle House but also, possibly, the farm in Ash owned by Thomas.  But the smallholding would have been large enough to run some livestock and give the boys good experience of managing a farm. 

In 1824, William, the eldest son, died to be followed by James in 1838.  In his will James left everything to his wife, Ann, but on her death the cottage, land, livestock and other effects were to be sold and the money divided between his children or - if any had died - their children. As it happened they had not and in 1841 Ann was living in the cottage alone, except for William’s son John. All James’s sons had left Poyle, except Stephen, who had his own home and family but probably helped his mother with the smallholding. Ann died in 1854 so in the following year the children would have received their inheritance.

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Richard was born in April 1805, the third of James and Ann’s sons.  His elder brother, George, married a farmer’s daughter from Ash and by 1851 the couple had their own farm of 70 acres in Windlesham. But Richard chose a different route.  By December 1831, when aged 26, he was married in Marylebone, London to Elizabeth Bateman who had been born in Selby, Yorkshire.  A few months earlier, in July, Richard’s younger brother, Charles, was married to her sister, Sarah,

also from Selby. The brothers may have both gone to London to work or been in the army, but the sequence suggests that Charles was the one in London and Richard only met his future wife through his sister-in-law.  Richard was not a witness at Charles’s marriage although Charles witnessed his.  Charles also seemed to have made connections in London as by 1841 he had returned there after a brief career as a publican in Farnham. He later became an excise officer and

moved to the Midlands and later Cheshire.

Richard also returned to Surrey and when his first child (Sarah) was born in 1833 he was also working as a publican.  This was at the Greyhound, at the time the only pub in Ash.  The Greyhound had been bought in 1807 by Thomas Thompson, Richard’s uncle.  He also owned a small farm opposite the Greyhound and combined the two businesses.  He grew hops on the farm and built a hopkiln and brewhouse at the Greyhound.  His own home, (now Ash Church Mews)

included a malthouse.  

He died in 1823, left everything to his wife, but arranged that when she died - which was in 1826 - his pub and brewing business was inherited by his son Thomas (1803-77) and his house by his eldest son John (1800-42).  His other 2 sons, Frederic (1808) and George (1819) were left money and land in their parents’ wills.  Both left the village when they reached 21 and put their inheritance to good use elsewhere.  Frederic married the daughter of a wealthy Chobham farmer in 1832 and set up as a butcher in Windlesham.  When his first wife died in 1842 he married again in 1845, this time to a wealthy Guernsey family and he was living and working there in 1851.  However, in middle age he chose to become an innkeeper, moved to Reading and died there in 1860.  George was established as a farmer in Wonersh by the age of 22, later moving to a large farm in Worplesdon, where he became an auctioneer as well. He died in 1869.  Both brothers were buried in Ash, where their gravestones are still visible.

Thomas and John continued to run the farm and brewing business in Ash but as Thomas and his wife, Lucy were childless and John never married, they needed help.  So cousin Richard was an ideal choice to manage the pub, as he could help Thomas on the farm as well.  Richard stayed at the Greyhound for several years as his next 2 children, William (1835) and Lucy (1837) were also baptised there when he was a publican.  When Lucy died in October 1838 he was still living in Ash.

But by February 1840, when Albert was born and baptised, he had taken on the tenancy of a small farm - just 21 acres - at Willey Green, Worplesdon.  This was Old House Farm, Bailes Lane and Richard was said to be living there in several of the baptism records of Jane (1842), Charles (1845), Richard (1848), Mary (1851) and John (1853).  Willey Green is in the far west of Worplesdon, as was Wyke where some of Richard and Elizabeth’s children were baptised, but both were added to

Ash in 1890.  Later the parish of Normandy was created where both hamlets can now be found.  Willey Green is about a mile south of Henley Park.  

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Henry Halsey and his son purchased land in Worplesdon and Pirbright.  In fact, in 1773 Henry purchased the manor of Pirbright and all its lands.  In 1788 Henry had purchased Bailes Farm, which lay across the lane from Old House Farm but in the late 1830s when the trustees of the owner, who had died in 1821, decided to sell Old House Farm, Henry’s son was either not interested or outbid.  The new owner was Alexander Robertson and Richard Thompson became his first tenant in 1839 or 1840.  By then the holding may have been a bit run down after so long in trust.

Richard may have been known to Henry Halsey 2 (HH2), who took over management of the Halsey estates in 1822 when he became of age and took up residence at Henley Park.  Henley Park is less than 3 miles from Ash and some contact with nearby publicans must have been inevitable, if only by the staff.  Alternatively, Richard may have gained a good reputation as a farmer and when HH2 needed a new tenant for one of his farms in Pirbright, either he chose Richard Thompson or Richard asked to be considered.  Certainly there seemed to have been more than a commercial landlord and tenant relationship between the 2 men.  HH2 provided

homes, employment and farm tenancies to Richard and his sons until he died in 1887.

Richard’s new home was Rails Farm - at 70 acres much bigger than Old House Farm - but in other ways less attractive. The area was often referred to as Peat Moor, and the going would have been much harder than at Worplesdon.  Although a very old farm in the 1500s it was described as “60 acres, parcel of the demesne of the manor, which lies waste to the use of the does in the forest and thus is worth, yearly - nothing”.  To this day Rails Farm is surrounded by woodland which isolates it from the rest of Pirbright.  We have shown a photo of Rails Farm, taken in the 1920s, below.