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Hill Ridware
According to Stebbing Shaw:
‘The most publick road in the
parish lay through this village, the stocks
and whipping post still stand here, where
the three roads meet; and here, I have no
doubt, stood a cross anciently, for ‘Le Hyll
cross’ is named in 1530.
There are 30 houses and 33
families giving 143 inhabitants. Of the
families, there are two farmers, one
gardener, one shopkeeper, one butcher, four
tailors, three shoemakers, one blacksmith,
eleven labourers and two paupers, besides
two individual paupers. Here are two publick
houses, at each of which an amicable society
(instituted in 1772 and 1787) has its annual
feast on Whitsun Monday and 29 May.
Though the parish has not the
advantage of a resident clergyman, here are
two day schools for girls and another for
boys, instructed by the parish clerk.’
Rake End
Rake End, according to Stebbing Shaw, was
separate from Hill Ridware many centuries
back, but when he wrote they were almost
joining.
‘Le Rake is named in 1334 and
Rakeynd in 1523. In 1334 Robert Mauveysin,
and Margaret his wife, granted a cottage,
with a curtilage adjoining, and a small
piece of land adjoining, where a certain
forge used to stand which Simon the smith
formerly held in Le Rake, to be held by the
payment of three shillings annually and one
new head for a broad barbed arrow. The word
Rake signifies a road - meaning the end of
the village rake or road.
Wade Lane House, an ancient
stone building, belonging to Mr Chadwick,
but occupied by Mr George Webb, a principal
freeholder, stands a little retired from the
publick road, with which it is connected by
a lane named Wade-lane, probably from its
being occasionally so watery as hardly to be
passed dry shod, the whole village being
annoyed by well-springs near the surface.
Wadelone is named in 1393, when Agnes de
Hanley &c. are presented, at Mavesyn Ridware
court, for having blocked up a certain road
at Wade-lone by not cleaning a certain
ditch. The Well-house is a neat modern brick
house, standing by the roadside, erected
about 70 years ago, having been lately
improved by the present owner, Mr C B
Robinson, attorney at law’
(now the Old Rectory, Hill
Ridware?).
‘This hamlet contains 23
houses with 25 families and 133 inhabitants.
Of the families, four are freeholders, four
farmers, one wheelwright, one joiner, one
maltster, one shopkeeper, one tailor, one
sawyer, nine labourers and two paupers’.
In 1846, Hill Ridware and Rake End were
separate.
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