James and Ann Bridge, about 1865, and a painting of their home by their daughter Mary.

James and Ann Bridge, about 1865, and a painting of their home by their daughter Mary.

The original picture of James belongs to his great granddaughter Karin van Blerck; that of Ann comes from Walter Bridge's photoalbum. Curiously, the figure of Ann (together with the table) has been cut out from another picture and rephotographed, as can be seen from the lack of a background and the faint outline round the head. (Here and elsewhere moving the pointer over any image with a thin double border will automatically reveal an enlargement.)

The original of Mary's painting belongs to a grand-daughter Lorraine van Rij who now lives in New Zealand and was scanned by Clayton Allsop. It is in very poor condition with several tears round the edges; this image has been enhanced slightly. Clayton describes it as having a water-colour background with the central picture in oils. On the back is written "Painted by Mary Bridge 1864 aged 10 years." (then) "Beaver Farm Ashford Kent (Birthplace)". The family had moved to Hothfield by the next year so this may have been why Mary did the painting. Later photographs show it to be substantially accurate, so clearly she was already a competent artist.

1815 was the year of the battle of Waterloo and the army was moving men and materials through Dover in preparation for the final campaign against Napoleon. Army carts collected loads of supplies from the local farms. Young James took a ride, clinging on the side of a cart; he was thrown down when it lurched into a deep rut. His right leg went under a wheel and was broken. The break mended but he was left with a marked limp.

This story came to me from Erik von Zweigbergk, who heard it as a boy from his grandmother Mary, the sixth of James' ten children. The photograph (above) taken when James was about 60 shows him sitting with his right leg straight, as though he could not bend the knee.

The tithe records comprise high-quality, large-scale maps with all fields numbered and catalogued, so we can identify James's farm as outlined here. (Move the pointer over the map to see it full size.) In addition to the area marked the 57 acres included several other fields: three water meadows bordering the river, one across the new railway line across the top of the map and a large field on the other side of Ashford. Lastly there was a group of buildings in Ashford, on the north side of the Maidstone Rd., described as "Barn Lodge and Yard". This could well have been the base for continuing business as a carter, though there is no other confirmation of this.

The dotted section of road on the map was catalogued as the "forstall" and would have been gated. The sections of road on either side would therefore have been used only by traffic to and from the farm itself. The inset on the map shows the farm buildings in more detail, based on the 1:2500 Ordnance Survey map of 1873. This plan view seems to be an exact match to a photograph (no. 2535 in the Local Studies collection) in the Ashford Library, taken about 1900 and showing a farmhouse and out-buildings in the background with a gate across the road in the foreground (tastefully decorated with two ladies!). The location is identified only as being in Beaver Green but the gate across the road and the layout of the buildings both fit with the map.

James Bridge's farm from the west, about 1900.
Original photograph cropped and tinted to emphasize the buildings and reproduced with permission.

About 1923, the farm was bought by W Richardson and my thanks go to his great grand-daughter Margaret Nash for recently sending me some photographs taken of Beaver Farm around 1960, not long before it was demolished. One shows the west face and is a perfect match to the 1900 photograph. The view of the east face (taken for the Kentish Express, no. 61/694, and reproduced with permission) is eerily similar to Mary's painting, despite some differences in detail, most obviously in the width of the bedroom windows. However, there really was a bedroom window to the right of the porch; another picture shows that this had been bricked up. It is easy to understand how the painting could be immediately recognised by a living member of the Richardson family who had known the house first-hand.

Beaver Farm in 1961, east front

According to my informant, the farmhouse itself was not occupied after 1923 though it remained in use for rearing chicks and storing apples while the old kitchen was used as a laundry and another room was used as a darkroom. Part of the land was used to build the Hillyfields estate (named after one of the fields shown on the old tithe map). Bricks were in short supply and some were made on the farm, using clay dug near the road through the farm. Before firing, bricks need to dry out and for this are mounted in racks called "hacks"; these were placed in another field called the Hackfield and this name also survives as the name of a road in modern Beaver. The remaining land was bought for housing by compulsory purchase by Ashford District Council, about 1952; the farm buildings themselves remained in the hands of the Richardson family until 1966 when they also were bought and demolished for more housing.

The house occupied by the family in 1871 is at the right of this view of North St., taken from a picture postcard dated 1912. At the time they must have been quite well off, since it is large and well-situated, close to the market and the church. The house still exists, seemingly unchanged and indeed the view down North Street has changed surprisingly little, at least looking in the direction shown. Turn around and the old road is closed by modern buildings, with the Ashford ring road on the further side.

This appears to be Harriet in about 1860-65, judging by her appearance; there is a strong resemblance to the later picture, particularly in the distinctively triangular jaw line. I don't know how she came to be in St. Leonard's (adjoining Hastings) but it would have been easily accessible from Ashford by rail even in 1860. Perhaps she attended a teacher training centre run by the Church of England, which started to set up such courses in the 1820s.

The small format limits the detail that can be seen but even so the dark eyes and slightly receding chin give a clear resemblance to the picture of the young Elizabeth .

Deal is about 5 miles from Richborough and likely then to be the nearest place with a photography studio. Annie appears still to be in her twenties, so this picture was probably taken soon after she came to keep house for her brother.

The style of the dress gives an approximate date and the rather unusual fringe of hair matches the picture of the young Annie, so I think it is fair to identify this as Annie in her 40s. I do not know how she came to be in Canterbury but it would have been no more than an hour's journey from Ashford by train.

William is clearly recognisable in this picture, sent me by Ros Dachs, which shows Mary with three children, of whom just one is named on the back as "Kathleen, age 3½". The younger girl on the left was Annie; there are no other photos of her. Apparently both she and William died young. Ros Dachs found the baptismal records for all three children in the archives of St. George's Cathedral, Cape Town.