History - and why we need to keep Chedham's Yard alive.

Why we need to keep Chedham's Yard alive.

Chedham's Yard is situated within the village of Wellesbourne, Warwickshire. Since c1850 the character of the yard has changed little and the site has retained its characteristic long and narrow shape, which previously connected the plot to the River Dene, prior to the diversion of the river as part of a flood defence scheme. Surviving buildings comprise the wheelwright's workshop, the blacksmith's workshop and a roofed area in between the two buildings, formerly used as a drying shed. The wealth of associated collections within all three structures reflects their former use as a busy rural working place throughout the last 150 years. There are a number of associated items of machinery positioned in the Yard which help to demonstrate the interrelationship of the workshops and the uncovered areas of the site.

Wellesbourne Parish Council purchased the site in February 2002, after almost two centuries of consecutive ownership by the Chedham family. The Chedhams were first mentioned as wheelwrights in Wellesbourne around 1813, and the previous owner, William 'Bill' Chedham, still lives in the area today and is an active member of the 'Friends of Chedham's Yard' local group.

Chedham's Yard is primarily significant as an exceptional and well-preserved example of a site that represents a vanishing way of life and its associated facets.

The Yard is an exceptional example of a traditional rural craft-shop combining the rarely surviving wealth of collections with their original surroundings. The collective value of the site, therefore, is particularly significant. The protection and enhancement of this value needs to be considered prior to and during any future development or work at the site.

Chedham's Yard is deeply embedded in the social and historical fabric of the local community and was once a vital part of the rural economy. Therefore, it has an outstanding local significance. In addition, the survival of both the buildings and the collections within their original context gives the site an important role in furthering regional and national understanding of 19th century rural crafts. The original leather bellows and the early horizontal sawing bench are potentially of national significance as examples of 19th century technology.

Chedham's Yard - Historical Background

Chedham's Yard is situated on a branch off Church Walk, occupying a narrow finger of land that originally backed onto the River Dene at its distal end.

Until the Parish Council purchased the site, it belonged to the Chedham family and had been their workplace for the previous 170 years.

Up to 1756 the ground belonged to the Nason family, well established yeoman farmers in the neighbourhood. In that year it changed hands and was purchased by Edward Riley, member of an equally prominent farming family, although Edward himself was a tailor. It was let to William Plestow, a subsistence farmer, who had a cottage, outbuildings and an orchard on the site. It was probably on or near the site of the present Buckle House. Between the date of Riley's purchase and 1782 the cottage was demolished and a new more substantial one built - Buckle House - which was a typical farmhouse of the period. Rileys and their relatives farmed and carried on a butchering trade here until 1821 with all the associated buildings - shop, slaughter house and starving pens - these either to the side, or rear, of the farmhouse. The Yard itself remained as orchard. After attempts to lease the premises for the same purpose, Edward's son, another Edward, had the four cottages tagged onto the side of the farmhouse. This speculative venture was based on the need for housing for an ever increasing labour force, but was swiftly followed by mortgaging and eventual drifting away as a Riley possession.

It was about this time that Thomas Chedham came on the scene. He had worked in Birmingham and Stow-on-the-Wold. Riley family involvement in agriculture and the constant need for repairs by skilled tradesmen prompted the erection of the purpose made buildings. Richard Riley was looked to for underwriting the debts of Thomas later on. After the death of a competing blacksmith in 1836, Thomas and his sons cornered the market for the repair of farm vehicles. However, the volatile economy of the 1830s plagued the business and after repeated bankruptcies and outliving his two wives, Thomas finished his working days for another wheelwright in Warwick. He died in 1856 aged 70. His move to Warwick may have been to allow Henry, his eldest, to work the Yard and have Buckle House. He married Caroline Bustin, the miller's daughter, and produced a sizeable family, five of which were boys. All followed the family tradition and specialised in various aspects. Thomas the eldest boy and Henry and Albert the youngsters, involved themselves with woodwork, while William and John took on the ironwork. Their grandfather had taken on shoeing as well as all the other tasks but William concentrated on carts and wagons and other farm implements. There were more specialised shoeing smiths in the village by this time. Bettridges of Wellesbourne Hastings likewise starting as carpenters and wheelwrights, were gathering a large workforce and producing more refined vehicles.

By the 1860s Chedhams were operating a threshing service alongside the wheelwright business. Teams would go out to local farms with steam powered threshing machines and contract to deal with the risks of sheathed corn.

As the family grew up so they dispersed, Thomas marrying and moving to Birmingham, Albert to Leamington and John to the other Wellesbourne. With William's premature death in 1881 the business was inherited by Henry Jnr on his father's death a few years later.

Since the 1830s the Chedhams rented the premises and farmhouse and the cottages were being let separately. In the 1870s they paid £17-0-0 half yearly to the descendents of the Tibbits family from whom Rileys acquired their mortgage. By default a farmer from Leicestershire became the owner and on his death the legatees swiftly put all property to auction. Henry Chedham Snr's home and livelihood depended upon the outcome of this auction. He was successful at the auction having to find 10% deposit and eventually obtaining a loan from Wellesbourne Oddfellows.

On Henry's death, Henry Jnr continued both sides of the business and likewise his three sons followed on - Fred with the wheelwrighting and William and Albert (Joe) with threshing operations. Of Henry's children only Albert married. As the older members of the family died, he eventually inherited the property and with his William (Bill) looked to varied agricultural tasks. Work cease at the Yard in 1965 when Albert died. Sale of Buckle House and the cottages soon followed. Bill retained the Yard for his own diverse interests until sold to the Parish Council in 2002