Archive Record
COMFORTS PLACE FARM, BLINDLEY HEATH, GODSTONE: FARM ACCOUNTS, 1807-1814
Reference Number: 557
Descriptive Information about the Record (click to expand) Provenance Deposited by the Revd. K G Hoare in February 1960, who was given the volume when Rector of Godstone. Presumably it was presented by a member of the Steer family: the book is certainly mentioned in a newspaper report of the burial of Mrs A M Steer in 1932 inserted in the back of the volume.
-Introduction George Steer's parents John Steer and Joanna Arnold were married by licence at Godstone parish church on 10 November 1762. (P25/1/44). They were at Tandridge, John's native parish, for the baptism of their first son William on 1 November 1763 (P24/9/1), and were still 'Tandridge parishioners' when George's baptism was registered at Crowhurst on 30 January 1765 (P51/1/2). Thereafter the family moved to Godstone; further children were baptized there from 1767 onwards (P25/1/43). [Their mother, although clearly signing herself Joanna in the marriage register, is always entered as 'Hannah' in the baptism registers]. The Godstone vestry minutes (P25/3/1) show that by the age of 30 George was involved in parish administration - in 1796 he acted as overseer of the poor on his father's behalf. He continued these duties until 1800 and in later years served on several occasions as churchwarden and surveyor of the highways as well as acting again as overseer, the last time being in 1826.
On 18 April 1804 he married Maria Selmes at Godstone (P25/1/46). Details of their six children, born between 1807 and 1822, are recorded at the beginning of the farm account book. Financial transactions with various members of the Selmes family appear in the accounts, particularly thatching materials, livestock and corn sold to 'Messrs Selmes'. The accounts also show that George's brother William took an active part in running the farm. After George's death in 1831, aged 66, Maria continued to hold the farm: she is described as 'farmer' in County Directories of 1845 and 1855. The family's connection with Comforts Place Farm seems to have ceased after her death in 1858 (aged 77), although George, the eldest son, was still at Godstone in 1867 as licensee of the White Hart Inn. (Kelly's Directory).
Comforts Place farmhouse is illustrated and described in sale particulars of 1911 (SP8/4) as a late sixteenth century manor house of Sussex type, of brick and half timbering, with Horsham stone roof, and barn of equal age.
In Antiquities and Conservation Areas of Surrey (S.C.C Town & Country Planning Committee) 6th ed., 1976, the house and barn are mentioned as listed buildings dating from the fifteenth and seventeeth centuries. For a long period the farm was owned by the Budgen family of Nutfield; a deed of 1675/6 records its purchase by John Budgen from John Newneham of Newdigate, son and heir of the last owner. (212/53/13).
An abstract of title (181/2/3) reveals that the Comforts Place estate was mortgaged throughout the period 1750-1825 by three generations of Budgens. John Smith Budgen (d.1805) and Thomas Budgen were the owners during the Steer family's tenancy: Thomas is frequently recorded in the farm accounts.
John Steer presumably moved from Tandridge after George's birth to take up the lease of Comforts Place Farm, although there is no documentary evidence earlier than the first surviving land tax returns of 1780. He is there listed as occupier of J S Budgen's property and also as occupier of land owned by the Merchant Taylors Company. In 1806 George Steer took over both tenancies on his father's death and is listed in the land tax returns until his own death in 1831. An agreement dated 8 September 1815 (181/2/2) states that George is to continue the lease of Comforts Place Farm and lands called Bysh fields on a year to year basis, as in his father's time, at a rent of £130, payable at Michaelmas, together with 'two couple of good fat capons at Christmas'.
Sale particulars, dated July 1830 (181/2/4), give details of the farmhouse and buildings and the names and acreages of the fields. The farm was estimated to extend to just over 229 acres: annotations on the particulars show that it was sold for £3650.
Earlier sale particulars (181/2/1) relate to the Bysh fields at Hatchgate, mentioned in the 1815 agreement. These lands were offered for sale in 1806 and were presumably purchased by Thomas Budgen with George Steer as sitting tenant. The farm account book includes a reference to the farm cottage accompanying these lands being let to William Heath in 1809.
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Farm accounts book Accounts made by George Steer when tenant of Comfo... Title Farm accounts book Accounts made by George Steer when tenant of Comforts Place Farm, Blindley Heath, Godstone. At back of volume inserted, list of Steer family buried in Godstone churchyard and note from newspaper report of death of Mrs A M Steer, 1932. Contents of the volume include: On the farm: Details of crops grown, including oats, wheat, peas, clover, potatoes, acreages and yields, different types of seed eg red chaff, and Danzic wheat, Scotch and 'Tanteeriers' oats, tail clover and clover from Essex grown by Messrs Phillipson and Hewson; experiments with different methods of sowing; improvement of land by sheep folding, manuring and liming (accounts suggest lime burning in kilns on the fields); cutting of woodland for stakes, faggots and saleable timber; purchase of fruit trees and bushes (red & white currants, apples, quinces); stock records; purchase and sale of Dorset and Southdown sheep, individual animals mated eg 'the Broken Horned Cow', 'the checker faced cow', 'the middle age sow', 'Smiler' (mare); expenses of fattening pigs; details of threshing and milling costs; hire of farm servants with notes of some taken on for help with harvest; sale of produce, particularly butter sent to Croydon market, sheep, ducks, chickens, geese, pigs, corn, also planks of pear wood sent to Mr Thickbroom, timber merchant, Millbank, by the Croydon Canal, Jan 1813; repairs and improvements to farm buildings, especially re-flooring of the oat barn by agreement with proprietor Thomas Budgen; leases of land and buildings and annual gifts to landlord (capons, pheasants, hares). Official: Payments for materials and labour for road maintenance, 1809-1812; receipt and distribution of charitable bequests to parish poor, particularly from Smith's Charity and Sir John Evelyn's charity (rent charge on Blue Anchor Farm, Godstone); placing of parish children; hire of cottages for poor, 1809, namely 'the Pest House, the Hilleyfield Gate House and the Hutt opposite the south end of the workhouse'; payments for sparrow eggs and young collected vermin; also note of expenses relating to celebration of the Golden Jubilee of George III; purchase of cow and two sheep, bread and beer, distributed to the poor, 25 Oct 1809, 'being the day King George the third entered the fiftieth year of his reign'. Personal: Records of the birth and baptism of his children; financial transactions with other members of the family; notes of expenses connected with Godstone Association for the prosecution of felons; remedies for sore lips; weather conditions (a few notes on air pressure and temperature), also a note that underground stream 'the bone of water' [also known as Woe Water - see newscuttings inserted p.41] flowed 1809, 1811 and 1812; agreement to share newspapers (County Chronicle and Baldwin's) with neighbour, 1814; notes of various light-hearted wagers - ages of neighbours, lengths of rooms, yields and prices of corn. Reference 557/1 Unit Date 1807-1814 Start Date 18070101 End Date 18141231 Letter concerning annuity due to Godstone poor from Ewell benefice. [... Title Letter concerning annuity due to Godstone poor from Ewell benefice. [Damp damaged but transcribed in 557/1] Reference 557/2 Unit Date 1810 Start Date 18100101 End Date 18101231
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