Sunnyside Farmhouse, Barretts Lane

We can trace the history of the house today known as Sunnyside Farmhouse back to the very end of the 17th century, when Francis & Mary Tyringham sold a messuage and seven closes to Richard Eabourne. The farm remained in the extended Eabourne family for a century until 1801, when the family sold it to Thomas Tidmarsh. The farm was sold again in 1849, and after the house had lain empty for several years, it became home first to the Ward family and then, until 1954, to the Batchelors. Today the original cottage has been extended and the former farm buildings have been converted into a dwelling called Meadow Barn.

Outline of the farm at the time of the Tithe Apportionment (1839). The farmhouse is on the far western edge. Access the live (clickable) map here.

Grimshaw and Tyringham (1698)

The earliest record so far located for the property is a ‘bargain & sale’ made on 23 May 1698 between Francis Tyringham of Aylesbury, Esquire and Mary his wife on the one hand, and Richard Eabourne of Allesley, Gent., on the other. Eabourne paid £340 (about £36k today) for all that messuage in Oldnall End; plus seven closes called Barn Field, Little Grove, Great Grove, Poole Field, Birchy Field, Neither Field and meadow adjoining.1 The farm at the time of sale was tenanted by John Brookes.

How did a couple from Aylesbury come to own a farm in Berkswell? Well, Mary Tyringham was born Mary Grimshaw, daughter to Richard and Mary (Greswolde) Grimshaw of Grimshaw Hall in Knowle, just up the road from Berkswell. When Mary married Francis Tyringham at Coleshill in 1695,2 she brought a substantial property portfolio as part of her marriage settlement, which may have included the Berkswell farm.3 In May 1698, having settled in Buckinghamshire, the Tyringhams sold off all Mary’s Warwickshire property, including the farm.

The Eabourne-Wigley-Rich Family (1698-1801)

The farm’s new owner was Richard Eabourne,4 a wealthy landowner from the neighbouring parish of Allesley, who bought it as an investment. Over the next century, the farm was passed down through several generations of his family, including his great grand-daughter Martha Eburne, who received the farm as part of her marriage settlement in 1746.5 During the Eburne family’s ownership, the farm was rented out to younger members of various prominent Berkswell families, often newlyweds looking for their first smallholding.

When Martha (now Mrs Wigley of Leicestershire) wrote her will in 1767, the farm was tenanted by William Thompson,6 who had grown up at elegant Four Oaks in the north of the parish, and married Martha Harper in 1761. Sadly William died in 1772 at the very young age of 31, and Martha Thompson left the farm soon afterwards. The next recorded tenant, between 1781 and 1801, was William Watson, a member of another prominent local family who lived at what is now the Brickmaker’s Arms.7

Martha Wigley’s will gave rise to an extended Chancery case between various potential heirs, including members of the Eburne, Lewis and Wigley families.8 Eventually, the Berkswell farm ended up with John Rich and his wife, Martha’s distant relative Elizabeth Eburne. John and Elizabeth lived at Bearley near Stratford upon Avon and seem to have had money troubles, for in 1798 they mortgaged the farm and its seven closes (along with some other properties) for £490,9 and a year later they put it up for sale:

FREEHOLD ESTATE AT BERKSWELL. To be SOLD by AUCTION … A VALUABLE and DESIRABLE FREEHOLD ESTATE, situate at Berkswell, in the County of Warwick, consisting of a Farm House, with suitable Outbuildings, and 27A 3R 28P of Arable, Meadow, and Pasture Land, divided into Seven Parts or Closes (exclusive of the Yards and Gardens) and now in the Occupation of William Watson, as Tenant at Will.10

The farm did not sell immediately, and six months later the Riches took out another mortgage, this time for £1000.11 Eighteen months later, in April 1801, they finally found a purchaser.12

Thomas Tidmarsh and his tenants (1801-1861)

The new owner of the farm and its 7 closes was Thomas Tidmarsh (1763-1830), a farmer from Berkswell. He and his wife Sarah lived and worked at the farm for twenty years before moving back to Balsall, where Sarah died in 1826 and Thomas in 1830.13 Thomas and Sarah had no surviving children, but in his will, Thomas left his property, including the farm, in trust to his housekeeper Mrs Mary Lowe for her lifetime, instructing that it would then be ‘sold and divided between his nephews and nieces’.14

After moving to Balsall, the Tidmarshes rented the farm out. The tenant in 1825 and 1830 was George Docker, from yet another prominent local family.15 George’s parents James and Sarah ran the shop on the corner of Sunnyside Lane and Dockers Lane (now Station Road), while his grandfather had farmed at Barretts Lane Farm, then known as ‘Dockers in the Hole’. George married Henrietta Pattison in 1828, but the marriage was not successful and he relocated to Birmingham, where he died in 1861.16

The next tenants we know of are Henry and Maria Raven, who married at Ryton on Dunsmore in 1836.17 They had arrived at the farm by 1839, when the Tithe Apportionment records them occupying the house and eight fields, still totalling around 28 acres. The Ravens were still in residence in 1849, when Thomas Tidmarsh’s heir Mary Lowe died at the age of 85. As Tidmarsh had requested, his estate (including the farm) was then put up for sale:

LOT VII. A very compact FREEHOLD FARM, situate in the Parish of Berkeswell, within Half a Mile of the Docker’s Lane Station on the London and North-Western Railway, comprising 8 Inclosures of Arable, Meadow, and Pasture Land, in a good state of cultivation, with a small Farm House and suitable Farm Buildings, and Rickyard, Garden, and Orchard, all within a ring-fence, containing 27A 3R 38P, and in the occupation of Mr Henry Raven. This Lot is situate at a short distance from the Turnpike Road, and there is a quantity of fine thriving Timber, principally Oak, growing thereon, which the purchaser will be required to take at a fair valuation.18

The purchaser remains to be identified, although the 1861 census shows Thomas and Ann Wetton in residence with their three daughters. Ann was Thomas’s great-niece, born Ann Tidmarsh, so perhaps the family had maintained a connection.

Later Years

The censuses for 1871 and 1881 show Sunnyside Farmhouse as unoccupied.19 The next long-term tenant was John Ward, a widower from Hampton in Arden, who had arrived by 1891, when the census records him with a housekeeper, Mary Bunney (described as a servant, but probably John’s stepdaughter) and her ten-year-old granddaughter. Ward remained at the five-roomed farmhouse until his death in 1917 at the age of 95. His executors auctioned off his furniture (‘including several antiques’) and livestock, comprising six cows, three horses, six pigs, and ’10 couples of fowl’.20

The next tenants were Thomas and Elizabeth Batchelor with their young adult children Thomas and May. The family had previously lived at Bradnocks Marsh, where Thomas senior was a gardener. Now at Sunnyside, he described himself on the 1921 census as a ‘farmer smallholder,’ and by 1939 he had diversified into haulage. Elizabeth and Thomas died in 1943 and 1950 respectively, and in 1954 their son Tom sold off the farm. The newspaper advertisement provides a detailed description of the house:

By direction of Mr Tom Batchelor, Important Sale of the Highly Productive Freehold Small Farm known as “Sunnyside Farm”, Barratts Lane, Balsall Common, with an attractive small farm residence. Soundly built of mellowed red brickwork, part ivy-clad and with a roof of tiles, beautifully decorated inside and out and with such interesting features as beamed ceilings, wall timbers, &c., and containing two Living-rooms, roomy Kitchen, Dairy-Larder, three very pleasant Bedrooms, Elsan Lavatory, &c., and with MAIN ELECTRICITY AND WATER. USEFUL FARM BUILDINGS planned on dry Yard and on a Rickyard with separate entrance gates from the lane, including Cowhouse for four, Calf-pens, Calving Boxes, Stables, Pig Pens, GARAGE with room for two lorries and with Petrol Pump having 400-gallon underground storage tank. THREE-BAY DUTCH BARN, open-front implement shed, &c. EXCELLENT HEALTHY LAND – Compactly arranged in convenient-sized Enclosures, all except 3 ½ acres being Pasture, extending to an AREA OF ABOUT 34 ½ ACRES which is noted in the district for its quality and for its stock carrying capacity. VACANT POSSESSION.21

The farm was purchased by Mr WA Newsome, but farming didn’t suit him and he put the farm back on the market five years later.22

Today Sunnyside Farmhouse is still notable for its ‘mellowed red brickwork’, although the ‘useful farm buildings’ have been converted into a separate dwelling called Meadow Barn. Its seven closes of land – now under separate ownership – still stretch away down the hill to Bayleys Brook as they have done since at least 1698, although the Brook now runs in the shadow of HS2 and the fields are soon to be developed for housing.

House Close from Barretts Ln in 2022. The field runs from the rear of the farmhouse down towards Bayleys Brook and the railway. HS2 cranes are visible mid-horizon.

Notes

  1. Bargain & Sale from Tyringham to Ebourne. 23 May 1698. Warwickshire Archives CR 299/141. ↩︎
  2. Marriage of Francis Terringham [sic] Esq, of Lower Winchendon, Bucks., & Mary Grimshaw of Coleshill, by licence. 9 May 1695. Coleshill St Peter & St Paul. ↩︎
  3. See catalogue entry for ‘Abstract of Title of Francis Tyringham to lands bought by Thomas Doley, gent.’ Shakespeare Birthplace Trust DR 37/2/Box 73/68. The entry refers to the marriage settlement made on 24 August 1694. Original documents yet to be consulted. ↩︎
  4. Alt: Eabourn(e), Ebburn(e), Eburn(e). ↩︎
  5. Marriage of James Wigley of Scraptoft Leics and Mrs Martha Ebourne. 28 July 1746. Allesley, All Saints. Marriage settlement mentioned in CR299/81 (Warwickshire Archives). ↩︎
  6. Will of Martha Wigley of Scraptoft, Leicestershire, widow. 10 October 1767. Probate 12 February 1774. The will describes ‘two messuages and land in Berkswell, now or late occ. William Thompson & Thomas Sly’. Thomas Sly was the tenant of Conways Farm, so we can surmise that the tenant of Sunnyside farmhouse was William Thompson. ↩︎
  7. There are two possible candidates for William’s identity: William Watson (1738-1809) who married Mary Foxall in 1768, or his nephew William (1765-1853) who never married and lived at the Brickmakers Arms with his unmarried siblings. ↩︎
  8. The case is summarised in the catalogue entry for Coventry Archives PA 47/52/1. ↩︎
  9. Mortgage by John Rich the Elder of Bearley and Elizabeth. 22-23 January 1798. Warwickshire Archives CR 611/617/1-3. ↩︎
  10. ‘Freehold Estate at Berkswell.’ Birmingham Gazette, 4 Mar. 1799: 4. ↩︎
  11. Mortgage by John Rich the elder of Bearley and Elizabeth. 14 Nov. 1799. Warwickshire Archives. CR 611/617/1-3. ↩︎
  12. Indenture. 7 Apr. 1801. Thomas Tidmarsh of Berkswell, farmer, from John Rich Senior of Bearley &c. Coventry Archives PA 242/10/22. ↩︎
  13. Burial. Thomas Tidmarsh of Balsall, age 67. 28 Aug. 1830. Berkswell St John the Baptist. ↩︎
  14. Will of Thomas Tidmarsh of Balsall, yeoman, 24 Aug. 1830. Probate: PCC, 10 Dec. 1830. See also Coventry Standard, 6 Apr. 1849: 1. ↩︎
  15. Land Tax 1825, 1830. Owner: Thomas Tidmarsh. Occupier: George Docker. ↩︎
  16. George and Henrietta had two daughters, but George left them in Coventry, preferring to join his father and brothers in Birmingham. In 1840, the Berkswell Overseers finally tracked him down and charged him with ‘having neglected to provide for his wife and family.’ Birmingham Journal, 10 Oct. 1840: 3. ↩︎
  17. Marriage of Henry Raven and Maria Gardner. 20 Mar. 1836. Ryton on Dunsmore, St Leonard. ↩︎
  18. ‘Lot VII,’ Coventry Standard, 9 Mar. 1849: 1. ↩︎
  19. By process of elimination; the other three properties on the lane are all accounted for. ↩︎
  20. ‘Sunnyside, Berkswell,’ Coventry Standard, 26 Jan. 1917: 6. ↩︎
  21. Birmingham Daily Post, 24 Apr. 1954: 16. ↩︎
  22. Coleshill Chronicle, 21 Feb. 1959: 2. ↩︎