The Moe House, which I previously referred to as Garlington House, stood until the early 19th century at the end of a track leading from Waste Lane. It is recorded on the 1802 Berkswell Enclosure Map (below), but had vanished by the time of the 1839 Tithe Apportionment. Today its site is an empty field.

Our evidence for the Moe House’s existence comes from the Enclosure Map, which shows an L-shaped house with a long (3-bay?) front range, a porch, and a 1-bay rear range to the left (all coloured red). Behind is a separate building, perhaps a barn (coloured black). The Enclosure map is exquisitely detailed, and the cartographer appears to have depicted building footprints with a high degree of accuracy, which gives us confidence that his depiction reflects the Moe House as it was in 1802.

I’ve named the Moe House for the earliest owners we know about, recorded in Land Tax entries for 1773-1805 as Mr Moe’s Heirs. The only Moe family to appear in Berkswell parish records were William and Mary (Love) Moe, who were buried in Berkswell in 1761 and 1762. They were originally from Coventry, but may have moved to Berkswell when their daughter Elizabeth married one of the parish’s most prominent residents, John Paynter.¹ ‘Mr Moe’s Heirs’ were successively Elizabeth (d.1777), her son John Paynter junior (d.c.1785), and John’s wife Catherine (nee Thompson, later Barratt) and daughter Mary Paynter.

Mr Moe’s Heirs did not live in the Moe House, but rented it out to local farmer John White and his wife Mary, who are recorded there from at least 1780 to 1800. Tax records show that in 1790, John leased a large field to his neighbour William Reader, who grew 30 stone of flax on it. By 1805, Catherine’s second husband Thomas Barratt is recorded as tenant, although it is likely he lived at one of his other two Oldnall End properties.

By 1810, the Barratts had sold the Moe House and land to William Reader, who farmed the adjacent land to the south. Reader let the estate to his son Samuel and daughter in law Penelope (nee Garner). It isn’t clear whether Samuel and Penelope lived in the Moe House or at the Reader family farm on Meeting House Lane. Certainly the Moe house had been demolished by the time of the Tithe Apportionment in 1839, which records the site as (938) Garlington Meadow. This wasn’t a permanent name; when Samuel Reader junior put the farm up for sale in 1848, it was called Calves’ Meadow.² It remains farmland today.

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Read More

• ‘Now you see it’ … on the hunt for the mysterious Garlington House (22 March 2023)
• Update! The Mystery House is now the slightly-less-mysterious house (11 November 2023)

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The Moe House Timeline

Date	Details	Source
18 Aug. 1761	Burial of William MOE, Berkswell	Parish records
22 Mar. 1762	Burial of Mary MOE, Berkswell	Parish records
1773-5	Owner: Mr Moe’s Heirs	Land Tax
8 Dec. 1777	Burial of Elizabeth (Moe) PAYNTER, Berkswell	Parish records
23 Jan. 1778	Marriage of John PAYNTER & Catherine THOMPSON, Berkswell	Parish records
1781-1800	Owner: Mr Moe’s Heirs Occupier: John WHITE	Land Tax
c.1785	Death of John PAYNTER, junior	[circumstantial]
10 Mar. 1789	Marriage of Thomas BARRATT & Catherine PAYNTER, Berkswell	Parish records
1790	John WHITE leases a field of 1A 3R 10P to William READER (30 stone flax)	Flax bounty
1802	Owner: Catherine BARRATT	Enclosure Act
1805	Owner: Mr Moe’s Heirs Occupier: Thomas BARRATT	Land Tax
1810	Owner/Occupier: William READER	Land Tax
29 Apr. 1811	Marriage of Samuel READER & Penelope GARNER, Berkswell	Parish records
1815-1820	Owner: William READER Occupier: Samuel READER	Land Tax
1830	Owner/Occupier: Samuel READER	Land Tax
6 May 1830	Will of Samuel READER: ‘all my Freehold and Copyhold piece or parcel of lands and hereditments … near to the Windmill on Balsall Common in my own occupation … unto my wife Penelope READER’	Will
7 Apr 1831	Burial of Samuel READER, Berkswell	Parish records
1839	Owner/Occupier: Penelope REEDER: 938. Garlington Meadow (2A 1R 16P)	Tithe Apport.
21 Apr. 1840	Marriage of Samuel READER & Rebecca MORTON, St Martin in the Bullring, Birmingham	Parish records
6 Jun. 1841	Berkswell Common: Penelope READER. 50. Farmer. Y Mark. 20. William. 15. William HAMMOND. 40. MS Hannah SMITH. 15. FS	Census
Dec. 1848	Auction by Samuel READER, inc. Calves Meadow (2A 0R 24P)	Newspaper3

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1. Marriages. 22 January 1749. Holy Trinity Coventry. John PAYNTER & Elizabeth MOIE. ↩︎
2. ‘Berkswell, Warwickshire, Valuable Freehold Farm,’ Coventry Standard, 15 Dec. 1848: 1. Although he sold the farm, Samuel junior remained as tenant until he and his family emigrated to the USA in 1871. ↩︎
3. Ibid. ↩︎