THE FARMERS
Gins was a working farm for more than three centuries, from 1652 till 1956. Some families occupied the farm for really long periods; we shall mostly concentrate on these. Information is sparse until we get to the 20th century but a certain amount can be gleaned from the surviving archives. We have chosen the Stowells, the Drews, the Wheelers, the Figgins and lastly the Browns. The list of leases reveals the interesting point that the tenancy often passed to a widow after the death of her husband before another family member was able to take it over some years later.
We start with the Stowells, whose family acquired the tenancy some 30 years after the Kempes left. We have the inventory of Richard Stowell (H.R.O. 1663/AD/098) who died in 1659, and also of his widow who died five years later (H.R.O.1663 AD/098). Richard is described as a “yeoman”, one grade below the gentry. We can contrast his situation with that of the Kempes. He rented part of St. Leonard’s as well as Gins. But Richard’s total possessions were valued at only £410, far less than the Kempes.
His farmhouse was presumably the same house that the Kempes had used. In Richard’s time 14 or so rooms were furnished. He had a hall, parlour, study, kitchen, sink house, buttery, presshouse, milk house, cheese loft, malt loft, and a milk house chamber, kitchen chamber, parlour chamber and wainscot chamber.
In contrast Thomas Kempe’s inventory showed 16 furnished rooms with beds in seven, compared with Richard’s three. Thomas had a painted chamber, a chamber for cloaks and his parlour had gaming tables for playing cards. But Richard had a study which contained bottles and glasses – and two books! Richard had fewer weapons - only two guns, plus a pistol, a halberd and a fowling piece. Later, his widow left a musket, bandoliers and swords.
The Drews had the tenancy of Gins for over 50 years. In their time, in 1718, a Survey of the Manor was published – a really important document. This shows that Gins farm was then divided into 14 named fields or lesser plots, adding up to about 201 acres. Altogether the farm was valued at £85. The house was already ‘L’shaped . There was no sign of the barn.
1718 map 
1718 map enlarged: L shape of house The Wheelers then had Gins for 76 years. Jonathan Wheeler’s tenancy included a saltern. In 1738 he was accused and convicted of “carrying off 24 bushels of white English salt” – probably his own salt, without paying the government tax. Was he regarded as a security risk? It seems to have been a mammoth undertaking to get him to court in Winchester! There were 13 guards around the house at Gins, three to guard Jonathan at Buckler’s Hard, four men to guard him at Beaulieu, and four to guard him when they arrived at Winchester. Six horses were needed to get him to Winchester. Then there was the expense of feeding the party at stopovers and extra horses on standby. The total distance was a mere 24 miles but the total cost was £6 9s 5d. Jonathan was duly fined £20 but appealed and got off.
Inside of a salternWilliam Wheeler was then tenant for 47 years till 1802 and for part of that time the tenancy included 2 saltpans and a salt works.
His will of 1803 (H.R.O. 1803B/56) is very difficult to decipher but it does tell us about the women in the family. His wife, Anne, already a widow, was left household goods, furniture, plate, linen and china some of which she had brought with her from her earlier marriage. There were 5 married daughters. And in case we are giving the impression that families huddled together in Beaulieu decade after decade, you should know that all the daughters were living elsewhere with their husbands: two in Portsmouth, two in Deptford and one in London. In the will, the daughters received a guinea each; the two sons, mere stay-at homes in Exbury and Southampton, each got three guineas!
Under the Figgins family, who held Gins for 69 years, the farm expands. From 1836 the lease included Salternshill . The 1851 census tells us that the widowed Ann Figgins, who was then 67, was farming 300 acres and employing 6 labourers. The household consisted of Anne, a 24 year old son, two grandchildren, two indoor servants and two of the labourers. Note her age; she held the tenancy until she died at 78. They were an unusually long-lived family.
1851 Census Gins Farm Figgins Family
Ginns QuayAnd what about the quay? An advert in the Portsmouth Evening News, inserted by the tenant of Gins in 1894, reads: “60 tons mangolds, 23 shillings per ton, free on boat, Gins quay”. Even as late as 1918, Park Farm advertised the sale of 100 tons of mangolds in place or on barge at Gins Quay. Many thanks to Tony Norris for those references.
Tony also provided this useful description of Gins Farm from the Hampshire Advertiser of 1 August 1885: “To Let, Ginns Farm....the property of the Rt. Hon. Henry Scott, containing about 212 acres, 132 of which are pasture, the remaining being good and useful for serial (sic) cropping, with good house and forest rights for horses, cattle, sheep and pigs. The marshes on the farm are well adapted for dairy purposes or fattening cattle and it has a good quay for loading vessels close to the farm building and joining the Solent.” That quay had been put to good use for over six hundred years by then.
The Brown FamilyNow we come to the Brown family who lived at Gins for 49 years from 1907 to 1956. George William Brown farmed here from 1907 to 1939. When he realised he was dying, he requested that the tenancy be passed to his three children: Ada, who was already married, George and William. The estate agreed, scribbling a rapid reply. George Edward, who had been a keen yachtsman in his youth, then farmed Gins for the next fifteen years. Here is the family: the elderly couple is George and his wife Elizabeth, Ada on the left with William behind. Probably young George was the photographer.
It is a real pleasure to have with us tonight two of his granddaughters, Monica Bradewell of New Milton and Mary Saunders of Lymington. Mary was born at Gins and lived here till she was 12. Monica, her cousin, was a very frequent visitor. We have really enjoyed talking to them about their time at Ginns. Much of what follows comes directly from them.
Ginns Farmhouse
Mary lived at Gins with her parents, George Edmund and Elizabeth Brown, as well as her two older sisters and her uncle William. She remembers it as a large house. They had five bedrooms even though part of the house was shut off and not used. Maybe this was a hayloft in those days. Water was pumped from a well in the 1940’s. Mains water, needed to achieve TT accreditation for the dairy herd, came in 1952, installed by prisoners from Winchester Gaol. No electricity. The family used Tilley lamps until a generator was bought – actually initially for the milking machine!
1909 Farmhouse
Heating was provided by open fires and oil stoves. The dining-room fire was particularly good. It’s that splendid fireplace which you can still see. No bathrooms. Baths were taken in a tin tub in the same room as the copper where the washing was done. The farm yard in the first half of the C20 had very much its present form.
Mary’s mother drove a pony and trap to Lymington for shopping. Later, her father acquired a car and was said to be the first farmer in Beaulieu to have one. On Sundays her mother and perhaps other members of the family went to church at Park on the main road. It was partly a social gathering. Her mother used to say “We all met on a Sunday”.
The farmyard in the first half of the C20
The house was never flooded in their time though part of the garden was. The area where the Yacht Club is now had no buildings. It was known, for obscure reasons, as “Granny’s Garden” and people used to camp there. The family had a rubber dinghy and a clinker built dinghy which they rowed to Buckler’s Hard and elsewhere. They swam in the river. In the stream they played with baby eels, trickling them between their fingers. And they caught shrimps from the quay – deliciously salty when boiled straight away.
Tea on the pontoon - late 1930s
The "Mary Askew"Yachting became an increasingly important sport between the two World Wars. In 1938 the newly formed Beaulieu River Sailing Club had a pontoon and a small hut at Gins. But during the Second World War all private boats had to be removed from the river, including scows as well as fine yachts like the Mary Askew, a yacht which had associations for the family. Naval vehicles took over. As Mary has learnt from her older relatives, there were guns on the quay, two Nissen huts for army use in front of the house and an Anderson shelter in the garden for the family. Cattle were kept inside during the war. Mary’s father was worried that the military activity would upset them. With good reason - on one occasion shrapnel went through a cow pen between two cows and into the pigsty at the back, though without harming any of the animals. There was a doodle bug strike near Drokes and a near miss at Gins when a doodle bug approached but was fired at and turned away towards East Boldre.
Naval vessels near Ginns
The main farming activity was dairy. Mary remembers the cows, about thirty, being milked by hand and remembers too when a milking machine was bought. The milk was put out in churns for the Milk Marketing Board to collect. When the cows grazed the more marshy parts of the farm, the children disliked the milk’s salty taste. Pigs were kept but no sheep. Potatoes, cereals, oats and kale were grown. Mary’s father used lorries for farming tasks, to bring in hay and straw.
Pearl opens the Hut 1927Does anyone here apart from Mary and Monica remember the St. Leonard’s Social Hut? This hut was at the top of Gins Lane, on the left as you turn in. Mary’s father helped to build it as a young man and we have a photograph of the then Lady Montagu opening it in 1927. It was a centre of social activity for local families. There were dances, games and at least one wedding reception was held there. Mary and Monica used to spend the whole day getting ready for these evenings! It was probably still there in 1960 but we see no signs of it now.
1956: the End of an Era
George Brown retired in 1956, the last of the farmers to live in the house. The auction of the Browns’ stock and equipment marks the end of an era. It included 74 TT tested cattle, a Friesian bull and some 220 poultry. A successful farm but surely also a very human one. Each cow, sold individually, had its own name: from Martha, Ruth, Sophie and Pansy and on to Yasmin, Jane and Nelly.
What a pleasure it is to have these first hand memories. Mary and Monica, thank you both enormously.