Your House and Mine |
The Gables |
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Introduction
Map of Frieth Moor End Bramblings Astrea Merrydown Cottage Corner Cottage Moor's End Cottages Moor Gate House Underwood The Copse Fingest Road The Forge Folly Cottages The Willows Perrin Springs Lane Perrin Springs West's Cottages Ellery Rise Hilliers Lynden Cottage Frieth Hill Hillside Cottage Rowleys Pear Tree Cottage Hillside View The Platt Little Barlows Cutlers Cottage Yew Tree Cottage Little Cottage Barlows Birch Cottage Tedders / Rose Cottage The Old Stores The Yew Tree Inn Fairfield House Flint Cottage 1 Flint Cottage 2 Inglenook Middle Cottage Sunny Corner The Gables The Orchards Hilltop Cattons Mallards Hillswood The Old Parsonage White Gates The Laurels The Cottage The Firm Marlstone Westwood Bradstone Haylescroft The Niche Rivendell Summerhill Ashcroft Selborne The Ranch House Sara's Cottage The Cherries The Old School House Innings Road Collier's Farm Innings Gate Down the Lane Sunset Cottage Fermain Chilterns Rowan Cottage Creighton Cottage Apple Tree Old Well Cottage The Cottage Flat Roof Whitsun Backlins Red Kites Maidenscraft Spurgrove Lane Maidencraft Cottage September Cottage Spurgrove Cottage Gable End Willems Elder Barn Sunnydale |
The Gables is not, and never has been, the School House. The present house was built circa 1880-90 but prior to that there was an older house and barn on the same plot. Recently The Gables has been added to and restored. During work on the garden a William III coin in near mint condition dated 1699 was found buried under a tree root in the NE corner of the plot where it adjoins the Village Green. It was not unusual for owners, historically, to mark the corner of their land by planting a tree and sometimes a coin was placed in with it. It was in William III's reign that new coinage was minted to replace old and clipped coins. During this period the owner of Parmoor House and Estate, which included this plot, was Timothy D'Oyly (1640-1715) who had married Jane Brattel, daughter of the Master of the Mint! Of course a coin can be dropped and lost but maybe this one was planted deliberately. By 1865 William Cook was the owner of The Gables and the land surrounding it; he it was who gave the plot of land on which the School was built. A small brick and flint barn went with it which the school used to store coal and faggots used for lighting the open fires.
One little tale is told of a family named Simmons who rented The Gables for many years in the early years of the 20th C. Mr Simmons worked for "The Firm" and before he moved to Frieth lived at Ibstone. Every day he rode his penny-farthing bicycle to work and brought his terrier dog with him draped round the back of his neck and balanced on his shoulders! An unfortunate accident occurred during the 1940's - Will Barksfield who lived at The Gables was picking pears in the orchard when the ladder slipped and caused his death. [ Alan Harris and Claire Tyrrell, the current occupants (2009), write that they bought The Gables from Hillary Luxton who purchased the house, almost derelict, in the late 1990s. The picture above, from 1992, shows it boarded up ] |
