DERELICT SUNDAY

We had a good service at church and then decided to drive up through the small hamlet of Hodson, which I mentioned on Thursday, to see if we could find any evidence of the place my ancestors lived, namely Hodson Bottom.  

It was rather drizzley so we decided not to stop and wander - but I did get out and take a few photographs of these buildings at Hodson Farm.  Mr. HCB didn’t think the farm was used now, but as I walked up the rather unkempt driveway, I could tell from the smell that there were cows not too far away, and sure enough, one looked over the gate at me - probably wondering what I was doing!

Hodson is in a small valley, just south of Swindon, near the village of Chiseldon and is in a Conservation Area that includes twelve Listed Buildings. There is no shop, school or church, although there was once a Wesleyan Chapel, with Methodism being brought to the hamlet by one of Wesley’s friends in 1789.  

On the edge of the hamlet is a popular traditional English public house called the Calley Arms, (it is actually pronounced as if it is spelled “Cawley” but many people pronounce it to rhyme with the word “alley”) and is on part of the Calley Estate, now known as the Burderop Estate.

To get to Hodson, you have to negotiate a narrow winding lane with high grass verges and woodland on either side and then you come across the thatched cottages;  many of them date back to the 17th and 18th century, are built in the coomb or valley, with long and winding paths to get to them.  

It is a beautiful and tranquil area with a stream running through the coomb and the gardens around the little thatched cottages are all well kept - knowing that my forebears lived here and worked this land is quite moving and makes me want to know more about them.  I have put a photograph of one of the thatched cottages in as an extra - this is certainly not derelict and could even have been the one where my 4th great grandfather, James Winchcombe, lived from 1772 until his death in 1823.

“I always lived in old buildings,
     and I thought about
          who lived here before.
You’d have to be 
     oblivious
          not to.”
Ben Katchor