Embedded Files
Postcard of Hale Lane, Edgware, dated 1907
Henry George Muddle Sr married Caroline Bishop at the Parish Church of St Marylebone, London, on 25th February 1879. Their witnesses were James Bray and Caroline's sister, Ellen. Henry was thirty and his bride, twenty. Their first home was, apparently, at Broadfields Farm ~ which had been the home of James Bray and his father before him.
As well as the six-roomed Farmhouse, Broadfields had a small cottage occupied by farm-workers and the usual farm outbuildings. In 1880, Hale Lane was still just a country lane with very few houses - looking much as it did in the 1907 postcard above. However, Edgware and Little Stanmore were less than a mile away, so despite the very rural setting, Caroline Muddle's first child was, technically, born in town.*
Broadfields Farm on an 1868 OS map & Henry George's Birth Certificate
Henry George Muddle Jr was born in Edgware on 17th January 1880. His birth was registered by his Father, Henry George Muddle Sr and recorded by the registrar, William Lukyn ~ who was also the local Chemist and Druggist. There is no record of the baby being christened ~ a surprising omission in those days for a first-born son. This could have been due to ill-health ~ either of Mother or child, or that Henry and Caroline Muddle didn't consider christening a necessity at that point ~ as they had only the last of their three children christened ~ Ellen in 1888. However, it could have also been due to the weather, as the winter of 1880 was one of the coldest that century ~ the River Thames froze from bank to bank and there were reports of two feet of snow in Oxford.
Broadfields Farmhouse, August ,1926 - an enhanced photograph from an Aerofilms flight** ~ and a newspaper advertisement from 1885.
Henry George appears in public records again in the Census of 3rd April 1881. He and his parents are still living in the house at Broadfields and his Father is listed as a Hay Dealer. With so many large hay farms in the area, it is likely that Henry Muddle Sr made a good living. During the 1890s, the publisher Irwin Cox purchased several of the farms in and around Edgware, including Broadfields and Stoneyfields. In 1887, Henry Muddle Sr leased Stoneyfields Farm from Cox and started to farm its 110 acres, while continuing to farm at Broadfields. It is not known whether the Muddles moved to the farmhouse at Stoneyfields or continued living at Broadfields. By the late 1880s, Henry George Sr and James Bray were farming more than four hundred acres.
'Farm at Edgware' ~ thought to be Stoneyfields ~ and the farm advertised in 1882
So, Henry George was born into a relatively prosperous family and into comfortable surroundings. As the only son, not only could he expect to inherit his Father's estate, but also that of James Bray. It was ~ by any measure, a good start.
Map showing the location of the Edgware, Little Stanmore and Mill Hill properties
Notes:
* The Town of Edgware was comprised of two parts ~ one in the Parish of Edgware and the other in the Parish of Little Stanmore. They were separated by the Edgware Road with Little Stanmore on the Western side and Edgware on the Eastern side. Each parish belonged to the correspondingly named Manor ~ the Manor of Edgware has belonged to All Souls College, Oxford since the 13th century, while ownership of the Manor of Little Stanmore has changed so often that the current ownership is unclear. The most famous holder of the manor was the 1st Duke of Chandos who built the great house and park of Cannons at the northern end of Edgware High Street. The Duke was the patron of the composer G F Handel. Of the Bray/Muddle/Taylor properties, Edgwarebury, Broadfields and Stoneyfields Farms were in the parish of Edgware, while Little Stanmore Farm and the butchers shop were in Little Stanmore. Little Stanmore was also popularly known as 'Whitchurch'.
** Although Broadfields Farm was sold as building land in October 1925, the farm continued to be let and the house appears to still be in place when Aerofilms flew over Edgware in August, 1926. Although it is possible that a new house was built on the same site during the winter of 1925-26, that seems unlikely. So, the building seen in the Aerofilms image - surrounded by apparently mature trees and hedges, is almost certainly the house in which Henry George was born. All the available Electoral Registers continued to list occupants of 'Broadfields' and then '256 Hale Lane' as it later became. The 'footprint' from an OS map of c.1911 does seem to match that of the house in the photograph. Later maps indicate that the farmhouse stood on the corner of the new Hillcrest Avenue until as late as 1964. Currently, no other pictures of the house have been found.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse