The Tottington Chilvers

THE TOTTINGTON CHILVERS

Tottington was described as a small village 4 miles south by west of Watton. It was therefore about 12 miles to the north-west of Old Buckenham, my family's home in the 19th century. A similar distance between my current home in Wigan and my birthplace of Liverpool, the same as Bradford from Leeds, and of Barnet from London.

In 1845 it had 340 inhabitants, 3,090 acres of land, all owned by Lord Walsingham. It had a church with vicarage, a school and plantations. It sounds idyllic. But cannot now be found on any map, 5 of its church bells are in Whitstable in Kent, and the area round the village cannot be visited, but is often seen on TV. Puzzled? And what's that to do with us?

Well, in the 18th and 19th centuries about 6% of the population of Tottington were CHILVERS. And, once again, although I can find no trace of a direct link with my CHILVERS, 12 miles isn't far. I'd be prepared to wager some money on a link somewhere not too distant.

So - what happened to Tottington? This is perhaps one of the less pleasant tales of the British Army's treatment of British subjects in World War II. While the RAF and Navy saw regular action in the early 1940s, the Army didn't, and High Command decided that if we were going to invade (or be invaded) then the soldiers needed to be battle-hardened. So they set up 30,000 acres of an area of the country, Stanford Battle Area, where soldiers could train for combat facing live ammunition. The setting-up of that training area, of course, necessitated some inconvenience for the locals who were moved out with promises their homes would be unharmed and after hostilities they would be able to return.


Tottington (green arrow) aerial view now - Old Buckenham is in the south-east corner

One of the villages involved was Tottington, and live shells and grenades destroyed the village, and 50 plus years later the Army still use the area for training. It was, despite all the promises, never handed back to the residents, who were poorly compensated. The story is well told on the BBC's website (just type Tottington into the search box and you'll find articles under WW II People's War) - and amongst those credited with providing information is a Jane CHILVERS.

However, the Battle Area was the setting for many of the outdoor shots used in Dad's Army, so when Jonesy's van is running amok, or the end credits roll with Captain Mainwaring marching proudly ahead, look at the background - you are looking at territory very familiar to generations of CHILVERS.

So who were the CHILVERS in the village? The earliest trace we have is a bit further to the west (see aerial photo above) in Ickburgh. At the beginning of the 18th century (which means he was born around 1690) a (yet another) Samuel CHILVERS lived with his wife who was born Sarah PAIN. They were married in 1724 in West Tofts with Buckenham Tofts - now part of the Battle Area. They had, to our knowledge, 3 children - Mary, Jane and Thomas.


St Marys Church, West Tofts - now in the Battle Area

Thomas was married to Hannah, and they had 7 children - Ann, Elizabeth, Mary, Thomas, Samuel, Jane and John - all of whom seem to have been born in or around Ickburgh between 1734 and 1748. Samuel was born around 1744, and is the first of the clan to appear to have made home in Tottington. He married Mary Ann HOUCHIN on 24 November 1767 in Tottington, and they had three children; John (1768) and twins Samuel and Ann (1770). Unfortunately the arrival of the twins in late 1769/early 1770 appears to have proved fatal, as was unfortunately common at the time, to Mary Ann who died and was buried in Tottington in April 1770. One of the twins, Samuel, himself only lived 6 days.

The 18th century, and in particular in rural communities, was not the time for self-pitying and a need for counselling, and Thomas got in with life, seemingly marrying Sarah GREENWOOD sometime soon after. And this marriage proved, shall we say, fertile. There were potentially 11 children - Greenwood, Hannah (who herself had 13 children - just think of the relatives you may have if you're in this line!!), Thomas (who only lived 4 months), Sarah (who died aged 12), another Thomas, John, William, Samuel, Elizabeth, Robert and Rachel. And all of this before Napoleon became too big a nuisance!!

We will follow William's line mainly, but we need a quick mention of John, who was baptised on 20 September 1771 in Tottignton. He was a wheelwright and farmer, and on 18 December 1798 married a 25-year-old lady from Watton with the magnificent name of Kerrenhappuch KENNEDY. Kerrenhappuch was a fine Biblical name from Job 42:13-15: "He had also seven sons and three daughters. And he called the name of the first, Jemima; and the name of the second, Kezia; and the name of the third, Kerenhappuch. And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job".

William was baptised on 20 October 1776 in Tottington. He married Charlotte BALLS on 5 March 1810. William was a shoemaker, and the couple had 7 children: William (1812), Sarah (1814, married James BUSH), Eliza (1816, married James LARGE), Charlotte (1817, married first Henry LAKE, then Robert BYE), James (1819), Isaac (1820) and John (1821). Unfortunately Charlotte, William's wife, died in 1834 and was buried in Tottington.


St Andrews Church, Tottington
The sign ("Out of bounds to troops") indicates its current fate

The 1841 census for Tottington shows a number of CHILVERS groups in the village. There's the William, part of whose line we're going to follow, young William, Charlotte, James and John. William snr was a shoemaker. There's no trace of Isaac, and we must presume he died by 1841.

Another family group belongs to a carpenter, Robert and his wife Amy (written as "Ammey"), formerly Amy LARGE whom he married around about 1815. They had a large (no pun intended) family, of whom in 1841 at home were Henry (22, also a carpenter), George (18), young Robert (16), Samuel (15), twins Hariot and Sarah (13), Alas (?Alice) (11), Abraham (9), Thomas (7) and Louisa (5). There had been a Thomas born around 1817, but the fact that there was another later indicates that this earlier Thomas died before 1834. Another daughter Emily, born in 1820, appears to be in Earsham in the household of a widow, Mary DEAKE. She is noted as "FS", which presumably is "female servant", because in later censuses she appears as a cook.

In the village too we find the 70-year-old John and Kerrenhappuch along with two of their children Mary (35) and John (30). This John is also a wheelwright. There had been 9 children in all, including another Kerrenhappuch (1807-1874) who married Jacon MACROW in 1831, although he died in 1846.

One of John and Kerrenhappuch's children also appears in the Tottington census. William, born around 1814, is recorded as innkeeper of the Green Man in Tottington with his wife Charlotte. The couple had only married on 14 May 1841 (the census was on 6 June) and Charlotte was a widow, born as Charlotte BOVERS and later Charlotte RICHARDS. The census records three children Emma, Elizabeth and Alfred RICHARDS, presumably from Charlotte's first marriage.


The bells of Tottington Church leave Norfolk on 31 January 1969
on their way to be recast in Kent

The 1845 White's History, Gazetteer and Directory for Norfolk says the following about Tottington:
TOTTINGTON, a small village, on the Thetford road, 4 miles S. by W. of Watton, has in its parish 340 souls, and 3090 acres of land, (including 150A. of plantation,) nearly all the property of Lord Walsingham. The soil is generally a light sand. The Church (St Andrew) is a large fabric, with a square tower, containing five bells, and formerly crowned by a spire, which was taken down in 1802. The pews have carved heads, and in the windows are some fragments of stained glass. Several ancient slabs have been robbed of their brasses. The vicarage, valued in K.B. at �6. 14s. 9d., and in 1831 at �89, is enjoyed by the Rev. W. J. Burford, D.D., with 10 acres of glebe. The patronage, and the rectorial titles, belong to Chigwell Free Schools, Essex. At the enclosure, in 1774, about 60 acres were left open as a Fuel Allotment, but part of it is now in plantations, belonging to Lord Walsingham.
DIRECTORY: Wm. Chilvers, vict., Green Man; John Chilvers, wheelwright; Thomas Watling, fishmonger; Simon Watson, shopkeeper; Robert Chilvers, carpenter; and Thos. Buckle, John Lincoln, Thomas Palmer, Wm. Sutton, and Robert Towler, farmers.

As we follow William's line forward we're going to follow James, William and Charlotte's 5th child, born 4 June 1819. He married Emma NEWDICK on 22 January 1844 in Lakenheath in Suffolk. James was a shoemaker, like his Dad. The couple lived in Lakenheath, and had a daughter Eleanor who was born in 1846.


Lakenheath High Street

On the night of the 1851 census (30 March) interestingly we find Emma and Eleanor at home in High Street, Lakenheath but James is miles away in Mudford in the home of James and Eliza LARGE who he is visiting. If you've been paying attention you'll recognise that this Eliza LARGE is his sister. James is still noted as being a shoemaker.

The 1855 History, Gazetteer and Directory of Suffolk lists 7 boot and shoemakers in Lakenheath, but there is no mention of James, so it may be he was employed by one of the listed cobblers. This is perhaps borne out by the fact that he also is not mentioned in the 1869 Post Office Directory of Cambs, Norfolk and Suffolk.

James and Emma had three other children: Harriett Eliza (1854), Augusta (1856) and William John (1861), all born in Lakenheath.

William was born in November 1861, after the census, but at the time of the census James and Emma were in 3 Back Yard, Lakenheath with Harriet and Augusta. There is no trace in the census of "old" William, but Eleanor is a servant in Lakenheath in the home of a 45-year-old meat seller, Mary SMITH, and Eleanor is described as her neice.

By the time of the 1871 census James and Emma are at home with Augusta. Eleanor was now a cook/domestic servant in Charlton, London (the census shows her name as CHILDERS) in the home of Thomas BUSSELL, formerly a surveyor. Harriett is also in service, but recorded under the name of Eliza CHILVERS. She was in Ely in Cambridgeshire in the service of George and Rachel PALMER, a farming family.

But what about young William John? Well, he is living just down the road from his parents in the house of his uncle. This is 60-year-old Henry Allsop with his 64-year-old wife Louisa. The exact relationship is unclear, but in the 1861 census next door to Henry ALLSOP was Mary A SMITH, the aunt of Eleanor. It seems Lakenheath was quite a typical East Anglian community where everyone was related to everyone else. Henry was quite succesful, having a farm of 120 acres and "employed 1 man".

By 1881 however William has flown the nest completely, and may have ducked under our radar. Or probably not, because there is a John CHILVERS, described as brother-in-law, aged 19 and born in Lakenheath, living in as an Ag Lab in the household of a farmer of 16 acres George PALMER and his wife Eleanor. Could this be "our" Eleanor? Looks like it as we havethe record of the marriage of Eleanor CHILVERS to George PALMER in 1876.

In the December quarter of 1887 William married Mary A HERRINGTON in Newmarket. Mary was from Soham in Cambridgeshire. Their first child, Walter John was born in Ely in Cambridgeshire in 1881, and the 1891 census shows the family in Back Hill, Holy Trinity in Ely. William is described as a railway porter, and also in the household is a lodger, a 23-year-old Ag Lab called Samuel PLUMB. He too was from Soham, so may have been related to Mary.

We will take a last look at the family in 1901 where we find them now in Sawbridgeworth in Hertfordshire. William is a Railway Goods Foreman, and as well as Walter there is another son, Harold William born in 1897. What is interesting is that other CHILVERS lived in Sawbridgeworth at the time, although without any obvious direct connection - see this link.

If you have any interest in this branch of the family, please e-mail me at [email protected].


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  • Old Buckenham and the surrounding area
  • Samuel and Thyrza
  • Their children
  • CHILVERS in New Buckenham
  • The Carleton Rode/Bunwell CHILVERS
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  • Surrounding CHILVERS families
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  • The CHILVERS DNA project
  • Origins - back into the earliest times
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    If you have any information or comments, or you just want to say Hello, then please e-mail me, George CHILVERS, at [email protected]

    Page last updated 22 January 2007