My maternal ancestors
Upper Clatford, Hampshire
The name of the village, Upper Clatford, charmingly means, ‘Ford where the burdock grows’. This
immediately provides information about the area - there must a river (for there to be a ford) and the
local ecology supports the prolific growth of burdock (a weed that grows in hedgerows and besides
streams).
Upper Clatford
The village is centered on the River Anton (right) which
is one of the four headwaters that form the River Test
which empties into Southampton Water. Upper Clatford
is two miles south of Andover.
Its backdrop is classic Hampshire landscape - green
and rolling. No stark crags. No dense forests. The
climate is dry but the shallow, meandering Anton is
constantly fed by the water table of the Salisbury Plain,
which is to the north. The area is a happy juxtaposition
of flowing water, meadows, plough-land and easy
communications - just the kind of spot where a small
community would settle.
All Saints Parish Church at Upper Clatford (right) dates
from the twelth century and has had several additions over
the years. One consequence of these changes is that a
large section of the congregation cannot see the altar.
Several of my family, the Dees, Smarts and Dowlings were
baptized, married and buried in this church.
Many of the buildings in the village from 1836 are still
standing today - an echo of bygone years. They include
the Crook and Shears public house (right, and shown on
Tithe Map below) the name of which gives a clue to some
of the local farming activity.
The Upper Clatford manorial Court Baron met irregularly at
The Crook and Shears.
Like so many of rural communities in the nineteenth
century, Upper Clatford had its gentry, its farmers and its
agricultural labourers. In 1851, there were ninety-one ‘Ag
Labs’ included in a total work force of 256 men and
women.
There was also the necessary sub-culture of trades which
supported the farming fraternity - the carpenters,
wheelwrights, bakers and farriers.
Another waterway emerged at Upper Clatford at the end of
the eighteenth century. A canal was cut to Southampton
which shadowed the course of the River Anton.
In the mid-1800s the canal was filled in. It was a ‘late’
canal and proved uneconomical. A railway was built along
it’s course soon afterwards but this was also a temporary
feature as it felt the effects of Dr Beeching’s remorseless
axe in 1964.
In the mid-nineteenth century, many families moved from
Upper Clatford into the cities - Andover, Winchester,
Southampton and London. They were probably forced into
this migration by the poor wages in Hampshire’s rural
areas which sparked the Swing Riots when labourers
destroyed agricultural machines.
Above: some of the cottages along
the main street which were
standing in the nineteenth century
(shown as A on map below)
My last relative to live in the village was George Smart, a son of my great x3 grandfather who died,
unemployed, in the summer of 1874 in Clatford Street.
Selected portions of the Tithe map of Upper Clatford (1841) showing the location of
John Dee’s and William Smart’s holdings. (The River Anton flows to the east of the village)
The Upper Clatford ‘Swing Riot’ 1830
The ‘Swing Riots’ of 1830-31 were the violent reaction of farm workers to threatened cuts to their
paltry pay and the effects of enclosure. The written demands of the insurgents were signed, ‘Captain
Swing’.
The rebellion sprung up in Kent and surged through southern and eastern England. Hampshire and
Wiltshire were the counties most affected – each seeing 208 incidents. The rioters burnt ricks and
barns, maimed cattle and destroyed machinery, which was perceived to cause un-employment.
Upper Clatford experienced its own Swing Riot. On 20th November 1830, a mob of 300 armed with
sticks and bludgeons assembled at Andover and, flying a flag, marched to Upper Clatford in the late
afternoon. Their target was Taskers foundry at Clatford Marsh. The foundry was founded in 1813 at a
location that was near the river (which provided power by a water wheel) and a canal (which was used
to bring in raw materials). Taskers made cast-iron ploughs and other agricultural implements and
employed a large local workforce for whom they built houses.
The owners, Robert and William Tasker, became aware that their factory might be attacked and sent
some of their workers to Andover to gather information. These remonstrated with the plotters but failed
to divert them. The mob broke through the locked gates and, seizing material from the factory, began
an orgy of destruction, damaging the water wheel and crane as well as destroying several
manufacturing machines. They broke down the works walls, knocked off the roof and smashed
windows.
When the case came before the court, three ring leaders (including a man who had come from the
other side of London) were sentenced to death. Twenty others were transported.
Looking up the street from the Crook and Shears
1908
1899
1855
