This website created by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.

RICHARD WOODESON’S FINDON —

1676 - 1725

Copyright Valerie Martin 1999.

Findon was a pastoral country parish three hundred years ago and I believe it consisted of around 116 adult villagers, most of whom lived in simple dwellings amidst a mixture of the smell of unwashed humanity, horses, sheep, dung and damp straw. I have found that Richard Woodeson was Findon's long serving seventeenth century clergyman for an amazing forty-nine years and brief glimpses of his life style can now be gleaned.

He succeeded the Reverend Samuel Carter in 1676 and arrived in the village during Stuart times when Charles I was on the throne. During his term in the rustic community he saw the reigns of King James II, William and Mary, Queen Anne and the coming of the House of Hanover with George I.

The living of Findon was the vicarage in Findon’s main street, in the gift of Magdalen College, Oxford, and this is where Richard Woodeson resided, (the property is now the Findon Manor Hotel). Many incumbents of the 17th and 18th century were fellows of the college and as such, they would have had a higher status in the social pyramid than their parishioners. It was the Church of England’s intention in the eighteenth century to have a gentleman in every community. Richard Woodeson was, therefore, considered to be someone of standing in Findon society.

The Vicar’s duties in rural Findon were numerous, from instructing the young and ignorant at the bottom of the social scale in the village, to visiting the ailing and sick.

Richard Woodeson was also a farmer in the district, but not in a large way. By the end of his life he possessed two hogs and bullock racks. The type of farming practised in Findon in the 17th and 18th centuries was mainly sheep/corn husbandry.

Sheep were kept to provide manure, (in the manner of a constantly moving dung pile that fertilised each part of the farm in turn). During the day the flocks would range over the common downs and were folded each night in the fallow fields. This gave better yields on the land. Sheep also provided meat and milk, and could supply smallholders with wool for clothing, and for marketing. Practically every household in Findon appeared to own some sheep. Flocks ranged in number from a mere three to 160. Cattle also provided meat, milk and dairy products, and hides, whilst they also acted as draught animals. Oxen were used for ploughing — and these beasts were used into the 20th century.

Cereal crops were also raised, including wheat, which was grown for sale at local markets. Barley was hardier and would have been the subsistence crop; this was also used as a fodder crop and for malting. Oats were grown for fodder. Hemp was grown for rope making and for the production of a coarse cloth. Tares and peas were also grown in the parish.

In 1724, when Bishop Bowers made his visitation return, the St. John the Baptist Church was reported as being in a state of good repair. There is always one exception to the rule. This was the state of the pavement — which the churchwardens of the day promised to attend to without delay.

Church services at this time were conducted twice each Sunday. These included a sermon on each occasion but with the added proviso "when the vicar was able". This may have meant that Anno Domini was catching up with Richard Woodeson with the serenity of old age, or maybe he was growing frail and perhaps under the weather. This was the year before he died.

By the year 1725 Richard Woodeson had accumulated considerable wealth and lived very comfortably — and in far more style than his lowly parishioners. He possessed some valuable pieces of fine furniture and several silver items. In addition, as would be expected of such a man of learning, he had gathered together during his lifetime many books and documents.

The Rectory with its seventeen rooms was by far the most considerable and comfortable private house in the main street. When the Reverend returned from the church he would have entered the premises through the impressive hall of the property. This was furnished with a long table, a screen, some elegant leather chairs, an old print adorned a wall, and candle-carrying wall brackets were over the chimney-breast.

His parlour was presumably the main reception room in the vicarage. This was equipped with a monumental sized oval polished table and a set of nine chairs with cane-seats, one being considerably larger than the others and perhaps used by Richard Woodeson. There was also a great chair and a sofa bed. In addition there was a smaller table, square in shape; a splendid corner shaped unit; a timepiece; an elegant mirror; a painting and various prints. This parlour and three of the bedrooms in the vicarage possessed curtains at the window. This is specifically mentioned as it was not a common sight in those days and would have been most noticeable.

The Reverend’s own bedroom contained several tapestry hangings; a worked bed with a quilt; an old oval shaped table of Dutch origin, and a picture. Two of the bedchambers were more simply appointed for the use of the vicar’s retainers — a manservant and a domestic maid. There were two remaining bedrooms; a brewhouse; a wash-house; and also a cellar that usually contained five dozen or so bottles of wine. A tantalising glimpse of the vicarage can be gained from these household effects. Perhaps the description can fire the imagination with enough colour to visualise the Reverend Woodeson, together with his household, living very comfortably indeed in the property during his tenure as vicar of Findon.

At this time it was common and considered normal to borrow money from wealthier neighbours. Richard Woodeson lent money with interest, as did many of the parish tradesmen. At the time of his death in 1725 he was owed £680. Of this, £380 was realistically described in those times as desperate debts.

Richard Woodeson served Findon for almost half a century. It has already been ascertained that this clergyman lived well and owned some valuable furniture and many pieces of silver. Being a learned man, he also owned books and papers valued at the time to amount to £5. At the time of his death there were a total of sixty bottles in his wine cellar, which intimates that he had an unquenchable thirst, or otherwise his guests dined extremely well.

I will now jump a few centuries to the time when Richard Woodeson's home was destined to become the Findon Manor Hotel.  By the end of the twentieth century there were in all eleven bedroom suites in the hotel, each of which was individually decorated and named after well known racehorses trained in the village.  The hotel was also licensed to conduct marriages and there was a Honeymoon Room with four poster and jacuzzi.

Continue if you would like to read about the The Sound of Music in Findon in 1798.