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

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF GEORGE BOOTH

First published in Along the Furlong in April 2005

Copyright Valerie Martin 2005

By 1841, I have found that the Reverend George Booth's flock in Findon had increased slightly. There was now a population of 575 inhabitants, plus eighteen poor souls who were collectively listed as "tramps".

In 1845, the railway to Worthing opened. This was to sound the death-knell for the London-Worthing horse drawn coaches stopping at the Gun Inn in The Square. From this date, the parishioners had to rely on the local carrier’s cart. 

It was around this era that the musical accompaniment for the Reverend's services at the church was provided by a group of local budding musicians. However, the result of their joint efforts has gone down in history as being rather inharmonious.

The Reverend Booth was a charming and good-natured man and known with affection as a great one for discussion. He had a fondness for a delightful flowery turn of phrase when describing village characters, much to the rest of the congregation's amusement. A man of shrivelled stature and pale complexion was on one occasion defined as appearing like a —

"caterpillar sucking a turnip".

Another acquaintance who had perhaps the face of a drawn up purse, was placed in the category of looking like a —

"parched pea in a porridge pot".

This enabled the listener to draw an immediate mental image.

He also wrote the following descriptive lines on the churchyard at Findon:

Life was not easy in nineteenth-century rural Findon. In the year 1849 the Vestry was ordered to move a Findon man, his wife and four children back to Findon from Brighton. Findon it appears was their native parish and the family had become chargeable to the Overseers of the Poor at Brighthelmstone (Brighton). Also in this year, the Findon Overseers were instructed to -

"Take all practical means for the apprehension of a Findon father who had vanished and left his child chargeable to the parish".

By 1851 Findon's population had reduced to 559. The rates had to be excused in a number of cases in which families were unable to pay. The Vestry met in the Church on the 17th June 1851 —

"to take into consideration the best means of raising money for the purpose of Emigration – several poor persons being desirous of going to America".

And they also —

"took into consideration the propriety of taking measures to forward the application of a labourer to enable him to emigrate to Australia".

George Booth did not live to see the Act passed in 1869, which made the Findon owners of property, and not the occupants of the cottages, responsible for rates that had been crippling them.

The curate at this time was William Garnett. He was a 34-year-old Cheshire man and it may surprise us today to learn that he lived, in cramped conditions, at the No. 1 Wattle House on Nepcote Green. The small property accommodated his wife, Sarah, and two small sons, William aged one, and baby Alfred of six months. A live-in nursemaid, Maria Smith, cared for the curate's children. Two further servants resided with the household and these were the Moulton sisters: Ann, was cook to the family and Sarah was employed as housemaid. They were living on three floors; (one of the floors was removed in later years to make room for more wattle storage).

No. 2 the Wattle House (on the east side of the building) was similarly bulging with humanity. This was occupied by a farm labourer, Charles Knowles and his wife, Ann, who worked as a charwoman. The children in the household were Charles, who at 15 was employed as a farmer’s boy and Emily, a 12-year-old schoolgirl. Thomas Greenfield, also aged 12, resided with them and worked as a farmer’s boy. Mary, his little seven-year-old sister was still in full-time education at the school on School Hill. Mrs Knowles appears to have enjoyed living on Nepcote Green as she was still there thirty years later when she was a widow — and providing lodgings for three farm workers — all accommodated in her half of the Wattle House.

The Great Findon Sheep Fair continued during George Booth's tenure in Findon. In those days it was always held on 14th September, (whatever day of the week it fell upon), and the Lamb Fair was scheduled for the 12th July.

Life continued in Victorian Findon and in 1855 the Vestry asked the Board of Guardians to make a grant of not more than £30 to enable the wife and children of a Findon man now living in New York, to join him —

"as they were at present chargeable to the parish".

Following the earlier exodus from the village, in 1857 the population of the village was 560 and said to be on the increase again by approximately ten souls each year.

The church became the centre of attraction in the Spring of 1857 for being overgrown and indirectly the cause of an ensuing accident.   Imagine the place of worship being so enclosed with trees that it makes the interior dark and the congregation unable to read their bibles with ease.

The Reverend Booth was vicar at Findon for twenty-six years until he died in 1859 and was interred in a vault in the graveyard near the path on the north side of St. John the Baptist Church tower. His life had been packed with the interests of the lives of men and women of Findon and the times in which they lived.

It was to be many years later that his home at the rectory was turned into a hotel. As such it secured numerous restaurant awards, including an accolade from Egon Ronay. The AA also granted The Manor two rosettes and included it in the Best Restaurants in Britain guide, which would no doubt have surprised George Booth.

Continue if you would like to read about Sawdust or Sweets  during the Reverend Robert Cholmeley's tenure in Findon.

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