This website, FINDON VILLAGE ANTIQUITIES, www.findonvillage.com  created by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.

THE MYSTERY OF THE BOOTMAKER’S DEATH

Copyright Valerie Martin 2002

George Churchill was born in Findon in 1861.  His parents were John (born 1829) and Eliza Churchill and he appears to have four sisters and a brother, Clara, Eliza, Kate, Ellen and John.   Their father was a village bootmaker.  

Ten years on, his mother, Eliza, was widowed and working as a charwoman and it is known that his sister, Clara, was employed as a pupil servant in the household of the Reverend Robert Cholmeley in the village.

By 1881, George is recorded as being a bootmaker of Findon and he spent the night of the census in the household of Elizabeth Bull the school mistress (where his sister Eliza was now housemaid). 

In the spring of 1890 George accidentally ran his knife into his knee — I imagine this was during being employed in his trade of shoe and boot repairing.  It seemed a trifling accident at the time but complications developed and left him with a stiff joint after months of inactivity.  I guess this gave him a little aggravation in later life.

In 1891 George was recorded as living with his Uncle Edmund Churchill (born c.1826) and his wife Susan at Hook Lyn in Findon's main street over the boot making business.   Edmund and Susan appear to have resided in the village from the time of their marriage c.1850.  Edmund was also a boot and shoe maker.  

George at this time was a regular attendee at St. John the Baptist Church where for many years he was a respected sidesman and on Sunday’s he was always dressed in a distinguished black coat and pinstriped trousers. 

At this time, yet another of George's uncles was living in Findon.  This was Henry Churchill — another boot and shoe maker, and his wife Emma.  They lived at a property known as The Cottage and Henry was known to all the children of the village as "Uncle Harry".  The wall of his garden was quite low and gooseberry and currant bushes peeped over.   There was one particular evening when a number of young children were playing in the lane and some of the boys dared to take handfuls of the fruit.   An older lad walked by and thinking it his duty, went to tell Uncle Harry.  Once summoned, Uncle Harry stormed out with a leather strap in his hand.   He demanded to know who the culprits were.   No one owned up and some of the boys jumped just out of reach of the strap as he swung it.  Uncle Harry reached over the gate to take another swipe at them.   The hinges to the ancient gate creaked and gradually gave way.    The gate with Uncle Harry sprawled on top, crashed into the road as the children stood and watched in amazement.

The Death Certificates for Henry and Emma Churchill state that both died in the same year in the Union Workhouse in nearby Thakeham.   Emma at 75 years old on 24th January 1902 of chronic bronchitis and heart disease and Henry at the age of 70 on 3rd August 1902 of chronic gout.

In later years, George's  sisters, Lizzie and Mrs Davey resided with him and the property at Hook Lyn had a simply beautiful flower garden behind the house where no weed would dare show itself.  The neat box hedges were tended with loving care and bunches of flowers produced by George and could be purchased at the shop for 6d (2p).  

On entering the front door of Hook Lyn, the room on the left was for repairing footwear and accommodated John Miller and Tom Flint the two assistant shoe menders.  The retailing business of selling new boots, shoes, slippers and Wellington boots was in the room to the right.  

The Churchill's private accommodation was well furnished.  They possessed two fine Chippendale armchairs and on the first floor landing stood two antique tallboys (tall chests of drawers, one standing on the other). The house also contained a large cool cellar under the property where Lizzie stored the milk, butter and other dairy products on hot days.

When Mrs Davey had a severe stroke she was left utterly helpless and Lizzie was bound to care for her sister.   From 1935 this was with the aid of a District Nurse who visited on Saturdays and Wednesdays to administer a blanket bath to the invalid and to change her bed sheets.  

Lizzie then suffered a stroke herself and was admitted to Southland Hospital but died within a week.  Her sister was subsequently admitted and died a few days later.

George Churchill was now in his 70s and suddenly found he was left on his own at Hook Lyn to fend for himself.  He deteriorated mentally and physically quite rapidly. I was told by the late John Pelling, who lived as a boy at North Farm (north of Findon on the A24) that on one occasion George pushed a cart containing a bedstead all the way to North Farm.  On arrival he realized it was not wanted, and trundled it all the way back to Findon again.

Some time after 1940 George was in the care of a cousin who came to live at Hook Lyn with him.   He had a choice of cousins, Christopher, Clifford, Charles, Catherine and Caroline and I do not know which came to live with him.   I assume it was a female and that narrows the choice to Catherine or Caroline.   On the morning of 2nd December 1943, George at the age of 83 years seemingly tumbled straight out of his bedroom window and crashed with an almighty thud on the concrete path below and was killed almost immediately.  He was dead when the police arrived.

Rumour was rife in the village as to how such an accident had occurred.  Did he jump when his mind was disturbed?  

The police in the 1940s were not willing to carry out further investigation and the case was dropped.   His Death Certificate stated the cause of death was (1) broncho pneumonia and (2) cerebral compression.   George Churchill’s cousin quietly departed from Findon and the property appeared on the market for sale.

Gladys Lambourne (born 1929 in Findon) says —

" One day he (George) was found on his path and it was said he had fallen from an upstairs window, he died shortly after.   He lived with his sister who my mum did not think highly of.   As he walked with a limp due to his stiff leg, my mum thought it a mystery how he could get up to the small window.   In fact when she helped to turn out the house later she even tried climbing up to the window keeping one leg straight.  Some how she had the idea that the sister had pushed him out the window as she gained from his death" .

In April 2002 I received an e-mail from Gabrielle Churchill who was researching the Churchill  family........

I will end with another Findon bootmaker, Tom Flint.  In May 2002, Lawrence May (an ex-Findonian) in Antigua, told me the following .....

Continue if you would like to read Nurse Joan Day's Account of George's Death.

Findon Village Antiquities — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created by Valerie Martin exclusively for documenting life in Findon.