- Details
Our immediate predecessors at Ladymoor Gate Farm lived here only for a short time. Their hobby was rennovating old houses and then selling them on. We know that before them the family of our original neighbour had lived here for many years and seen significant changes, such as the arrival of mains water. We also know that over the years the land had been sold off and the size of the farm reduced, until today it is a small holding approximately 2.8 hectares. So who lived here in the 19th century?
- Details
The Stonier family were living at Ladymoor Gate at the time of the first census in1841 but were they tenants or did they own it? Did they build the house and/or the outbuildings? How long had they lived here and what type of farm did they run?
Before 1830
A Google search for "Ladymoor Gate Stonier" revealed the following from the Doicese of Lichfield, Consitory Court Calendar of Wills, which indicates that John Stonier, the occupant in 1841, inherited the farm (directly or indirectly) from his father William who had died in July 1810 when John would have been about 24 years old.
- Details
The Shufflebotham family were living at Ladymoor Gate at the time of the 1851 and 1861 censuses. Richard Shufflebotham was a farmer of 92 acres, presumably the size of Ladymoor Gate farm. Parish records indicate that Richard was the son in law of John and Hannah Stonier by marriage to two of their daughters. Poll registers also suggest that Richard was a tennant farmer and did not become owner of the freehold, so it is reasonable to assume that the freehold remained with John Stonier.
Hannah Stonier, daughter of John had married Richard Shufflebotham on 2nd February 1837 at St John's church, Burslem.
- Details
By 1881 the Harrison family was occupying Ladymoor Gate Farm and a 1906 indenture between multiple parties sets out the following time line of actions and refers to a series of indentures dating from 1872:
1872
Richard Harrison, a farmer from Crowborough, effectively mortgaged the property for £1,600 (at 4% interest per annum) to William Tatton a silk manufacturer from Leek on 28th March 1872. Although I have not (yet) found concrete evidence, the extent of the mortaged property is likely to have been the 46 acres mentioned on the 1881 census. (View 1906 Deed of Conveyance - see 1st Recital)
- Details
By 1901, the Durbar family (in some spellings Doorbar) was occupying Ladymoor Gate as tenants. They were the sitting tenants when the property was sold by Richard Harrison's executors to James Goodwin who in turn sold it to George Mellor in 1906 and they were still there in 1911. William Durbar had been born in Norton in the Moors, son of Daniel and Lucy Durbar and he was christened on 29th Feb 1864.
George Mellor, of Clay Lake, mortgaged the property to Elizabeth Venables, a widow of Park Lane, Congleton, Cheshire on 2nd October 1906 for £1,000 at 3.75% interest and redemed it on 27th April 1908. ((View Mortgage Deed)
