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In 1792, the year before his death,
Richard was farming in Ash some thirty-five acres, consisting of those
twelve that he owned at the Billet, some land belonging to Thomas Scudder
at the corner of Pease Hill and the Malthouse road and a field at Turner’s
Oak. He was also the owner of two cottages, which were at or hard by the
site whereon the Royal Oak now stands. It seems likely that Richard’s
farmlands were all parts of larger holdings and that he himself lived at
Rumney Farm, as tenant of the Scudders. If that was in fact his abode,
some members of his family must have found the proximity of the farmhouse
to Ash Street of much convenience. In 1785 his daughter Elizabeth was
married to John Rogers of Attwood Place and in 1792 his son William
married John’s sister, Mary.
Richard Walter’s eldest son, likewise Richard, was
christened at Ash, but he, more unequivocally than his father, belongs to
Stansted; there he married, there he was a churchwarden and there, in
1827, he was buried. He had taken over the Billet after his father’s
time,8 but may not have lived there. Later, at least, he
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Rumney Farm, where a numerous family was born to him.
Some links between the Walters and Ash long continued. In the
eighteen-forties, they were still farming in the parish, as also in
Stansted, but the times were against them and they then began to give up
their farms, turning to trades and the like. The last Walter to farm in
Ash was Henry, of the family born at Rumney Farm, who was living at South
Ash and farming alongside the Hodsolls.9 For him as for
them, the hungry forties proved too much and, if not in quite such
distressing circumstances as they, he too made his departure. In 1867 he,
or his son of the same name, was a wheelwright and builder at Stansted.
His youngest son, Nimrod., was also there as a beer retailer and tax
collector, two occupations that seem an odd pair at first sight but less
so, perhaps, on reflection.10
Their farming days over, some of the Walters removed from the
district to the environs of London; the last of the family to be buried at |