people were aged over sixty-four. There were still six octogenarians, although they were not the same octogenarians as in 1841. Whatever his precise age may have been, Joseph Oliver was the oldest inhabitant.
   There were at the time eighty-one scholars in Ash. That was nine more than the number of pupils who were attending the village school in 1971, in which year the school gave way to a more ambitious establishment at New Ash Green, A regrettable feature was that only twelve of the eighty-one scholars were provided by the easterly sector of the parish. Whether the twelve all made the long trudge to Ash Street may be doubted, as there was also a school at Ridley. Miss Baker, who presided there, was only teaching eleven children from Ridley parish, but eleven children from a parish with a total population of ninety-one compared very favourably with the poor showing from Hodsoll Street and its environs. Hodsoll Street was far from lacking in 

charm, but it was never otherwise much to the fore. Few of the ordinary tradesmen of the parish had chosen to settle there. Apart from the Green Man, which may or may not have been functioning at the time, the only retail establishment at Hodsoll Street was Thomas Bennett’s grocer’s shop.
   West Yoke was in far better state, It boasted a grocer, John Atkins, who was also a carrier, a butcher, Frederick Oliver, a tailor, William Accleton and the two needleladies of Butlers Point, Moreover, additional. or alternative services were readily available from Ash Street.
   At or near the Street, William Russell provided meat, Richard Wakeman, the ‘Victular’ of the Swan, provided drink, James Buggs and Amelia Hawley provided garments appropriate to their genders and John Wakeman, of Bradfield Cottage, made or mended shoes.
   This was the time when the rector, bereft of his wife,