Stychens Lane

Stychens Lane in Bletchingley, Surrey, runs out of the village, in a northerly direction. It’s pretty and old, and I have  used it in my story of the Radwinter family, putting one of the children there in 1851, according to the census. If you look at the census return you won’t find him, because I’ve made him up, but you will find other people who lived there, including the Charlwood family who worked in the gravel pits,

Also living in Stychens was Mr Cunningham a retired farm bailiff and his wife, many agricultural labourers, Mr White the shoemaker and his family and Mr Collins who was also a shoemaker… were they partners or rivals?

There was Mr Hollands the carpenter, and James Plumridge the bricklayer and his wife and six children, John Wenborne also lived in Stychens and so did Charles Kitchens/Hitchens/Kickens and they were a bricklayer’s labourer, were they two of the four men who worked for James Plumridge?

James Botting was a blacksmith, William Coppurd was a chalk-pit labourer… that must have been such hard work..

I notice that there were several widows and widowers among the people of this one lane, reflecting life in the 1850’s, I think.