THE MUDDLE FAMILIES

THE LINEAGE & HISTORY OF THE MUDDLE FAMILIES OF THE WORLD

INCLUDING VARIANTS MUDDEL, MUDDELL, MUDLE & MODDLE

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Lois Muddle, née Wren, in 19th Century Uckfield

It had been an unusually warm and wet mid-winter month when Lois Wren was born on Friday 28 January 1853 in the ancient timber frame house called Bridge Cottage in Uckfield. There is no written evidence that Lois was born at Bridge Cottage, her birth certificate just stating that her birth was in Uckfield, but as almost all children of married couples were, at this time, born in the family home and Lois’ parents were recorded as living at Bridge Cottage in the 1851 and 1861 censuses, before and after Lois’ birth, it seems near certain that Lois was born at Bridge Cottage.

That winter was already proving to be one of the wettest, with rainfall since late August 1852 being about 50% above average. Charles Leeson Prince in The Climate of Uckfield recorded that the brooklands between Buxted and Lewes had frequently been flooded during this period with the highest flood in Uckfield occurring on the evening of 26 October when the flood waters reached the door of the Bell Inn. This would have meant that as Bridge Cottage stood in the brooklands at Uckfield next to the river Uck, and below the Bell Inn, that it would certainly have been flooded on 26 October and probably to a lesser extent on several other occasions during this period. So the period before Lois’ birth must have been extremely stressful for her family and in particular for her pregnant mother. Immediately after Lois’ birth the weather changed, becoming colder than average with severe frosts occurring until early May; resulting in the home that Lois had been born into probably being rather cold and damp for the first few months of her life.

Lois’ father was John Wren, the son of labourer Moses Wren and his wife Constant (or Constance) who were living at Barnet Wood in Framfield when they had their son baptised on 6 June 1813. Twenty-five years later John Wren was a labourer living in Uckfield when he married Mary Jane Miller of Framfield at St Thomas à Becket Church in Framfield on Sunday 18 November 1838. Mary Jane was then 18 years old; she was the daughter of Henry and Jane Miller and she had been baptised at Little Horsted on 6 August 1820. Both John and Mary Jane signed their names in the marriage register, so they had both received some education even though both their fathers were labourers.

John and Mary Jane Wren’s first child, daughter Ellen, was born just five months after their marriage and baptised at Holy Cross Church in Uckfield on 21 April 1839. Fifteen months later their second child was born, daughter Mary, who was baptised on 12 July 1840.

Then in the census of 6 June 1841 John and Mary Jane were living in part of the Old Mill at Uckfield with their eldest daughter and Mary Jane’s parents, Henry and Jane Miller. Their other daughter, one-year-old Mary Wren, was staying with the family of farmer John Kenward at Mount Pleasant on Teelings Common in Ridgewood. In this census John was described as being a male servant, and next-door to the Old Mill at the Mill was the family of miller George Mannington who had two live-in male servants, so it seems that John and Mary Jane were living in the old part of Uckfield Mill and that John was almost certainly working for George Mannington in his water driven corn mill.

Three months after the census John and Mary Jane’s eldest daughter died and they buried little Ellen, aged 2, in Holy Cross Churchyard on 10 September 1841. But life goes on and soon after this their eldest son, George, was born, he was baptised on 12 December 1841. George was followed by son John, who was baptised on 14 May 1843 and then by daughter Jane, who was baptised on 26 January 1845. Their next child was son Henry who was baptised on 23 August 1846 but survived for little more than a year; he was buried in Holy Cross Churchyard on 12 December 1847. This was a bad period for John and Mary Jane because their next child, son David, who was baptised on 31 March 1848, died when he was only seven weeks old and was buried in Holy Cross Churchyard on 9 April 1848.

Then later in 1848 miller George Mannington died to be replaced as miller by William Kenward and it is thought that the mill was now owned by John Kenward with whom young Mary Wren had been staying in 1841. The following year John and Mary Jane’s next child was born, son William, who was baptised on 8 April 1849 and unlike his two previous brothers was to survive childhood. Then in the census of 30 March 1851 John and Mary Jane with their five surviving children, Mary aged 10, George 9, John 8, Jane 6 and William 2, together with Mary Jane’s parents, Henry and Jane Miller, were living in one half of Bridge Cottage, which lay next to the river just across the road from the mill. We don’t know when the Wren family moved from the Old Mill to Bridge Cottage, only that it was sometime between the 1841 and 1851 censuses, but could it have been in late 1848 when the mill changed hands, and had the deaths of young Henry and David in 1847 and 1848 been the result of deteriorating conditions at the Old Mill?

In the 1841 census the Wren family had shared occupation of the Old Mill with the family of carpenter Thomas Brooker that consisted of his wife Mary and seven children. In the 1851 census his widow Mary Brooker with a son and two lodgers was still living at the Old Mill and had journeyman miller James Wheeler and his wife Elizabeth as fellow occupants. The Mill House was now occupied by the family of miller William Kenward.

In the 1851 census John Wren gave his occupation as miller’s labourer, so with Uckfield watermill being so close it seems that this would have been where he worked, though Hempstead watermill and the windmill in Framfield Road would have been in easy walking distance. The Wren family’s neighbours in Bridge Cottage at this time were young widow and charwoman Sarah Bannester with her two sons and eight lodgers, five of whom were paupers on parish relief, one an old widower of independent means, and two were fellow charwomen.

A few months after the census John and Mary Jane’s ninth child, daughter Louisa, arrived and was baptised on 17 August 1851; to be followed eighteen months later by the birth of their tenth child, daughter Lois, the main subject of this article, on 28 January 1853. Just two days later, on Sunday 30 January 1853, they took baby Lois the third of a mile up the hill to have her baptised at Holy Cross Church by the Rev. John Streatfeild, who was a member of the Streatfeild family that lived at The Rocks in Uckfield and owned large swaths of Uckfield including Bridge Cottage. The household that Lois had been born into consisted, at her birth, of her father John Wren aged 39, mother Mary Jane 32, her six surviving older siblings, Mary 12, George 11, John 9, Jane 8, William 3 and Louisa 18 months, her maternal grandfather Henry Miller 53, and possibly her maternal grandmother Jane Miller 71. No record of Jane Miller’s death can be found but it must have been between the 1851 and 1861 censuses as her husband was a widower in 1861. It would be nice to think that they all walked up the hill with Lois to attend her baptism.

The town of Uckfield at the time of Lois’ birth was a small market town in a predominately rural area and Bridge Cottage was on the outskirts of the main built up area, which lay up the hill around the church and upper High Street. Possibly the main event each day when Lois was a young child, was the passing of the stagecoaches by the front door of Bridge Cottage. The coach from Brighton and Lewes to Tunbridge Wells ran on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, stopping at the King’s Head in Uckfield at 1pm, and the return journeys from Tunbridge Wells ran on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, again stopping at the King’s Head at 1pm to pick-up and put-down passengers. The Rev. Edward Boys Ellman in Recollections of a Sussex Parson recalls how the coachman would gallop the horses as fast as possible down the hill and across the old three arch stone bridge next to Bridge Cottage so that the impetus would carry the coach up the opposite hill. This resulted on one occasion in the stress on the coach pole being too great and the pole snapped resulting in an accident.

When Lois was just over three years old a little baby brother arrived, this was James, who was baptised on 10 February 1856. But two years later, just a few days before her fifth birthday, Lois was to experience the death of her little brother; they buried James in Holy Cross Churchyard on 26 January 1858.

It was in 1858 that Lois’ world changed radically. This was probably when she started her schooling, walking with some of her older siblings to the National School next to the church where the master was Thomas Zealley Richards, though for her first few years at the school Lois would probably have been taught by the mistress Mrs Frances Richards.

The other major event that year for Lois was the opening of the railway from Lewes to Uckfield on 11 October 1858. For the last year the Lewes and Uckfield Railway Company had been building this line that had its terminus station in Uckfield immediately across the river from Bridge Cottage, and at the same time the Uckfield Gas Works, producing gas from coal, was built next to the railway station. This resulted in Bridge Cottage changing from being in a rural location on the outskirts of a sleepy market town to being right at the commercial heart of the district. The resulting increase in traffic immediately resulted in the old three arch stone bridge proving to be completely inadequate and it was torn down in February 1859 to be replaced by the brick and steel single span that still carries Uckfield High Street across the river.

The market, which had been next to the old centre of the town, moved down to fields just across the road from Bridge Cottage, so as to be next to the new centre of communications, and brought yet more activity to the area. The railway would have provided quick and cheaper transport for supplies to, and produce from, agriculture in the local area including the large Wood’s nursery at Maresfield, and also industry such as Ben Ware’s expanding brick and tile works at Ridgewood. One other effect was that the stagecoaches no longer thundered past Bridge Cottage at 1pm, instead the daily coach from Tunbridge Wells to Uckfield arrived to meet the midday trains that would convey its passengers on to Lewes and Brighton. It then collected passengers at Uckfield Station at 2.30pm, and after calling at the Maiden’s Head Hotel in Uckfield returned to Tunbridge Wells.

The Wren family continued to grow with a little sister for Lois arriving; this was Catherine who was baptised on 7 May 1859. In the census of 7 April 1861 John, still a miller’s labourer, and Mary Jane were continuing to live at Bridge Cottage, they had seven of their surviving children living with them, Mary 20, George 19, John 18, William 12, Louisa 10, Lois 8 and Catherine 2, and they also had three lodgers, shoemaker Thomas Russell with his wife and son. Their neighbours in Bridge Cottage were now carter Thomas Miles with his wife Sarah and four children. Mary Jane’s father, Henry Miller, was now a gardener living at Horsted Place Lodge in Little Horsted and he had his 16-year-old granddaughter, Jane Wren, living with him as his housekeeper. In this census Lois was recorded as being a scholar, as were her brother William and sister Louisa, and also three of the Miles children, so Lois had several fellow school children to play with and walk to school with.

The Wren family was finally completed with the arrival of daughter Agnes Elizabeth, who was baptised on 15 September 1861, and then daughter Emily baptised on 20 December 1863. So over a period of 25 years Mary Jane had born fourteen children, having been pregnant almost every other year, and seen four of them die when no more than two years old. Then the second eldest of her daughters to have survived childhood, Jane, died in mid-1864, aged 19.

October 1865 was a bad month for the Wren family; Charles Leeson Prince recorded his highest ever daily rainfall in Uckfield of 2.4 inches in what was in total a very wet and stormy month. The resultant floods were highest on 26 October when they came over the bridge and nearly up to the Bell Inn, so the Wren family at Bridge Cottage would have again been flooded out.

Mary Jane’s father, Henry Miller, died aged 67, and was buried in Little Horsted Churchyard on 1 February 1867, when he was described as having been resident at Mr Barchan’s Lodge; presumably this was Horsted Place Lodge. Then later that year John and Mary Jane’s eldest daughter to have survived childhood, Mary, died unmarried at the age of 27. It was probably about this time that their son William left home to enlisted in the army; he is thought to have remained in the army for about twenty years before marrying and living in Kent.

In the census of 2 April 1871 the enumerator, Luther White, seems to have considered it unnecessary to name properties except for public houses, so we cannot be absolutely certain where the Wren family were then living, but as they were recorded next to the Bell Inn in the schedule and also in the following 1881 census they were living at Bridge Cottage it seems almost certain that they were at Bridge Cottage in 1871. John, who was now a railway labourer, a job he had possibly got when the railway was extended north from Uckfield in the late 1860s, and Mary Jane now had just their four youngest daughters living with them, the eldest of which was Lois, now aged 18.

About four weeks before Lois’ 22nd birthday her father, John Wren, died, probably at Bridge Cottage, at the age of 61, and they laid him to rest in Holy Cross Churchyard on 3 January 1875.

Lois’ siblings had started to marry in 1863 when brother George married Mary Ann Rose and set up home in Lewes, then in 1868 brother John married Jane Sharp and they lived in Jane’s hometown of Brighton. The next to marry was sister Louisa who married George Pollard in mid-1876; they lived at Ringles Cross in the Gate Lodge at that entrance to Buxted Park.

The next to marry was Lois; she was 23 years old when she married 18-year-old Joseph Muddle at Holy Cross Church in Uckfield on Saturday 18 November 1876. Joseph was then a labourer living in Uckfield. He was the eldest son of Joseph and Eliza Muddle; he had been born in Uckfield, probably at Glass Castle in Ridgewood where his father was a gardener, on 8 February 1858. The Muddle family then moved to Framfield and Joseph would have grown-up while the family lived at Pay Gate House where his father was toll collector for the turnpike. Between 1871 and 1874 the family moved back to Uckfield to live at Brands Place in Ridgewood where Joseph’s father was a farmer and market gardener.

It seems that for the early years of their married life Joseph and Lois Muddle lived with Lois’ widowed mother and her younger sisters at Bridge Cottage. Just on a year after their marriage they had their first child, daughter Ruth, who was baptised at Holy Cross Church on 5 December 1877. Their second child arrived about eighteen months later; this was son Arthur, who was baptised on 4 July 1879 when Joseph’s occupation was recorded as brewer’s labourer. Sadly Arthur was to survive only eleven months; they buried him in Holy Cross Churchyard on 16 April 1880. His death was quickly followed by the birth of their third child, daughter Ellen, who was baptised on 11 July 1880.

In the census of 3 April 1881 widow Mary Jane Wren was still living at Bridge Cottage, she had her unmarried daughter Agnes, who was a domestic servant, living with her, and described as her lodgers were her son-in-law Joseph Muddle, a brewer’s labourer, her daughter Lois Muddle, and her two granddaughters, Ruth and Ellen Muddle. The following year Joseph and Lois had their fourth child, daughter Annie, who was baptised on 24 September 1882 when Joseph was still a brewer’s labourer. This was followed in 1883 by the marriage in Uckfield of Lois’ sister Catherine to Frederick Cuthbert Neve, who was a coal merchant’s foreman; they lived at Olive’s Cottage in Uckfield High Street. Then Joseph and Lois had their fifth child, son William, who was baptised on 7 September 1884. At this baptism Joseph gave his occupation as gardener, an occupation he was to remain in for at least the next thirty years.

Lois’ sister Agnes married Arthur Kidd at Uckfield in 1885 but she died just two years later. Then sister Emily, who had gone to work as a domestic servant in London, married Alfred Roeder at Marylebone in 1886. It seems likely that it was in the mid-1880s, possibly when Agnes married, that any members of the Wren family finally ceased living at Bridge Cottage, after about 35 years of occupation. It seems likely that Wren matriarch, Mary Jane, went to live with the family of her son John in Brighton because she died at Brighton in late 1887, at the age of 67. It was probably also at this time that Joseph and Lois Muddle moved a few hundred yards up Uckfield High Street to live in one of the old stone cottages that formed the terrace called White Rails, if nothing else this was accommodation that was not subject to the repeated flooding that Lois had experienced at Bridge Cottage.

Joseph and Lois Muddle then had their sixth child, daughter Kate, who was baptised on 6 June 1886, followed two years later by daughter Agnes, who was baptised on 5 August 1888, and then daughter Edith, who was baptised on 6 April 1890. In the census of 5 April 1891 the Muddle family were living at White Rails, in a cottage consisting of four rooms, that housed Joseph aged 33, who was a domestic gardener, wife Lois 38, and their then seven surviving children, Ruth 13, Ellen 10, Annie 8, William 6, Kate 4, Agnes 2, and Edith 1. The following year the last member of the Muddle family was born, daughter Bertha, who was baptised on 3 April 1892.

It seems likely that at this time Joseph was working as gardener for General George Calvert Clarke at Church House in Church Street as a local newspaper cutting about the Uckfield Autumn Show, from the period 1880 to 1900, records that ‘J Muddle had staged General Clarke’s collection [of plants] admirably’.

Six years after the birth of the last of her nine children Lois died on 25 January 1898, just three days before her 45th birthday, from phthisis (pulmonary tuberculosis). Her death certificate records that her death was at the High Street in Uckfield; it would seem fairly certain that this was at White Rails. Lois was interred in Holy Cross Churchyard in Uckfield on 28 January 1898.

Later in 1898, a few months after Lois’ death, White Rails was demolished and it was probably then that Joseph and his children moved to Framfield Road in the New Town area of Uckfield. In the census of 31 March 1901 Joseph and six of his children were living at 12 Bird-in-Eye Terrace in Framfield Road, and Joseph was working on his own account as a domestic jobbing gardener.

Three years after Lois’ death Joseph married 46-year-old spinster Mary Maria Fieldwick at St Andrew & St Mary the Virgin Church in Fletching on 29 August 1901. Mary was the daughter of Samuel and Frances Fieldwick (or Feldwick); she had been baptised at Fletching on 6 April 1856. In 1885 when she was 28 years old Mary had an illegitimate son, who was brought-up by her parents, while Mary worked as a live-in domestic servant.

There were no children from Joseph and Mary’s marriage. Joseph’s daughter Ruth, who had remained living with him and never married, died aged 37, and was interred in Uckfield Cemetery on 11 November 1914. Then Joseph’s only surviving son, William, who had married in 1915, died in mid-1916, aged 31, while living near Brighton. To be followed later that year by the death of Mary’s son in France on 28 September 1916; he had married, migrated to Canada and enlisted in the Canadian Army during the First World War.

In A County Directory of the Principal Gardens in Great Britain and Ireland of 1917 it was recorded that J Muddle was gardener at Ridgewood House. Joseph was living at 101 Framfield Road when he died aged 73; he was buried in Uckfield Cemetery on 20 March 1931. Three years later Mary was living at High View House, the council’s old-folks home in Ridgewood, when she died aged 78; she was buried in Uckfield Cemetery on 10 May 1934.

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