Charles Henry Godfrey

Ian Cherry writes (in respect of the item on the former village shop, see below):

My father* came for lunch last Sunday and I sat him down with my tablet so he could view the pictures of the old shop, he has lots of memories, before he had seen the picture of Queens House he said I wonder if there is a picture of ‘Great Gran Godfrey’ in her long outfits and sure enough he saw the picture of her on her bike, he couldn’t quite remember her full name but it is on the grave stone to the right hand side of the belfry door of the church. As he said, my mother would have been able to name all in the photographs. Godfrey & Walton had 3 shops, the other two were at Helmdon and Bredwardene in Herefordshire, Walton became a partner with Charles Henry Godfrey, they were related. The business was sold in 1918 and C H Godfrey bought The Retreat(now called The Old Stocks) for £130, later selling it for £1000 in 1939 to a man who wanted to get out of London when the war started, he said it was the best deal he had ever done. C H Godfrey owned Stutchbury Manor Farm and bought the land adjoining known as Painters, he sold the lot to the college(Oxford)and bought a farm at Aston Cantlow near Stratford upon Avon and set his son up, also known as Charles Henry Godfrey but called Ron. Today his son Charles owns the farm who we keep in touch with. When the business was sold in 1918 (Uncle) Cecil Walton as father calls him set up his motor bike business at Wisteria Cottage. The man with the moustache in the first picture father has identified as his Gramp or Great Gramp Godfrey, he says they all had big moustaches in those days. Gramp Godfrey gave the the Church Clock, that was commissioned by Smiths of Derby, along with a bequest to maintain it, this sadly eroded over time and became part of the church funds. I called in to see Charles Godfrey at Aston Cantlow a few years ago and he gave me his Grandfathers parish map of Sulgrave, dated 1885(surveyed in 1883) it shows every house in Sulgrave at that time, each map is 1/2500 approx 1.0m x 0.7m, there are 8 maps in total and show every field, tree, hovel, pond, in the parish at that time. Also enclosed are some pages to a ledger of around the late 1800’s listing the names of landowners/tenants in the parish: Seckington, Gulliver, Wootton, Linnell, Killbey, Hawkes, Wills and Pack to name a few. All interesting reading.

*Roger Cherry of Dial Farm House, Magpie Road.

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