Who are these people?

[Andy J2022]

Following on from AlanBoyd's posting of the newspaper report about the death of the Stanyer's daughter Catherine, here is a report about the attendees at her funeral, which appeared in the Warwick and Warwickshire Advertiser on 14 May 1938. Those who attended will have been fairly close friends of the family, as another newspaper article noted it was a private funeral.

[ellie1789]

Hello,

Sorry for the slow response - it is the building as per Google Maps and the one towards the west shown on the map. The article about Annie Stanyer is about the other Fernhill Farm as that house is still there and I am familiar with what it looks like.

I know in 1979 there was a Transfer of the land in this title dated 18 October 1979 made between (1) Reginald Bostock and Muriel Margaret (of Oaks Farm) and (2) Arthur Bostock and Audrey Jane Bostock, and it refers to Fernhill Farmhouse then. It does seem to be the Bostocks, however I’m struggling to work out how they all relate and which building is actually mine in the records

[AlanBoyd]

Looking at the modern OS map, and historical maps, this 1933 newspaper report on a North Warwickshire foxhunt is entirely consistent with Bostock's Fernhill being the easterly farm at that time:

"The fox crossed Warrior's Lodge farm into Kenilworth Chase and, leaving this covert, ran down to the Castle walls and alongside the Kenilworth (Inchford) Brook and right-handed away from the town back towards Honiley Hall, where the fox was viewed a short distance in front of the pack. Here he led hounds over Mr Bostock's Fernhill Farm, near the Kennels [HQ of the hunt at that time], and the Rouncil Farm and lane with Banner Hill to the right, and ran on to Goodrest, near Woodcote...”

The use of “Bostock’s Fernhill Farm” may be to differentiate it from the other Fernhill Farm, presumably Stanyer’s.

[AlanBoyd]

It looks as if the Stanyers left Fern Hill in 1941, and that the farm was taken over by J H Lloyd.

The last newspaper reference that I can find to Fred Stanyer, Fern Hill is in October 1941 when he is selling a four-wheel trap and some oak blocks. In the same month there is an advert from Lloyd, Fern Hill, Kenilworth advertising for farm workers. This Lloyd/Fern Hill continues appearing in the newspapers throughout the rest of the 1940s with adverts and mentions of agricultural show appearances.

In March 1949 J H Lloyd, Fern Hill Farm, advertises a car for sale and gives his phone number as "Haseley Knob 70". This confirms that J H Lloyd took over the Stanyer Fern Hill, because in 1939 Miss Stanyer of Fern Hill advertised dachsund puppies for sale and gave a phone number – "Haseley Knob 70"

[Andy J2022]

Hi Ellie,
Thanks for clarifying which farm you are looking for, or more precisely which farm you want to know the earlier occupants for. Do you know when the name was changed from Fern Hill to Fernwood? Maybe this was to resolve the confusion over the two farms with what appears to have been the same name.
Although the electoral registers for 1938/39 and then 1946 may still be of help, I think that asking some of your neighbours may be quicker. In my experience, country people who have lived in the area all their lives tend to have long communal memories going back two or three generations.

If you have access to the 1939 register, I think it might be useful to trawl through it using the address search option as well as looking for names which have already featured thus far. For example it shows that there are Bostocks at both Rouncil (not Roundshill) Farm and at Oak Farm (see second image below). Also on the same page there is listed Fern Hill Farm Cottages, with families named Cashmore, Hurley and Brimridge (first image below) but no actual Fern Hill farm. I think this may because of the borough boundary, which I noted in my second posting on this thread. The western end of Rouncil Lane seems to be listed under another borough. Note that that Bostocks are shown on Rouncil Lane under Kenilworth UDC, whereas the Stanyers at the other Fern Hill Farm are listed under Warwick UDC, with no street name.

[Andy J2022]

This item from the Warwick and Warwickshire Advertiser 30 June 1917 adds to the picture

[Andy J2022]

The Electoral Registers for 1910 and 1914 confirm that Thomas Bostock was resident at Fernhill Farm Kenilworth. The 1911 census shows him and his sister Mary, both single, at Fernhill Farm along with a single female servant. By the autumn of 1921 electoral register he is Roundshill Lane Farm and people named Harold and May Roberts are shown at Fern Hill Farm. The 1921 census shows a Thomas and Mary Bostock together but without paying for the full record I don't know the address or the relationship between them; it seems likely that they are at Roundshill Lane Farm. Mary Bostock may be his sister born 1881-2 (per 1911 census). In the 1939 Register (image in posting two above) Thomas is at Roundshill Lane Farm, single married although I cannot find the marriage*. His date of birth is 11 April 1879 and his wife Mary's is 25 Nov 1881.  Thomas died 2 Nov 1952 and left a will. Probate was granted to Mary Bostock spinster. His estate was valued at £11,950.

* edited from the original at 18.47 31 May 2023 to reflect error pointed out below.

[Andy J2022]

By the 1939 Register Harold and May Roberts, formerly of Fernhill farm are located at The Kennels, Rouncil Lane. He is a manager of an engineering works. Based on this information and the earlier stuff about where Thomas Bostock was living in the 1920/30s, I think that Fernhill Farm was bought for the land and was then farmed as part of the Roundshill Lane Farm owned by the wider Bostock family, meaning that the farm house was available to be let to a tenant (the Roberts) who just lived in the house. Depending on the details in the deeds for the property that Ellie referred to earlier it may be that this arrangement was formalised by separating the farm land from the farm house. Perhaps Ellie can confirm who farms the land around her home. Today the Land Registry lists the Farm House separately from two other properties named Fernwood Farm, Rouncil Lane. I assume these latter entries relate to the farm buildings and farmland.

[AlanBoyd]

In 1921 at Roundshill Farm Thomas and Mary Bostock are brother and sister. Mary's age is 39.7, which by my calculation puts her birthday at November 1881.

@Andy J2022, I think you have misread the 1939 register, Mary is single/domestic duties? Did your eye slip to Oak Farm?