Church Street in Nonington

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Church Street was once made up of the present Church Street and what is now known as  Pinner’s Lane.

If you were church-bound from Acol [Ackholt] then the first buildings you encountered as you walked along Church Street were the old Poor House Cottages on your left. The row of six cottages built in the early 1820’s with the rear of the cottages facing onto the road, and the front of the cottages overlooking their gardens. The boy on the left of the picture is believed to be Frank Harrison, whose family lived in Church Street. Beyond the cottages is Church Street Row and beyond the Row is the old main Poor House building.
A front view of the old Poor House main building which once housed eight families. The young girl is Bessie Causer, the photo was taken in 1926.
A side view of the old main Poor House building, now Yew Tree Cottage
A view of Church Street looking back towards the old Poor House building and cottages.
Nonington School pupils on Empire Day in the early 1900’s. The photo was taken from the head-master house which was demolished in the early 1960’s and is now part of the school car park.
Nonington School in the early 1960’s. The first National school, so called because they were founded by the National Society for Promoting Religious Education to provided elementary education in accordance with the teaching of the Church of England to the children of the poor, was built in 1830 and was replaced by the present building in 1861. The centenary of the school was celebrated in 1961, which was in fact the centenary of the construction of the present building and not the founding of the school.
A Church Army wagon in 1911. It is believed to be parked on the corner of Church Street and Church Hill, the present Vicarage Lane, on the site of the old tithe barn. This land in now occupied by bungalows.
Before the sale of the St. Alban’s estate in 1938 the Toll Cottages was the name used in census records and farm leases for the house on the junction of Cherry Garden Lane and the Sandwich Road. In the estate sale catalogue for some now unknown reason the name Toll Cottage was given to the house at the junction of Church Street and Church Hill. The tithe barn site was behind the fence in the left background. The Alms Houses and Church Cottage are off to the left.
The Alms Houses on the north side of Church Hill built in the late 1800’s by W.O. Hammond of St Alban’s Court, which became known as Threeways.
Church Cottage, once a yeoman’s farm house.
Nonington Forge in what was then called Church Street [now Pinner’s Lane], late 1920’s, St Mary’s Church is in the background, Church House is off to the right.
Church House, once The White Horse alehouse. In the 1830’s it became the home of the Morgan family who were blacksmiths and vets. In the 1930’s it became the village dairy owned by Abbot Bros.

6 Comments

  • admin

    5 June 2020 at 10:04

    Denise, many thanks for your kind comments. I’m glad I was of some assistance to your research.

  • Denise Evans

    4 June 2020 at 23:50

    Nonington is a fascinating village and I am proud that I have an ancestral link. I visited the village at the end of January to find my ancestors grave of the Folwells. The Church Warden very kindly found the plot. They lived on Butter Street and I’m still trying to find further information on the family. Clive has been very helpful in my research. Denise Evans

  • admin

    6 May 2020 at 13:54

    Not that I know of, Hugh. The cottage is post 1859 Poor Law Commissioners map, and there is no clue there. It may have been given the name just because it was on the junction of the two roads like an old fashioned toll house.

  • Hugh Craddock

    6 May 2020 at 13:34

    Hi Clive, thank you for the photographic journey into Church Street’s past. Have you any idea why Toll Cottage was so named, when it was at the junction of Cherrygarden Lane and Sandwich Road? The Sandwich Road has never been turnpiked (still less Cherrygarden Lane), so is there some other explanation for the name?

  • Heather Measday

    4 May 2020 at 14:04

    Many thanks for keeping myself and husband with post’s from the parish of Nonington. We have read and re-read all notifications during the lock down. My husband and i are both in complete lockdown to health issues. Roy has a great great grandfather Thomas Measday buried in the churchyard, or so we believe. We have visited the churchyard and quite a few church services. I say we believe as we found his wife’s headstone and were able to only just make out the name of Ann Ways Measday. Since Roy’s stroke we have not been able to travel far so your post’s are like a breath of fresh air. Please keep up the good work and tell everyone involved a big thank-you. Take care and keep safe. Heather Measday

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