5. From Lambeth and Lewisham to Maybanks, Ewhurst and
Drungewick Manor, Loxwood
a. James Braby (5) [1826-1907] & Emma Glover
James and Emma were married on 13 February 1851 at St Pancras Old Church, St
Pancras Road, Camden. He was 25, she was just 21. It is one of the oldest sites of
Christian worship in the country. Derelict in the 1840s, it had just been restored as a
chapel of ease called St Pancras Chapel, following the building of the New Church in
the 1820s. In the marriage register, he and his father, James (4), both describe
themselves as carriage builders, which perhaps looked better than the census, a
wheelwright! They set up home at 72, York Road, Lambeth, near the works, necessary
as James was now master of the 28 employees.
The 1851 census was taken only weeks after their marriage, on 30 March.
Emma was the daughter of Thomas William and Jane Glover of 3 Harrington Square in
St Pancras. Located near Mornington Crescent, the square is very close to the church,
and to where James’s grandmother lived. She was no doubt the matriarchal guest at the
wedding, and a link back to the Surrey-Sussex border villages. Thomas William Glover
had married Jane Glover (sic) of Walsall, Staffs at St George’s, Hanover Square in
1812. Jane was the daughter of James Glover, a Walsall ironfounder who was declared
bankrupt in 1820. The St Pancras Glovers were a large family. Emma was the 10th of 14
siblings born between 1813 and 1840. However, six of these died as tiny children. The
health of London children was not good in the early part of the century, regardless of
class. The loss of James’s two sisters and his mother provides similar evidence.
Emma had been brought up in Drury Lane,
where the family lived at No 168. Her father
was a coachsmith. His business was named
TW Glover & Co. (from the evidence of his
children’s baptism entries at St Giles in the
Fields, Holborn). He was a manufacturer of
coachsprings and axles. This occupation was
not so different from that of the Brabys.
Indeed, in the 1861 census two of his sons,
Samuel and Frederick, were engineer
wheelwrights (see next page).
A page from the catalogue of George Goodwin, Drury Lane London, 1799.
Intriguingly, Emma’s sister Jane married Joseph Glover of Walsall in 1849. Joseph’s
father John was another ironfounder in Walsall. It is unusual to find two generations
marrying spouses of the same surname (possibly the same family) in this manner, and
so separated geographically. One can only speculate on the business and blood
connections of the families. John and the elder Jane may have been brother and sister.
A certain George Goodwin, Coach-spring and axle tree maker, was making these
springs in Coal Yard, Drury Lane by 1779, made possible by new industrial processes
in iron manufacture and a fast increasing market. Coaches travelled faster on the new
turnpikes, making possible an increasing specialisation in the industry. There was a
cluster of coach builders around Drury Lane, Long Acre and neighbouring streets.
Indeed, English coach building was the envy of the world at this time. Lukin &
Co were at 101, Godsall Philip & Co at 103, Drury Lane, and Hatchet, Son & Co at 121
Long Acre (the latter the most innovative). These firms were the purchasers of Glover’s
products. See a fascinating history of coach building at http://www.andresfurger.ch.
Latewr, Mulliners, the automobile coach builders were founded in Long Acre.
Emma’s brother Samuel (1820-1898), carried on living, unmarried, at 3 Harrington
Square after his father’s death in 1879, and continued the family business through the
rest of the century. Another brother Frederick George, the youngest in the family was
also a coachbuilder. At the time of Emma and James’s wedding (1851) the firm was
“Glover Brothers, engineers, iron founders & iron roof manufacturers, 5, Charles Street,
Drury Lane & 168 Drury Lane” [1851 P O Directory]. In 1856, they were also building
carriages, and wheelwrights at 1 Dean Street, Soho [1856 P O Directory]. Further
diversification followed, as the advertisement below shows.
Glover Brothers, advertisement,
1860, in Blower’s Architect’s,
Builder’s, Surveyor’s and
Engineer’s Directory.
Emma & James’s children
were, in order:
James, 1851-1886
Ellen Emma, 1853-1923
Florence Adeline, 1856-1913
Ernest Edmund, 1858-1922
Constance Mary, 1864-1937
Below (last household)
“James Braby Jnr, 35, wheelwright engineer”.
The 1861 census includes the first four children.
The family lived at 18 Catford Hill, Stanstead Lane,
which from other sources is Stanstead Lodge.
The eldest child, James (6), was born on 13 Nov 1851 at their York Road house. By the
time Ellen Emma was born on 7 June 1853, they had moved to Cranmer Place,
Lambeth. This house may have been the one where his father had lived in the 1840s.
About 1855, they moved again to a larger house, Stanstead Villa, almost opposite
James’s father, in Forest Hill, Sydenham, where Florence Adeline was born 24 February
1856, as was Ernest Edmund on 29 April 1858, and Constance Mary on 14 September
1864. Unlike the previous generation, all the children survived to adulthood, and all
except the unlucky James, who was killed in a riding accident, lived a long and
fulfilling life.
James (5) and Emma Braby were among the prominent families of Rudgwick in the
second half of the 19th century. Living at Maybanks, Ewhurst, Surrey after the death of
James’s father (James (4) in 1865, technically they were not Rudgwickians, but
virtually all their social interaction, including their links to the church (lay Rector), the
vestry, and later the parish council were with Rudgwick. After all, a nearly straight line
from their house takes one through Cox Green and right down Church Street! James (4)
had, in his Will of 22 May 1865, “bequeathed to his only son James all his freehold and
leasehold estates lands manors buildings farming stock money funds shares in public
companies and every description of property whatsoever both real and personal whether
in possession reversion or remainder or expectancy for his own use and benefit
absolutely” (quoted in a document in the deeds of The Old Parsonage, Rudgwick).
James therefore inherited the profit from the sale of land to the railway company. In the
same year the railway opened, his father’s optimistic business opportunity, building the
Railway Inn, on the site of the present Co-op in Church Street, was assessed for parish
rate at £30, and £3.15 for the innkeeper’s cottage, both built on Braby land. At first
called Railway Station and Commercial Inn, it soon became the Martlet Hotel, a
reference to the Braby coat of arms ( this and his parent’s tomb suggest the coat of arms
was adopted by the 1860s). The inn’s location at the top of the newly made road to the
station was ideal; it is still called
Martlet Corner on maps, but the inn
is replaced by shops. It was described
in Kelly’s Directory, 1870: “a
substantial and commodious
structure, with large grounds, and a
lake [the tip pond], covering over an
acre and a half of land, well stocked
with fish. The cricket club meets at
this house, and the cricket field
covers over 5 acres of land”. Two
possible fields fit the bill, Furzefield or
Martlet Hotel, Rudgwick, facing Station Road, left
Greathouse Meadow. Railway history suggests the hotel was never much used as such,
but it served the village as an additional pub as houses went up around it, until its
demolition in the mid 1960s. A cottage built next to the station was named Stanstead
Cottage (cf his Forest Hill villa), now divided as Roseneath and Sidings Place.
On his father’s death in 1865, James is said to have retired, still only 41, to live on his
own means. The business seems to have been sold to EH Bayley, a Lancashire-born
businessman who after time being educated in France and Germany, began in the carpet
trade before switching to wheels and wagons. He was in business with James
Rawthorne in 1866 at 12 Newington Causeway, then by 1869 (still with Rawsthorne),
1868 (now on his own), 1871 and 1872 at 42 Newington Causeway ( both times, wheel-
wright and contractor) and 1874 (wheel, van and cart manufacturer). Braby and Son had
been at 32 Newington Causeway in the 1850s. In 1871 and 1881 (wagon manufacturer)
he employed 70 men. In a Commercial Directory, 1882, the entry reads: “Edward
Hodson Bayley and Co. (late James Braby and Son.) patent steam wheel and axle
works, and wagon, van, dray cart, fire escape and water van builders, 42 Newington
Causeway S.E.”. In 1892, he is a wheelwright and fire escape manufacturer.
There is a strong connection between the two families. Alfred Braby married Bayley’s
daughter Mary Jane Bayley in 1859 in the Pancras District of Middlesex. Alfred was
John Braby’s son, who continued, and built up, his fathers slate business. Furthermore,
Edward Bayley’s brother James went into the zinc and metals business, one dominated
by Frederick Braby, another of John’s sons. It seems highly likely that James Braby and
Edward were business associates and friends before Edward took over the business.
Edward H Bayley went on to be chairman of two tram companies, and eventually of the
London Roadcar Company, and was a Liberal MP. He lived to 98 and died in 1938 at
Peacehaven. What might James Braby have achieved if he had stayed in the business?
Instead, he became a magistrate, a Commissioner of Taxes for the Guildford Division,
and Justice of the Peace (JP) for London and Surrey (1869), and much later Deputy
Lieutenant (DL) for Surrey (1894). The 1871 census gives his occupation as Magistrate,
in 1881 census Justice of the Peace, and in 1891 Magistrate again. His politics were
Liberal, at least in the 1871 election.
b. Maybanks
James and Emma’s five children were aged between 1 and 14 in 1865. Maybanks must
have echoed to the sound of children for some years. Only one of their three daughters
ever married: Ellen, to Alfred Church, a solicitor from Essex, at Rudgwick in 1874
They set up home in Lee, Kent. Here, Ellen gave birth to the only grandchildren in the
family: Frederick, Gwendoline and Geoffrey. The family moved to Endon Lodge,
Wallington, Beddington, Surrey before
1881, and later to Belsize Park, Hampstead,
where in 1901, Frederick was a solicitor like
his father, and Geoffrey a surveyor. They
both worked for Ernest Braby later on.
Above, Ipswich Journal, 24 Aug 1874.
Left, The Times, 21 December, 1876, A Guildford
Christmas fatstock show. James had the best fat
ox under 4 years and won the plate for the best ox
or steer weaned by the exhibitor.
James’s farming interests led to prizes for
his Sussex herd at agricultural events
such as the Guildford Fatstock Show in
1876. He maintained this interest until
about 1890, receiving 76 prizes in that
time, including from the Royal Counties
Shows, the Royal Bath and West and at
Smithfield. He attended the opening of
the Horsham Corn Exchange in 1866,
only a year after moving to Maybanks.
The herd was dispersed in 1894, but as
late as 1898 he was in correspondence
with John Overton Lea in Tennessee, “the foremost breeder of Sussex cattle in the
USA”, regarding a bull named Chang, and being a Braby, about electric motor cabs as
well. A major landowner in the district, he owned (most probably inherited) Maybanks,
Ruet, Tillhouse and New Barn in Ewhurst, Greathouse, Gravatts, and Parsonage in
Rudgwick, with his farm steward, the delightfully named Henry Worship Nockolds,
living at Cousens, Rudgwick, followed later by George Philpott. Whether the farms
were in hand or let is difficult to establish, and may have varied over time. Parsonage
House was let to the Nelson sisters in the 1860s and called by them Bellevue. Later
tenants such as John Burnett, then John Llewellyn, then David Atter Jackson used its
old name. He acquired an interest in Lynwick from his brother in 1866, inheriting it on
John’s death in 1881.
1871, James Braby, 41, magistrate. The children are in the wrong order, placing Ernest above his sisters.
James (6) has died. None of the children had married by this date. Isabelle, a cousin aged 12 is daughter
of Charles Braby, James’s uncle. The visitor is possibly a friend of Emma’s from London.
At Maybanks, a number of servants were needed to keep the house and nurse the
children. From just four in Stanstead Villa in 1861, they moved up to eight by 1871 –
James’s widowed father had made do with four - before reverting to six and later four as
the children became older. A cook, parlour maid, scullery maid and kitchen maid
seemed to be the core household, with a lady’s maid and additional housemaids for
preference. An indication of the mobility of young women workers in Victorian
England is indicated by the birthplaces of the servants in 1871: Portsmouth,
Littlehampton, Suffolk (2 sisters), Dorset, Cuckfield, Watford, and Cowfold in Sussex.
In 1881, Alice Boxall, a 17 year old Rudgwick girl was employed. Robert Boxall (not
her father) was the gardener living at The Lodge at the entrance to the drive at Cox
Green in 1871. By 1881 two cottages had been built (opposite Furzen Lane), occupied
by a new gardener William Maynard and John Waller a labourer, with George Standing
the coachman at The Lodge. Few stayed long; none appear in more than one census.
Most were in their late teens or twenties. However, those living in estate houses were
married men with dependent families. An 1876 advert in The Times was for a
housemaid, not under 22, also a young person, not under 18, to take a portion of the
housework, and assist the
parlourmaid, both to have a
knowledge of waiting at table;
wages £16 and £12 per year, all
found. Turnover was such that
another was placed in 1879 for “a
good plain needlewoman and a
useful maid”, and again in 1883.
The Times, top, 6 Oct 1876, middle, 1 May
1879, bottom, 23 Jan 1883.
Maybanks, as described above, was rebuilt in the early 18th century by John Churchman
(1691-1741) of Berrylands, (now Bury St Austen’s) Rudgwick, who had purchased the
old house and land from Timothy Butt to whom he had provided a mortgage. A square
double pile house (the central part of the present house), it replaced an earlier house
thought to date from 1503. The room that now serves as the main entrance from the
eastern courtyard is part of this structure, and has a large hearth in the chimney. It was
extended in the late 18th century by John Churchman (1770-1817) and again by James
Braby (5) in the 1870s when a south facing crosswing, with Flemish gables and turret
(with coat of arms) in mock Queen Anne style, was added. The quality of the brickwork
is however, markedly inferior to its Georgian predecessor. The house has splendid
views of the Surrey Hills to the rear, and across rolling countryside to the front. Also in
the 19th century James Braby re-orientated the carriage drive approach from the east
(from Ellens Green) to the south (from Rudgwick). The brick-built farm buildings date
from the 18th century.
Above, Maybanks, south eastern garden aspect, photographed early 20 th century . Note the Flemish
gables added by James Braby, with his coat of arms high in the centre of the gable. Its window looks
towards Rudgwick. The carriage drive is to the right (see also page 49).
Below, the view north east from near the carriage entrance to the Surrey Hills. Tillhouse Farm is beyond
the ploughland. The older back entrance from New Barn Farm (originally a lodge) in Ellens Green is
along the fence line seen across the field in the foreground. A water pump was erected in woodland just
off the photo on the right. There must have been a pump to move the water up to the house, perhaps to a
tank in the high gable.
Top, Maybanks
Manor, 2001, commissioned
by the owners. A painting by
Jonathon Myles-Lea, born 1969, an
English painter of country houses, historic
buildings, and landscapes in a miniaturist
technique, typically taking the form of aerial
views. © Jonathon Myles-Lea. See
http://www.myles-lea.com. Map, Ordnance
Survey 1: 2500, 1912. inset, Maybanks reorientated to the painting. for comparison.
The layout is substantially the same after 90
years.
A MISCELLANY OF PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN FROM THE PUBLIC
FOOTPATH THROUGH MAYBANKS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
1. The Braby gable, with coat of arms. The bird is a more recent addition to the skyline.
2. The late C20th carriage entrance (an unusual arrangement of twin gates front and rear, enclosing a
courtyard, seen clearly on Myles-Lea’s painting, above).
3. The rear gate of the carriage entrance. The house as viewed shows the Braby crosswing to the left of
the Georgian frontage of the Churchman house.
4. Urn atop the gateway.
5. The former walled garden.
6. The orchard by the private road to Ruet Farm.
c. Inventor
James was a government contractor for the Ordnance Department, railway rolling stock
and heavy vehicular traffic in London, when in business with his father, bringing out
improvements in wheeled carriages to be propelled by steam, horses, or other power,
and an apparatus for retarding the same. Braby was early adopter of an iron-bodied
water cart with iron pipe spreaders for watering roads (the water van above?), to replace
the wooden ones invented by his father. Might one have been used on the roads around
Rudgwick? Earlier in 1860 he had invented a machine for breaking up roads, breaking
clods and scarifying or tilling land (replacing the centuries old pickaxe), address given
as Bridge House Place, Southwark (London Gazette). Successfully trialled on the
macadamised Kensington Road (The Illustrated London News 14 Sep 1861), its modern
equivalent is an essential machine for the Highway Authorities. In 1862 James
developed “a spring waggon, with improved patent wheels and break (sic)”, which was
awarded a prize medal and exhibited at the London International Exhibition. In the same
year, he made a “jointed roller slide for the use of draughtsmen in combination with the
T square” – presumably to enable his own desk work to be better accomplished.
James continued to roll out his inventions at Maybanks. One is forced to draw the
conclusion he retained some contacts at least, co-operation more likely, with the likes of
Bayley in order to source materials and skilled labour not available in rural Ewhurst,
Surrey. In 1875, he invented a manure spreader, “improved machinery for distributing
over the surface of land, stable, and farmyard manure and other composts” (London
Gazette).
He found a Guildford company, Mason and Weyman, to make the traction engine
wheels he patented in 1878, which he designed to not slip going uphill (which older
ones did). His wheel did away with the broad tyre, replacing it with an open framed rim
with two or more braced iron bands, the spokes bolted on. He is said to have used this
both in the fields, and to ascend hills as steep as 1 in 10 (the only ones of this steepness
near Ewhurst would be in the Surrey Hills to the north of the parish). In 1881, he
pioneered front wheel drive (the steering wheels are the driving wheels) in his traction
engine which reduced weight and cost of construction. Using this, in 1882 he produced
a 3 hp steam traction engine of 1 ton, ‘The Farmer’s Help’, and in 1884 a small farm
steam engine of only 37cwt, ‘a size previously considered unattainable’.
This light traction and stationary engine was exhibited at the Royal Agricultural Society
Show, Shrewsbury, that year, and in 1885 won a bronze award at the International
Inventions Exhibition, London. At various times, he also produced a windlass for
farmers, a light mule cart for the tropics made of metal and designed to fold up for
transport, all parts interchangeable. A working brass model was sent to India which was
highly commended in a competition by the Government. Intriguingly. These entries had
to be anonymous, so many entries were named with a Latin motto. James chose ex
industria decit, from his coat of arms!
In 1893, still at work at 69, he devised an horse-powered motor for road or rail carriages
– unlikely to have caught on in the new age of the internal combustion engine. In the
pipeline at this time were a street sweeping machine, a travelling hay elevator to be
attached to a hay wagon for loading in the field and unloading in the barn - a similar
lower one was able to make bales of hay – and a double mowing machine for drawing
across a field by one of his traction engines.
There is a derelict elevator lying in a grass
verge at Maybanks, which could very well be
one of these machines, complete with Braby
iron wheels! Not for the first time, writing
this, I am struck by how the fields of Ewhurst
and Rudgwick, where he owned some 1200
acres, must have resounded to the sounds of
his machines in action, and the incredulity of
A portrait of James Braby in 1894 or 1895 to mark his appointment as a Deputy Lieutenant of Surrey, 14
September 1894, when he was 68 or 69. The label is from the reverse side. This photograph was taken in
a London studio, wearing the ceremonial uniform and sword of the Deputy Lieutenant. Note his plumed
hat on the table. Maull & Fox were noted portrait photographers. Subjects included politicians and
Fellows of the Royal Society. (© Surrey History Centre, cc 150 8d)
his workers as they watched the experimentation,
which no doubt did not always go to plan. His aim had
become the mechanisation of agriculture, which was
ultimately to the advantage of his workers.
He was a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society (FSS),
elected 1875, though as now this was not a case of
distinction, but of membership, in contrast to most
other learned societies. All this inventiveness suggests
strongly that the earlier patents taken out when his
father was alive were due equally to James’s statistical
and engineering bent, inherited from his father and
grandfather. It is unsurprising that this enterprising man
should have been an advocate of the “horseless carriage
movement”, and had patented several improvements
for
motor cars, chiefly in connection with the wheels and
Above, an evocative reminder of the
gearing, before his health declined. Two dated 15
20th C. independence of the car
February and 18 October 1895 for “Improvements in
Means for Propelling Vehicles of all kinds, and
Vessels” (see 1893 reference above) and “Improvement
relating to Horseless Carriages” are listed at the
Espacenet patent search website.
owning classes.
James Braby would have approved!
This one is at the back of
Maybanks.
Below, James Braby, 1896.
The source of most of this is “The County of Surrey with illustrated Biographies”,
Truman Press, 1896. The photograph, above, commissioned, at the time, for the book,
shows a man with a small goatee beard, in his prime, but with a distinct droop on the
right side of his face in the eyelid and mouth, the possible effects of a stroke. Mayall &
Co was on Kings Road, Brighton, formerly of London, and Philadephia. Another book
that provides a very short biography is “Surrey Leaders”, Gaskell, which sums him up
thus: “He carries with him the assurance and self-possession of long experience, while
he has a gentleness and consideration for others which springs from a higher source”.
d. Rudgwick Affairs
Unfortunately, no mention of Emma has come to light in Rudgwick. James, however,
followed his father into village affairs, appearing in the Vestry Book as soon as 1866,
being immediately thrown into the about-to-become protracted saga of the Wanford
bridges in Bucks Green (for which there was always an insufficient sum), being voted
on to the bridge committee to look into it. In 1867, he proposed the repair of the path on
the hill to the church, and first
chaired a Vestry meeting later
that year (in the absence of Revd
Drury, the vicar) having been
elected churchwarden, again to
be confronted by an issue, this
time the restoration of the
church bells. In 1868 he joined
the highway committee. He was
also churchwarden for two
years.
Left, James commissioned the
magnificent east window of Holy
Trinity, Rudgwick, in memory of his
parents, James and Mary Ann Braby,
in place by 1870 [Kelly’s Directory].
the right side represents his father
(with the coat of arms), the left side his
mother, with her initials entwined.
“A neat school room was
erected in 1868, at the sole
expense of James Braby, Esq”
(1870, Kelly’s Directory) which
may only have been used for a
few years; the story goes that it
was then used as a granary by
James Braby until he had it
rebuilt for the parish in 1897 as
the Jubilee Hall, in honour of
Queen Victoria’s diamond
jubilee, which is commemorated
on the porch. The hall was “well
supplied with books, &c.”
(Kelly’s Directories, passim) His initials and the original date, 1868, may also be seen,
by peering round the corner, on the north side.
Rudgwick Jubilee Hall, then and now.
Left, The foundation stone laid at Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, 1897;
Right, Plaque, erected 1996, recording the building of the school in 1868, and the donation of the village
hall in 1897, gift of James Braby. Esq, JP, DL.
Meanwhile in 1872 the Vestry discussed the inexpediency of laying out money both
enlarging the school and seeking a site for a new school. There had been a vote, in 1872,
“of thanks to Mr Braby for his liberality in building the present schoolroom and placing
it at the disposal of the Parish for School purposes…”. At a later meeting that year, he
was thanked again and requested to provide the parish with a 10 year lease with a
nominal rent, and power to enlarge the same, etc. It was proposed that if, after
interviewing Mr Braby, he would not accept this, that Thomas Lyon Thurlow’s letter
offering a school room be taken up. Thurlow lived at Baynards Park, Cranleigh, and
was the son of Revd Thomas Thurlow who died in 1874. Braby may have baulked at
the proposal as Thurlow’s offer was “guaranteed”, simultaneously with arrangements to
build a school at Rowhook, and enlarge Mr Bunny’s at The Haven, whilst planning one
for Bucks Green (eventually completed 1880). There is no evidence either way whether
the Braby school room continued in use alongside the Thurlow one. It was not a happy
decision, as three years later Mr
Thurlow of Baynards Park superseded
the school management committee by
summarily dismissing the school
mistress, and had not completed his
school room and school buildings (at
The Old School House). What Mr
Braby thought is not recorded.
Mr Thurlow’s school in Linwick Street,
attached to an older house, renamed The
Kraal, now the Old School House, and Old
School Cottages.
Nevertheless, in 1876 Mr Braby proposed a vote of thanks to Mr Thurlow for providing
a school house and his great liberality running it at his expense. The Vestry was at this
time deciding to get their heads around the issue of having a School Board. Messrs
Thurlow, Bunny and Braby were appointed to investigate the relevant regulations under
the Education Act, 1870. A School Board was duly set up in 1877, and Braby proposed
thanks to Thurlow for continuing to offer terms. Braby was its first chairman. The
building of a new school in Bucks Green in time for compulsory school leaving age of
12 in 1880, was on his brother’s land, in which he had a lifetime interest, a steep site
called Poorhouse Lag leading down to a stream, a far cry from the kind of site chosen
today! This formed part of Lynwick Farm which James had the use of for life.
An early photograph of the schools (boys and girls) at Bucks Green, in use 1880-1972. Charles Woods
was the Head Master from 1878-1910.
Another responsibility thrust upon him was to serve as a Guardian of the amalgamated
Petworth, Horsham and Hambledon (Poor Law) Unions. From 1879, James was joined
by his sons James (6) and Ernest at Vestry meetings. Ernest’s first foray into parish
affairs seems to have been the state of nuisance from the dung heap, woodstack and
wagons at Yatton Cottage, caused by Mr Jeal. The Brabys were also becoming
concerned at the state of Loxwood Road (leading to their newly acquired property,
Drungewick Manor), a road used by “foreign” traffic to and from Rudgwick station.
Probably connected with this, or with manorial rights, was a search for the records of
the enclosure of Tismans Common.
A cricket match in 1876 between Rudgwick and Mr Braby’s XI, was played on “the
private cricket ground” of Edwin Napper at Tisman’s Common. James Braby of
Maybanks no longer had his short-lived ground in the village. His team had both
Napper brothers (Sussex County players), Braby’s sons, James and Edmund, and his
bailiff, William Nockold. Rudgwick however won the day. Games in 1879 and 1880
had Mr Braby’s XI playing Billingshurst at Maybanks itself, with much the same team
as before. In the early 1880s, Mr Braby continues to wield influence, his ground at
Maybanks in use for some matches, his two sons playing in teams. At the 1880 Cricket
Club AGM at The Cricketers Inn, James Braby Jr resigned as secretary and treasurer
due to “pressure of business”. That season’s opening match, Braby’s XI v Underwood’s
XI, was played on Tisman’s Common. In 1882, a Horsham team was invited to
Maybanks. A weak team, however, was trounced by the Horsham batsmen, whose
opener Sharp carried his bat through the innings for 224 not out, of 332 for 6 to win
handsomely against Maybanks (86). It has to be said that neither of the young Braby’s
did very well with the bat in any match, and only occasionally played for a Rudgwick
XI. This was a time when they were both unmarried and at home. Social and sporting
diversions were clearly useful. There is no evidence to say where a cricket ground was
laid out, but one may safely assume Mr Braby saw to it that a suitable machine was
available to mow it. After the marriage of one son and the tragic death of the other, one
imagines the cricket ground was abandoned.