Peoples Stories - Bevendean History Project
Hodshrove Farm
Hodshrove Farm House c1901
Alison Betteridge writes that the photograph below is of her great grandfather William Pavey at Hodshrove Farm.
My grandfather is Thomas Pavey; he is a boy in the first pony trap and was born in 1896. The photograph was taken around 1901.
I have a photo of William Pavey wedding to his third wife around that time. He was 67 and his wife Ada Allen was in her 30s, but he had young children to care for. I believe he was a horse trader.
Apparently he took in one of the circus elephants when they no longer wanted it, but it ate the leather horse tack so was put down.
They also had a pet monkey which would lift the lid of the teapot and wee in it. I guess it was also from the circus.
One of William’s wives fell down the well, but family tradition has it that she was pushed. This may have been Florence Mepham.
William had many children. Thomas, one of the younger ones, was my grandfather. He left Brighton for war and his brother Jack was killed, but both boys had their names on the war memorial in Brighton as Thomas went to live in London on his return and hence they presumed he had died also!
William died at his daughter’s home in London but is buried in Brighton.
My great aunt Ella lived in Brighton for many years and was married to Eric Yardley a school teacher. They had no children. We used to visit her in Ditching Rise when we were children and she came to live near us in Norfolk in her later years.
Alison Betteridge - November 2021
Alison Betteridge writes that the photograph below is of her great grandfather William Pavey at Hodshrove Farm.
My grandfather is Thomas Pavey; he is a boy in the first pony trap and was born in 1896. The photograph was taken around 1901.
I have a photo of William Pavey wedding to his third wife around that time. He was 67 and his wife Ada Allen was in her 30s, but he had young children to care for. I believe he was a horse trader.
Apparently he took in one of the circus elephants when they no longer wanted it, but it ate the leather horse tack so was put down.
They also had a pet monkey which would lift the lid of the teapot and wee in it. I guess it was also from the circus.
One of William’s wives fell down the well, but family tradition has it that she was pushed. This may have been Florence Mepham.
William had many children. Thomas, one of the younger ones, was my grandfather. He left Brighton for war and his brother Jack was killed, but both boys had their names on the war memorial in Brighton as Thomas went to live in London on his return and hence they presumed he had died also!
William died at his daughter’s home in London but is buried in Brighton.
My great aunt Ella lived in Brighton for many years and was married to Eric Yardley a school teacher. They had no children. We used to visit her in Ditching Rise when we were children and she came to live near us in Norfolk in her later years.
Alison Betteridge - November 2021
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