Cobbett Close
Commemorating more than just William Cobbett
To the casual observer Cobbett Close off Dodd’s Lane may appear to commemorate William Cobbett (1763–1835) – the noted pamphleteer, journalist, politician and polemicist – remembered today for his Rural Rides and as the instigator of what would eventually become Hansard. After all, Cobbett spent several years living in nearby Botley, his Rural Rides covered many areas of Hampshire and he was an active campaigner for the rural poor and the “factory slaves” of the early industrial revolution – so surely a potential candidate to be remembered in a development of affordable housing?
But other Cobbetts had a far closer connection with Swanmore and are also remembered in this street name.
William was the third of four sons born in Farnham, Surrey, to George Cobbett, a farmer, and his wife Anne Vincent; there were also George (b.1761), Thomas (1762–1830) and Anthony (b.1764). The brothers generally remained involved in farming while William wrote his many pamphlets, founded political journals, stood for Parliament and made (and lost) several fortunes.
In 1805 William and his family moved to Hampshire, buying Botley House, a substantial building overlooking the river and close to the bridge. In October that year he also acquired Cock Street Farm, which was then in the parish of Droxford and became Cott Street Farm, for his elder brother Thomas and his family*. Thomas had married Martha Honey in 1785 at Gosport and they had nine children. The “acquisition” was more likely a lease since Cott Street Farm formed part of the Hill Place Estate. His son George (1787–1877) would have seven children and the tenancies obviously continued as by the 1840s Thomas’ grandson George (1811–1886), who had 14 children from two wives, was farming at Hill Grove Farm – also part of the Hill Place Estate. His second son James (b.1846) is recorded in the 1861 and 1871 censuses at nearby Hill Farm, which specialised in cherries and sheep.
​
 William Cobbett |
|---|
By the 1880s British agriculture was suffering a serious depression. The increasing availability of marine transport brought cheaper products from around the globe: between the 1870s and 1890s meat imports in Britain increased by 300% and butter and cheese imports by 150%. As farms became uneconomic rural depopulation followed; the 1881 census showed a decline of 92,250 agricultural labourers since 1871, with an increase of 53,496 urban labourers during the same period. According to the Royal Commission on the Depression in Trade and Industry in 1886, the combined annual income of landlords, tenants and labourers had fallen by £42,800,000 since 1876. Britain became the most industrialised major country with the smallest proportion of its resources devoted to agriculture. By 1914 Britain was dependent on imports for 80% of her wheat and 40% of her meat.
Like many others, James Cobbett abandoned the unequal struggle. His wife, Martha Corney, was originally from Freshwater on the Isle on Wight, although her family later moved to Gosport – which is where James Cobbett and his ten children, born between 1870 and 1889, moved to.
In 1916 Hill Farm was sold along with the rest of the Hill Place estate and passed through various hands until – by one of those serendipitous twists of fate – Hill Farm House was bought by Mike and Jenny Maunder in 2006; Mike is one of James Cobbett’s direct descendants.
Given their large families, James was, however, not the only Cobbett living in the area in the nineteenth century. His uncle, another James (b.1822) the son of George (1798–1877) was in Swanmore with a probable cousin – yet another George who lived in Droxford; both had forged a very different career. In 1851 this James with his wife Elizabeth (née Russell) were living at Hill Pound with James giving his occupation as “master potter” and employing five men; cousin George Cobbett was in the same business running the Shorley Pottery at Beauworth. James and Elizabeth’s nephew, Absolam Harris born in Droxford, lodged with the couple while serving his apprenticeship at Shorley Pottery. Absolam would later found the Wrecclesham Pottery in 1873 – which survives today as the Farnham Pottery.
James Cobbett most probably used the same valley clay for his pots that would fuel Swanmore’s brickworks. The 1855 Droxford Enclosure map puts the buildings of “Swanmore Pottery” between Chapel Road and Dodds Lane, not far from Hill Pound, in land that formed part of the Hill Place estate and was close to where Cobbett Close now stands. There may have been a clay pit near the pottery providing James’ with raw materials. By 1916 when the Hill Place Estate was sold, there was a brewery where the pottery had once stood – perhaps using some of its original buildings.
So rather than commemorating the renowned William Cobbett, the development’s name also reminds us of many other Cobbetts who once lived in Swanmore – and that the development may have been built on neighbouring land to Swanmore’s own Victorian pottery. * With thanks to Mike Maunder for sharing his mother’s family research records.
If you have anything to add about the Cobbetts in Swanmore then please send to DEO@swanmore-pc.gov.uk so that your comments may be included in future updates of this information page.