Family notes for Samuel Rodney 'Roddy' BODDINGTON and Katharine Mary 'Katy' ADKINS Roddy was told by Henry Adkins that he could not marry Katharine unless he had £200 to his name! He applied some creative accounting and they were married. Katharine prepared a huge list of relatives and friends to be invited to the wedding but her father said it would be too expensive and that she should reduce the list to key people. Katharine refused saying if she couldn't invite them all she wouldn't invite any. So her father said, well we won't invite any - and they didn't. Only Roddy, Katharine and the witnesses attended the wedding at Hatton Church. Marriage witnesses were Katharine's sister, Nan Adkins, and close friend Eileen Fisher. This lack of sociability didn't stop them getting a few wedding presents. Roddy's brother and sister-in-law, Peter and Marion, gave them a set of glasses, table glasses, wine glasses, and liquor glasses, probably 18 glasses in total. I later discovered that these cost, in 1937, 10/6 - that's ten shillings and six pence, 52½p in decimal money. Though some have been broken in the decades since, the remainder are in my dining room sideboard and occasionally brought out for their proper use (2022)! [269]
Notes for Samuel Rodney 'Roddy' BODDINGTON Prior to c.1937 worked for Avery Scales. From c.1937 farmer: 1) c.1937-Nov 1945
Mistletoe Farm, Five Ways, Hatton, Warwickshire, UK; 2) Nov 1945-1980 Barnmoor Farm,
Claverdon, Warwickshire UK. Claverdon Parish Councillor; Stratford-upon-Avon
District councillor; charitable support for the WRVS at Hatton mental hospital. [269]
Always known as Roddy, he was a very successful farmer, beginning with pigs and
chickens (eggs) on a smallholding at Mistletoe Farm, Five Ways, Hatton, Warwickshire
UK and then dairying and chickens (eggs) at Barnmoor Farm (pictured above), a 40
acre farm at Kington
Lane, Claverdon, Warwickshire UK from 1945. His dairying success was followed by the
development of a large broiler (chicken fattening) unit of 36,000 birds which was
also very successful. The farm was for ten years an ICI demonstrator farm - ICI
(previously Imperial Chemical Industries) provided advice on, particularly, the use
of fertilisers in exchange for copious
record keeping, regular open evenings to show other farmers what could be done, and
£500pa, a substantial sum in the 1950s. This scheme proved to be extremely
worthwhile and the farm's output rose significantly - twice the number of dairy
cows, each producing more than twice the usual amount of milk. He made regular
appearances on a late night farming programme on BBC TV. ICI also made, in 1955/56,
a film about the farm called Milk and Money from Forty Acres. His reputation
for growing fantastic quantities of grass was widely known! His success was
rewarded by his appointment as part time farm manager at Claverdon Hall Farm, owned
by Sir Ivan Stedeford, on a salary of £1,000pa. Here he trained John 'Jack' Masters
who later went on to farm for himself. A history of life at
Barnmoor Farm . [269]
A letter from Roddy to his mother indicates that they lived at Wichmont, St
Bernard's Road, Oulton, Warwickshire in 1931. My father said that they lived in five
different houses in St Bernard's Road at various times during their childhood. The
letter, dated 25 September 1931, was sent from
70 Ampthill Road, Aigburth Vale,
Liverpool, at a time when Roddy was working for Avery Scales. The letter indicates
that he was selling scales and earning commission for doing so. He had sold 'two
dial m/cs this month about £310 altogether ... I ought to draw about £12
commission.' [269]
I refer to the picture of Barnmoor Farm above - the garden hedge in the foreground
is remembered by the webmaster - I was thrown clear over it by a cow who didn't
like being driven down the adjacent track. She turned round, put her head down and
just threw me into the air. It was pure luck that I didn't land in the hedge or on
hard ground on either side. I landed on a pile of lime that had only recently
been tipped there, really quite soft! My mother never really believed this story
but I can assure you that it is true. [269]
Notes for Katharine Mary 'Katy' ADKINS At around the age of 21 she was sent away from home to live with the Townsends, parents of her step-mother, in Cheadle, Staffs. For how long we are not sure. It is said that she was disruptive at home due to a breakdown in her relationship with her step mother after the marriage to her father. She was a member of Claverdon tennis club and competed in the annual knockout competition for almost 50 years, winning it on countless occasions, often with playing partner Hubert Adams. Her final appearance was in her late 70s! The club made her Life President. In her last years she suffered from dementia but the one thing she remembered clearly was that she was 'the President'. You may imagine that this caused some difficulties in the care home when she demanded the respect befitting the office! Her poor brother, living in the same home, was required to follow her into dinner one step behind her! [269]
Sources | 269. | Personal information, Tim Boddington (Webmaster) |
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