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Avebury Manor and the 1921 Census
A collaboration with Findmypast, focused on Avebury Manor and the 1921 Census, has uncovered new stories of a country house reformed, families changed by war, and how people came together at a dramatic time in history.
Avebury Manor in 1921
The 1921 Census for England and Wales shows there were six people at Avebury Manor.
Lieutenant Colonel Leopold Jenner (aged 51) is described as the head of the household and is listed along with his wife, Nora Jenner.
There were also two domestic servants – Agnes Eliza Chivers (aged 35) and Martha Annie Swatton (aged 20) – along with Agnes’ two children, Kathleen Olive and Cyril Chivers, aged 6 and 3.
Leopold and Nora Jenner
Leopold and Nora Jenner were married in 1899 and became the owners of Avebury Manor in 1907, although they had leased the home since 1902.
As snapshots in time, the 1911 and 1921 Censuses show the couple at home at Avebury. This might suggest a period of continuity, even security for the couple, but the real story is a little different.
Leopold Jenner served in France during the First World War, where he was mentioned in dispatches and awarded the Distinguished Service Order.
He seems to have escaped unscathed, with his only appearance in surviving medical records being for jaundice in early 1916. He did however undergo eye surgery for glaucoma while serving abroad in 1918.
Far away from Leopold, and often racked with worry for her husband, Nora Jenner appears to have spent most of the war years at Avebury.
Life at Avebury Manor
Surviving letters show that Nora had frequents visits from her sisters during the war, as well as her daughter Ruby who was away studying at college during these years.
Later, Ruby would enter service, becoming a lady gardener at Aldenham in London.
During one visit in 1917, Nora’s eldest sister Flora, paints a wonderful picture of how domestice life continued at Avebury Manor during the war years:
'A Mrs Hewett ... turned up to tea and after tea we walked back part of the way to Marlborough with her …. When we got in we found it was 8.45!! and we sat down to dinner at 9.pm!! so tonight we are going to have a cold supper, and then need not hurry. I hate keeping servants up late. After dinner Norie (Nora) worked at her settee to match bed, and I read the paper out loud with accounts of horrible air raid at Eastbourne!'
The visit was less happy than even this extract might appear. Flora’s daughter, Winifred (Freda), had died a week before, aged 37.
Flora had come to Avebury to rest after attending to her daughter in her final days. She wrote to her husband who was serving in France that ‘its lovely and peaceful here and Norie is an angel of goodness and kindness.’
A love of Avebury
Leopold returned home to Avebury after the war, and he and Nora continued a project to redesign their home and garden.
The couple built a new extension, the West Library, and created a new garden room below it.
The care and passion Leopold and Nora felt for their home was shown in a 1921 feature of Avebury in the pages of Country Life Magazine.
This love for Avebury lasted their lifetime and although the couple moved away in 1931, they chose to be buried here after their deaths in 1952 and 1953.
Their joint gravestone can be seen in an area taken out of the manor garden and consecrated as part of the churchyard at Avebury.
The live-in servants and Agnes’ story
As young, unmarried, and working-class women, Agnes Chivers and Martha Swatton’s employment as live-in domestic servants was common.
What is less common though is Agnes’ story and the fact that her two young children were living at the manor with her.
Agnes (born Agnes Eliza Nash in 1885) married Charles Chivers in 1910, at Saint James Church in Avebury. After their marriage, the couple lived in the village and Charles worked a carter on the farm. Just two days after the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, the couple had a daughter, Kathleen Olive.
Charles enlisted in the British Army, but was fatally wounded on the Western Front in 1917 and died of his injuries on 11 April, aged 33. His name can be seen on the Avebury war memorial, along with his brother James who also died in the war.
As the records show, by 1921 Agnes is living and working at Avebury Manor. Three years prior to this, in April 1918, she gave birth to a baby boy, Cyril Chivers.
Cyril’s father is not listed on the birth register, and as he was born a year after Charles’ death, he cannot be the biological father.
For Agnes to be living at Avebury Manor with two young children is unusual. It’s likely then, that Agnes was held in high regard by the Jenners.
The groundsmen; a cottage garden and a grand garden
While Agnes and Martha were the only live-in servants at Avebury in 1921, there were three other employees living in the village.
William James Prictor, aged 59, is listed as a ‘garden labourer at Manor House, Avebury’. While William’s lodger, William Cummings, aged 46, is a ‘cowman’.
Interestingly, we catch a glimpse of William Prictor in a local news article, Avebury Show of Cottages’ Produce from 1923. William is described as winning ‘best kept-cottage garden’ and the prizes were ‘distributed by Mrs Jenner, of Avebury Manor House.’
The third employee is Benjamin Windsor, who lived in Manor Cottages with his new bride, Harriet.
As head gardener at the manor, Benjamin followed in the footsteps of his father, Henry Windsor who had also been a career gardener.
Benjamin was still in post at the manor in 1939 when the house was owned by archaeologist Alexander Keiller.
Do you have connections to any of the people in this article? If so, the team at Avebury would love to hear from you. You can get in touch via avebury@nationaltrust.org.uk.
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