The origins of Ann Elizabeth Crouch (nee Currell)
Ann’s grandmother was Phyllish (sic), aka Phillis Currell, who was born to Mary Currell (nee Fairey).
However, although Mary had been married to Thomas Currell, Thomas was not Phyll’s father as
shown by her birth certificate (shown to me by Ann):
Almost a year to the day after burying his small daughter, Herbie married Phillish Currell (25) at St
Mary’s, Hitchin on 29 October 1904. Their witnesses were Herbie’s and Phyll’s siblings, Ernest
Jenkins and his wife, Lizzie.
At the time of her marriage, Phillis already had two sons: Arthur Reuben Currell (born 18 October
1895) and George Currell (2 October 1899). By 1911, Herbie and Phillis were living on the north
side of Chequers Lane, Preston where they resided until at least 1914. In addition to Phillis’ two
lads, they now had two children of their own: Frank Jenkins (born 29 April 1905) and Maggie (28
October 1910).
Also in the household that day was Phillis nephew and my uncle, Ernest Wray. Herbie continued to
work as a horse-keeper. A last child, William ‘Dillar’ Jenkins, was born on 20 February 1913. In
1918, the family had briefly re-located to Hitchwood Cottages, but from the early 1920s until 1959
Herbie’s family was living at Castle Farm, Preston.
So, although Phillis was known as a Currell (as were her first two children) she was not part of the
Currell family - rather only of the Fairey family. (What has been published on the Hitchin Facebook
site about the Faireys is also information about the ancestors of Ann and her children and
grandchildren.) When the 1901 census was published, this was the entry for Mary Currell’s family:
Mary and her family were living in one of the small, ramshackle cottages along Back Lane, Preston.
This is Mary (Ann’s great grandmother) Currell’s complex branch of the family tree:
I should say that this tree has taken the best part of twenty years of research to unravel, and the
results surprised me, as maybe they will Ann’s children and grandchildren.
(Left to right) my grandmother, Emily (nee Fairey)
and her half-sister Phillis (nee Currell), Ann’s grandmother
The ramshackle cottages at Back Lane were demolished in around 1916 and Mary moved to a
small cottage near Bunyan’s Chapel at Preston Green. It had two bedrooms and one living room.
This had a polished, bare-brick floor. There was a little table and a chest of drawers in the room and
on either side of the kitchen range (on which she sometimes cooked small birds skewered on a
poker) were two chairs.
Here she died, aged eighty, on 1 December 1924 from ‘senile decay and chronic bronchitis’. The
death was registered by her daughter, Emily Wray. Mary is remembered as a ‘tiny, slight, little lady’
and as being ‘very poor’. She was one of only two village families who were exempt from paying
school fees because of her poverty - a sad epitaph. Mary was buried at St Martins, Preston on
6 December 1924 in an unmarked grave.
Meanwhile, Phillis had married Herbert (Herbie) Jenkins, who we will now introduce. He was the
son of farm labourer George and Mary (nee Jeeves) Jenkins, born on 28 July 1879 at Offley Holes.
He was baptised at St Mary’s, Hitchin on 14 September 1879.
By 1881, this branch of the Preston, Herts Jenkins family was living at Preston Green – Herbie
being described as a horse-keeper in 1901.
He married Sarah Tamar Arnold at St Pauls Walden towards the end of 1902. The couple had a
baby daughter in the following spring but sadly Sarah (aged 20) died on 22 May shortly after their
child was born. She was buried at St Martin’s, Preston two days later . Then, after little more than
four months, the infant (named Tamar after her mother) also died and was buried at St Martin’s,
Preston on 22 October 1903.
When Douglas Vickers owned Temple Dinsley at Preston,
he built up a prize-winning herd of Wessex saddleback
pigs. These were managed by his estate manager,
Reginald J W Dawson, but the day-to-day running of the
herd was Herbie’s responsibility – he was described in
1951 as a ’Pig Farmer Herdsman’.
The herd was established in 1921, so it is likely that Herbie
was engaged at its inception. To illustrate the scale of the
operation, from 1921 upwards of 1,000 pigs were reared
each year. After 1925, the herd received 500 awards at
leading shows. A quick trawl through news reports of the
time reveals almost 200 references to Vickers
‘Saddlebacks’.
One consequence of this breeding success was that the
village of Preston was publicized as several prize pigs
were christened ‘Preston this-or-that’. So there was
‘Preston Laurette’, ‘Preston Officer’, ‘Preston Dilly’, ‘P
Orient’, ‘P Spot’, ‘P Dell’, ‘P Senator’, ‘P Vanity’, ‘P Onyx’
and so on.
Phillis suffered a heart attack and died at Castle Farm on 24 April 1959. Herbie (now almost eighty-
years-old) then lived with his daughter, Maggie Jenkins, at 8 Whitwell Road, St Pauls Walden until
his death following a stroke on 5 November 1966. Both were buried at St Martin’s, Preston (see
below)
Ann’s father was George Currell who was born at Preston on 2 October 1899 and was among the
first five infants to be baptised at St Martin’s Church, Preston on 20 April 1902. He enlisted in the
army, serving for around eleven years in ‘A’ Company, 2nd Battalion, The Kings Royal Rifle Corps.
By 1932, George was living at 20 Old Park Road, Hitchin and working as a chauffeur. On 12
November 1932, he married Susan Drysdale Lyon at St Martin’s, Preston. His half-brother, Frank
Jenkins, was a witness
George and Susan had two children who were born at Hitchin: Douglas G Currell (1933)
and Ann E (1935), shown below:
George and Susan were living at 46 Tilehouse Street, Hitchin in 1939:
Ann married Maurice W Crouch at Hitchin in the first quarter of 1956
It is not my intention to describe Ann’s life - her immediate family may like to add some comments.
I first met her at Preston in 2015. She introduced herself and kindly gave me a huge wad of family
documents, certificates and photographs and we chatted about our common ancestors. A little
later I visited her and met Maurice. She showed me around her home with pride - especially the
‘Sewing Room’ or should I say ‘Classroom’.
From what has been written here, it’s obvious that Ann’s roots were at Preston, Hertfordshire.
Indeed, in their living room was this display:
The row of plates were from her grandmother’s home at Castle Farm, Preston. I also learnt later
that Ann had made curtains for the present owner of The Chequers, Preston which is one of the
oldest cottages in the villages.
I found Ann to be gentle and gracious - proud of her sewing and how she had passed on her craft
to so many others, yet with no hint of boasting whatsoever. She was enthusiastic and positive and it
was a delight to spend time in her company - it was an enriching experience.
