Ladies in the Building Trades; Mary and Thirza Bidwell of Datchet

This story concerns Datchet families and their business at Old Manor House in the 1800s. The Bidwell family arrived here even before that, as two John Bidwells, senior and junior, were established as carpenters in Datchet by the 1790s. Their dwelling house and workshop was at the east end of the Manor House complex which was by then run down and let out to tradesmen.

In the next generation of Bidwells there was a William living at the same premises, described at his death in 1836 as a house painter. He and his wife Mary had nine children, of whom William (born 1812 ) and Edwin (born 1829) followed their parents into the family business.

It would have been this William Bidwell (died in 1836) who was employed at the Kederminster Library at St Mary's Church, Langley, built around 1615 and still surviving (a visit is recommended). It sounds as if William's repairs and repaintings were beyond what would be expected of a house painter; Robert Harvey must have trusted his talent as a painter and gilder.

But in1841 the census recorded William's widow Mary Bidwell as a painter in her own right at the Old Manor House with three of the younger children. Her eldest son William was also listed as a painter then aged 29 and married to Theodosia. This couple was living (in their own household) just across the village green at part of Church Cottage, where the Pearce family had been running a blacksmith and farrier business for many years. It seems very likely that William was working for his mother but not living under the same roof.

How unusual was it for a woman to be running a business like this in the 1840s? Actually, less unusual than one might think as a widow would often keep her husband's workshop functioning until a son was old enough to take it on, or until she decided to sell it. What is more exceptional is that Mary should give 'painter' as her own occupation when her son was of an age to be in charge himself. Of course we shall never know whether Mary was actually wielding a paintbrush in village houses herself or whether she organised the workforce from an office; the latter is more likely but we can assume a full working knowledge of the trade.

Ten years later, in 1851, William and his wife Theodosia had moved into Mary's house and workshops and had taken William's younger brother Edwin to live and work with them, perhaps because they had no children. At this time, William described himself as a painter and glazier so the business seems to have been developing well. Mary was not recorded as living in the village again until the 1871 census, and we do not know if she had moved away or was just absent on actual census nights.

William's wife Theodosia died in 1860 and at the 1861 census William was alone except for a housekeeper, but by this year his trade was that of master plumber, employing six men. Datchet's building boom was just beginning and this certainly looks like a successful diversifying of skills to suit the circumstances. Before long he married again, remarkably (and confusingly) to another Theodosia, always referred to as Thirza, and they had two daughters by 1871.

For the first time in thirty years Mary Bidwell, aged 82, was also picked up by that census. She was living in Church Cottage in the same household as the widow Elizabeth Pearce (where William had been in 1841). Elizabeth's occupation was given as 'formerly farrier'. Had Elizabeth really been a farrier, engaged in the horse-doctoring aspects of a blacksmith's business? It seems that she was, because in his will her husband had bequeathed to her the goodwill and all stock in trade and utensils, for his son to inherit on the death or remarriage of his mother. If she was just to be a caretaker then the son would be expected to inherit when he came of age, but as he was only ten when his father died Elizabeth had years to manage affairs herself. She was also proud enough to record the fact, since there was no requirement for women to state an occupation on the census form. (This means that women who actually were working in their own right are considerably under-reported in this period.) Mary Bidwell died in 1875, aged 87, but what a redoubtable pair she and Elizabeth Pearce must have been until then! It is tempting to assume a family relationship between the Bidwells and Pearces since there are two instances of them sharing houses, but no marriage can yet be proved.

But William Bidwell's second wife Thirza outdid both her mother-in-law Mary and her farrier friend, though surely this female (feminist?) network must have provided mutual support for each other. William died in 1878 and Thirza took on the workshop, being described in 1881 as a 'plumber employing seven men'. She also seems to have employed her fifteen year old daughter Helen who was listed as a clerk. Edwin Bidwell, William's younger brother, must have been one of Thirza's 'seven men' as his occupation in 1881 was given as a plumber, but by then he lived in one of the new Wilton Cottages in Green Lane with his painter son Frederick.

The 1880s were the peak years for Datchet's building boom after land became available for new developments from 1875 and affluent stockbrokers, merchants and barristers were attracted to this riverside village with its railway link direct to London. The Bidwells were able to take advantage of the work which the boom brought to them and also to invest the family's accumulated wealth. In 1891 Thirza was living on 'independent means' in the fashionable new Montagu Road with her daughters, the youngest's occupation being 'accountant'. Their house was named Milton Villa after Thirza's place of birth near Steventon in Berkshire, which makes it very likely that it was built for her and bought rather than rented. And Edwin took the opportunity of buying their original house and workshops for £700 when the Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, Lord of the Manor, put all his Datchet property up for auction in 1896. By the early 1900s the business had been taken over by George Cleversley and Sons (Builders, Decorators and Sanitary Engineers), and the elderly George is seen outside the house in this photograph.