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Joseph Clay Howcutt & the
runaway horse
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Woodbridge is a market town a few
miles from the Suffolk coast. One Wednesday in 1886, a runaway horse catapulted
a member of the Howcutt family into the local news. Joseph Clay Howcutt was born at
Creaton, about three miles west of Brixworth, on 16 August 1864 and
christened there on 6 November of the same year. The family soon returned to
Brixworth, where both his parents, William Howcutt and Sarah Ann Clay, had
been born. It was there that they were living with their four children at the
time of the 1871 census.
By the 1881 census, Joseph had moved
the 65 miles from Brixworth to Newmarket – a town whose two parishes of St
Mary and All Saints had a total population of 4,094. Then, as now, Newmarket
was a place best known for horse racing, Joseph being one of the many
stablemen involved. He was listed as a boarder at the Woolpack Inn [1], which
stood on the east side of Drapery Row and was the second building to the
south of its junction with Market Street, facing the Green Dragon and the
Bushel Inn. Drapery Row was part of a congested and picturesque area known as
The Rookery. Many of the historical buildings in the vicinity, including the
Woolpack itself, have since been swept away. Joseph did not remain at Newmarket
for long but spent most of the remainder of his life at Woodbridge, a town
about 45 miles further to the east. In 1885 he married Elizabeth Barkway, a
widow with two sons, in the Ipswich registration district. [3]
On 19 May 1886, Joseph was
involved in a dramatic accident at Woodbridge. Joseph was one of the grooms
employed by John Grout, who was the licensee of the “Bull Hotel” at Market
Hill. [4] On that day, Joseph was on the box of a brougham with Gissing, the
coachman of Mr T L Place of Orford, on their way to collect Mr Place from the
Lecture Hall, where he was performing at a Primrose League concert. When
travelling downhill and having reached the middle of Church Street the horse
grew restive and began to prance and pull, throwing the coachman onto the
pavement. The animal then bolted and it was reported “Howcutt pluckily took
up the reins and kept his seat, until the brougham came into collision with a
lamp-post opposite the Crown back gates, which resulted in Howcutt being
thrown off”. The horse careered on for quite some time afterwards, all the
way down Quay Street until at the bottom, it tried to jump the gates at the railway
station.
Joseph was taken to the Bull Hotel where it was found
that the two rear wheels had passed over his shoulder and leg, inflicting two
ugly cuts as well as bruising. The railway gates and the carriage were
wrecked but, surprisingly, the wayward horse was uninjured. A more detailed
account of this incident can be found in the local newspaper. [5] The 1891 census recorded a population of 4,480
living at Woodbridge. Amongst them was Joseph Howcutt, a “hostler and groom”
living at New Street with his wife and her two sons, Charles and Ernest
Barkway. Joseph Clay Howcutt had no children of his own.
He was described as an “ostler at a hotel” when he died at New Street on 8
August 1893, the death being registered by his stepson, C F Barkway. [6] The
cause of death was certified as delirium tremens, from which Joseph had been
suffering for three days, and paralysis of the heart. It was not long before Elizabeth suffered another
bereavement, as her 16-year-old son, Ernest Edward, was accidently drowned
when bathing in the river Deben at “Hackney Hole” near Woodbridge on 5 July
1896. [7] “Elizabeth, widow of the late Joseph Howcutt” died at New Street on
15 May 1900. [8] Notes [1] The 1881 census of Newmarket, Suffolk
includes “Joseph Clay” as a 19-year-old who had been born at “Northamptonsh Brixworth”. However, no birth of anyone
just called “Joseph Clay” was registered in the Brixworth district in the
period 1837-1900. Nor has Joseph Clay Howcutt been located elsewhere in the
1881 census. Moreover, in the 1891 census Joseph Clay Howcutt reported that
he had been born at Brixworth. There can be no doubt that the person recorded
at Newmarket in 1881 as “Joseph Clay” was actually Joseph Clay Howcutt,
despite his true age then being only 16 years. [2] Picture courtesy of Peter Norman:
Newmarket Shops History – The Rookery: http://newmarketshops.info/The_Rookery.html
(accessed 12 September 2016). [3] Elizabeth Allen had been born at
Woodbridge about 1855. Her first marriage, to Charles Alfred Barkway, had
taken place in 1875, also in the Woodbridge district. Charles Alfred was 35
years old when his death was registered at Woodbridge in the first quarter of
1884. [4] The 1881 census records John Grout as a
licensed victualler, horse dealer and farmer of about 270 acres, living at
the “Bull Hotel” and employing 13 farm labourers, 20 grooms and other helps. [5] “The
Ipswich Journal”, 22 May 1886, page 5, column 5. [6] No later record has been found of
Charles Frederick Barkway; he was about 16 years old when Joseph died. [7] “The Ipswich Journal”, 11 July 1896,
page 6, column 4. The newspaper mistakenly gives his name as “Ernest William
Barkway”. [8] “The
Ipswich Journal”, 19 May 1900, page 8, column 6. |
