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This photograph was taken from
what is now our back garden! As well as the “Prince of Wales” you
can see St.Joseph’s Church on the right. The cottage to the left
is actually two - the front, facing us, is nowadays called
“Old Post Office Cottage” and was exactly that in the
19th century - the Post Office in Lower Froyle. Behind it is
“Warren Cottage”, and we know from the deeds that in
the late 1700s the Clapshaw (or Clapshoe or Clapshew) family
lived there - in particular Aquila Clapshoe, who was born in
1714 at Froyle. His son, also named Aquila, set up the Aquila
Clapshoe workshop at Turnham Green, London, in 1780, making cricket
bats. Aquila (the 1714 one!) was most likely a cricket player who made his own bats, as did everyone else, but his expert craftmanship put him in a class of his own. We have in the Archive a transcript of an indenture of lease made on the 15th April 1781, between the Clapshews and William Cook and Thomas Crosswell concerning various parcels of land in Froyle. The Clapshoe firm, who by the 1800s had become Clapshaw (!), became Aquila Clapshaw & Salmon in the latter part of that century. For a much more detailed history of the cricket bat business, follow the link below. There is an Aquila Clapshaw bat, dated 1860, in the museum at Lord’s cricket ground. Sadly, in the 21st Century, there is no Cricket Team in Froyle. |