Brendan's Cottage, Wantage Road, Berkshire

[LizzieL]

If you go to the next page after Brendans Cottage, the addresses are more useful. A Compton Road is mentioned. Compton is a village on the Berkshire Downs, so likely one of the villages neighbouring it. Possibly East Ilsley, has a Compton Road, not far from Harwell and Didcot (one man is employed at RAOC Didcot) and is likely to have racehorse stables

[littleliz02]

Thank you all for all yours replies, your time and efforts are appreciated and has helped me immensly

[trish18]

Following Ruskies link in reply 12#, I also wonder if there is some relevance to the connection with George Beeby.

He trained a racehorse at Hamilton Stables, Compton,Berkshire, ridden by George Owen.

The horse was named Brendan's Cottage and went on to win the 1939 Cheltenham Gold Cup.

LizzeL has also found a connection to Compton.

Maybe your ancestor named his cottage as an homage to a Gold Cup Winner, especially as you mentioned the possibility of his connection with racehorses!

http://www.windsorclive.co.uk/documents/brochures/32_draft_brochure_web_14032014.pdf

Regards

Trish

[LizzieL]

Looking at addresses in the 1911 census, I am more convinced that the village is East Ilsley. Brendan's Cottage (the racehorse) seems to be in the racing newspapers from at least 1934. On the 1938 register, Brendan's Cottage (the house) is in a sequence of addresses of numbered Council Houses. It comes beteen 10 and 12 so should be no 11 in the sequence. The OP's relative is likely to be a lodger not head of household as he is not #1 on the list in the household. But the head of household Arthur Russell is listed as a groom. So he might have worked at the stables where the horse was trained and named his house (no 11) after it.

[littleliz02]

Hi all
Its amazing how helpful people are, thank you.
I have a lot to work on - even if my ancestor did have anything to do with the horses racing it has been interesting to find out about Brendan's Cottage and it makes definite interesting reading and exploring.
I wonder if my ancestor being a Labourer had some involvement in the building of RAF station nearby that didnt open unill 1942.
Thanks again for all your help.

[Ruskie]

I thought the horse may have been named after the cottage, rather than the other way around.

I just seems a bit odd that a horse is named Brendan's Cottage and then someone decides to name their house Brendan's Cottage after a horse ....  I can see some logic in a horse being named Brendan's Cottage because maybe someone of importance lived there. (maybe a family called Brendan?)

Just thinking out loud ...

[LizzieL]

The horse was bred in Ireland, its parents were called Cottage and Brendan's Glory. Half brother to several other horses with Cottage in their names.

Given that the horse was trained in Berkshire and the tenant of Brendan's Cottage was a groom, I suspect he gave his house which previously was likely to be no 11 Council House, the name of the horse which was famous locally for the preceding few years.

http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?499239-How-do-I-breed-a-racehorse-Advice-for-beginner-needed

Ctrl-F and search on Cottage

[Ruskie]

Makes sense now you explain it Lizzie (I should have read earlier links for more background).

[Sloe Gin]

I'm a bit late to this, but I see you've all solved it!     Yes, it is definitely East Ilsley and there would have been four or five racehorse trainers in the village at that time.  Richard may well have come to the area to work in racing.  The war would have caused a lot of changes of occupation.  George Beeby as you say trained in Compton, and that racing yard is still in operation.  It was the yard featured in the BBC drama 'Trainer' if anyone remembers that series from the 1990s.

I think Richard's workplace is RAF Milton.  Milton is a few miles away, near Didcot.  Some first-hand info on the RAF depot on this link  http://www.pprune.org/military-aviation/383896-raf-milton-raf-woodcote.html

Richard's only appearance in the EI parish registers is as a witness at the marriage of Arthur Russell's daughter in June 1942.