Huntley and palmers?

[dsjturner]

Hi all,

I’ve been looking up my great grandparents on the 1921 census and I found my great grandfather working as a farm foreman in “nanblood hill, Grazeley” although I’m sure that’s been transcribed incorrectly. Anyway my great grandfathers employer is listed as “Mr. Alfred Palmer esq gentleman.” I’ve looked up that name and found out he was part of the Huntley and palmer biscuit dynasty. It’s got me thinking would it be possible that my great grandad grew wheat or another crop for the biscuit factory? I’ve tried looking but could only find suppliers overseas.
Many thanks

[PaulineJ]

Have you looked at the original image?

Otherwise, it's a wild goose chase.

There is a Lambwood hill at Grazeley

[dsjturner]

No I haven’t yet as I usually struggle with the handwriting so I decided to go with the transcripts. I did see Lambwood hill when I looked and felt that was a better fit than nanblood which made me question it! He definitely lived in Grazeley though and worked for mr Palmer so I’m happy to stick with that for the time being!

[artifis]

Does it say the name of the farm where he was employed?

[dsjturner]

Yes it says Bloomfield Heath farm Mortimer

[artifis]

I can't find a farm of that name, there was and still is a road called Bloomfield Hatch Lane so maybe associated with that.

[dsjturner]

Oh thank you very much for looking! Yes I fear it’s another transcribing error! I’ll look up the original soon and see what it really says! Thanks again for your help!

[artifis]

If it is Bloomfield Hatch farm I'll try and find one of my father's old OS maps of the area and see if I can find it on that - I used to know the area reasonably well from bike rides all around that area some sixty years ago and I'm intrigued to know where it was, maybe even passed it from time to time. (there was a farm with our family name not that far away that always intrigued me as to where we were connected with it but Dad reckoned not, leastwise not from his pretty encyclopedic knowledge of our family and there whereabouts).  It might be worth trying to find the same Mr Palmer on the 1911 census to see if he was still at the same location.

[artifis]

I've found Bloomfield Hatch Farm.

This link will take you to the nls site and the location is Broomfield Hatch:
https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=16&lat=51.38848&lon=-1.01913&layers=168&right=BingHyb

This link will take you to Google Maps and if you click on Streetview by the complex you'll see that the entrance to the right is signed Bloomfield Hatch Farm:
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.3867242,-1.0151845,675m/data=!3m1!1e3

If the links don't work then copy and paste them into your internet programme.

The entrance on the left is signed 'The Old Byre' and the early map is reminiscent of a dairy farm that one of my ancestor's siblings owned and ran - large byre accommodation for  cows just calved, milking parlour and creamery etc.

The house looks to be too small for Mr Palmer, maybe he owned a larger establishment nearby, he'd have had the money for that.  Just found that Wokefield Park was owned by Alfred Palmer so Broomfield Hatch Farm literally just outside the eastern lodge gate.

I suspect your ancestor didn't live at the farm but 'commuted' there, not a great distance even on a bike.   

There is a station at Stratfield Mortimer which lies a little way to the south and the railway line runs into Reading so it's not inconceivable that milk and other dairy products were taken to the Huntley and Palmers' factory from there.  H&P had its own railway sidings so easy goods transfer.

Hope that helps.