Tuesday 27 May 2014

The Salter family

When you leave the church lane and walk up onto the road you will come to a large thatched cobb house called Minors. This building has been has been beautifully restored from the former dairy farm that it would have been 100 years ago to the impressive home it is today. The Salter family lived on and worked this farm for many generations. The Salters themselves can be traced back to the 1600's but I have found them to be  living in Venn Ottery as far back as 1700's.
 A Thomas Salter was baptised in the church in1788 and grew up to work the farm. The farm seems to have been a dairy farm with a milk herd and 30 acres. His son Henry continued with the farm, during the late 1800's, followed by Henry's two sons Thomas and Henry. The brothers run the farm together with Henry jnr not seeming to marry. Thomas marries Emma Westcott and continues to live at Minors with his brother.
Their sister Lucy marries into another local family, the Drakes from Hoppins Farm, just over the hill in Southerton.
Sadly in 1930 both the brothers die within two days of each other, Henry on the Sunday followed by Thomas on the Tuesday. Both died of pneumonia. They are laid to rest in Venn Ottery church

No comments:

Post a Comment