Blackholde in 1636
The earliest document to name the property is a conveyance dated 12 October 1636. John Stenyng of Kingsfold in Rudgwick transferred property to John King of Loxwood and his son George King, both yeomen. The deed described a messuage with its buildings and land in or near Loxwood called ‘Blackholde & Stenyngs land’, together with two fields called Elderude and Howkrude. The holding contained twelve acres. Its eastern boundary was the highway from Loxwood to Alfold, placing Blackholde beside the route that remained important to the property for centuries.
The 1636 deed also named neighbouring holdings used to define the boundaries. They included Hooke, also called Jackmans Hooke, land occupied by Henry Holt and land called Pally or Paulis. Such boundary descriptions fixed a property by its neighbours, roads and field names before modern numbered plots and detailed Ordnance Survey maps existed.
Blacksmiths beside the road
A surviving will dated 8 April 1653 names Richard Hurst of Loxwood, in the parish of Wisborough Green, as a blacksmith. The document establishes blacksmithing in Loxwood during the same century in which Blackholde appears in the property deeds. A rural blacksmith shod horses, repaired cart fittings and iron tyres, sharpened tools and made or repaired the ironwork required on farms. A forge beside a through road served horses, wagons and agricultural customers throughout the surrounding farms.
The road itself changed in the eighteenth century. Parliament authorised the Alfold to Arundel turnpike in 1757, improving the main route through Loxwood. Local map work places an older drove road behind Black Hall and the turnpike on the side now used as the main frontage. Before the turnpike, the cottages faced the older track; the improved road put passing traffic on the opposite side of the property, where the later smithy stood. On 25 May 1789 the register of apprenticeship duties recorded Richard Puttock of Loxwood as a blacksmith. The 1806 map then shows a small group of buildings on the Black Hall site, including a separate structure in the position later occupied by the smithy.
An old chapel porch
One of Black Hall’s most distinctive features is the timber porch at the front entrance. When the old Loxwood chapel was enlarged in 1822, its medieval timber nave was replaced by a brick structure. The oak porch and its heavy door are believed to have been removed from the chapel and reused at Black Hall. The pointed entrance shown in early photographs of the house is associated with the chapel rebuilding that took place in the centre of the village in 1822. Its small tiled gable, curved timber opening and heavy door remained prominent when Black Hall was photographed in the early twentieth century.
The Fielder family and the forge
Nineteenth-century census records bring the smithing households into clearer view. Loxwood History identifies a blacksmith at the Black Hall site in the 1841 census. Ten years later the 1851 return records Kezia Fielder with her children Sarah Jane, Henry, Frederick and George. Also in the household was Sarah Fielder, an elderly widow whose occupation was entered as ‘blacksmith’s widow’. The wording places blacksmithing within more than one generation of the family.
The forge stood separately from the house, close to the road. Horses could be brought to the smith without entering the domestic yard, while carts and farm equipment could wait outside. The first-edition Ordnance Survey map of the 1870s marks the detached smithy in front of the main property. A later postcard depicts the same arrangement, with the smithy standing prominently beside the road and Blackwool behind it.
Felix Foster, the shop and the Dependants
An auction notice published in November 1876 gives a detailed view of the roadside property. One lot was a substantial brick-and-tile house occupied by James Woods. The adjoining property was described as a messuage and draper’s shop called Longhouse or Vine Cottage, occupied by Felix Foster. Another lot comprised about three acres of meadow with a barn, yard and outbuildings used as a wheelwright’s shop. A wheelwright built and repaired wooden cart wheels; the blacksmith heated and fitted the iron tyres and supplied the metalwork. The wheelwright’s shop used the barn and outbuildings attached to the three-acre meadow.
Felix Foster was already closely involved with the Dependant Brethren. He was one of the first trustees named when the Spy Lane chapel property was settled in 1865, and his grocery and drapery business served families associated with the movement. John Sirgood, the founder of the Dependants, conducted Felix Foster’s funeral after his death in 1880. Loxwood History records the Foster family continuing the shop during the years before the larger Combination Stores developed beside the village pond. Black Hall remained linked with the Brethren: the 1883 chapel indenture names Owen Puttock of Black Hall among the Loxwood trustees.
Another trade notice recorded in the Black Hall papers appeared in the 1880s. It offered two smiths’ shops and one wheelwright’s shop in Loxwood, all described as doing good trades. The valuation was put at about £250, with rent for a house and garden of £27 a year. Applicants were directed to Mrs Anderson of Loxwood.
Blackwool and the last smithy
By the end of the nineteenth century the property was commonly appearing as Blackwool. The smithy remained in front of the house. In the 1901 census Benjamin Luff was the blacksmith. Loxwood History records that he had previously worked at Alfold Bars for many years and that the Loxwood smithy had two forges. Two hearths allowed more than one piece of iron to be heated while horses, farm tools and cart work were dealt with through the day. A postcard from the opening years of the twentieth century shows the workshop close to the road, with a blacksmith at the doorway and Blackwool behind it. The low forge building has a broad glazed opening towards the road, while wheels, a small cart and workshop equipment stand outside.
The 1911 census records two separate households at Blackwool. John Bristow lived in one with his wife Sarah and was recorded as a miller. In the other, Jack Page lived with his wife Minnie and gave his occupation as a motor engineer.
Black Hall in the 1920s
The 1921 census uses the postal address Black Hall. Reverend Henry Moore Bower Brown-Greaves, aged forty-one, lived there with his wife Margaret Sophia and their three-year-old son Howard Thurston. Reverend Brown-Greaves was a Church of England clergyman. Their household also included Albert Edward Blackwell, employed as chauffeur-gardener, Rosetta Blackwell, the cook, and sixteen-year-old Pearl Edith Scrivener, recorded as a domestic nurse.
The Black Hall name continued in later records, while Blackwool remained in local use. A Surrey Advertiser notice in September 1944 advertised household furniture and effects for sale at Black Hall, including bedroom furniture, fitted wardrobes, a dining table and stools, a bedspread and a Marconiphone radiogram.
Black Hall after the war
In July 1955 the Loxwood and Alfold Women’s Institute met in the garden of Blackhall Cottage by invitation of Mrs Gander. The afternoon included competitions for flowers and produce, refreshments and arrangements for the next meeting. On 1 August 1958 the Institute held another summer meeting at Black Wool by invitation of Mrs Van den Bergh.
Post-war photographs show the site after the roadside smithy had been removed. The older house remained with its steep gables, tiled roofs and timbered entrance facing the road.
Blackwool at auction
In 1971 Blackwool was again advertised for sale. The auctioneers called it a ‘charming period house with lovely rural outlook’. The particulars described a lounge hall, drawing room, dining room and study, a principal bedroom suite, four further bedrooms and a second bathroom. The property also had a staff bungalow, gardens and a paddock extending to about two and a half acres. The sale advertisement appeared with a photograph of the house after the forge and roadside workshops had gone. Blackwool was offered at auction on 13 May 1971.
