Image Ref : DRA 2380.tif

Mary Kennard at Beardown Farm, late 1890s

The original caption for this image identified this as ‘Mrs Kennard, farmer's wife, right, holding the dog; farm servants and worker’ at ‘Beardown Farm, Two Bridges, near Princetown, c. 1890, where the Hacker family from Newton Abbot spent their vacations. Outside privies, etc.’ The 1901 Census and other sources cast further light on this and the date of the image. Mary Kennard (born Yeo) was born to John and Alice at Lower Cokworthy and baptised at Lifton on 8 October 1839. In 1901, she is recorded at Beardown, widowed – and a ‘farmer’ rather than a farmer’s wife. With her are her widowed mother Alice Yeo and two servants: Mary Reddecliff (21) and Blagden French (17), possibly shown in this image, as well as Owen Wynne, a visiting Anglican clergyman. Ten years earlier, however, Mary Kennard was at Collacombe Farm with her husband Richard, whom she had married in 1861, and four of her 10 children. Richard died at that farm and was buried at Lamerton on 21 July 1894. It is only after this date, therefore, that the widowed Mary Kennard is likely to have arrived at Beardown; the paying guests (see details in image DRA 2381) may have been supplementing her farming income. Her mother Alice died at Beardown aged 90 and was buried at Lamerton on 9 November 1902. By 1911, Mary had left Beardown and was living at 3 Yelverton Terrace, Plymouth, with her unmarried son Frederick. Note the mix of roof surfaces at this farm: corrugated iron but also possibly slate roofing on the larger building, maybe with a wash of cement on the left to stop the slates from slipping. DRA 3067 PT 010