This photograph was taken from what is now
our back garden! The cottage to the left is actually two - the front,
facing us, is nowadays called “Old Post Office Cottage” and was exactly that in the last century - the Post Office in Lower
Froyle. Behind it is “Warren Cottage”, and we know from
the deeds that in the late 1700s the Clapshaw (or Clapshoe or Clapshew) family lived there - in particular Aquila Clapshoe, who was born in
1714 at Froyle. His son, also named Aquila, set up the Aquila Clapshoe
workshop at Turnham Green, London, in 1780, making cricket bats. Aquila (the 1714 one!) was most likely a cricket player who made his own bats, as did everyone else, but his expert craftmanship put him in a class of his own. In the back garden of “Warren Cottage” there is still a very old small barn - could this be where Aquila made his bats? We have in the Archive a transcript of an indenture of lease made on the 15th April 1781, between the Clapshews and William Cook and Thomas Crosswell concerning various parcels of land in Froyle. The Clapshoe firm, who by the 1800s had become Clapshaw (!), became Aquila Clapshaw & Salmon in the latter part of that century. For a much more detailed history of the cricket bat business, follow the link below. There is an Aquila Clapshaw bat, dated 1860, in the museum at Lord’s cricket ground. Sadly, today there is no Cricket Team in Froyle. |
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Forty Years of Cricket in Froyle - click on the pictures to enlarge |
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