James Baines (1821 - 1867)
Diane visited the Bagshot website because she wanted information about where her great grandfather lived. She wrote:
My great grandfather (James Baines b1821) lived in Bagshot, in a house overlooking the cemetery where he is now buried. Family history has it that he started Waterers Nursery and was cheated out of it as he couldn't read. Probably not true but an interesting story, and I wanted to know whether Waterers Nursery still exists and when it was started.Also if there are any other descendants of his 7 daughters out there I would LOVE to hear from them.
Intrigued by the story I did a bit of research using Marie de G Eedle's excellent book. It looks as though the Waterer's nurseries in Bagshot started as an offshoot of Michael Waterer's nursery in Knaphill (Woking) which had started about 1800. There is an oblique reference that implies that Waterer had taken over a Bagshot nursery in 1828/9 on the death of its founder, John Taylor. There were many nurseries in the area.
There are references to "Michael Waterer (a nurseryman)" being a contributor in 1835-6 to a fund to build a new road from Bagshot to Windlesham (a road which to this day is called New Road). James Baines would have been 14/15 at this time, and it would seem that Waterer's was well established. So perhaps the family story is a little too fanciful.
I found James' grave in Bagshot's cemetery.
Davina in writing to thank me for posting her question said that she had looked up James Baines in the 1881 census and found the following:
- James Baines
- Chapel Lane, Windlesham, Surrey, England
- James Baines
- Married Aged 60 Male Born Bagshot, Surrey, England
- Head (of the household), Coachman
- Rachael Baines
- Married Aged 50 Female Marylebone, Middx, Eng
- Wife
- Annie Baines
- Aged 13 Female, Born Bagshot, Surrey, England
- Daughter Nursemaid (Dom)
- Lydia Baines
- Aged 11 Female Born Bagshot, Surrey, England
- Daughter Nursemaid (Dom)
- Alice Baines Aged 8 Female Born Bagshot, Surrey, England
- Daughter Scholar
She also tells me that she has looked in the book "Nurserymen to the World" which is a local history of the local nurseries and the name Baines is not mentioned at all.
We see that the 1881 census contains rather more personal data than do today's censuses, and that the place names of Bagshot and Windlesham almost appear to be used interchangeable. We can also see that the 8 year old daughter attended school (that would have been Bagshot school, only a few yards from where she lived), but by the age of 11 the elder daughters were already working as domestic servants.
Andrew, an expatriate of the area, wrote from Australia to remind me that Waterers' does still exist, on a large site off the A30 (London Road). Just what the commercial set up is, I do not know. Some years ago Waterer's appeared to have been taken over by Notcutts' Garden Centres (a large chain with several sites across the southeast). The sign board on the A30 says "Notcutts Garden Center" with "Waterers Nurseries" underneath.
Notcutts' web site says "Sharing the Bagshot site is Waterers Nurseries, one of the country's leading Rhododendron and Azalea specialists, and main provider of nursery stock to our garden centres in the south of the country."
There is a little more about the Waterer family here.
Diane, who made the original enquiry, about James Baines has written to tell me that since then she been able to accumulate a LOT more information about the Baines family which she will be pleased to share with others who may be interested. While Diane gave me permission to publish her email address I'll not do that as it risks getting too much 'spam'. If you would like to contact Diane please use the message pad and I will forward your message to her.
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This is just one of many pages on this web site that contains reminiscence about old Bagshot or its inhabitants.
Many of my pages have been prompted by, or include questions or information from, my readers.
This page is part of the Bagshot village web site.
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