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Mr.Dennis Malin,Bidford
I did a little research into Chapel Oak (Rushford, Salford Priors) , which is a large house obscured from the Alcester - Evesham Road by trees. It was in the area of an oak used in Wesleyan times by the outlawed Free Thinkers The house was recently occupied by a Mr. Moult, a relative of Ted Moult, the late television personality. At the turn of the century it was occupied by the Misses Freeman, of Freeman, Hardy and Willis, of the shoe empire. They were great ad vocates of Home Rule for Ireland and had a horse called 'Home Rule'. When a new property was built adjacent to the big house on land known as 'Home Rule Hill' the skeleton of a horse was unearthed; the bones were thought to belong to the horse 'Home Rule'.
With a few minutes to waste in Harvington, I decided to search for the grave of the man reputedly killed in the American Civil War. It appears that I was slightly wrong:it was really the brother of a high ranking officer, the stone says, late of London, 1848 I investigated the graves further and found some interesting interments, Richard Jephcott of Temple Grafton and his widow Elizabeth of Alcester were buried on Dec. l0th 1756 and Aug. l3th 1774 respectively: also Thomas Walford of Dunnington May 17th 1739 and his wife Mary, December, 1762: also an Oxfordshire vicar whose parents lived in Bourton on the Hill was interred within the church I wondered why in those far off days they were transported to Harvington for burial?
© Alcester & District Local History Society 1991