From Pedigree of the Deakin Family, October 1859
[With details of later family members added afterwards]
In the possession of Alice Gertrude Deakin (1862 to 1946) to her grand nephew Arthur Keelinge Deakin (1917 to 1944) to his father Guy Barton Deakin (1882 to 1973) to his daughter Isabella Vera Deakin (1913 to 2005) to David Cooper.
Robert Deakin
Born 20th August 1810
Died 22nd October 1858 and buried at Upton Warren.

Listed in the IGI birth Robert Deakin August 20, 1810, Bromsgrove, Worcester, father Robert Deakin, mother Mary.

of Woodcote House, Bromsgrove. (1841 Census) Robert Deakin, age 30, independent means
living with his mother Mary, age 50 and
4 servants.
The next family on the list is Halfway House, James Deakin age 45 and Sarah Deakin age 30, with 2 female and 1 male servant.

In the 1842 Bentley’s Directory of Worcestershire
Bromsgrove
Mr. James Deakin, Woodcote Manor House
Mr. Robert Deakin, Woodcote House

In the 1851 census Woodcote House, Bromsgrove Worcestershire.
Robert Deakin, head, unmarried, age 40. farmer of 200 acres employing 3 labourers, born Bromsgrove.
Mother Mary Deakin, widow, age 62 annuitant, born Upton Warren.
3 house servants.
Also listed possibly in the same house or next residence, are
James Deakin, head, married, age 56, Landed proprietor, born Eccleshall, Staffordshire.
Wife Sarah Deakin, age 40, born Eccleshall.
2 house servants.

Directory and Gazetteer of the County of Worcester 1855
Fockbury
Mr. J. Deakin Half-way House, Woodcote
Robert Deakin, farmer, Woodcote House

Listed in the October to December 1858 Death Index Robert Deakin, Bromsgrove volume 6c page 24?7.

England Select Deaths and Burials
Robert Deakin, age 47, buried October 29, 1858, Upton Warren, Worcester

Parish Records - Upton Warren, Worcestershire
Robert Deakin abode Bromsgrove buried October 29 1858, ceremony by William Viller officiating Minister

National Probate Calendar January 13, 1859
Letters of administration of the personal estate and effects of Robert Deakin late of Woodcote in the Parish of Bromsgrove in the County Worcester Gentleman a Bachelor deceased who died 22 October 1858 at Woodcote aforesaid were granted at Worcester to John Bickerton Deakin of Tettenhall Wood in the Parish of Tettenhall in the County of Stafford Solicitor the Brother and only Next of Kin of the said deceased he having been first sworn. Effects under 2000 pounds.

From the research of Nicola Martin, Anna Kingsley-Curry and Jenny Beasley as co-editors of Woodcote in Worcestershire.

In the 1839 Tithe Schedule his son, yet another Robert (1811-1858), is shown as living at `Woodcot Homestead’ but the accompanying Tithe Map shows without a doubt that this was what is now known as Woodcote Farm. . . . The Census names the farm as `Woodcote House’.

Also.
Woodcote Farm ( Woodcot Homestead, Woodcote House, Lower House Farm)
The present grade II-listed period farmhouse with part of its moat was rebuilt on the site of an earlier house which ‘is said to have given Worcestershire its Coat of Arms of pears, granted by Elizabeth I who liked the pears she had eaten which had been grown at the farm’. [Hammond].
1839 is the first date when we can be sure of who living there, from the evidence of the Tithe Schedule and its accompanying map. Robert Deakin is recorded as being both the owner and occupier of what was then named `Woodcot’ Homestead and also as owning two houses and gardens (present Overwood). But it was likely that this was his father Robert’s residence in 1811 when the Bromsgrove Census of that year lists him as a farmer at `Woodcott’. (For more details see under Deakin in the section on People). In the 1851 census he is shown to be farming 200 acres.
The 1871 Census gives Edward Jackson as the occupier, employing three men and two women on the 197-acre farm, (but he had been there since at least 1865 when he is listed in Palmers Bromsgrove Almanack). By 1901 William Johnson had taken over and was managing with less staff – one agricultural labourer and one farmer’s apprentice. He was still there in 1917 according to he Bromsgrove Almanack but a year later had bought Woodcote Manor jointly with Frank Root.
In the Deakin Woodcote sale of 1917 the farmhouse with 174 acres as well as a cottage and garden (Overwood) was sold to a Mr Pearson from West Bromwich for £3850. According to Mary Hammond the buyer had no knowledge of farming and what had been a notable dairy and arable farm winning prizes at Midland agricultural shows quickly became run-down.
[Drawing of Woodcote Farm is Shown in Photos]

Also
Woodhall Grange
The oldest property still inhabited, the present Woodall Grange is a late Tudor half-timbered farmhouse with several brick and timber farm buildings dating back to the 16th/17th Centuries.
The original farmhouse dated back to medieval times, being part of the Dodford Priory estates from the late 12th Century to the Dissolution, when in 1559 it passed into the Wylde family. In the mid 17th Century, it became the property of Richard Bourne of Acton Hall Ombersley on his marriage to Anne, daughter of Robert Wylde.
By 1839, Woodhall Grange – then known as Upper Woodcot Homestead - was owned by the The Rt Hon William Sturges Bourne who was MP for Christchurch, Hants. In 1855, the Inclosure records show its owner as a Miss Anne Sturges Bourne of Teshwood House near Southampton with Elizabeth Gabb as tenant of both the house and the adjoining lands.
In 1856 Robert Deakin bought from the Sturges Bournes a farm forming part of the Dodford Manor property, which was most likely Woodhall Grange. It was certainly sold as part of the Deakin Woodcote Estate in 1917. Lot 9, Woodhall Grange Farm, comprised 137 acres, 2 roods 39 perches and sold for £2,350 to a Mr Lovatt, an industrialist from Stourbridge.
From the mid 1800s James and Martha Pass lived there as tenant famers and employed live-in servants. Jane Green joined the household in 1880/1 originally as a domestic servant and then became housekeeper. In 1892 after leaving school Henry (Harry) Turbutt started working on the farm as a waggoner. He and Jane married in 1900, living at Woodcote Cottage until 1917 where they had six children, two dying in infancy, to add to Jane’s three surviving daughters by James Pass.
James Pass retired in 1900/1 and Woodhall Grange was then farmed by Henry Nickless and son Jack until 1926 when they moved to Overfields Farm, Outwood further up the Kidderminster Road. At this point, Henry and Jane Turbutt moved back to become tenant farmers in their own right.
[Drawing of Woodhall Grange is Shown in Photos]
end of excerpt.



from A History of the County of Worcester: volume 3

The Prior of Dodford had land and rents at DODFORD to the yearly value of £4 17s. in 1291. (fn. 225) The priory with all its possessions was granted to the abbey of Halesowen in 1464, (fn. 226) and Dodford Priory then became a cell of that abbey. (fn. 227) In 1538 the Abbot of Halesowen surrendered the manor and priory of Dodford to the king, who granted them in the same year to Sir John Dudley. In the following year he gave the manor to his brother Andrew, who in 1551 sold it, with the exception of the mansion house, by which the site of the priory was perhaps meant, to Thomas and Hugh Wylde. The latter sold the estate in 1559 to Thomas and Robert Wylde Thomas died before 1561 and Robert was distrained for homage for it in 1564. It remained in this family until, in the middle of the 17th century, it passed to Richard Bourne of Acton Hall on his marriage with Anne daughter of Robert Wylde. ( Page Bourne, a descendant of this lady, owned it at the beginning of the 19th century, when the manor courts were still held. The Rt. Hon. William Sturges Bourne, who died in 1845, left it to his wife and daughter, but it was soon afterwards sold, a farm forming part of it being bought in 1856 by Mr. Robert Deakin. (fn. 234) (fn 234 is Bickerton H. Deakin)