Ufton Court, Chemin
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The name of Ufton Court was chosen by the proprietors living on this road, because the road was the original driveway leading to “Ufton Court”, the traditional name given by the Perkins family to their homestead and home (see Plate # 108 for the view of house facing lake).
“Ufton Court” recalls a medieval manor built for the Perkins family in the late 15th century, in England. The history of this manor house is easily researched on the net, for those wishing to investigate further. There you'll find an interesting description and a snippet to the effect that “The Perkins family are perhaps best known for instigating the Ufton Bread Dole, which is distributed every year from a certain window at the Court. Lady Elizabeth Marvyn, widow of Richard Perkins, left the money for the dole in her will (1581) in thanks for finding her way home after getting lost in some woods.” Ufton Court in England is part of the Englefield Estate, run by the Ufton Court Educational Trust as an Educational and Conference Centre. (http://www.berkshirehistory.com/castles/ufton_court.html)
To return closer to home and to the more relevant history of Potton, Ufton Court was the name given to the ancestral home of Samuel Perkins and descendants in Vale Perkins. It was once a “summer boarding house with accommodations for 35 boarders”, operated by Gertrude (Mrs. G.A. Perkins) and later by her son, David, and his first wife, Rita.
William Cyrus Perkins writes, in a letter to W. B. Bullock, author of Beautiful Waters, published in 1926: “ The earliest summer visitor was the late Bishop W. W. Niles of Concord, N.H., who, with his family and often with his friends, spent the summers for more than fifty years with his sister the late Mrs. David Perkins and, after her death, with her son W. C. Perkins. Their advertisement of the beauties of the place soon began to attract others; such was the beginning of the present large summer colony, there being here now 35 privately owned cottages and several boarding places, besides a fine boys' camp. »[1] Mr. Perkins went on to name the names of the privately owned cottages, all homes located on what is now called Chemin Girls' Camp. The “ fine boys' camp » he refers to belonged to Colonel F.B. Edwards and is described in a little detail under the earlier heading of Chemin Girls' Camp.
William Cyrus Perkins concludes that same letter: “ Possibly I should have stated that during the Canadian Rebellion, my grandfather, Major Cyrus Perkins, had a troop of English soldiers in his command quartered here for awhile. »
Also located on this road was Vale Perkins' only bar! Called the “Sugarhouse”, this bar was operated seasonally by Dave Perkins in the 1950's and 60's as a lucrative and very popular adjunct to the boarding house trade of the era.
Such is some of the history of a place called Ufton Court, Potton, Quebec!
Potton Heritage Association has a collection of old photographs taken in the mid 1940's and 1950's by the late Stanley (Red) Talbot, a frequent guest at Ufton Court in years gone by. They were generously shared by his son, Pete Talbot, a seasonal resident here and will appear, once catalogued, on our website.
[1] Beautiful Waters, W.B. Bullock, page 48
Suite à la demande des résidents Pierre et Karen Beaulne, Penny et Jean-Claude Baudinet, A. Boyd Hiltz, ce chemin a pris le nom de Ufton Court en mémoire à l’Auberge Ufton Court que la famille Perkins y a opéré de 1915 à 1968.[1]
Situé à Vale Perkins, ce chemin rappelle les origines de la famille Perkins en Angleterre. Le Manoir médiéval de Ufton Court, au nord du Royaume-Uni, date du 15ième siècle. Ufton Court is a Medieval manor house, extended in Tudor Times. It is near Reading in Mid-Berkshire. It was built in the late 15th century for the Perkins family. The central part is a medieval hall house. It was extended to become an Elizabethan E-plan house. It is the manor house of Ufton Pole. The Perkins' owned other nearby manors at Ufton Robert (a moat near the church) and Ufton Nervet (Ufton Green). The Perkins' were well-known Roman Catholics. After the Reformation of the Church, they carried on worshipping God in the Catholic way. They had to do this in secret. There was a chapel hidden in the roof of the house. The house was raided several times by Royal officials and soldiers. They were looking for catholic priests but didn't find any. Today it is owned by the Benyon family from Englefield House. It is rented by West Berkshire Council.[2]
An excavation at Ufton Green revealed a site which showed evidence of stone-working for the manufacture of tools or weapons and a number of scattered stone artefacts dating from the Mesolithic. The name Ufton came from Anglo-Saxon Uffa-tūn = "Uffa's farmstead" and it was recorded as Offetune in the Domesday Book. Three manors have existed in this area Ufton Robert, Ufton Nervet and Ufton Pole. The first two are mentioned in the Domesday The original Ufton Nervet, also known as Ufton Richard, was located about a mile to the north-west of the current village, in the current location of Ufton Green. It had its own church (of St. John the Baptist), the ruined walls of which still exist. The place was named after Richard Neyrvut, later corrupted to Nervet, who owned the manor in the 13th century. The manor house of Ufton Robert was located just to the west of the current village and stood within the moat, which can still be seen. Excavations in the 19th century located bridge piles, a gateway and other foundations. The moat is also part of a set of linked medieval fishponds fed from an artificial stream which flowed into the south pond. The water was controlled to the ponds and moat by a series of sluices. The manor came into the hands of the Perkyns family around 1411. When they bought the manor of Ufton Pole in 1560 the two manors were combined and the main residence moved to Ufton Pole, which is now Ufton Court, a large Elizabethan manor house located south-west of the village. In 1434-5 the parishes of Ufton Nervet and Ufton Robert were merged and the Ufton Robert church of St Peter became the current parish church. Curiously although it was the original parish of Ufton Nervet which ceased to exist this eventually became the name of the current village. [3]
[1] Source : Dossiers de la Municipalité du Canton de Potton.
[3] Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ufton_Nervet.
[2] Source : http://www.berkshirehistory.com/kids/ufton_court.html
- Titre
- Ufton Court, Chemin
- Thème
- Historic Names | Noms historiques
- Identifiant
- PN-U-01
- Collections
- Toponymie | Place Names of Potton and More