You may recall that the last “Picture of the Month” was the first of a series of three concentrating mainly on Holt Ball, at the southern end of the parish. This second part describes the history of the Crick family who occupied the farm from 1895 to 1923.
: Holt Ball c 1910 Front garden. L-R: Ruth Goddard (Eva’s daughter), ‘Aunt Eva’ (Juliana’s sister), Juliana & William Crick (husband & wife), Marjorie Crick (nee Daw, Owen’s wife), Sydney Crick (killed on farm), Seated: Freda Goddard, Allan Crick
1895 was the year that William Crick and his family, who had been farming at Halls Lake Farm, near Brendon, took the tenancy of Holt Ball. William had married Juliana Pitts in 1882 and subsequent family members all had Pitts as their ultimate given name. There were four sons, Allan Pitts, Owen John Pitts, Sydney William Pitts and Henry Pitts.
Holt Ball. Owen Crick with the pond in the background. Probably taken after his return from Canada.
By the time of the 1911 census, both Owen and Henry had left home. Henry was lodging and working in Minehead as a butcher’s assistant, and I could find no trace of Owen, however further investigation revealed that he had emigrated to Toronto on the SS Canada in 1908, his occupation on the passenger list being given as an engineer.
Shearing at Holt Ball, Harry (? Henry) Crick with 2 labourers
In 1995, at the time of Alan Crick’s (one of Owen’s sons) death, Fred Partridge – who always maintained a keen interest in Luccombe History – wrote to me enclosing a cutting from the “Daily Telegraph” and commenting:
“The Crick Family were all very clever. I expect you know their exploits. Owen Crick was a very clever engineer – during World War I he was doing research work for the government (he could have been brought back from Canada for that purpose). He worked for a time at HMV at Hayes. In 1924-5, I was at the boy’s school known as “The Modern” at Minehead – the two Crick Boys were there – living in Alcombe at the time. That is the last I know of them.”
Owen came back to England and married Margaret Daw in 1912 and they returned to Toronto on the Empress of Britain, where he had established his engineering business. Several patents were filed by him in Toronto, including one for a forming tool dated May 19th 1909. While in Canada, Owen and Margaret had two sons, Alan John Pitts, born in May 1913, and Ronald Pitts, born in February 1917.
It was reportedly homesickness that was the cause of their return; Fred Partridge’s letter was slightly in error, because Owen and his family appear to have remained in Canada for the duration of the Great War, all of them returning to England in 1919. He was however correct about HMV, (previously The Gramophone Company, which became EMI in 1931). There are patents taken out by Owen dating from his time there, including one that “relates to improved means for holding disc talking machine records and in particular to improved means for holding disc records by engagement with their central apertures”.
A rather poor photograph of William Crick outside the back of the farmhouse c.1900. William’s head is visible at the bottom centre, in front of the open window.
At the time of the 1921 census, Owen and his family were in Bristol, and William continued to farm at Holt Ball until his death in 1920, whereupon his eldest son Allan together with his mother continued to live there until 1923, when Mr H. J. Thomas, the son of the farmer at Horner took over. Sydney is believed to have died as the result of an accident on the farm in 1920. Meanwhile, Henry, having moved to Minehead, got married in 1918, and by the time of the publication of Kelly’s 1927 directory for Somerset, had progressed from being a butcher’s assistant in 1911, to being a dentist with his practice at Holloway House, at the top of Holloway Street, which remains a dental surgery to this day. In 1939 he was living in Lower Park, and eventually passed away in 1965. Juliana died in 1927 and Allan in 1970. At the time of the 1939 register, Owen and Margaret were living in Minehead. Owen died in 1972 and Margaret in 1971, both deaths were registered in Kent.
Next time, I hope to outline the lives and achievements of Owen Crick’s two sons. Although they never actually lived in the village (although one is buried here), their connections with Luccombe and their military, civil service and medical careers make them worthy subjects of a “Picture of the Month”.
Check out all of our previous pictures of the month and read more about Luccombe’s history
Hi Eric,
My Great Granny Knight wife of George Knight (buried in the churchyard and who farmed here at East Luccombe Farm) was a born a Crick and she had a brother Richard who died “from drinking too much cider aged 51” according to the back of his photograph. I was struck by the likeness of Allan Crick to my Dad. Could they be a branch of this family?
Hi Ros.
I will look into it. I have already done a little bit of digging.
I have a copy of that photo, and Richard (‘Dick’) actually died in 1903 aged 75 according to the records I have looked at. The 1891 census entry has him living at “Withycombe’s” ie what is now East Luccombe Farm, where he is listed as uncle (I had always thought he was a cousin) to George Knight, head of the household. His age is given as 64, and he is single.
The difficulty may be in linking him to William & Juliana Crick, the parents of Owen etc. I don’t subscribe to a genealogical website at the moment, so have to rely on the free ones- which are actually quite useful.
Hi Eric,
Really great to come across your page.
Im Guy Pitts Crick, Owen Crick was my great grandfather – Ronald (grandfather) – Jonathan (father).
Thank you for putting this together – will share with the rest of the family!