Many of the occupants of Pewsham Lock
Cottage were described as being carpenters, and they would possibly have
made use of the carpenter’s workshop and sawpit as they used their skills to
maintain the locks and other canal structures.
Alfred Hodgson was the son of Richard and
Rachel Hodgson, who came to live at Pewsham Lock House in 1818. Richard was
a mason/carpenter/labourer.
Alfred was born in 1808, so was 10 when they
moved to Pewsham from Blisworth Northamptonshire.
After 1818, there are records of many spike
nails, ironwork and pickaxes ordered from a blacksmiths shop in Swindon;
spike nails in particular indicate that boat building and boat repairs were
taking place at Pewsham.
Alfred married a Lacock girl, Mary Ann
Jefferys in 1843, she was the licensee at The Sign of The Angel in Lacock as
her previous husband (deceased) had inherited it from his father (James
Blackham). At his wedding, Alfred gave his occupation as a ‘boatbuilder’.
He and Mary Ann had a daughter Julia in 1844, who later went into service
at Lacock.
Alfred was widowed himself, married again to
a Mary Bridgenorth, then moved away to continue boatbuilding in
Wolverhampton, where he had another daughter Sarah in 1848.
So, Alfred Hodgson was a carpenter and
boatbuilder at Pewsham 1812 – 1844/8 aged between 14 and 40 years.
