Crows rule the roost (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Crows rule the roost

2:11pm Thursday 7th August 2008 in Nostalgia By Nigel Kerton

Surnames often give a clue to where families come from, or they did in the days before easy travel fragmented families.

In the Marlborough area for example anyone called Blake was probably from Avebury and the Liddiards and Barnes were from Aldbourne.

In Pewsey the names of Oram, Amor and Britten still proliferate.

There was a day when the name of Crow was well known in Marlborough but now there are none left in the register of electors or telephone directory for the Marlborough area.

Older residents of Marlborough will remember when the town had a tannery, latterly called Wingrove and Edge, in Angel Yard.

It followed on a long tradition from the 14th century when there were ten tanners in the town, plus associated trades.

Wingrove and Edge closed about 25 years ago and, after remaining derelict for some years, was demolished to make way for housing.

The company was established in 1937, using skins from sheep kept on the downs although latterly raw hides came from all over the world.

The firm merged in 1963 with Whitmore's Ltd. of Edenbridge (Kent), afterwards the Whitmore Bacon Organization, which supplied wet chrome-tanned hides to Marlborough for the production of leathers of different grains and suede leathers.

The tannery was originally owned and run by the Crow family, one of the town's bigger employers.

Although there is nobody by the name of Crow in Marlborough today, some relatives still live there.

Joan Mabbutt, who lives in St Margarets Mead and is well known in the town, is one of the last descendents of the Crows still living locally.

Her father was Wilfred Crow and she was contacted by a couple called Bob and Marion Coleman from Horsham in West Sussex who have spent years tracing Mrs Coleman's roots.

Mrs Coleman's maternal grandmother was a Crow from Marlborough.

Their shared research discovered that the Crow family owned and ran the town's tannery for many, many years.

There were Crows living in various houses in Angel Yard for 100 years from the 1850s onwards.

The family research came up with the amazing story that the Crow family lost the tannery in a game of cards.

In the early 1920s one of the Crow family was gambling in the Roebuck Inn - still a popular pub in London Road today - and in a reckless moment, presumably having exhausted the cash in his pocket and his credit, he put the family tanning business on the line and lost it.

Virtually overnight the fortunes of the family changed, they lost their big house then in London Road and moved to a cottage in Kingsbury Square.

The last Crow by name to live in Marlborough was the late Paul Crow who, purely by coincidence, lived in The Parade 40 years ago next door to Gazette journalist Nigel Kerton.

Mrs Coleman, who is researching the Crow family history, said she had been delighted to find that one member of the family, Joan Mabbutt, still living in the town.

She said: "Carrying out this research has been a wonderful journey for me and we were so pleased when we were put in touch with Joan Mabbutt and we were able to go and see her and talk about the family."

Mrs Coleman and her husband would welcome contact from any other members of or relatives of the Crow family so that they can add further to their family tree.

They can be contacted at Coopers Barn, Bashurst Hill, Itchingfield, Horsham, West Sussex RH13 0PE on (01403) 790594.