In November 1869 James Baggs of Shipton, a 37 year old bachelor, married Elizabeth Gillett of Westcote, just over the border in Gloucestershire. Originally from Kingham, he was by trade a plumber and glazier – a very useful man in the community. Four years earlier he had purchased a plot of ‘manorial waste’ land with an old cottage from Robert Gorton for £100, a plot in the centre of Shipton, just down the road from the Crown inn, and had built himself a substantial three-storey stone house in front of the cottage, facing on to the High Street. Although he had to mortgage the property in 1868, he managed to repay the loan by 1874 when the property was once more in his name.
Read more about James in this PDF of Journal No21
