On his death in July 1896 all Radford’s estate, including his properties, valued at almost £10,000 net at probate, passed to his son, also named William Tucker Arundel Radford (1861-1915). The following year, William junior married Mary Baker, daughter of Royal Navy Commander Robert Baker (deceased), who had also served as Superintendent in the Devon Constabulary. The local paper described it as ‘a fashionable wedding’ and noted that the newly-weds took up residence at St Olaves, rather than at Down St Mary.
In May 1898 Mrs. Radford placed an advertisement for both a Parlour Maid and a Housemaid for St Olaves. The advert ran for 4 consecutive weeks in the Devon and Exeter Gazette and required that the girls be ‘Churchwomen’ (i.e. members of the Church of England) and offered the salary of £18 per annum.
A history of the Cheriton hounds first published in 1925
William junior appears to have been a typical countryman with hunting, shooting and fishing high on his agenda. He was for 40 years a member and latterly Master of the Cheriton Otter Hounds (which organised the hunting of otters on the Teign and other Devon rivers – this country ‘sport’ was only outlawed in 1978). Various reports of his prowess with a gun appeared in the local papers, and on one occasion he was reported to have caught ‘34 fine trout, 10 of them weighing over 5lbs each’ on the river at St Olaves.
But by the end of that year, in December 1898, Radford had decided to sell up in Murchington, and we find the entire contents of St Olaves, including furniture, livestock and even a horse and trap, being advertised for sale by auction in the Devon and Exeter Gazette. By separate arrangement Radford had sold St Olaves to yet another clergyman, the Rev. Alfred Gresley Barker and his wife Agnes. Barker was the third son of George Barker, a successful London lawyer who left an estate valued at over £250,000 at his death in 1868. Only a year later, Alfred, a country vicar in Hampshire, inheritesd the entire estate when his eldest brother George William died unexpectedly (the second son had been kiled at the Battle of Inkerman, Crimea in 1854). By the late 1870s Barker had stood down as a parish vicar and was spending much of his time in and around Chagford (he had been educated privately in Devon as a teenager and his wife Agnes had grown up there). He appears to have been a friend of Rev. John Ingle, so would likely have known St Olaves well. He was also a keen fisherman, leasing fishing rights on the River Teign at Gidleigh Park, upstream of St Olaves. Acquiring additional fishing rights must have been part of the appeal of buying St Olaves, which would have been an attractive rural retreat for the wealthy Barker; his primary residence remained in Hampshire. The 1901 census shows him employing a gardener and housekeeper at St Olaves, George and Jane Caseley. They had also worked for the Radfords in the 1890s.
Rev Alfred Gresley Barker
In July 1903 Barker authorised the sale of 5 plots of land at Murchington Farm, namely Higher, Lower and Great Gunson, Great and Little Cross Park, Tuckfields Moor, Great Close and Alder Park. It is notable that the advertisement observed that “This sale affords some charming building sites” – Murchington was already changing.
Barker also felled significant woodland on the estate during his short ownership. In February 1904 he sold 150 Larch Trees, 11 Oaks and 5 Scotch Pines through the Western Times. Then a year later he sold another 200 Larch trees. In the spring of 1906 Barker is recorded as entertaining the workers who had built a new extension at St Olaves to a meal at the Globe Hotel, Chagford. This Edwardian extension now provides the older portion of our own house – the two seventeenth-century cottages Barker originally extended having been re-created as separate dwellings in the 1960s (as 1 and 2 St Olaves). When Alfred died in November 1906, aged 72, his widow Agnes immediately placed the estate on the market. It was put up for auction in January 1907, but withdrawn with the bidding at £4,550. However by March 1907 Agnes was selling the house contents at auction, having apparently sold the estate by private treaty to Edmund Sutton, a wealthy London barrister and KC.
Footnote on Radford Junior: Having sold St.Olaves to the Rev.A.G. Barker the Radfords moved into Rose Cottage, Eggsford where they would remain until William’s death on November 5th, 1915.
According to reports in the Western Times “ the deceased gentleman had not been in good health for a considerable time but had only taken to his bed a fortnight ago. Despite the best of medical advice and careful attention, he passed away at the age of 55”.
He had a quiet and unassuming manner and was a liberal helper of the poor, never a deserving case being refused assistance. He was a staunch Churchman and a Conservative. The funeral and burial took place at his father’s old church at Down. St.Mary on the 11th of November 1915.