The Ridgeway actually shows as what appears to be an ancient ridgeway running East to West as seen on the LiDAR image below.
Lidar Image showing The Ridgeway running east west horizontally just above centre.
The Ridgeway was offered for sale in the Leicester Chronicle of 20th August 1887, as lot 3 of about 2.2/4 acres. It was being farmed by Mr North from Old House Farm
The land was described as “arable and capital turnip & barley land, and an excellent building site fronting the Cosby Road”. It would appear that it remained as farming land until purchased by Abraham.
Abraham Bingley, happy at work on his 75th birthday.
The plot then measuring about 5 acres was bought as a bare field by Abraham in circa 1910- 1921.? Two thirds of the plot he used for his builders yard, with workshop, paint store, toilet, open fronted, store shed, drying shed for timber, planks, and poles, it also housed the cement mixer, grindstone for sharpening tools, ladders shed, brick built garage, and a stable to house the cart horse used to pull a waggon for deliveries. When transport became motorised, and during wartime (1939-1945) this was then used for the village ARP post. At the top was a pig sty where a few pigs were kept (the pig was an important meat source back then).
At the front of the site on Cosby Road were a circular saw, flatbed planer, and mortise cutters. At the side, and roughly in the middle of the site was the entrance gateway, to the right of this a long narrow shed housed various building materials.
The remaining one third of the site was a field let out for grazing, on this he kept his pigeon loft. See plan top left drawn by Nev Duncan, Abraham’s grandson.
Abraham was born in 1871, the son of another Abraham 1825-1901, a bricklayer. Abraham senior was regularly in trouble with numerous reports of dis-orderly conduct appearing in the newspapers. His father James born 1796, a framework knitter had owned Spring Gardens and the cottages there, yet another successful Bingley, Littlethorpe saw plenty of them over the years. Not surprisingly Abraham junior became a bricklayer too and worked for a local Whetstone building firm. He married Mary-Ann Sharpe at Blaby in 1895. Prior to all this when aged just 18 or so he had walked all the to Shrewsbury in Shropshire, this took him something like three days following the old A5 road. The job was to carry out work for his uncle Thomas Bingley 1836 – 1937
Thomas owned The Plough Inn there amongst other properties. There he met Toms daughter who he took quite a shine to. Nothing happened but they had what he called an “Huggle” then he walked home again with the job completed.
As a young man along with his brother Tom he bought a plot of land on Cosby Road facing The Victoria Mills
Here they built between them in their spare time after work and at weekends, a pair of semi-detached houses, numbers 21 and 23 as they are now numbered. They were the first properties built on that side of Cosby Road and Abraham lived at No.21, this would have been in the late 1890’s, the houses don’t show on the 1886 Ordnance Survey map but appear by the time of the 1901 map. Abraham lived there until his death in 1956. If you look closely at the frontage you will see four Iron hooks, these held his signboard, which read as the first three lines of the letterhead below. Unfortunately the sign board no longer exists. The letterhead however was found in the roof of Cosby Baptist Chapel which he built between 1928 and 1929.
Old letterhead found in the roof of Cosby chapel.
Sketch plan of Abraham Bingleys builders yard.
Drawn by his grandson Nev Duncan.
Apart from his own house and establishing his yard, both on Cosby Road. He built No.8 Warwick Road for Harry Pipe, a local councillor, if you look at this, the brickwork and detail are superb, one of his favourite builds. He built the Robjohn Hall and Sunday school in Narborough, this was completed in 1932. He also removed the top storey of the three storey house that stands at the top of Station Road in Narborough, the caretakers house for the RobJohn Hall . His son Hubert (born 1901) was his best bricklayer but left his dad’s employment after a disagreement and started on his own in about 1936.
Cosby needed a new cemetery, and in circa 1900 it was built on land owned by Holyoak the local wheelwright and agricultural implement maker. Beresfords built the chapel but after a short time the roof leaked, it was replaced by A. Bingley & sons, total cost £35 16s 3d.
He built several of the “new” Warwick Road properties, re-fronted in brick the timber farmed cottages No’s 6 & 8 The Square replacing the thatched roof with slate.
Abraham had nine children Edgar 1896 – June 1975, Abraham 22/10/1897 – June 1976, Ivy 28/01/1899 – March 1989, Henry 1900 – 1971, Hubert 1901 – 1979, Cyril 1904 – 1969, Blanche 1906 – 1994, Mabel 1908 – 1982, and Norah 1910 – 1995.
Sadly Abraham towards the end of his life lost both legs due to gangrene, he also went blind. The business continued to be run by his son Cyril, but the best days had gone. Eventually The Ridgeway was sold in the early 1960’s for around £10,000. The end of an era, and an important chapter in local history, certainly in terms of its buildings.
In about 1920 Abrahams sons, Abraham, Hubert, Cyril, and Henry (all playing local cricket) decided to form a “Bingley” cricket team. The ground was to be in the “Cuckoo” field. A small changing hut was made and they joined South Leicester Cricket League, division 8. Players recruited locally and all kit purchased through donations… even a practice net. The team was so successful that they gained promotion every year until 1939 when they had to disband due to the war.
Players:-Abraham Bingley (son), Hubert Bingley, Cyril Bingley (Capt), Billy Duncan (son in law),Harry Duncan ,Cecil Whitfield, Fred Howkins, Bob Dobinson , Jim Vernon and others. I cannot recall at this time. The team has always been listed, every year in the South Leics.Cricket team handbook.
Co-incidentally my uncle ran a transport firm in Broughton Astley at the time, an extract from his daily account book dated 10th May 1930 reads “Bingleys’ Cricket Team from Littlethorpe to Thurlaston”
Abraham Bingleys bricklayers at work.
For all of the above my thanks to Abraham’s grandson Nev Duncan and his wife Rosemary.
Sources:
As with any local history research continues on this and more information will hopefully be added as it is found, so keep checking for the latest updates. In fact if you can add anything to the above please get in touch via the contact form
