6 - The Army Arrives !
by Tim Childerhouse

The Boxall family came into possession of the land in about the middle of the l600's, probably at the time of the Great Rebellion, England's Civil War. Widow Sarah Boxall[1] did not pay her taxes and was taken to court in London in 1703 and soon after this the land seemed to become split into several smaller sections, of which Boxalls Farm[2] was the largest in acreage.

Shortly after the arrival of the Army in Aldershot in the middle 1800's, either Boxall or Eggar dug the pit to extract the clay for building purposes and in the area of what is now the Brickfields housing estate, stood the brickworks with drying huts, ovens, etc. This area was to have been built upon in 1935 but work was delayed until Jubilee and Coronation Roads were completed. Just before the houses of the Brickfield estate were built, a concrete factory[3] produced pipes, slabs, etc. in the area previously occupied by the Aldershot Brick and tile Works.

The gravel path leading to the pond was known before the war as Frog Lane.

Cont....

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1. From the records of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, (http://www.lds.org/) there are records for a Sarah Boxall born on the 19th July 1663 at Farnham Surrey, who died on the 24th November 1710. She married William Faulkner on the 2nd May 1698 at Frensham Surrey. He died on the 23rd July 1738, therefore it is unlikley that this Sarah Boxall is correct as she was not a widow in 1703, however this is the only record we can find to date that fits the 1703 timescale.    (back) (top)
2. From http://www.hants.gov.uk/hampshiretreasures/vol03/page199.html
   Farmhouse, Boxalls Farm. Stone and brick structure, extensively restored, original structure possibly C.18, on the site of an earlier building. The farmland was rented by Waverley Abbey until its dissolution 1536. Ref: The Story of Aldershot, (Cole), p.294.
   SU 866 494, Card 0102 08    (back) (top)
3. See page 8 of these history documents.    (back) (top)