Chippenham <1>
12h Nov 1831
Dear Sir,
On considering the subject of your Letter relative to Banks’ <2> Bill for the new work at the Abbey, I suggested to Mr Strong <3> that it would be desirable to examine the two last Bills of Banks for work on the Estates in order to see whether he had charged his own time in both places – this has been done minutely & as far as that examination goes it is in Bank’s favor – as in only three instances his own time is charged for Work on the Estates & in those periods of his Bill for the Abbey work, his full time is not charged – on the value of the latter work I confess myself totally ignorant, being of a nature with which I have had no experience at any time of my Life – but Strong says that he thinks the Bill too high, after allowing for the extra time necessarily required for ornamental work – & I therefore hope for his own sake, that he will make a deduction from the amount – & I have sent Banks a message to that effect –
I am Dear Sir Yr much obliged Sert
W. H. Awdry
W. H. F. Talbot Esq
Lacock Abbey
Notes:
1. Chippenham, Wiltshire: largest town near Lacock, 3 miles N.
2. Probably George Banks, snr (1786–1864), stonemason & coalseller, Lacock.
3. Strong's identity has yet to be established. However, Awdry met Mr. Strong at Box [see Doc. No: 02006], the Wiltshire hamlet whose quarry originally provided Lacock Abbey with its stone. It is possible that Strong was there temporarily to select stone for the renovations at Lacock Abbey, but given the expansion of the area in the 19th c., perhaps Strong was resident there. The 1841 census for Box (the earliest one available) points to two possibilities. The first, James Strong (b. 1796), was a mason, but the Lacock mason, Charles Selman Banks (1805-1881) did most of the masonry at Lacock at this time. Thomas Strong (b. 1781) was a builder, and seems the more likely candidate.