The Dance Families of the Forest of Dean

THE DANCE FAMILY FROM GANAREW & WELSH NEWTON

According to earlier family researchers, Thomas Dance was baptised at Ledbury on the 28th of December 1765, the son of James Dance and Elizabeth Morgan. When he died at Welsh Newton in 1840 his age was given as 82. Tombstone dates are notoriously unreliable plus we also have no indication of his age at the baptism.

Some of these dates of birth may not be historically accurate. I am aware of a few of their baptismal records but unfortunately a number of the children were not christened as infants and I have had to make possibly unreliable estimates from census and burial records when the recorded years differed.

Lewstone Farm

Lewstone, the first area the family settled locally in the early 1800s, is situated in a secluded rural location along a little used country lane approximately 1 mile from the village of Whitchurch and midway between the market towns of Ross on Wye and Monmouth.

WHITCHURCH is a picturesque village and parish, delightfully situated on the west bank of the river Wye, and on the main road leading from Ross to Monmouth. It is distant 4 miles N.E. of Monmouth, 7 S.W. of Ross, and 16 S. of Hereford; is in Wormelow hundred, Monmouth union and county court district, Harewood End petty sessional division, and is a polling place for county elections. The population in 1861 was 857; in 1871, 802; inhabited houses, 201; families or separate occupiers, 207; area of parish, 1,956 acres; annual rateable value, £3,437. Mrs. Marriott, of Sellarsbrooke, who is lady of the manor, Captain J. K. Simcoe, R.N., William Brown, Esq., of Lewson, and George Woodhall Lloyd, Esq., of White house, Sellack, are the principal landowners. The soil is sandy and loamy; subsoil, chiefly rock and limestone; products, wheat, barley, roots, &c. The geology of this district is very interesting. In this parish is the Great Deward hill; on its N.W. side are the celebrated King Arthur's and other caves, in which the fossil remains of hyena, elephant, stag, &c., of the antediluvian period have been recently discovered.  

At a short distance to the West is the Little Doward hill, and on the summit of this are vestiges of an old Roman encampment. The village of Whitchurch is surrounded by scenery of the most romantic and picturesque description, and the neighbourhood is exceedingly pleasant, abounding with numerous gentlemen's seats and villas. The rivers Wye and Garron afford excellent fishing for salmon, trout, grayling, sewen, flounders, &c.; and the otter hounds meet at Marstow bridge in the season. Amongst the chief objects of interest in the vicinity is "Symonds' Yat", or Rock, the summit of which is a romantic green floor, walled in, without any formality, by copsewood, and commands a fine panorama of the Wye and adjacent country. At Symonds' Yat is a station on the Ross and Monmouth branch of the Great Western railway. Whitchurch is in the diocese and archdeaconry of Hereford and rural deanery of Archenfield; living, a rectory; value, £290, with residence and 6 acres of glebe; patron and rector, the Rev. William Dry, M.A., of Brasenose College, Oxford, who was instituted in 1862.        Littlebury's Directory and Gazetteer of Herefordshire, 1876-7

Elizabeth (1796) their first child, who was to marry John Saunders (1793) at Llangarron near Monmouth in 1820, was born at Tarrington near Hereford and baptised at Ocle Pychard (see bottom of page).  Her brother Thomas Dance (1799) was also  baptised at Ocle Pychard, a village six miles from Hereford, in 1799, and his younger siblings at Ganarew and around nearby Whitchurch, on the south-western side of Herefordshire, close to the Welsh border town of Monmouth.

The earliest baptismal records indicate that Thomas and Catherine lived and worked at Lewstone near Whitchurch. He was a farm labourer in the early part of the 19th century. By the time of the 1841 census the family were farmers at St Wulstans in nearby Welsh Newton.

Lewstone is part of our family history again in 1862 when their grandchild, Joseph's daughter Eliza Dance (1840)  a servant at New Court, Whitchurch, married her upper-crust employer Paul Creed Gwyllim Simcoe (1836) whose family owned  large chunks of Herefordshire. (see Joseph)

Outside Lewstone Farm- Cider apple pulper in foreground

Lewstone Mill

GANAREW is a small parish and village delightfully situated at the base of Doward hill, on the borders of Monmouthshire. The parish contains several handsome residences, and the main road between Ross and Monmouth runs through it. It is distant 3 miles N.E. of Monmouth, 8 S.W. of Ross, and 18 S. of Hereford; in Wormelow hundred, Monmouth union and county court district, Whitchurch polling district, and Harewood End petty sessional division. The population in 1861 was 116; in 1871, 181; inhabited houses, 36; families or separate occupiers, 36; area of parish, 835 acres; annual rateable value, £1,082. Mrs. Marriott, who is lady of the manor, James Murray Bannerman, Esq., William Brown, Esq., and Miss Griffin (of Newton court), are the principal landowners. The soil is loamy; subsoil, chiefly rock; produce, wheat, barley, roots, &c.  Ganarew is in the diocese and archdeaconry of Hereford and rural deanery of Archenfield; living, a rectory; value, £102, with 15 acres of glebe; patroness, Mrs. Marriott; rector, Rev. Thomas Laugley, B.A., of St. John's College, Cambridge, who was instituted in 1853. The church, dedicated to St. Swithin, is a small but handsome structure, with tower containing two bells. It was rebuilt in 1850 at the sole expense of Mrs. Marriott, and has nave, chancel, porch, font, organ, and about 120 sittings, 40 of which are free. The earliest register is dated 1589. There is a parochial school for boys and girls supported by subscription; it has about 25 scholars. Sellarsbrooke is the seat of Mrs. Marriott. Wyastone Leys, the seat of James Murray Bannerman, Esq., stands in a deer park, and commands a splendid view of the river Wye. There is a private chapel in the grounds. Near the mansion is a school supported by Miss Bannerman.                        Littlebury's Directory and Gazetteer of Herefordshire, 1876-7

They moved to the Ganarew-Whitchurch area in the early 1800s. His second son James was born there in 1806.

Thomas was first employed as a farm labourer, probably in  nearby  Lewstone-Llangarren parish. ('of  Lewson' is mentioned in a couple of early records).  Lewson (Lewstone) is given as their residence in 1818 when youngest son William was baptised at Whitchurch. 

They went on to farm at St Wulstan's, Welsh Newton and were well established there when Thomas died in 1840. 

His eldest son Thomas (1798) remained at Ganarew in what may have been the original family home at Yew Tree Cottage on Little Doward. He is the only one from our Dance family who is listed as a Herefordshire land-owner.

In this photo of Ganarew church, Thomas & Catherine's grave is the one close to and immediately in line with the base of the tall tree.

Their eldest son Thomas Dance (1799) who was born at Ocle Pychard, married Sarah Turner(1799) at Whitchurch in 1824. They had six children, Thomas (1826), Ann (1830), James (1833), Elizabeth (1835) and William (1838) all born at Little Doward, Ganarew, before Sarah died in 1839. In 1841 he married Elizabeth Jones who was 20 years younger. Thomas  was a farm labourer who appears to have spent most of his life at  Ganarew. In 1901 the 93 year old's  address was Yew Tree Cottage, which may have been their original family home. 

His son William Dance (1838) married Goodrich born Elizabeth Austins (1842) in 1864 and settled in  Newport, Monmouthshire around 1872. They had eight children, Louisa (1864), William (1866), Catherine (1869), Elizabeth (1871), John (1874), Blanche (1878), Mary Ann (1884), and James (1885).

Opposite is a view of Ganarew village today. It appears little changed from the times the Dance family lived in the area.

St Wulstan's farm at Welsh Newton today.

Catherine Dance 1774-1864