What is/was a “wath”?
Well, the answer is that it’s a word from old Middle English, and is of Scandinavian origin, akin to the Old Norse “vath” and also akin to the Old English “wæd”, and also the Old High German word “wat”, all of which mean the same – “ford“. Another connection can be found in the Old High German verb “watan” meaning “to wade”.
So there you have it – “Hall Ford“. Obviously there was a crossing/wading point across the River Witham here.
“Ivy House”, 1 Hall Wath (1909)
Not a photographic postcard this time – it has a familiar Christmas carol design on the front – but this is a postcard which was sent from nearby Waddington and is addressed to Miss Lucy Johnson of “Ivy House”. It simply reads “With best love from Aunt Pop. Xmas 1909.” In the 1911 census Bassingham-born Osborne Johnson was the Head of the House, a 50-years-old surgeon and the village GP. Living with him were his wife, Edith Beatrice (aged 47), and children Edith Lucy (12), Thomas Osborne (11), and a collection of servants. Putting two and two together – not always a good idea – I would tentatively suggest that the family called the daughter by her middle name “Lucy” to avoid any confusion with the wife, and that it was to her that this postcard was addressed. “Aunt Pop” could well have been her spinster aunt Lucy Lambe Johnson, sister to Osborne, because in that same 1911 census she was living alone and by private means at “The Red House” in Waddington.
In 1841 this house was modernised by John Hart (the builder) for Charles Marfleet (the owner) and was then let to the village surgeon Thomas Johnson whose family remained in the village until 1982 when the last Johnson left the village. “Ivy House” is also another of the village’s several Grade II listed buildings and you can read more about it HERE.
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Bassingham Back Then... 