Gardeners Cottage Nantyderry.
I don’t know when Gardener’s Cottage was built and I have very little information about the property.
The cottage was part of the estate of the Rev. Thomas Evans.
The property was occupied by John Harding, gardener to Nantyderry House, or Goytre Lodge as it was first known.
John Harding was born at the Four Horseshoes Inn, Checkendon, Oxfordshire in 1858, the son of Thomas and Martha Hope Harding.
He married Elizabeth Bowen on the 11th January 1876 at St Peter’s Church, Goytrey. Elizabeth, born in 1855 at Trevethin, was daughter of David, a mason and Elizabeth Bowen.
By 1871 the Bowen family had moved from Trevethin to Coal Brook Cottage, where I assume Elizabeth met John Harding. Their first child Hope was born in Goytre.
The rateable value of Gardener’s Cottage in 1910 was £7, the owner was Charlotte Evans of Nantyderry Mansion.
John and Elizabeth then left Goytrey and moved to Cae Kenfy, Monmouth Road, Abergavenny, after a few years they returned to Nantyderry where they remained until their deaths.
Their children were Hope, Millie, Laura, Richard, May, Harry, Gertrude and Alicia.
John Harding’s obituary in 1941 says he died aged 93 at his home in Nantyderry where he had lived for many years. He is survived by three sons and three daughters, Mrs Jack Rosser, Goytrey; Mrs Davies, Blackwood; Miss Harding, Nantyderry; Messrs Harry Harding, Station master, Abergavenny; Richard Harding, Nantyderry; and Sam Harding who is abroad.
The family chose St Peter’s as their final resting place, David Thomas and Hope in 1882, John’s wife Elizabeth in 1917, Viola Amy in 1923, John aged 93 in 1941, Bessie, who was living at Llanvair Grange Cottage in 1945 and Gertrude in 1951.