The Davis family, well-known and well-respected in the village, are the third generation to be born in Yoxford. Barrie, Jean (Childs) and Margie (Robinson) were all keen bowls players, like their father and Margie has been Yoxford Bowls Club secretary for many years. They were born to (George) Eric Davis and his wife May Beatrice (nee Philpot). Younger children were Roger and Elizabeth, who later moved away from Yoxford. Roger also played bowls when he was young. Eric was born in 1919 and joined the Army at 15.
After the war Eric became a lorry driver and then a Plant Attendant at Sizewell A.
He and May were both bowls players, members of Yoxford Bowls Club and played for the county. Margie remembers her father telling her that he used to watch his grandfather playing bowls there around 1927. Bowls was a favourite pastime for tradesmen in the village, originally played on the old bowling green at the Three Tuns Inn. When it burnt down in 1925, play continued but based at The Griffin Inn next door. It is believed the green was handed over to the village and that is probably when Yoxford Bowls Club was formed. During WWII the Club disbanded but re-formed after the War, one of the lawns at Rookery Park being used until the green was restored around 1958-63. After the green was claimed by the Brewery which then owned the Griffin, land next to the cricket pitch belonging to the Grove Park Estate was used from the mid-1990s. A new green and pavilion were constructed. After much fund-raising the land was purchased by the Bowls Club in 2016.
Eric was the son of baker Walter Henry Davis, born in Yoxford in 1885 and his wife Jessie Elizabeth (nee Day), born in Ipswich in1886, who married in 1909. Their other children were Walter Guy born in 1909, Charles Edgar 1911, Herbert Richard 1912 and Hubert Alfred 1914. The youngest was Peter. Walter Henry’s pre-war occupation was journeyman baker. He was disabled during WWI and pensioned. Walter grew up in Little Street with his sisters Alice and Jessie.
Walter’s parents were Herbert William Davis, born in 1858 in Holton, near Halesworth and Mary Ann Barnes, born in Beeston, Norfolk. Herbert was a blacksmith. He moved to Yoxford around 1885 when he first appears in the Commercial Directories for the village. By 1901 the family had moved to Church Lane. Mary died in 1908 at the age of 53. In 1911 and 1921 Walter is the head of the household. In 1911 Herbert is listed as a journeyman blacksmith so does not appear in the Directories but by 1921 he is employed as a blacksmith by Drill Makers Smyth & Sons of Peasenhall, but out of work at that time. He died in 1935.
Before Herbert moved to Yoxford he had been in 1881 lodging with Charles Parker, journeyman wheelwright and his family in Beccles Road, Barnby, Mutford in Suffolk. and employed as a journeyman blacksmith. In 1871 he was living with his uncle and aunt (his father widowed young). His uncle Henry Smith, born in Wymondham, Norfolk in 1828, was then a farmer of 127 acres employing three men and a boy. Aunt Ann was born in Norwich in 1831. Herbert’s cousin Arthur, born in Norfolk in 1859 was also with them, as were Herbert’s older siblings, Robert O B, born in 1852 and Ann Elizabeth, born in 1854, both in Holton. They were all living at The Mill, St Lawrence Ilketshall, in Wangford.
Herbert had an older brother Thomas Frederick Davis, born in 1855, who also moved to Yoxford. Thomas was a wheelwright. The brothers worked as co-partners and in the East Anglian Daily Times of January 1892 they were requesting their creditors to pay their debts. Thomas married Caroline Huke, eldest daughter of James Huke of North Cove, Lowestoft in January 1882 (Lowestoft Journal). Thomas died in 1933.
Thomas and Herbert were the sons of farmer Robert Davis, baptised 5th October 1823 in Cookley. He married Elizabeth Base (born in Norwich) in 1850 but she died in 1858. By 1861 Robert and his family, oldest son Rhonwen, daughter Ann, Thomas and Herbert were living with Robert’s widowed father Thomas. Robert was farming 80 acres and employing two men and a boy in Holton, near Halesworth. 33-year old Emma Evens was housekeeper and 15-year old Sarah Russell was dairy servant, both born in Yoxford.
Thomas Davis Sr, Robert’s father,was baptised 7th July 1799 in Walpole. In 1851 he was farming 64 acres, employing one labourer, in Holton. His wife was Elizabeth Evans, born 1796 in Fressingfield, Suffolk. She died 7th March 1854, Thomas 4th April 1864, both in Holton.