Why "Stotfold"?

Stotfold was built for John Roe Hickman (this link is to Grace's Guide) in 1907. The village of Stotfold (just in Bedfordshire, on the border with Hertfordshire) is home to a charity which is very much in existence: Roe's Almshouse Charities the aim of which is "to administer and maintain five almshouses in Mill Lane, Stotfold". There is also Roe's Educational Charity, also based in Stotfold, and the village also has a building, formerly a school, now called the "Roecroft Centre".

The "British History Online" entry for Stotfold has details about Henry Octavius Roe, who settled these charitable trusts in the first half of the nineteenth century. His will was proved in 1854, so his death would have been around 1852 or 1853. It seems a reasonable guess that H.O. Roe shared an ancestor with our John Roe Hickman (1854-1921), whose father (1829-1904) and grandfather (1806-1847) were also named John Roe Hickman, and that the Roe Hickman branch started when a Mr Hickman married a female Roe. Anyone wanting to trace the family further back will, it seems reasonable to assume, be able to prove the link.

Assuming so, why did John Roe Hickman go back to the village when he named his grand new house? Until further evidence emerges, we can only speculate. Happy childhood holidays spent there escaping from the smoke and smells of industrial St Pancras perhaps...?