The Joe Whieldon Trilogy: The Forge - The Feud - The Folly

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The Joe Whieldon Trilogy begins in a small Bedfordshire village, which sits on the spine of the Chiltern Hills, where the only work is farming or those trades that support the tilling of the land. The date is 1812 and Britain is at war with France, where the Napoleonic Wars rage on.

Prioryhill stands some four hundred feet above sea level and looks down on the Luton to Bedford coach road, where Barton-Le-Clay stands to its immediate south and Silsoe its north.

There are three farms that circle the hill top; Lower Prioryhill Farm, which stands to the south and is owned by the Whitney family, Prioryhill Farm which stands within the village and falls away on its eastern slope and is owned by the White family and Upper Prioryhill Manor, which is by far the largest tract at sixteen hundred acres, standing to the north and west of the village and owned by the Faulkner family.

Prioryhill is served by a school, a pub, a church and a blacksmith and this story hinges on the forging of black metal and the family, who from humble beginnings in a rented cottage and forge, have become landowners in their own right, thanks in the main to the generosity of the White family of Prioryhill Farm. It was Arthur White whose decision to lend Sam Whieldon, his best friend, sufficient capital on a reasonable pay back scheme, which allowed him to buy the land around the cottage and forge on Main Street.

Sam Whieldon and his wife Mary have five children, with three living at home; John the eldest son and a fully qualified blacksmith, born in 1788, Joe the apprentice blacksmith, born in 1793 and Beth one of three daughters born 1792.

Joe Whieldon is the youngest in the family and undergoing his seven-year apprenticeship with the usual hopes and aspirations of any teenager. But in Joe’s case he feels particularly aggrieved, given that Beaumont Faulkner, the twenty four year old son and heir of Upper Prioryhill Manor owner, Adam Faulkner, is wooing the beautiful Lucinda Winchcombe, the vicar’s daughter.

Joe knows that if he does nothing, Lucy will slip away from him, so he decides to change his fate by persuading his father, mother and brother that he should support Britain’s cause against Napoleon. In doing so he implores Lucy to understand his desire to fight for his country and the love of his life.

The Forge develops the storyline of Joe’s fight to win Lucy’s heart, fighting the arrogance of the Faulkner family and his joining of the 7th Hussars as a junior officer. The story tracks Joe’s army career in parallel to life at home and a tragedy in the family that pulls him back to Prioryhill and the realisation that evil is afoot and danger awaits him on his return.

The Feud begins in 1816, which tracks Joe’s post war life as a blacksmith and farmer, with Lucy at his side and Alfie Westland at his back, his former Sergeant Major. He learns of further evil inflicted upon his family by a member of the Faulkner family and pursues him across the globe with Alfie at his side.

The Folly sees Joe now in his thirties and now an established and successful farmer, who begins to eye politics as an arena of interest. Despite his success and wealth, he still sees himself as a workingman and abhors the political system and in particular the Tories, who’s only goal seems to be to enrich the landowners and gentry at the expense of the masses. It builds to a finale on the banks of the river Great Ouse.