ISAAC DENLY (ACitV ref C2/ 49) & THOMAS DENLY C2/51). Isaac and Thomas ran a small building firm from Brockhampton Quarry. They also leased another quarry in Whittington . Some of their accounts are in the Sandywell estate records at Gloucester Record Office. 
A book of building tables which is named Denly's Book dated 1789 which these two used for accounting purposes is in the possession of a family member. 
Sandywell, a mansion built in the early 18th century, was the home of Miss Rebecca Lightbourne in Dowdeswell. Rebecca was one of three sisters who in 1808, after a lengthy lawsuit, were declared as co-heiresses of the manors of Brockhampton, Sandywell and Whittington (keeper see Jacob Denley). Rebecca outlived her sisters and died in 1823. 
The Estate then passed to William Morris Esq., who married Mary Lawrence of Sevenhampton Manor. Their son Walter Lawrence Morris changed his name, in 1815, to Walter Lawrence Lawrence Esq the Sandywell and Whittington estates passing to him in the late 1820s after a Court case, Stratford v Lawrence in which prior to giving evidence by Solicitors, Sweet, Stokes and Carr interviewed Isaac Denley(C2/49). 
Their notes in Gloucester Record Office state, "Isaac Denly of Brockhampton Quarry, a stonemason, who was formerly Mrs R. Lightbourne's gardener at Sevenhampton House will say in his evidence. that he was on the estates before and after the recovery of Mrs Lightbourne till her death and subsequently worked for Mr. Lawrence. As to Mrs. Lightbourne's drunkeness - her sanity - as to the hole in the entrance door - and the free admission he always had to her - her freedom from control and liberty to go where she pleased." The solicitor commented, "This witness is not to be depended upon- he is angry with Mr. Lawrence for having raised the rent of a stone quarry occupied by him and for other reasons - opinion which he gives is not the best."
Among the Lightbourne records preserved are some pages relating to firewood sales on the estate. The name Denley features from 1809 to 1817 which were kept by Robert Crook . He listed sales , purchasers, price paid and wood involved. It is difficult though to judge the quantities involved as dimensions are not given. Logs varied from one to two shillings each collected from the site. Fagots cost between 3d. and 6d. while the butt and top of an old tree sold for seven Shillings.
A Schedule of Lightbournes property in Sevenhampton, dated 1814, the year the Inclosure review commenced, stated: - (1) "All the Quarrs and waste Lands at Brockhampton Quarr in the possession of Denly," (2) "John Denly (C2/43) house and garden at Brockhampton Quarry and held by 2 lives youngest about 40 years." This shows a copyhold tenancy commenced around 1774 when John snr. would have made a lump sum downpayment for the Lease. He may well have inherited from his brother, Joseph(C2/20) when he died in 1765.
John settled in the parish about the time of the industrial and first agricultural revolution a time of growth and demand for new buildings in both town and country.
The building of the first spa in Cheltenham in 1738 led to the gradual development of the town as a resort for people of wealth. George 111 visited the town with his family in 1788 to "take the waters". This brought large and fashionable crowds to Cheltenham and the first half of the 19th Century saw a building boom in the town and a demand for building stone. Brockhampton
Quarry had to compete with quarries in the adjoining parish of Whittington which was closer to Cheltenham. The haulage charge from Whittington meant it was more favourably placed. 
With nine sons and a quarry requiring labour it was not surprising that with the exception of Jacob they all became stonemasons. Four sons, John jnr, Isaac, Daniel and Thomas spent most of their working lives in the Quarry & or locality.
Thomas, Benjamin and Richard also spent their early lives, before marriage, in the quarry. Bad weather influenced work during the Winters leading to layoffs . Where possible stand-by employment eased matters and it was not unusual to find that the more resourceful masons occupied a smallholding or an inn.
The number of families the Quarry could support was limited so it was inevitable that some of the sons found employment elsewhere in the area. John (C2/43) was the first son to marry in 1775. Nine years later James (C2 / 44) , who had left home and was living in Coberley some seven miles to the south west , married. Next to marry, in 1789, was Joseph (C2 / 46) who set up home in Sireford where he found employment. Richard (C2 / 48) was married at Charlton Kings and went to live in Whittlngton. The following year, 1795, Benjamin (C2 / 52) was married at Withington and settled there for a couple of years before moving to Andoversford where he died in 1810. Isaac was 36 before he married, while Thomas was the last to marry in 1815.
Around the early 1830s some dozen cottages (PICTURED) were built in the Quarry hamlet followed in 1834 by a Primative Bethel (Baptist) Chapel the latter paid for by public subscription. Family tradition is that these buildings were the work of the Denleys. The chapel closed in the 1960s and is now a private dwelling.
James (C2 / 82) and David (C2 / l43) were lay preachers and conducted some of the services. 
The Sevenhampton Register of Electors for 1832/33 and 1833 /34 named three Denleys, Thomas, Isaac and William, each with a freehold property in the Quarry, but not John (C2/43) who died in 1833. 
Jacob Denly of Whittington was named as a copyhold tenant of a property known as 'Whitfield' in the parish of Deerhurst, the occupant being his nephew, David Denly (C2/ 6l). 
The Sevenhampton Register for 1833/34 included David's name as the owner of two freehold properties in the Quarry which entitled him to two votes. Presumably he had inherited these dwellings from his late father, John Denly (C2 / 43).
In 1829 Robert Peel had established the first regular police force in London and the suburbs. Not long after this other areas were following London's example. By 1841 discussions were taking place in Gloucestershire with the intention of increasing the County Rate to finance and establish a county force. The rate payers of Sevenhampton parish, and many other parishes, were opposed to an increase in their financial burden and there were 53 signatories to the Sevenhampton petition and this included nine Denlys. A similar petition was drawn up the following January and sent to Gloucester and signed by forty four objectors including some of the Denleys. The names Isaac, David and William were missing this time, presumably they were working elsewhere.
The 1840s and early 1850s saw railway mania sweep across Britain. Construction work created a demand for navvies , brickies & stonemasons. Wages enticed men to travel from far for employment. Among those seeking work were younger Denleys notably Thomas (see ACitV chapter 11.
The 1840s and '50s saw the end of Denly dominance in the Quarry the older members having passed on by the mid 1850s & younger men had moved away. By 1861 James Denley (C2 / 82), was the only stonemason remaining who with his wife, Mary running a small shop in the hamlet. James died in 1882 and was buried at Sevenhampton St Andrews Church his possessions listed on 26th May valued at E24-3s - 0d.
The 1861 census identified two other Denleys being John (C2 / 132), the 11 year old son of the late George Denley. John, then a scholar, was living with his grandfather John Mansell, a farmer. John Denley is shown in Kelly's Directory, 1891, as a baker in Shipton, Andoversford, but living in Brockhampton. He delivered bread to several parishes. He died in 1922 leaving a widow, Emma , and a married daughter, Letitia Bennett. 
The other Denley named in the census was Esther, Thomas 's widow (C7./51). She held the licence of The Stag and Hounds, which was transferred to her name on her husband's death. Around 1869 she surrendered her interest in the beer house to her 2 x great nephew, David Denley (C2 / 143), who was about to marry . Esther died in 1813. See DAVID DENLEY (C2/143).  A niece Dorothy Jane Denley (C2/ 178), recalled that at the time David took the licence of the The Stag his wife, Esther, known as Aunt Hetty, discovered a box in the attic which contained a family blble and records, which were thought to have been his grandfather's. Hetty was about to set fire to the records when her husband arrived and stopped her just in time. The records were given to James Denley, David's brother, as he was interested in the family history. His son, Henry James Denley, who emigrated to the United States in the 1920s, initiated a lengthy study of his family history in the 1960s. The old deeds to the properties inherited by David's wife, Esther Denley are deposited at the Gloucester Record Office. They show that in 1847 the Quarry was owned by John Lovering, a builder of Brockhampton, probably from the early 1830s when Walter Lawrence Lawrence was attempting to raise capital. Ownership of the Quarry passed to Lovering's married daughter, Charlotte Walker, and eventually to Lovering's great grandson, James Ashwin, who in 1896, decided to sell the Quarry and other properties which he had inherited. The sale took place at the Craven Arms Inn, Brockhampton, at 5pm, 21 March, 1896. Only one cottage was sold by auction, the other six lots being sold privately. One cottage and garden in the Quarry sold to John Mansell Denley (C2 / 132) for £41. John retained this cottage which he leased. When he died in 1922 the property, with the dwelling house he occupied in Brockhampton was left to his wife. The original deeds show that in 1847 the Quarry cottage was let to two tenants, but earlier it was one occupied by Isaac Denly. The remaining six properties were acquired by Edward John Pitman, husband of Annie, nee Denley (C2 / 144). The acquisitions included a tenanted cottage,garden, pasture and the stone quarry extending to 6 acres 3 roods, 37 perches for which Edward Pitman paid £200 . The quarry passed in due course to David's wife, Esther (C2 / 148), and eventually on her death to her son Bert. When Bert (C2/ 154) died, in 1979, the Quarry was sold so ending a family association of over 200 years.
The commercial working life of the Quarry had ceased before the First World War, but with the advent of the 1939-45 War the Quarry was briefly used to supply hardcore for the construction of runways on a wartime airfield at Stoke Orchard, near Bishops Cleeve. Between the wars stone was used by the family for the construction in 1926 of Bert's house in the Quarry, Rockville, and another house in the village built by David Denley known as The Combe.
David (C2 / 148) and Esther had two sons, Thomas (Tom) (C2/153) and Albert (Bert) (C2 / 154). Tom was trained by his father and became a Banker Mason, i.e. a person who undertook ornamental work. He remained in the profession all his working life and at one period worked for Billings & Son of Cheltenham. He loved his work and was a stickler. He worked in many places including Hereford Cathedral, Salperton church, Leamington Parish Church and Tewkesbury Abbey. After the Second World War he was employed for ten years by Sir Edward Hulton, of Picture Post fame, at Salperton Park. In his youth Tom was a member of Cheltenham Athletic Club and Brockhampton Cricket team. He was a
member of the team when they became Mid Cotswold cricket champions in 1926. Tom was a great character, lively and well known in the area. Like all stonemasons he loved his cider which he said, "helped to lay the dust."
Bert Denley, like his brother, was an athlete and a member of St. Gregory's AthletiC Club, Cheltenham. He was quite successful locally . He married Ellen Adams and settled in Brockhampton Quarry where they brought up two daughters. Bert who had left school, at 13, went into agriculture. He helped his father and eventually ran a 50 acre smallholding in the Quarry. He milked a small herd of Dairy Shorthorn crosses , but later changed to Guernseys. He also kept poultry and a few pigs. He milked by hand for over fifty years retiring in 1969. When he died in 1979 his wife sold the farm and quarry.
Public utilities did not arrive in the Sevenhampton parish , as was the case in many other rural parishes, until well into the 20th Century. A mains electricity supply arrived in 1953/ 54 and mains sewerage was installed in the 1960s. A public water supply came later in 1976. Prior to then water came via a piped spring supply above the Quarry and had to be carried home in pails. Between 1880 and the early 1900s transportation of goods and passengers from Brockhampton and Sevenhampton to Cheltenham was undertaken by Neighbour Williams on Tuesdays, Thursdays and
Saturdays. Neighbour was a relative by marriage to David Denley's wife , Esther, so it was not surprising the Denleys
travelled with him. Neighbour also ran a small shop at the Gassons where he farmed. The Carrier left the Quarry at lOam
arriving in Charlton Kings around mid-day. having travelled v i a Whitt1ngton and Dowdeswell. A slow plodding journey, loved by the children, as the carrier stopped at many places en route to col1ect orders or passengers. The pick up point for the return trip at 4 pm was the Old Swan in Cheltenham. Weary villagers, ladened with goods, climbed into Neighbour's cart jostling one another. Neighbour loaded the goods ordered by customers unable to travel that day. Eventually during the 1920s and '30s a bus service operated by the Miles family of Guiting Power took over.
The service ceased after the second world war. Villagers now have their own vehicles or rely on others for a lift.
In the 2000s, the Parish has a post office and one inn with a restaurant. A hundred years ago there were two pubs, one in Brockhampton and the other in the Quarry, a baker's shop, two grocers, a general stores, two shoemakers and two tailors. The last grocer's shop closed in the 1930s and the stores just after the 1939-45 war. The tailor and shoemaker disappeared many years before that. The village school, which closed in the 1970s, was converted into a private dwelling. The school had served the parish children well for nearly a century. At the beginning of the 20th century the head teacher was a Charles Capps who came from Lincolnshire . There were two rooms, one divided into two by a partition. The pupils were grouped into seven standards or classes; groups 1 - 3 in the first room and the remainder in the second room . It was then possible for children to walk across the fields to school during the summer.
Severe winter snows left the se hill villages isolated, as occurred in 1947 and 1963. During the blizzards of 1947 men
walked across snow covered fields to Guiting and Andoversford to bring bread and essential food home. Drifting snow covered telegraph poles and was seen piled against houses sometimes as high as eaves