Edward Langley Fardon and Mary Ann Fardon nee Cook
Much more is known about
Edward Langley Fardon than can be encompassed here. One of Stoneleigh's most famous sons, he was born in Leamington on 11 December 1839, the son of James and Mary Fardon nee Langley. His father James Fardon was a whitesmith and later the family moved to Kenilworth. Edward Langley had four younger siblings.
As a young man Edward worked for the renowned Coventry iron-worker Francis Skidmore and among those who employed him in later years was Baron Rothschild in Switzerland; Edward's passport shows him travelling to geneva in 1860.
In the early days an ornamental iron-worker, he made gates for Witley Court in Worcestershire as well as at Stoneleigh Abbey. His invention of attaching rubber tyres to the bicycle stands him at the forefront of cycle manufacturing. He became a mechanical and heating engineer for the Stoneleigh estate.
Edward married
Mary Ann Cook at the parish church of St George's Hanover Square in London on 7 September 1862. Their first child was born in Wickham Market, Suffolk, Mary Ann's native county, but subsequently they moved to live in Kenilworth and were living at Castle End at the time of the 1871 census. A year later they had moved to Stoneleigh, and they lived at 2, Church Place from then on. The couple went on to have nine children.
Edward died on 9 February 1926 at the age of 86. He had been much feted by the local community though he remained a modest and quiet individual who had refused to patent his bicycle invention.
Mary Ann Cook was born in Wickham Market, Suffolk, on 25 May 1839, the eldest child of James and Sarah Cook. She had four younger siblings. It is not clear how she met her husband. She died on 5 March 1915, having been married for nearly 53 years. Many of her children and grandchildren made important contributions to Stoneleigh life.