Agriculture (and agricultural services) was the main source of village employment before WWI, and remained the predominant trade until after WWII. Thereafter rapid industrialisation of farming activity led to consolidation of farmland into fewer and larger farms and Coddington began to adopt the character of a dormitory village. One of the first moves in this direction was the conversion of Manor Dairy Farm’s farmhouse into the Dice House Social Club (now The Inn on the Green). This trend continued when old cottages were demolished in the 1960s and 1970s and by the 1980s former farmhouses and redundant farm buildings were being converted to residential property.
For personal accounts of farming practices from the 1930s and a description of the very many co-existing Coddington farms, see Oral Histories by Allan GEESON and John KIRTON in the People section of the website.
