On Combe Down 1850 – 1900

Combe Down

Combe Down

In ‘Rambles about Bath’, Tunstall says about Monkton Combe:

“In 1780, it paid £103 poor rates, its population being 280; in 1841, from the great increase of the village of Combe Down, its population was 1,107. This is steadily increasing.” 

In 1831 Samuel Lewis put the population of “Combe (Moncton)” at 855.[1] Looking at the census allows us to chart the population growth.

Properties & Population on Combe Down 1841 to 1901 from census reports (see Census summaries)

  1841 1851 1861 1871 1881 1891 1901
Properties 294 339 375 421 444 554 527
Males 758 829 803 886 955 1,192 1,186
Females 862 909 959 1,059 1,120 1,375 1,256
Total population 1,600 1,738 1,762 1,945 2,075 2,567 2,372

It’s clear that the rate of growth was fastest before 1840 and then steady.

Unfortunately, the census boundaries for each enumeration district change census by census and so whilst it is theoretically possible to look at Monkton Combe village, Combe Down Village and the areas on Greendown separately, to do it with any real accuracy would be a major task.

By 1850, the stone quarries, the reason for Ralph Allen to establish Combe Down village in the first place, were in decline[2] with the quarries having been fairly well worked.

Meanwhile vast quantities of good quality Bath stone had been discovered at Box when Brunel built the Great Western Railway.

This stone was also, of course, right beside the new railway, making transport simple. In these new quarries the total quarried area is approximately 2 miles long and a mile wide and has some 15 miles or more of tunnels.[3]

Roman Villa

Roman Villa

1852 saw the discovery of Roman remains on Combe Down. In 1822 Henry Mingden Scarth wrote:

“Two Stone Coffins were found near Burnt House Turnpike Gate (in the line of the Foss Road), and previously to this two others near Claremont Place, Combe Down.[4] 

……It was discovered while making a garden to a new villa, and served as the covering stone for the lower part of a Stone Coffin, in which was a perfect skeleton. This spot has since proved to have been the site of a Roman villa, and many objects of interest which have been discovered there, are carefully preserved by the owner. Five Stone Coffins have been found on the spot, besides urns containing burnt bones, and a stone box containing the head of a Horse. The Inscription, which is not deeply cut, is difficult to read, owing to the decomposition of the stone. It is as follows: ‘For the safety of the Emp. Cms. Marcus Aurelius, Antoninus, the pious, fortunate, invincible Augustus, Naevius Freedman of the Emperor, and assistant of the procurators, restored the chief military quarters which had fallen to ruin’."[5]

The words “while making a garden to a new villa” indicate Belmont House as the likely site as it was being constructed at this time, which is reinforced by the article in the Chronicle. In 1867 it was felt that the villa may have been a ‘Sanatorium’:

Roman Villa a Sanatorium, Bath Chronicle, Thursday 31 January 1867
Roman Villa a Sanatorium, Bath Chronicle, Thursday 31 January 1867

Allotments

Allotments

Allotments introduced on Combe Down - Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette - Thursday 22 January 1852
Allotments introduced on Combe Down – Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette – Thursday 22 January 1852

Allotments on Combe Down were introduced by Rev G W Newnham in 1852.

The allotments were in the area bounded by North Road and Combe Road as shown on the map.

This is the area to the South of Westerleigh Road, above Combe Road Close and to the West of Rock Lane. There were some 40 – 50 allotments of about 1/8 of an acre and the rules from 1884 were published in Around Combe Down by Peter Addison.

Area of Combe Down allotments from 1892 - 1905 map
Area of Combe Down allotments from 1892 – 1905 map
Combe Down allotments 1884 rules
Combe Down allotments 1884 rules
Combe Down allotments - Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette - Thursday 16 October 1856
Combe Down allotments – Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette – Thursday 16 October 1856

There were allotments in the Westerleigh Road area until 1938 when there was a story in the Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Saturday 8 October 1938 stating that tenants had been given notice to quit.

This left some allotments in the area the junior school’s log cabin now stands that were there from the early 20th century.

The current allotments between Hancock’s quarry and Monkton Combe school were certainly there by the turn of the 20th century – as the map below illustrates.

Detail from OS map, Combe Down revised 1902 published 1904, showing Upper Lawn Quarry allotments
Detail from OS map, Combe Down revised 1902 published 1904, showing Upper Lawn Quarry allotments
History of allotments

Allotments have been in existence for hundreds of years. Under the feudal system the open field system, a furlong was split into strips, of about half an acre. Each peasant had several strips allocated at a public meeting at the start of the year. They were scattered to prevent one person getting all the good land.

Peasants also had common land for grazing, fuel etc. As the population grew, the lack of land made it difficult to maintain the system and, from the 16th century, enclosure started to occur, as landowners saw they could make more money by having larger farms where they would decide the arable or livestock farming and the farming practices. In addition there was a growing population which lead to pressure on the open field and common land system.

Combe Down allotments - Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette - Thursday 25 April 1895
Combe Down allotments – Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette – Thursday 25 April 1895

When enclosing some landowners were unscrupulous and just evicted tenants, but if they could prove documentary evidence of their open field and common land rights some received an allotment of land in compensation. Enclosure lead to the agricultural revolution and a prosperous group of landed gentry but a many more landless and hungry poor.

Over 3,500 Acts of Parliament were passed between 1700 and 1860 to enclose over 5 million acres of common fields and land and less than 12% of people who worked on the land owned any. As enclosure increased, and the industrial revolution grew, more people moved into towns. It soon became clear that both rural and city poor needed something to help alleviate their poverty. Allotments were one answer but were strongly resisted by many farmers and landowners.

Dig for Victory
Dig for Victory

The food shortages experienced during the Napoleonic Wars led to some changes in thinking and the Select Vestries Act 1819, gave churchwardens and Poor Law Overseers authority to purchase or lease up to 20 acres of land and let it to the poor and unemployed of the parish as allotments.

The Swing Riots of 1830 and 1831 and fear of further unrest and Labourer’s Friend Society promoted extension to 50 acres, achieved by three acts passed in 1831 and 1832.

The General Inclosure Act 1845 required that the landless poor be provided with ‘field gardens’ as the rural land was enclosed. This helped in the countryside but city folk had no access to land. They began to push for allotments and urban allotment development began.

More progressive landowners, employers and clergy recognised that allotments could improve living standards and with the Allotment Extension Act 1882 that required trustees holding charity land for the use of the poor to set aside part of that land for use as allotments; the Allotment Extension Act 1885 allowing allotments to be let at the same rate as surrounding farmland and Allotment Extension Act 1887, that enabled Sanitary Districts to provide allotments by the compulsory purchase of land.

By 1890 County Councils were required to have an Allotment Committee responsible for holding inquiries if a Sanitary District failed to provide allotments.

At the beginning of the 19th century there were roughly 250,000 allotments.

In 1908 the Small Holdings and Allotments Act came into force and local authorities had to provide all the allotments demanded.

During WWI the number of allotments rose to 1.5 million.

After the war to help returning service men the Land Settlement Facilities Act 1919 was passed.

Allotment holders rights were strengthened through the Allotments Act 1922 and the Allotments Act 1925.

The latter established statutory allotments which local authorities could not sell or convert without ministerial consent. Under the Local Government Act 1929 agricultural and allotment land became non-rateable. There were 819,000 plots in 1939, 80% of which were urban plots, which increased 1.4 million during WWII with the Dig for Victory campaign, but the number fell to 300,000 by 2009.

Combe Down allotments 2019
Combe Down allotments 2019

An extract from “God speed the spade”: The History of Combe Down’s Allotments by Jacqueline Burrows

Jacqueline has been researching the history of Combe Down’s allotments since recent planning applications have revealed how little is known about their heritage, exposing the ease with which such cherished village assets can be threatened. She hopes to publish their complete story soon.

In 1851, Rev Newnham (1806-1893) developed the field garden allotment system “for the benefit of the labourers of Combe Down”, with yearly rents due each Michaelmas quarter day (29 September).

Tenants paid their sixpences at an annual allotment supper in the village schoolroom at which, amidst much excitement, they were waited on by the Vicar and his second wife Catherine, together with the schoolmaster and some of the local gentry.

This happy event can be traced over the next twenty-five years, until reports cease shortly before Revd Newnham retired in 1877. By October 1855, the Bath Chronicle tells us there were at least 31 allotments in Combe Down, managed by a committee.

Allotmenteering soon spread down the hill to Monkton Combe and in 1857, gardeners from both villages joined the annual meeting in the schoolroom. Rents paid and the Committee’s report read, a “comfortable hot supper” was served to the 44 tenants who were again waited on by Rev and Mrs Newnham and some of the local gentlemen.

A “small exhibition of large vegetables” took place.In October 1860, the coldest and wettest year on record, most of the 39 tenants in Combe Down made it to the annual event in the large new schoolroom, although fewer than half of the 17 Monkton Combe tenants ventured up the steep, muddy hill in the dark.

The meal was – as always – beef, with allotment vegetables and coffee to follow, with some “fine samples” of produce on show. After paying their sixpences, tenants were each given a penny halfpenny back to make up for the failure of the important potato harvest.

Then, as now, everyone went home hoping for better returns in 1861, when the tenth anniversary supper took place.

It didn’t take long to include a prize competition.

In 1863, rents were “for the most part, punctually and cheerfully paid” and a prize fund collection raised £8. Half was awarded to growers whose vegetables “would have done credit to Sydney Gardens”.

Everyone voted that the balance be spent on providing half-price steel forks for all, then went home at 9pm in “happy harmony.

Sadly, 1863 was to be the last joint supper: Monkton Combe’s allotment land was required for a grand new vicarage (now Westfield).

In 1865, the show was extended to include entries from private gardens. ‘It is hoped that this wholesome rivalry in honest labour and skill may tend to raise the character of the labourers, while the prizes offered by their richer neighbours proves their interest in the work.’

The supper was a grander affair too, with waiters being sent across from the vicarage. However, Rev Newnham didn’t come; Catherine had died a few months earlier giving birth to their sixteenth child.

He missed the 1866 supper too: he was in Weston Super Mare getting married for the third time!

By 1868, the show was taking place in the daytime and included entries from across the Down, including grasses and wildflowers from local schoolchildren, and the rent supper had become a separate evening affair.

By 1871 the annual show had become a major event, with the Vicar putting up his own money for larger cash prizes, attracting entries from a wide range of professional growers, gardeners and ‘cottagers’. It was even reported in the Bristol newspapers.

At the rent supper in 1872, the tenants presented Rev Newnham with the traditional inkstand, “in thanks for his kind services to them for twenty-one years”.

October 1875 saw the last report of a Combe Down allotment rent supper, at which the meal was “presided over” by Rev Newnham, now approaching his seventies. In 1877 he left Combe Down after 35 years as its vicar and retired to Corsham.

By 1895, responsibility for the village allotments had been taken over by Monkton Combe Parish Council and the annual rent collection had become an administrative task, carried out by a councillor without ceremony.

Perhaps the allotment supper on the Down with a small show of “fine vegetables” is a village tradition that could be resurrected, once we’ve all emerged from the complications of COVID19!

Jacqueline Burrows, Plot 8A2, Combe Down, 8 July 2020

Wesleyan Chapel

Wesleyan Chapel

New Wesleyan Reform Chapel, Combe Down
New Wesleyan Reform Chapel, Combe Down

Behind Glenburnie and adjacent to Gladstone Road is the Wesleyan Chapel which. according to Around Combe Down by Peter Addison was started in August 1854 and is confirmed by a cutting on the Bath in Time website.

It seems it was not a chapel for long becoming the coach house for Alma Villa (now Glenburnie). From 1922 when Edward Dudley (1847 – 1922), who had owned Glenburnie, died.

Glenburnie was then owned by Monkton Combe Junior School and the chapel became a dining hall. In WWII it was used as a food store then, after the war, as a playroom.

In March 1952 when Bryan Morris became Headmaster he felt that Monkton Combe Junior School ought to have its own chapel and in March 1952 the old Wesleyan chapel became a church once again and was dedicated by Bishop Bradfield of Bath and Wells.

By 2020 it had been converted into a private home.

St George's Chapel, previously the Wesleyan Reform Chapel, Combe Down
St George’s Chapel, previously the Wesleyan Reform Chapel, Combe Down

Brewery

Combe Down Brewery

Combe Down Brewery 1862
Combe Down Brewery 1862
Combe Down brewery closes - Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette - Thursday 17 October 1889
Combe Down brewery closes – Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette – Thursday 17 October 1889

In 1851 the Hulonce family, who were quarry masters, sold the remainder of their 99 year lease, which included the Lyncombe & Widcombe side of Ralph Allen Yard, to Henry Morrish (1804 – 1892), a Bath wine and spirit merchant, who paid off the £413 15s. 2d mortgage the Hulonces owed.

Some time later he formed a partnership with Thomas Hine (1819 – 1868), landlord of the King William IV. Together they developed the Combe Down Brewery, with a large brewery above the pub and a maltings on the upper part of Ralph Allen Yard.[6]

Henry Morrish and Thomas Hine were probably related. Thomas’ father Richard Hine (1786 – 1859) had married a Mary Morrish (1797 – 1877) in 1818 and it seems likely that she was a cousin or aunt of Henry Morrish.

In January 1889 Cumberland & Green, a brewery in Limpley Stoke, bought Combe Down Brewery.

As noted in the Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette of Thursday 18 July 1889 they sold themselves to the Bath Brewery Company which was expanding and taking over smaller brewers. Combe Down Brewery was a casualty and closed, though, of course, the King William IV continued as did the malting yard.

By 1910 James D Taylor & Sons maltsters had taken over the maltings. They remained in operation until 1923 when they and the Bath Brewery Company were acquired by the Bristol Brewery (Georges & Co Ltd.). The company had begun acquiring its smaller rivals in and around Bristol from 1889 up until the 1950s, its last great acquisition Bristol United Breweries Ltd., in 1956.

Take over of Combe Down brewery - Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette - Thursday 10 January 1889
Take over of Combe Down brewery – Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette – Thursday 10 January 1889

In 1961 they, in turn, were acquired by Courage, Barclay & Simmonds Ltd. Its name was simplified to Courage Ltd. in October 1970. Courage was taken over by the Imperial Tobacco Group Ltd. two years later.

The maltings and yard were taken over by the local authority after the brewery was sold in 1923 and seems to have been used as stores until the outbreak of WW2 when it became a base for the ARP.

In 1968 it was still being used as a Council Depot.

In about 1970 the yard became known as Gammon’s Yard as Gammon Plant Hire took over ownership using the maltings for storage and the yard for heavy plant machinery.

It has now become Ralph Allen CornerStone and housing.

King William IV tokens
King William IV tokens

Public Lighting

Public lighting on Combe Down

Gas gets to Combe Down, Bath Chronicle, Thursday 26 October 1865
Gas gets to Combe Down, Bath Chronicle, Thursday 26 October 1865

In 1818, an Act of Parliament was obtained for lighting Bath with gas. The gasometer was located near the Upper Bristol road and over eighteen miles of pipe were laid; general lighting of the city started on 29th September 1819.[18]

By Thursday 2nd September 1830 the Bath Gas Company was extending the work and laying pipes in Lyncombe and Widcombe according to the Bath Chronicle. Over the years attempts were made to get the gas mains extended to Combe Down but the cost seemed to be prohibitive.[19]

It would take an Act of Parliament in 1865 to allow the Bath Gas Company to expand its capital, use rail transport instead of the Kennet & Avon canal and thus expand to include Bathampton, Bathford, Monkton Combe, Claverton, Englishcombe, Newton St. Loe, Corston, Saltford, Kelston, Weston, Box and Ditteridge.[20]

By 26th October 1865 the mains had been extended to Combe Down and public lighting was switched on.

Catholic Cemetery

Perrymead Catholic cemetery

Consecration of new Catholic cemetery, Bath Chronicle, Thursday 3 June 1858
Consecration of new Catholic cemetery, Bath Chronicle, Thursday 3 June 1858

Perrymead Catholic cemetery at Pope’s Walk, off Perrymead, is adjacent to Bath Abbey cemetery.

It was consecrated in 1858. It has a mortuary chapel and the foundation stone for the chapel was laid on Thursday 2nd September 1858.[21]

It has a separate chapel for the Eyre family, members of which are buried in its crypt.[22]

The architect for this was Charles Francis Hansom and the chapel was built following the death of John Eyre (d.1861) who was a Count of the Holy Roman Empire.

The chapel was consecrated, on 13th October 1863, by the Roman Catholic Bishop of Clifton.

The Count’s two sons, Monsignor Vincent Eyre, Rector of Hampstead, and Father William Eyre SJ, assisted the Bishop at the ceremony. The vault under the chapel is still used for family burials.[23]

Omnibus

Combe Down Omnibus

An omnibus is a public transport vehicle carrying many passengers generally quite short distances.

John Greenwood ran the first English omnibus service in 1824 on the Manchester to Liverpool turnpike. He had a horse and a cart with several seats and offered a service that was different from a stagecoach as no booking was necessary and the driver picked up or set down passengers anywhere on request.

In 1829 George Shillibeer started operating a horse drawn omnibus service from Paddington to the City of London.[24] Omnibus services had started in Bath by 1840:

“Mr. Lane of the White Lion coach office, Mr. Reilly, of the York House, Mr. Pickwick, of the White Hart, and Mr. Clarke, of the Greyhound have started omnibuses, &c, to convey passengers to and from the Railway Station at 6d. each this judiciously making the best of circumstances, and getting all they can out of their gigantic rival.”[25]
Combe Down bus horses, Bath Chronicle, Thursday 11 February 1892
Combe Down bus horses, Bath Chronicle, Thursday 11 February 1892

The ‘gigantic rival’ was the railway.

A service was operating to Combe Down by 1866.

The horse drawn service continued until the advent of the electric trams in 1904. But the service was not without its problems. Horses could only work limited hours, had to be housed, groomed, fed and cared for and produced large amounts of manure, which the omnibus company had to dispose of. Probably ten or more horses were needed to work each bus in a day. Ill treatment of the horses was a problem.

“George Head of 3 Isabella Cottages, Combe Down, a driver in the employ of the Bath Road Car and Tramways Company  was summoned for ill treating a horse, by working it in an unfit state and was fined £2 2s and costs.”[26]

There was much sympathy for the horses as letters to the Bath Chronicle show.[27] In 1892 it seems that the fare was 9d. down and 1s. up though Mr. T. Gould, who had, it seems, sold his business to the Bath Road Car Company says that when he ran it, it was only:

 “……one shilling to and from Bath, with much cleaner and better accommodation than at the present time.”[28]
Combe Down omnibus timetable from The Bijou Guide to Bath, 1890
Combe Down omnibus timetable from The Bijou Guide to Bath, 1890

Monkton Combe School

Monkton Combe School

Rev Francis Pocock
Rev Francis Pocock

Monkton Combe School was founded in 1868 by the vicar of Monkton Combe at the time, the Rev Francis Pocock (1829 – 1919).

There were six pupils for the Lent term who were taught in his home.

In 1875 Rev Pocock became vicar of St. Paul’s in Poole[29] and the Rev Henry Wright ‘acquired the interest of the school’[30] which then had 18 pupils. He also purchased the advowson of the St Michael’ s church and conveyed it to the Oxford Churches Trust making it the church patron and affecting the appointment of the vicars of Monkton Combe for many years.

Henry Wright (d.1880) was Honorary Clerical Secretary of the Church Missionary Society and well off – he left £120,000 in his will[31] after he drowned in Coniston Lake having leapt from a boat but, becoming exhausted, failed to reach the shore.[32]

He appointed Rev Reginald Guy Bryan (1819 – 1912) as headmaster.

Rev Bryan was the Perpetual Curate at Fosbury, Wiltshire, where he had been for some 20 years and brought some of his pupils to the school. He was soon advertising for more pupils.

By the prize day reported in the Bath Chronicle in 1878[33] the school had 65 pupils.

Over the years the school has grown to over 350 pupils.

The Junior School was established with four pupils in 1888 in a private house in Church Road, Combe Down by Mrs. Howard (the daughter of the senior school principal Rev Reginald Guy Bryan) and moved into its current premises in June 1907.

Monkton Combe School advert, Bath Chronicle, Thursday 30 December 1875
Monkton Combe School advert, Bath Chronicle, Thursday 30 December 1875

The school chapel was opened in 1927.

The pre-prep was added in 1929[34] and moved into new premises in 2016.

Over the years the school has used many buildings in the area: Combe Grange, Combe Lodge, Combe Ridge, Scott House, Southfield, Glenburnie inter-alia.

Tunnel

Combe Down Tunnel

Combe Down tunnel, Western Gazette, Friday 3 July 1874
Combe Down tunnel, Western Gazette, Friday 3 July 1874

The Somerset and Dorset Railway (S&D) was formed in 1862 by the amalgamation of Somerset and Dorset Central Railways.

In 1870, plans were made to build an extension to create a direct link between Bath and the Midlands with the South coast.

Work started in 1872. It cost £400,000 to build 26 miles and although it was successful the Company, which was not strong anyway, went into receivership and in 1875 it became jointly owned by the Midland Railway and the London & South West Railway.

On 20th July 1874 the Combe Down tunnel for the S&D opened to regular traffic.

The tunnel is 1,829 yards (1,672 metres) long and was the UK’s longest without intermediate ventilation. Combe Down tunnel was closed in 1967 but was reopened in 2013 as the two tunnels greenway walking and cycling scheme.

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Convalescent Home

Combe Down Convalescent Home

Start of Combe Down convalescent home building, Bath Chronicle, Thursday 8 January 1880
Start of Combe Down convalescent home building, Bath Chronicle, Thursday 8 January 1880

The Combe Down Convalescent Home was founded in 1870[35] but soon proved inadequate in size.

Many bazaars and concerts were held over a number of years to raise the money to build a larger home.

By 1880 enough money for a 12 person home had been raised, though fundraising continued. An acre of land was donated by Mr. Vaughan Jenkins of Combe Grove.[36]

The foundation stone was laid on Thursday May 27th 1880 by the Mayor of Bath[37] and was open for business in 1881.

Convalescents had come to Combe Down since the late 18th century, but the changing nature of medicine in Victorian times – more medical training and doctors, nurses and hospitals to go along with the scientific advances based on Louis Pasteur’s work on germ theory and Joseph Lister’s introduction of antiseptic processes – meant that more and more people actually survived illness and surgery and needed to convalesce.

Those with enough money wanted to do so in pleasant surroundings with trained staff. Over the years the convalescent home expanded to treat over 400 patients a year.

According to Dr David Carr the home was taken over by the RAF during WW2.

Combe Down Convalescent Home - Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette - Saturday 28 June 1947
Combe Down Convalescent Home – Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette – Saturday 28 June 1947

After the war it reopened as a private home for women patients but with the founding of the NHS on 5 July 1948 it began to take in post operative convalescent cases, mainly from uterine surgery, from the Birmingham area NHS.

As the NHS and medical practices progressed convalescence became less of an issue and numbers began to fall.

In the 1960s Bath Association for Disabled People were looking for somewhere to buy so that they could offer respite to carers and holidays for the disabled. They bought Combe Down Convalescent Home from the RAF and set up Combe Down Holiday Home for the Disabled.

It was not a great place to bring the disabled being a 3 storey Victorian building with doors that were too narrow for wheelchair access. The building burnt down in 1971.

Luckily it was insured and Dr Sandy Neill and like minded colleagues ensured that a modern building with all the necessary facilities for disabled access atc was built.

It had about 20 rooms and provided excellent holiday/respite care.

The home operated with success for 20 years, but changes in Local Government funding and increasing costs forced the Trustees to review the management of the home.

Combe Down holiday home 1978
Combe Down holiday home 1978

By the 1990s they decided to sell the home and invest the proceeds and seek a different role based on the holiday/respite care principle.

In 1993 the Trust was reconstituted as Combe Down Holiday Trust with the sole aim of providing holidays, short breaks and respite care for disabled people and/or their carers who live within the Bath & North East Somerset area.

The site was sold for development in 1996.

In 1999 Linden Homes built Quad Villas on the site.

Quad Villa
Quad Villa

Waterworks

Combe Down Waterworks

Most people used shared wells with the well shafts passing through quarries below. The water from wells was often boiled first for use as drinking water. People also collected rainwater from their gutters, collecting it into a tank for domestic use, though not as drinking water.

Harry Patch says that:

“Apart from the wells, there were two iron water butts in Combe Down fed from the mains. When a handle was turned on the side of the butt a chain ran down over a pulley and opened a stopcock at the base, bringing water out of an ornamental lion’s mouth. One butt was just outside the church, the other opposite the pub, the Wheelwright Arms. If you didn’t have access to a well in the garden, you could draw water from there. Behind both butts was a wooden trough into which water was poured for horses to drink from.”[38]
Bath and District High Level Waterworks Company Ltd., Bath Chronicle, Thursday 8 December 1887
Bath and District High Level Waterworks Company Ltd., Bath Chronicle, Thursday 8 December 1887

The mains supply was from the Combe Down (Bath) and General Waterworks Company.

It had a forerunner, the Bath and District High Level Waterworks Company which had been set up in 1887 after the death of the Right Reverend Monsignor Dr. Charles Parfitt (1816 – 1886) of Midford Castle who had set up the original waterworks at Midford Springs.

Dr. Parfitt had inherited Midford Castle from Mrs. Jane Conolly (1798 – 1871), the widow of Mr. Charles Thomas Conolly (1791 – 1850) who was the son of Charles Conolly (d.1828) who had bought Midford and funded William Smith’s quarry.

Soon after taking over Dr. Parfitt started the Combe Down and District Waterworks to take water from the Midford Springs. The water was pumped by a water wheel using the water from the Whittaker springs to carry water from the Midford sands.[39]

He was soon supplying the Workhouse and Bath Town Council considered buying the waterworks.[40]

By 1883 the Rural District Council were informed that:

“Combe Down is also more largely supplied from Dr. Parfitt’s private source and many of the wells in the neighbourhood have been closed.”[41]

By February 1886 Bath Town Council had agreed to buy Combe Down and District Waterworks.[42]

A new main from Tucking mill to Entry Hill was laid,[43] and the water supply turned on.[44] #

Storage was by the Combe Down elevated tank standing opposite what is, now, the Forester & Flower. It was a cast iron tank on 8 cast iron legs with a capacity of 40,000 gallons with a roof of iron sheets.[45]

However, Dr. Parfitt became unwell and died in June before the agreement to purchase the waterworks could be completed.

The Old Water Tank, Combe Down
The Old Water Tank, Combe Down

When Dr. Parfitt died his trustees did not want to continue managing the waterworks[46] and a new joint stock company, the Bath and District High Level Waterworks Company Ltd., was incorporated with a capital of £20,000 in shares of £10 each.

In 1890 the Hampton Down reservoir was constructed on land leased for 99 years. It was a stone structure approximately 61’ by 20’ 6” with a capacity of 100,000 gallons.[47] The Bath and District High Level Waterworks Company Ltd. ran until 1901 but was then put into receivership.

Once again the council considered buying the waterworks but decided not to do so.[48] However in 1902 they reconsidered and took powers to purchase the concern.[49]

Bradford Road water tank in Combe Down 1950s
Bradford Road water tank in Combe Down 1950s

It was not to be. The receiver put the business up for sale as a going concern. It was bought for £7,000[50] along with the Somerset Coal Canal, which had fallen into disuse and disrepair and had complaints of being in an “insanitary state”.[51]

By 1902 a liquidator for the Somerset Coal Canal Company had been appointed.[52] The canal, as well as being an asset in its own right was to be used to supply more water to the Combe Down Waterworks Company.[53] He sold the coal canal soon after though to the GWR for their Camerton and Limpley Stoke line.[54]

Both businesses were bought by Edward Herbert Bayldon D.L., J.P. (1854 – 1912), who was High Sherriff of Devon in 1905.[55] He had interests in South African gold mines before turning his attention to Dartmoor tin mines in the late 1890s.[56]

He soon gained agreements with Bath Corporation to supply water to areas the council could not as the council was in short supply of water.[57]

In 1906 a 6” main was laid from Tucking Mill to Hampton Down.[58]

From about 1905 there was a move to close wells due to poor water quality and by 1928 the Combe Down (Bath) and General Waterworks Company Ltd. supplied 337 of the 440 houses in the parish of Monkton Combe with 53 being supplied by the Rural District Council.[59] Presumably the other 50 were still relying on wells etc.

The Hayeswood Reservoir was constructed in 1927. It was a reinforced concrete covered tank with 8’ thick walls and a 37’ diameter and held 100,000 gallons.[60]

By the 1950s the staff included a chief inspector and 3 shift workers and was pumping 268,000 gallons per day.[61]

In 1954 the Bath Corporation Water Order, under the Water Act 1945, transferred Combe Down Waterworks to Bath Corporation.

Under the Water Act 1973, the Wessex Water Authority was created in 1974. In 1989 the water boards were privatised and in May 2002 YTL Power International of Kuala Lumpur acquired Wessex Water and hence the waterworks at Tucking Mill etc.

Combe Down waterworks plate on Bradford Road
Combe Down waterworks plate on Bradford Road

Hospital

Bath Statutory Hospital

Many towns had some form of isolation hospital from the eighteenth century, usually a ‘pest house’, where infectious people were treated.

It was not, however, until the late nineteenth century that the formal treatment of infectious diseases, such as scarlet fever, typhoid, diphtheria, measles, tuberculosis and smallpox, was considered.

The Poor Law Amendment Act 1868 dealt briefly with the subject, since most patients with infectious diseases found their way into the workhouse infirmaries because voluntary hospitals could and did refuse to admit them.

The Public Health Act 1875 enabled any local authority to provide hospital accommodation for the treatment of patients with infectious diseases paid for by the rates.

In 1877 the Bath Statutory Hospital was established at the corner of Brassknocker Hill. By 1880 it was being used, along with the Workhouse Union Hospital, to cover a smallpox outbreak and taking 21 cases [62]

The hospital occupied a site of about 8 acres near the top of Brassknocker Hill. A house and a gardener’s cottage were purchased in 1876. The first patient was admitted in October 1876 suffering from scarlet fever. Two small and two large wooden pavilions were added on the south side of the house providing a total hospital accommodation for 70 patients together and some resident staff. By 1877 it had three large wooden blocks for patients, an administration block, a small discharging block, a laundry and a cottage.[63]

Statutory hospital rules 1925
Statutory hospital rules 1925

In 1930 work started on a new hospital in two phases. In 1931 the new hospital was first used and in 1932 the new purpose built hospital was officially opened on the site as the old hospital had:

“woodwork that was seen to be perishing and...lighting…of a very inferior order…Fifty years ago they were expected as a temporary expedient by Mr. Charles Wibley. They were erected in a panic, and in a piecemeal and temporary fashion, and the amazing thing is that the hospital has done such good work over such a long period.”[64]

The second stage was opened in 1934.

In the early days, admissions were largely for cases of scarlet fever and diphtheria. Between 1895 and 1899, there was annual average admission rate of 137 of which 78% were patients with scarlet fever and 22% diphtheria. Only 7 out of 137 were for other conditions, for example smallpox. Before 1900, many doctors did not always insist on admission of infectious cases to the hospital but attitudes changed in the early twentieth century. Between 1895 and 1900, only 41% of known diphtheria cases were admitted whereas between 1940 and 1945, 97% were removed from home to hospital.

The development of antibioticssulphonamides became available in 1935, penicillin in 1944 and streptomycin in 1947 – led to the closure of many isolation hospitals soon after the Second World War but the Bath Statutory Hospital was taken over by the NHS in 1948 and renamed Claverton Down Hospital. For some years it continued in its role as an infectious diseases hospital and treated many children with polio during the epidemics of the early post war years. The hospital purchased a number of Drinker respirators, popularly known as iron lungs. After the introduction of polio vaccination, there were no further cases fell the artificial respirators were removed.

Bath Statutory Hospital became associated more with chest infections and convalescence and closed in 1986. The site lay derelict until 1997 when Wessex Water acquired the site.

City of Bath Isolation Hospital, Bath Chronicle, Saturday 9 January 1932
City of Bath Isolation Hospital, Bath Chronicle, Saturday 9 January 1932
Isolation hospital buildings
Isolation hospital buildings
Isolation hospital wooden tents made by the Berthon Boat Company
Isolation hospital wooden tents made by the Berthon Boat Company
Isolation hospital nurse and children
Isolation hospital nurse and children
Isolation hospital 20 horsepower Austin ambulance1932
Isolation hospital 20 horsepower Austin ambulance1932
Isolation hospital aerial view aerial
Isolation hospital aerial view aerial
Isolation Hospital buildings before demolition
Isolation Hospital buildings before demolition
Isolation Hospital buildings before demolition
Isolation Hospital buildings before demolition
Isolation Hospital buildings before demolition
Isolation Hospital buildings before demolition

Monkton Mill

Monkton Combe Mill

Monkton Combe Mill © Copyright Derek Harper and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
Monkton Combe Mill © Copyright Derek Harper and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

Monkton Combe has two mills listed in the Domesday Book – Monkton Combe Mill and Tucking Mill. Beside the Midford Brook there are sluice gates and a millpond for the Monkton Combe mill.

From at least 1884[67a] it was owned by the Freeman family, who also had mills at Freshford and Avoncliff.

It was run by Thomas Richard Freeman (1860 – 1920) and later his sons Charles Henry (1889 – 1947) and Thomas Leonard (1892 – 1947).

The Freshford and Avoncliff mills were run by his brother William Osbourne Freeman (1855 – 1913), who seems to have been a poor business man as he was bankrupted in 1897, owing his brother and his brother’s wife – Sarah Ann Mountstevens (1860 – 1947) – £700 between them as well as loans from a money lender at 40%[67b].

The mill at Monkton Combe was by the station and used the railways to to import the raw material of old clothes from the rag and bone trade.

This was turned into flock, from the Latin floccus meaning lock or tuft of wool, for use in the upholstery trade stuffing mattresses, sofas, pillows, bolsters and other furniture items.

Water power drove the turbine operating the “devils” which broke up the rags.

Freeman letter to Board of Trade, 1903
Freeman letter to Board of Trade 1903
Freeman brother's wills - Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette - Saturday 25 October 1947
Freeman brother’s wills – Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette – Saturday 25 October 1947

Reports to The Local Government Board Reports on Rag-Flock, HMSO, 1910 describes the process:

"Rags may be imported in bales from abroad or collected in this country. In this country rags are bought by rag and bone men from private houses. They may also be collected by rag-pickers from the roads and streets, from city refuse heaps, or wherever they can be found. Generally, they are sold by the rag-pickers or rag and bone man to the small marine store dealer, and by him to the wholesale rag merchant, by whom they are sorted into grades, particular grades being sold to the flock manufacturer...Disinfection of rags before sorting appears never to be done...Linen and cotton rags are sold for the manufacture of paper; woollen and mixed rags for that of shoddy, and of flock...Rags of mixed wool and cotton...are subjected to a process called ‘carbonizing’ for the purpose of extracting the wool...In the wet way the rags are steeped in sulphuric acid somewhat diluted, at a temperature of 160 - 190° F., then rinsed in water and dried in a stove. In the dry way the rags, spread out on racks, are heated for some hours in a stove in an atmosphere of hydrochloric acid gas, evolved by pouring sulphuric acid on common salt in an iron retort, or by heating the crude hydrochloric acid...By one or other of these processes the cotton fibre is destroyed, being converted into a powdery matter, probably glucose, which flies off as dust when the rags are beaten, but the wool, being unaffected by the acid, remains, and undergoes further processes for conversion into shoddy...the parts of garments which are used for flock by the shoddy-maker are just those parts which are most liable to harbour excremental and other filth, vermin, and parasites...is only exceptionally washed or cleansed...the lowest and cheapest grade of rags, sometimes known technically as “lanns” because it used to be cast on the land as manure...difficult to exaggerate in describing the filthy nature of the above material...Old trousers, often badly stained with urine and faeces, are among the commonest of the articles which I have seen passed unwashed into the tearing-machine in many flock factories...Several foremen and workpeople who have been many years in the trade have assured me that they have not infrequently seen surgical bandages and dressings and even sometimes stained ‘‘towels” torn up unwashed for flock...The tearing-machine used in the manufacture of flock is known in the trade as a "devil”. In this machine the rags are passed on an endless band into the grip of fluted steel rollers which hold them under the teeth of a rapidly revolving wooden cylinder studded with steel nails. The torn flock falls out at the other end of the machine, and the dust is sucked out by a fan. The number of teeth on the cylinder varies in different specimens; I have seen from 9,000 to 16,000. The cylinder revolves at a rate of about 700 revolutions a minute...into which the torn fiock is drawn by suction and willowed to remove the dust...To reduce the loss by dust...manufacturers employ oil, which is allowed to trickle from a can over the feed of the machine, while some even work up the rags with the oily waste from tanyards for the same purpose..."

It was not a pleasant process and there were frequently fires[67c]. After Charles Henry and Thomas Leonard Freeman died, in 1947, within a month of each other and only a month or so after their mother, and, with more modern bedding becoming preferred, the mill was put up for sale in 1951. Eventually it was turned into retail premises.

T R Freeman
T R Freeman

Combe Down School

Combe Down School

Combe Down School was founded by William Franklin (1852 – 1921) in 1886. Based on the 1891 census the school was in 2 properties (Combe Villa, which is now Scott House, and Southfield Villa) and had 40 pupils, 4 assistants, a butcher, school matron, 2 domestic servants and a pantry boy as well as William and Emily Franklin and her daughter and grand daughter.

Combe Down School advert - Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette - Thursday 4 January 1894
Combe Down School advert – Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette – Thursday 4 January 1894
Combe Down School advert - Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette - Thursday 2 March 1893
Combe Down School advert – Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette – Thursday 2 March 1893
Combe Down School advert - Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette - Sunday 11 April 1896
Combe Down School advert – Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette – Sunday 11 April 1896
Clarence School, Weston super Mare
Clarence School, Weston super Mare

Combe Down School moved to Weston super Mare in 1896, having grown too large for Combe Down, and was renamed Clarence School.

The purpose built buildings were in Clarence Park South.

In 1923 Clarence School with its headmaster and 100 boys moved away from Weston to Wimborne, becoming Canford School.

This was orchestrated by Rev Percy Ewart Warrington, Vicar of Monkton Combe from 1918 – 1961. He was “the world’s greatest schoolmaker”, though his machinations were to end in tears.

Warrington and Canford - Sheffield Daily Telegraph - Monday 18 December 1922
Warrington and Canford – Sheffield Daily Telegraph – Monday 18 December 1922

There is a good description of the development of the school in an article written for Old Canfordian by Richard Knott in 2012:

William was a member of the Plymouth Brethren by the time he arrived at Monkton. There is some evidence that Emily’s family were as well, so William may have converted after he met her, but the Brethren had been based in Bath since at least 1837. Willie Ball-Acton, sadly to die of meningitis after only one term as a pupil at Monkton Combe, gives us a glimpse of William Franklin in his letters home. One of only five or six masters at the school, Franklin was described as ‘a very good master and teaches excellently’. Willie had been promoted from the third form where discipline was lax and ‘you could hardly learn anything there as the master is not very good; he talks about punishing but never does hardly. Franklin is very strict, but it is a good thing’.

Although William was fully part of the school when, in 1886, he took the decision to leave the security of Monkton and set up his own school, many at Monkton were pleased that the school had lost its non-conformist element.

William named his new establishment Combe Down School, despite there being a primary school of the same name in the village. Within five years, it had over forty pupils from across the globe. At least four other teachers lived in the school, including the obligatory French master, and there were others who did not live in.

In around 1893 Emily’s younger sister, Isabel, sent three of her sons to Combe Down School, a significant decision for Canford as it turned out. Isabelhad married George Macnutt, an Irish-Canadian whose family were important members of the Prince Edward Island community. George was a polymath who had arrived in England as a Baptist minister but immediately set about training as a doctor. He had two children in different parts of Canada, then eight more as he moved from Islington to Brighton, the Isle of Wight, Wimbledon and then Barnet, where John Stewart Macnutt, destined to be Canford’s first headmaster, was born in 1880.

William Franklin decided that the school had outgrown its present site and needed to move. Weston-Super-Mare had grown from a tiny village at the start of the century to a thriving seaside resort. Several private schools were being set up there as it became fashionable to send= children to seaside boarding schools. In 1895, Combe Down School moved into large buildings overlooking Clarence Park, which had opened only yards from the sea in 1888, and was renamed Clarence School. Like all other schools on the coast, Franklin’s prospectus made much of the healthy air and its benefits for delicate children. The school was, he said, ‘open to the invigorating breezes of the Atlantic. The air, impregnated with iodine and ozone is pure and bracing and less humid than that of most seaside places’. Franklin’s public ambitions for the school seemed modest: even twenty years later the school prospectus said that with ‘... Protestant and Evangelical principles there is every prospect that the school will continue to grow till, in time, it takes rank among the smaller public schools of the country’, and preparing pupils for entrance to other, more prestigious schools was included in their advertising. Clarence School was genuinely comprehensive: a number of bright pupils left for more academic schools, but many others remained.

Although religious teaching was advertised as ‘strictly scriptural and evangelical’, it was also stated that ‘Pupils attend Church of England or Non-conformist services as desired by parents.’ The result was that on Sundays, two crocodiles of boys made their way to church, one moving towards the Plymouth Brethren assembly and one to Holy Trinity church.

As the First World War started, there were just over eighty boys in the senior school and twenty more in the prep department. The Clarencian records the names of 62 former pupils who volunteered to fight as war broke out, many of whom were amongst the 56 on the memorial stone that was later unveiled for the OCs who had lost their lives. As the war ended, Franklin’s ‘lifelong bodily weakness and suffering’ was becoming more of a problem. The school had been made into a company in 1913, with a small board of directors overseeing operations, and Macnutt was now the joint principal and presumably doing the lion’s share of the work.

Franklin died on 14th June 1921 and eighteen months later, his wife, Emily, followed him. His obituary said that, although there had been a ‘touch of the austere’ about him, he had mellowed in old age. His legacy is, of course, Canford School. The links between Combe Down School and Clarence School were clear, with the latter including the former’s name in its prospectus, and pupils from both considering themselves as part of a common past. The same was essentially true when the school moved to Canford: the pupils, staff and motto were much the same, and the first Canfordian suggested that it was a relocation rather than a new birth. In smaller ways, too, continuity was assumed: the sports calendar listed some who had been awarded rugby colours from 1921 to 1923, including therefore their time at Clarence and Canford.

Why, then, did we not celebrate the 125th anniversary of the school in 2011? Michael Rathbone asks and answers this question in his history: Canford was intended to be a different type of school. Clarence was a private, proprietary school, but Canford was to join the ranks of the public schools. It has certainly done that but, when the centenary is celebrated in 2023, let us not forget the two men who had spent nearly forty years preparing the way for its birth."

Magdalen Hospital School

Magdalen Hospital School at Rockhall

Rock Hall House
Rock Hall House

Around 1100 a deed of gift was made by Walter Hosat, who gave his house and the Chapel of the Blessed Mary Magdalene at ‘Holeweye’ to the Abbey Church of St Peter, Bath. Its isolation, 500 yards from the city walls and across the River Avon, was an ideal location.

It is said that in 1212 Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln, made a bequest to the lepers outside Bath and a small hospital for lepers was founded close to the Chapel to be cared for by the Abbey’s monks. An undated deed in the Bath Cartulary records a grant of land by John Wyssy to the master, brethren and sisters on condition that their chaplains should celebrate in his private chapel at Bath. Bishop Ralph in 1332 granted an indulgence to those who supported the hospital of Holy Cross and St. Mary Magdalen at Bath, and it occurs from time to time as the recipient of legacies.[68]

Bath waters were still attracting lepers in the 16th century. Although leprosy was no longer prevalent, those who contracted it came to Bath in search of a cure by the waters. John Cantlow, Prior of Bath, petitioned the Pope in 1486 to unite the hospital of St Mary Magdalen to Bath Priory. The hospital was ruinous, impoverished and in debt. No brothers were living there and only two or three poor people. Prior Cantlow promised that he would repair its buildings and did so. Bath Priory was dissolved in 1539 and the hospital hospital survived the Reformation. However the Master, Simon Sheppard, took the revenues and provided no support. An investigation into these abuses in occurred in 1559 and by 1560 there was a bequest to the poor lazar people of St Mary Madgalen.

But leprosy was dying out and the hospital building was demolished in the 18th century, by which time St Mary Madgalen itself had become a home for the mentally handicapped and its endowments were being diverted from their original purpose.[69]

In 1856 ‘A Bill Intituled an Act for Confirming a Scheme of the Charity Commissioners for Saint Mary Magdalen Hospital Near Bath’ was passed and the Bath Municipal Charity Trustees took over.[70]

In 1846 Harriette Helen White (1820 – 1889), the third wife of the Rev George William Newnham (1806 – 1893) who was perpetual curate of Combe Down from 1842 – 1877, had set up a school for mentally deficient children with her sister Charlotte, inspired by the work of Johann Jakob Guggenbühl.

It opened in April 1846 in two rooms with a resident matron and three pupils. It was unique amongst the Idiot Asylums in being managed by women.

In 1849 this became the Institution for Idiot Children and those of Weak Intellect, which later moved from 5 Walcot Parade to 35 Belvedere and then, in March 1887 to Rockhall House[71] which had been built by quarry master Philip Nowell (1780 – 1853).

By 1891 it was renamed as Magdalen Hospital School for Idiot and Imbecile Children having been merged with St. Mary Magdalen Hospital under the Bath Municipal Charity Trustees. It was later known as Rockhall House School which then became part of the NHS and closed in 1980 and Rockhall House became sheltered housing.

1984 letter about Rock Hall House etc
1984 letter about Rock Hall House etc

Fullers Earth

Fuller’s Earth Company

Midford accident, Bath Chronicle, Thursday 8 May 1884
Midford accident, Bath Chronicle, Thursday 8 May 1884

There is evidence of Fuller’s earth mining in the Bath area from Roman times.[72]

Fuller’s earth resembles clay but is actually an absorbent silicate, mostly composed of silica, magnesium, iron, and aluminium. It has been used (and still is with many other modern uses as well) for thousands of years to absorb dirt and oil.

The name comes from its use in cleaning wool, when a fuller or tucker would pound the woollen cloth to remove dirt and oils before the cloth was finished. The words tucker and tucking come from the old English tūcian ‘to punish or ill-treat’.

So Tucking Mill shows that the presence of Fuller’s earth was well known in the area.

By the 1880s Tucking Mill was leased by George Dames and his brother Charles Richard Dames from the Midford Castle estate and had opened a mine and processing works for Fuller’s earth. The mines extended nearly 20 acres (8.1 ha) through four adits.[73]

In 1884 an explosion burst a tank, but in 1885 at the International Inventions Exhibition held in South Kensington they won a bronze award for improvements in the preparation of Fullers’’ earth.[74] However it seems that the explosion had probably cost them more than they admitted and by December 1885 the company was in liquidation and up for auction.

It was purchased by Henry Newson Garrett. He was the son of Richard Garrett IV (1829 – 1884) proprietor of Leiston Works in Suffolk, which was established in the year 1778 as an iron foundry, sickle and general agricultural implement manufactory.[75]

He was left his father’s firm in 1878. Henry Newson Garrett (1841 – 1912) also became a director of the City of Bath Electrical Lighting and Engineering Company[76] set up in 1891 to run the public lighting under a contract with the corporation.

He was married twice and had ten children. His first wife died in 1900 and he remarried in 1907. In the meantime he had taken as his mistress Miss Alice Mary Sauvarin, who was a nurse; they had met in September 1904 and had an affair until September 1905.

He had introduced his son Alec to her as a patient in September 1906. On Friday 1st April 1907 Alec Garrett and Mary Sauvarin married.

They went to Weston super Mare for 2 days honeymoon. On 5th April he disappeared. His body was found at on 2nd May in the river Avon at Kensington Meadows.

At the coroners inquest there was conflicting evidence about whether his father wanted him to marry or did not. A verdict of suicide was returned.[77]

Some months after Alec Garrett’s death his father was in court asking for £200 from a £500 life policy that he had paid for on his son, the proceeds of which had been paid to his estate, which was administered by his wife, after he died. He lost and the judge was really quite vicious:

The Judge’s view, Bath Chronicle, Thursday 19 December 1907
The Judge’s view, Bath Chronicle, Thursday 19 December 1907
Tucking Mill about 1905 showing the Fuller;s earth factory beside the cottage
Tucking Mill about 1905 showing the Fuller;s earth factory beside the cottage

Institute

Combe Down Institute and Combe Down Rugby Football Club

Combe Down Institute, Bath Chronicle,Thursday 10 September 1896
Combe Down Institute, Bath Chronicle,Thursday 10 September 1896

In 1896 there was a proposal to form the Combe Down Institute.[78] Church and other institutes were popular as they brought wholesome entertainment and sport to an area.

The Institute at Combe Down was formed and a (rugby) football section started. It seems likely that Combe Down RFC evolved from Combe Down Institute. By 1902 it appears in the letters of the Bath Chronicle.

At the AGM at the Church Rooms (at that time in Tyning Road) for 1904 it was stated that they were to play in green and white hoops, income was £31 15s 9d, expenditure £19 13s 5½d thus leaving a surplus of £12 12s 3½d. There were new players including H. Shore, a Welsh half back, and the club had “rosy prospects”.[79] The colours of black and amber for the club were adopted in 1907.[80]

All seems to have gone well for some years, but something went wrong as a new club, was formed to replace the old club, which had “never been properly dissolved”, in 1912.[81] Quite what the issue was I have not established though it sounds like finance was part of the problem.

The First World War interrupted things and after the war the club was revived.[82] Combe Down RFC still, of course, exists in 2014. In 1957 a long-held ambition was realized and the club was able to buy the ground at Holly’s Corner which it had tenanted since 1922. In 1966, The Combe Down RFC Club house was officially opened.[83]

Combe Down RFC - Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette - Saturday 16 October 1920
Combe Down RFC – Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette – Saturday 16 October 1920

Avenue Hall

Avenue Hall

Avenue Hall opening, Bath Chronicle, Thursday 21 October 1897
Avenue Hall opening, Bath Chronicle, Thursday 21 October 1897

Avenue Hall was the original name for what are now the Church Rooms, built and donated by Captain Oswald Borland R.N. (1820 – 1915).

Captain Oswald Borland - Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette - Saturday 6 November 1915
Captain Oswald Borland – Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette – Saturday 6 November 1915

Captain Borland was also unfortunately involved in the Maikop oil boom of 1910. Companies were set up in the UK to operate Maikop oil fields in the Southern Kuban province of the Russian empire.

In 1910, as many as 20 companies with an aggregate capital of 54,580 roubles[84] were registered in Great Britain for crude production in Maikop. The stocks of most of these companies were quoted on the London Stock Exchange. In the same year, the stocks of 13 Maikop-based Russian oil companies were listed on the LSE. In the next two years, another 14 companies were established.

By 1916 only 5 companies were still in existence.[85] It seems Captain Borland had invested but that the company was a ‘bubble’, created solely for the benefit of the promoters and he lost money. He applied for a compulsory winding up even though it was winding up voluntarily as doing that was the only way to get an investigation. He did not succeed.[86]

Avenue Hall was at the centre of village life for many years.

In 1925 the trustees agreed to sell to the church which had wanted to replace the old Church Rooms with something that was not a “disgrace to the parish”.[87]

Avenue Hall became the parochial headquarters when they were dedicated in 1926.[88]


References
[1] A Topographical Dictionary of England: Comprising the Several Counties, Cities, Boroughs, Corporate and Market Towns, Parishes, Chapelries, and Townships, and the Islands of Guernsey, Jersey, and Man, with Historical and Statistical Descriptions; Illustrated by Maps of the Different Counties and Islands; a Map of England … and a Plan of London and Its Environs … : in Four Volumes, Volume 1 by Samuel Lewis (1831‎) page 468 [2] Combe Down Stone Mines Project: http://www.combedownstoneminesproject.co.uk/subcategory/dig_deeper/article/mining_activity [3] Box Quarry Fact Sheet: http://www.nettleden.com/articles/box-quarry-facts/ [4] From Aquæ Solis, or Notices of Roman Bath by Henry Mingden Scarth (1864) page 99 [5] From Aquæ Solis, or Notices of Roman Bath by Henry Mingden Scarth (1864) page 75 [6] Historic Building Report on Ralph Allen Yard, Rock Hall Road, Combe Down, Bath, May 2010, Revised September 2011, by Kay Ross McLaughlin Ross

[7] Dublin Evening Mail, Monday 15 March 1852

[8] The London Gazette http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/22149/pages/2772/page.pdf

[9] The Repertory of patent inventions (July – December 1859) page 284

[10] Reports of Cases in the Law of Real Property & Conveyancing, Volume 1, December 5,8,9 1846, Peacock v Kernot

[11] See Hampshire Advertiser – Saturday 14 July 1849, Caitlin v. Sturgess, Nisi Prius Court

[12] Before 1850 assignees were appointed by the Chancery commissioners. They were responsible for depositing the proceeds from the sale of a bankrupt’s estates into the Bank of England until creditors were satisfied and had signed a request for a Certificate of Conformity (a confirmation that the bankrupt had satisfied all the legal requirements) when the Commissioners could issue a certificate which discharged him, although dividends might continue to be paid.

[13] See Sherborne Mercury, Tuesday 28 September 1852

[14] Potter v Kernot 1861, Report of Cases in Chancery: Argued and Determined in the Rolls …, Volume 30 By Great Britain. Court of Chancery, Charles Beavan, Henry Bickersteth Baron Langdale, John Romilly Romilly (1st Baron), Chaloner William Chute

[15] From the Hampshire Telegraph July 1862, see http://www.postcards.shalfleet.net/150/July%201862.htm

[16] See Hampshire Telegraph, Saturday 9 January 1864

[17] See Bath Board of Guardians, Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Thursday 18 March 1869

[18] The Original Bath Guide considerably enlarged and improved, etc (1834)

[19] For an example see Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Thursday 13 December 1849

[20] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Thursday 16 March 1865

[21] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Thursday 9 September 1858

[22] Widcombe & Lyncombe Local History Society

[23] The Mausolea & Monuments Trust

[24] Discovering Horse-drawn Vehicles by D. J. Smith (1994) page 58

[25] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Thursday 3 September 1840

[26] Western Daily Press, Thursday 13 August 1891

[27] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Thursday 11 February 1892 and Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Thursday 12 September 1895

[28] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Thursday 25 August 1892

[29] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Thursday 9 September 1875

[30] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Saturday 9 March 1912

[31] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Thursday 18 November 1880

[32] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Thursday 19 August 1880

[33] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Thursday 19 December 1878

[34] Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkton_Combe_School

[35] Burdett’s Hospitals and Charities: Being the Year Book of Philanthropy by Sir Henry C. Burdett (1919) page 658

[36] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Thursday 20 November 1879

[37] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Thursday 27 May 1880

[38] The Last Fighting Tommy: The Life of Harry Patch, Last Veteran of the Trenches 1898 – 2009 by Harry Patch, Richard van Emden (2009)

[39] Bath Record Office Combe Down Waterworks Co. Ltd. Notes on the Company’s Undertaking Acc183

[40] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Thursday 3 March 1881 and Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Thursday 8 October 1885

[41] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Thursday 3 May 1883

[42] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Thursday 4 February 1886

[43] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Thursday 17 June 1886

[44] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Thursday 1 July 1886

[45] Bath Record Office Combe Down Waterworks Co. Ltd. Notes on the Company’s Undertaking Acc183

[46] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Thursday 17 March 1887

[47] Bath Record Office Combe Down Waterworks Co. Ltd. Notes on the Company’s Undertaking Acc183

[48] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Thursday 7 March 1901

[49] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Thursday 20 November 1902

[50] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Thursday 15 September 1910

[51] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Thursday 6 September 1900

[52] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Thursday 31 July 1902

[53] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Thursday 16 July 1903

[54] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Saturday 21 December 1912

[55] Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, Friday 13 November 1903 and Western Times, Monday 14 November 1904

[56] Tom Greeves, MA, PhD https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A2=MINING-HISTORY;5cf7619d.0902

[57] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Thursday 17 December 1908

[58] Bath Record Office Combe Down Waterworks Co. Ltd. Notes on the Company’s Undertaking Acc183

[59] Wells and Springs of Somerset, Linsdal Richardson, William Whitaker, H.M. Stationery Office (1928)

[60] Bath Record Office Combe Down Waterworks Co. Ltd. Notes on the Company’s Undertaking Acc183

[61] Bath Record Office Combe Down Waterworks Co. Ltd. Notes on the Company’s Undertaking Acc183

[62] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Thursday 29 January 1880

[63] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Saturday 9 January 1932

[64] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Saturday 9 January 1932

[65] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Wednesday 8 August 1883

[66] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Thursday 10 April 1884

[67] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Thursday 24 July 1884

[67a] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette – Thursday 13 March 1884

[67b] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette – Thursday 22 April 1897

[67c] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette – Saturday 7 March 1914 and Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette – Saturday 6 March 1915 inter alia

[68] British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/som/vol2/pp152-153

[69] The Spirit of Care: The eight-hundred-year story of St John’s Hospital, Bath by Jean Manco

[70] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette – Thursday 10 July 1856

[71] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette – Thursday 27 October 1887

[72] A History of The Fullers’ Earth Mining Industry Around Bath by Neil Macmillen with Mike Chapman (2009)

[73] Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midford and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tucking_Mill

[74] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Thursday 20 August 1885

[51] Grace’s Guide: http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Richard_Garrett

[76] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Thursday 14 May 1891

[77] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Thursday 9 May 1907

[78] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Thursday 21 October 1897

[79] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Thursday 25 August 1904

[80] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Thursday 5 September 1907

[81] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Saturday 7 September 1912

[82] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Saturday 19 July 1919

[83] Combe Down RFC website: http://www.pitchero.com/clubs/combedown/a/history-7525.html

[84] About £470,000

[85] The Russian Rockefellers: The Saga of the Nobel Family and the Russian Oil Industry by Robert W. Tolf (1976)

[86] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Saturday 23 November 1912 and The London Gazette http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/28659/pages/8060/page.pdf

[87] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Saturday 26 July 1924

[88] Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Saturday 13 February 1926