A while ago I added Belmont to the site and, as usual, I’m doing a quick update about what I found out.
It seems that the simplest way to give a flavour of Belmont, since Belmont House was constructed in the 1850s is to list some of the people who have lived in the houses in the road and what they did.
As you can see from the list below it’s, unsurprisingly for such a street with such large Victorian villas, a cross section of the 19th and 20th century British upper middle class: a Barrister, businessmen, composer, sailor, soldiers & writers.
The Garth – Annie Maria Donisthorpe (née Anderson) (1855 – 1930) divorced from Wordsworth Donisthorpe (1847 – 1914) who filed a patent for a movie camera in 1876 many years before anyone else.
I have also added a section on Claremont Buildings or Hopecote Lodge as it is now known. It, along with Isabella Place and 109 – 117 Church Road, was part of the second wave of building on Combe Down from 1800. Some interesting people lived there including William Fortt who founded Fortt’s Refreshment Rooms in Milsom Street. Forrt’s later merged with tow other Bath firms to form Cater, Stoffell & Fortt that made the famous Bath Oliver biscuits.
Last evening I was just preparing the evening meal for the family (if you’re interested: smoked cod and prawns poached in a butter, tarragon, garlic and peperoncino sauce, served with British asparagus, Padrón peppers and Jersey Royals, lovely!) when there was a knock at the door.
A rather lovely lady was there bringing the original listing letter sent in 1976.
As I understand things, it was found in the effects of her husband’s grandmother, Daphne Mildred Bish who died last year.
Very kindly the family decided that the current owners of the house might like it and just brought it along.
It’s a wonderful little surprise gift and I’m only sorry that I didn’t get the chance to ask her for her name and her husband’s name – I was a little flustered as the timer beeper was going off, indicating all the food was ready, just after I opened the door. Anyway, I thank them here.
I’ve just reordered the site somewhat into Now and Then.
The, slightly punning, title of the book was Prior to Now and that became the website title too.
Combe Down Area Directory
A thought that I always had, was that the site could include the history of Combe Down (Prior) and what’s going on now (Now).
I have now put all the history (but not the people and family trees) under one section Combe Down Then and what’s going on now under, believe it or not, Combe Down Now.
One area that I’d particularly like to add to is Combe Down photos – especially any historic ones whether they be from your own or family archives or from postcards etc.
If you have any other ideas for what might be useful or relevant on the site then I’m always happy to ‘hear ideas’.
I have, now and then, wondered about a forum that includes the ability to post events etc. but I’m not sure whether it would be used and then there’s the question of moderation. Unfortunately there are always idiots who try to ruin it for the good guys, but it’s reasonably easy to do if there’s any demand.
Other than that I hope the new elements add to the site and that you enjoy them.
which tells us that in 1870 – 72, John Marius Wilson’s Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Combe Down like this:
“COMBE-DOWN, a chapelry in Combe-Monckton parish, Somerset; near the Great Western railway and the river Avon, 2 miles S of Bath. It has a post office‡ under Bath. Pop., 940. A hill, giving name to the place, is 550 feet high; commands an extensive prospect; yields Bath stone in large quarries; is pierced and cut with caverns and passages; and bears on its slope a pleasant little town, with villas, an inn, and the church. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Bath and Wells. Value, not reported.* Patron, the Vicar of South Stoke“.
Historical maps
There’s also a link to historical maps that you can see, often, as a seamless map overlaying the modern equivalent and/or download the original free.
Historical map of Combe Down
There are general purpose topographic historical maps:
Dial House, De Montalt Place, Combe Down – one of the listed buildings
I have just added a page for Listed Buildings on Combe Down and in Midford and Monkton Combe divided into 15 areas which are in a rough circle as follows:
Now I do, though I’d dearly love more photos to add to the galleries, so, if you have any that you’d be willing to let me publish then please do let me have a copy.
I was just looking at the Hunt & Co. and Silverthorne directories for Bath and Bristol for 1848 and 1846 respectively and thought it would be interesting to see what went on in the village around then – what was it like on Combe Down around 1846 – 1848? Who is mentioned? What trades and professions?
The problem is that, unlike later Kelly’s directories that locate a place and then show the people living there plus their occupations etc. these earlier directories are alphabetical and by class, so it’s not so simple to get an idea of what was going on.
Luckily, in this age of the internet you can find ‘electronic’ copies of most things, which makes it easier to do a search and then……
The results are below and provide an interesting snapshot of some of the people who lived and worked here.
I find a number of things interesting, compared to today.
For example the use of ‘nobility and gentry’ and people describing themselves as ‘gent’.
The boarding and day schools situated in private houses.
The fact that there were actually shops in the village (!) – no cars or supermarkets then.
Additionally, given the total population of 1,600 – 1,750 there are, unlike say the old telephone directories, actually very few people listed.
One other thing is the blacksmith. In Silverthorne’s of 1846 it is George Humphries but by Hunt & Co of 1848 it is Harriett Humphries – presumably his wife or daughter. But, was she the owner or did she actually smith? It would be interesting to know.
The census’ for 1841 and 1851 also give a picture and are shown below the directory findings.
Some interesting things were going on with property on Combe Down around this time.
John Ovens Thomas (1778 – 1836), the eldest son of John Thomas, the owner of Prior Park had died 10 years earlier but in 1846 his trustees decided to sell much of the land he had inherited from his father as well as some of his ground rents. The land, as can be seen from the estate sale notice below included the farm next door to St. Michael and All Angels Church at Monkton Combe, a number of fields near the Dundas Acqueduct and Midford Brook as well as ground rents for the Tyning Road area, The Brow, and Tyning Place.
John Ovens Thomas estate sale – Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette – Thursday 16 April 1846
It also included the land from North Road to Church Road as the map below shows, The map also gives a really good idea of what this area of Combe Down was like in 1846.
Map of Combe Down plots for sale from estate of John Oven Thomas in 1846
Hunts & Co 1848
Nobility, Gentry, &c.
Baskett Mrs. Sarah, 6, De Montalt place, Combe down
Payne John, overseer of the parish of Monkton Combe, Park villa, Combe down
Radburn George, quarry master, Combe down
Rawlings William, Carriage Inn, Combe down
Ricketts Charles, carpenter & joiner, Combe down
Salter Job, 1, Priory cottages, Combe down
Spence Samuel, Hadley Arms, and quarry master, Combe down
Stinnard & Ford, quarry masters, Combe down
Stodart John, 2, Claremout buildings, Combe down
Sumsion Isaac, quarry master, 1, Park place, Combe down
Vincent William, boot & shoe maker, 9, Cheap street — p. r. Combe down
Whitaker William, boot and shoe maker, Combe down
Wren Thomas Jay, short hand writer, and stationer, Combe down
Churches
Trinity, Combe down. — Sunday, 11 morn. and 6 even. Sacrament administered the first Sunday in the month. Rector, Rev. George Newnham. Curate, -Rev. D. Topham.
Old deed. Lease and Release. A911873 1516 Jan. 1805
I love old deeds.
They are works of art.
They were written by quill pen and iron gall ink in court hand, chancery hand or secretary hand on large squares of parchment.
The heading and capital letter of old deeds are often ornamented with scroll work.
So much work went into them as they represented peoples’ wealth and legal title – something that, not so long ago, could only be shown “on paper”.
So, what goes into an old deed?
Parchment
Parchment is most commonly made of calfskin, sheepskin, or goatskin.
It was historically used for writing documents, notes, or the pages of a book.
Parchment making is a slow process and requires the selection of good skins from healthy animals, which are then washed, dried, soaked in lime, scraped, stretched and scraped and stretched again and again and dried under tension until the finished product is ready for use as a writing surface.
Parchment is not tanned like leather, this makes it more suitable for writing, but leaves it reactive to changes in humidity and allows it revert to raw hide if too wet.
Vellum denotes a finer quality material referring to a parchment made from calf skin and comes from the Latin word vitulinum (meaning made from calf) and Old French vélin.
Indentures are a form of deed or legal contract. The Indenture on old deeds was so called from the fact that its upper edge was indented – a method of testing authenticity as each party had a copy.
These duplicates were written on a single strip of parchment cut irregularly afterwards, so that when required to be produced as evidence the two divided portions would fit each other exactly as indisputable evidence of their originality.
By convention in common use after about 1675, the old deeds documents open with the title ‘This Indenture’ in large capital letters.
Hand writing
Court hand was a style of handwriting used in medieval law courts from there into use by professionals such as lawyers and clerks.
Chancery hand could produce beautiful calligraphic writing; in England it became known as the Italian hand to distinguish it from the angular, cramped, black letter or gothic derived English chancery hand which had been developed earlier.
Secretary hand arose out of the need for a hand more legible and universally recognizable and was widely used by scriveners and others whose daily employment comprised hours of writing.
Ink
Another important part of an old deed deed is the iron gall ink.
The main ingredients are oak galls, iron sulphate and gum Arabic and it was permanent and water resistant.
A 1770 recipe suggests two ounces of crushed oak galls soaked overnight in one pint of water to produce tannin, then strained into one ounce of ferrous sulphate. A half ounce of gum Arabic (the hardened sap of the Acacia Senegal tree) is added and the mixture stirred until it is dissolved which might take a week or two.
Iron gall ink is purple black or brown black and coloured inks were seldom employed for legal documents.
It was the standard writing and drawing ink in Europe, from about the 5th to 19th century and remained in use into the 20th.
Quill pen
The writing was done by a quill pen made from a moulted flight feather (preferably a primary wing feather) of a large bird such as a goose or swan.
A quill is hand cut to six or seven inches after being soaked and tempered in hot sand for longer life so that the slit does not widen through wetting and drying with ink and will retain its shape, require infrequent sharpening and be used many times.
The hollow shaft of the feather (the calamus) acts as an ink reservoir and ink flows to the tip by capillary action.
Old deeds. Lease and Release. A911874 1516 Feb. 1805
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