Compare the fortunate owners and occupants of our block

The deeds of Hopecote Lodge refer to a 500 year lease from 1805^[1] granted to Chas. Perks and Benjamin Wingrove for £4 4s annually.

An advertisement in the Bath Chronicle from Thursday 7^th April 1836 offers for sale Claremont House, No. 1 & 2 Paradise Place (now 113 Church Road) and No. 1 & 2 (now 115 and 117 Church Road) Prospect Place. All 3 lots are:

“offered for a Term, of which about 469 years are unexpired, at the yearly Ground Rent of £9, which will be apportioned at the time of sale.”

Clearly a 500 year lease with 469 years unexpired in 1836 indicates the lease was granted in 1805.

Thus we can be reasonably sure that 109, 113, 115, 117 and 127, the houses now comprising Hopecote Lodge, were built sometime around 1805 – 1806, just after Isabella Place. If you look at the houses, strip out the changes made over the years and look just at the ground and first floors (for all were originally two storeys) of 109, 113-117 and 127 you will see the very clear similarities.

From the advertisement we can also note 2 ‘newly built’ cottages which would appear to be what is now 119 Church Road, which has also been known as Claremont Lodge.

There is also mention of a pump house behind Claremont House:

“Immediately to the rear is a Pump-house of 2 floors, &c., with strong cast iron cistern capable of holding nearly 1000 gallons supplied by a lifting-pump of great power from a deep well, from which cistern the House and two adjoining cottages are supplied”.

It’s a lovely description! The pump house is, possibly, what’s now Claremont Cottage, 107 Church Road, or was a building that has since been re-purposed or knocked down.

The advert also confirms that what is now 113 Church Road was originally two houses – No. 1 & 2 Paradise Place – but that No. 1 Paradise Place was:

“sometime since partially destroyed by Fire and which may be reinstated at small expense”.

Unfortunately ‘sometime since’ is not accurate enough to determine exactly when the fire occurred, indeed it implies at some unknown time since the house was built. Additionally, it tells us that 113 was already, by 1836, 3 storeys, though it does not tell us whether 115 was as well, and it gives us details about the mortgages outstanding.

We can now see that:

• Combe Down was undeveloped before 1730.
• It remained much as Ralph Allen developed it until 1800.
• Isabella Place was then added to Ralph Allen’s original housing from 1800 – 1804.
• 109 – 127 Church Road were added around 1805 – 1806.

From deeds that are in the possession of Ian & Susan Parsons at 121 Church Road we can also trace the development of the block further.

A drawing in a deed for Claremont House on 8 May 1861 shows the 2 cottages that are now 119, Belgrave House (which is 113), Union Chapel and Claremont House and Claremont Cottage.

A drawing in a deed for 1 Aug 1878 shows where Edward Palethorpe purchases ‘gardens’, which is the area now occupied by 121.

Another drawing in a deed for the purchase of Claremont House on 13 July 1893 shows that sometime between 1878 and 1893 stables were constructed on the ‘garden’ land purchased by Edward Palethorpe in 1878. These stables seem, later to have been converted into accommodation and are now 121 Church Road.

Another drawing in a deed for the purchase of Claremont House on 2 April 1901 also shows the stables (presumably not yet converted to a dwelling) and that the 2 cottages that are 119 Church Road were being used for storage at this time.

The satellite image below shows the block more recently with the c 1950s infill houses that took the garden of Claremont House.

A postcard that is probably taken from the roof of Claremont House in about 1905, show the view across Williamstowe at the time. 119 and 121 are visible at the bottom right of the image and it shows that the ‘stables’ had a standard roof rather than the ‘mansard’ roof that was added in 1973.

Who were the owners and occupants?

What I intend to do is look at who was associated with the timeline of 4 houses (109, 113, 115 and 117 Church Road) and also what else was happening on Combe Down.

Over the next 200 years Combe Down obviously developed substantially. It would be a massive undertaking to try to detail every aspect of its development so I am not going to attempt that.

The timelines for the houses are reconstructed from a number of sources:

• Deeds which are in my possession or which I have seen – especially those for 113 and 115, but also 117 which was sold with 115 for many years.
• Reviewing the censuses and other records on ancestry.com to find out who lived in the houses.
• Directories such as the Bath Post Office Directory (BPOD), its predecessors such as Slater’s and successors such as Kelly’s found in Bath Central Library and The Bath Record Office.
• The Bath Chronicle & Weekly Gazette (Chron).

As one might expect, the timelines for each house are incomplete. They are given below and I have tried to find out about people who held the mortgage or owned or occupied the house.

The word tried is the operative one. For some people it is fairly easy to track their genealogy and activity, for others very difficult.

For some people there is nothing in the papers, for others a lot – but it can be one dimensional and relating, for example, just to their job.

For the very few that have been in some way famous or associated with a famous family it is generally easier to find something, but for others not so easy. So, it’s all somewhat pot luck, but I have found it none the less interesting for that and hope that you will find the results interesting too.

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