Developing the Devizes Road: Thornwood to Lamb Inn
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Alan Payne
Additional Research Ruby Eyles December 2017 The Devizes Road is the youngest arterial road in Box, the last turnpike road, started in 1830 and completed in 1840. Before then it existed around the village only, linking up Pye Corner, the Ley and the London Road. The track looped round past Pye Cottages to Chapel Lane, passing the workshop of Worthy Phelps, the village blacksmith, outside the main residential area to avoid the risk of fire to other premises (Pye Corner was the place just beyond the area affected by the Great Fire of London). |
Thornwood left and Toll House right (courtesy Bob Hancock)
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Francis Allen map (courtesy Wilts History Centre)
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Woodland Area
Francis Allen's map of 1630 shows the area as highly wooded: Whitwood Piece, Whitwood, Stake Leases, Hatt Coppe. It was the medieval woodland vital for the rural economy for tools, building materials and fuel, just outside the residential area but within easy reach. Every day fuel for heating and cooking was needed and supplies required regular replenishment. The wood was harvested in the same way as other crops by pollarding (cutting down to shoots on a regular cycle every few years). Because of this it was included in the tithe owed to the church: The tenth acre, or tenth perch of all Coppice-wood. Of all hedge-rows that are sold the tenth of the money: And the tenth of all Hedge-rows reserved be the owner for the own use, if they be above a perch broad.[1] |
Woodland areas were much more than this, however, because they offered pasturage for pigs and food of nuts, birds and small mammals for poor villagers. For these reasons the area wasn't developed as early as central Box.
Turnpike Road, 1840-41
All this changed when the Devizes Road was completed to join Box and Melksham directly. You can see the way the road was built because just up hill from Washwells the natural contour drops away sharply and the road has been banked up to make it level. The Old Toll House on the Devizes Road was built at that time to block traffic until the payment of toll.[2] It replaced an earlier structure and afforded permanent manning of the tollgate at the village entrance.
The road encouraged coach and carriage traffic and passenger facilities on the route soon developed. The naming of the destination to Devizes rather than Melksham indicated that it was a national route, not just a local track. Lamb Inn (now Lamb House), dating from the late 1700s or early 1800s, serviced the needs of travellers.[3] The inn was grand enough to attract the attention of passers-by and may have provided accommodation. The property is of an entirely different style to nearby Lamb Cottage and number 4 Pye Corner, which are a century earlier and clearly residential in nature.
Thornwood, 1884
The first significant reference to the development of the area was in 1884 when stone mason, Charles Richards, built a rural property for himself and his family and called it Thornwood. It was on the very outskirts of the village, at the foot of Henley Lane, the first property listed in the 1891 census after the Lamb Inn.
The house cost £30.15s.0d to erect with Charles supplying and dressing all the ashlar stone blocks. For that price local builder, John Sawyer, agreed to fit two chimneys, four grates, ashlar partitions in the kitchen, parlour and bedroom so that it had eight rooms in total.[4] As was usual in those days, it had an outside toilet, which remained in use until the family left the property in the 1950s. The sale valuation particulars of 1954 said the property comprised sitting room and living room with two bedrooms in the main building plus an extension of kitchenette, scullery and one bedroom above. It had a real snag, however, the lavatory accommodation which is merely of the bucket type, situated some distance from the house.
Both of Charles’ sons, Edwin (Ted) and Francis (Frank), were sappers in the First World War, and survived, though both were gassed. After the war both followed in their father’s footsteps by becoming stonemasons. Frank later lived with his own family further down the Devizes Road in Lye Cottage.
All this changed when the Devizes Road was completed to join Box and Melksham directly. You can see the way the road was built because just up hill from Washwells the natural contour drops away sharply and the road has been banked up to make it level. The Old Toll House on the Devizes Road was built at that time to block traffic until the payment of toll.[2] It replaced an earlier structure and afforded permanent manning of the tollgate at the village entrance.
The road encouraged coach and carriage traffic and passenger facilities on the route soon developed. The naming of the destination to Devizes rather than Melksham indicated that it was a national route, not just a local track. Lamb Inn (now Lamb House), dating from the late 1700s or early 1800s, serviced the needs of travellers.[3] The inn was grand enough to attract the attention of passers-by and may have provided accommodation. The property is of an entirely different style to nearby Lamb Cottage and number 4 Pye Corner, which are a century earlier and clearly residential in nature.
Thornwood, 1884
The first significant reference to the development of the area was in 1884 when stone mason, Charles Richards, built a rural property for himself and his family and called it Thornwood. It was on the very outskirts of the village, at the foot of Henley Lane, the first property listed in the 1891 census after the Lamb Inn.
The house cost £30.15s.0d to erect with Charles supplying and dressing all the ashlar stone blocks. For that price local builder, John Sawyer, agreed to fit two chimneys, four grates, ashlar partitions in the kitchen, parlour and bedroom so that it had eight rooms in total.[4] As was usual in those days, it had an outside toilet, which remained in use until the family left the property in the 1950s. The sale valuation particulars of 1954 said the property comprised sitting room and living room with two bedrooms in the main building plus an extension of kitchenette, scullery and one bedroom above. It had a real snag, however, the lavatory accommodation which is merely of the bucket type, situated some distance from the house.
Both of Charles’ sons, Edwin (Ted) and Francis (Frank), were sappers in the First World War, and survived, though both were gassed. After the war both followed in their father’s footsteps by becoming stonemasons. Frank later lived with his own family further down the Devizes Road in Lye Cottage.
The Richards family shortly after the house was built - Left to Right: Balcony: Beatrice Annie, Emma Amelia, Amy Ellen (child), Charles Richards.
Front: Fanny Amelia, Lilian May, Edwin Charles and Francis Herbert. (Photo courtesy Mark Daymond)
Front: Fanny Amelia, Lilian May, Edwin Charles and Francis Herbert. (Photo courtesy Mark Daymond)
The Richards family owned the property for nearly a century. Charles died in 1931 and his widow, Emma Amelia Richards (nee Hobbs), lived there incapacitated but supported by her family, until her death in 1952, aged 96.
Newly constructed Devizes Road buildings seen in the background in 1896 (courtesy Ruby Eyles)
Northey Sales
The land between Thornwood and the village was owned by the Northey family and sold off in individual lots in the decade before the Great War. Many of the houses have date stones: Woodland View 1893, Elmslea 1898, Beulah 1901 and without date stones Lyndale and Fernlea built about 1896, Rose Bank 1894 and Creffield 1905.
The land itself had been sold off from the Northey estate and only ground rent charges retained. In 1912 the Northey estate tried to sell off the rent charges which they listed as:
The land between Thornwood and the village was owned by the Northey family and sold off in individual lots in the decade before the Great War. Many of the houses have date stones: Woodland View 1893, Elmslea 1898, Beulah 1901 and without date stones Lyndale and Fernlea built about 1896, Rose Bank 1894 and Creffield 1905.
The land itself had been sold off from the Northey estate and only ground rent charges retained. In 1912 the Northey estate tried to sell off the rent charges which they listed as:
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Lot 56 Woodland View, lessee Mr W Burton, £2.6s.0d Lot 57 Lyndale, lessee Mr EW Eyles, £1.1s.3d Lot 58 Fernlea (mis-spelt as Femlen), lessee Mr JJ Hancock, £1.1s.3d Lot 59 Elmslea, lessee Mr FJ Eyles, £1.5s.8d Lot 60 Grove Cottage (then called House adjoining Elmslea), lessee WA Virgin, £1.5s.8d Lot 61 Beulah Cottage, lessee Mr M Greenman, £1.13s.9d Lot 62 Creffield House, lessee Mrs BL Northey, £4.14s.6d The house names are mostly the same although Fernlea was mis-spelt. Rose Bank is missing from the list. |
Fernlea in 1900s marked on the left (courtesy Stella Clarke)
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Residents in Inter-war Years
In 1939 the road was divided into three areas, Thornwood, Woodland View and Devizes Road, which still reflected its woodland history. Under Thornwood were the following:
Thornwood - Emma A Richards, aged 84, incapacitated widow, together with her daughter Lilian M Browning and Lilian’s husband James W Browning (Foreman).
Creffield - Louisa M Vezey, aged 74, of private means, with a domestic servant Eleanor Ty aged 38.
Beulah Cottage - Georgina and Mary L Greenman, aged 67 and 59, who ran a Fine Laundry from the house after the death of
Mr G Greenman in 1925.[5]
Grove Cottage - Frederick Cannings, GWR signalman lived with his wife Lillian and five others.
Elmlea - Alfred A Fairbank, his wife Elsie and one child lived there.
Fern Lea - Alfred John Rawlings, his wife Ada Francis (nee Wilkins), and three others. Ada was Stella Clarke's mother.
Lyndale - Constance K Eyles, 42 year-old widow, two unnamed others and William Aitchison, age 47, and William H Meredith, age 52 Constructional Engineer.
Further west on the road was known as Woodland View. Listed in 1939 were:
Woodland View - Douglas WF Taylor railway clerk, wife Dorothy Temporary Railway Clerk, who had a lodger, Mary Tranter,
77 year-old retired shopkeeper and widow, who possibly ran a sweet shop on the corner of Townsend at the bottom of
Quarry Hill.[6]
Rose Bank, Woodland View - Sidney L Perry, Ella M Perry and Alice Coventry.
Lamb Inn, Woodland View - William Phelps (police pensioner and licensee) and his wife Bertha. They shared their house with George (waiter) and Isabella Marshal, and various paying guests: Henry Steele (plumber), Patrick Kilgallow, James Sweeney, Douglas Howell (who later settled in Bargates with his family) and John Ress.
Beyond this area the road was called Devizes Road proper covering the area of Alexander Terrace, Pye Corner and Charlotte Cottage, outside the scope of this article.
On the other side of the road were:
The Cottage - builder Edward George and Lilian Armstead and their daughter Gwendoline, who married William Baxter in 1940.
The bungalows on the Devizes Road were built on the site of the old Waverley Park in the 1950s, the first property (Waverley) and the last (Lauderdale) were constructed about 1956 and the others in-filled about 1959.[7]
In 1939 the road was divided into three areas, Thornwood, Woodland View and Devizes Road, which still reflected its woodland history. Under Thornwood were the following:
Thornwood - Emma A Richards, aged 84, incapacitated widow, together with her daughter Lilian M Browning and Lilian’s husband James W Browning (Foreman).
Creffield - Louisa M Vezey, aged 74, of private means, with a domestic servant Eleanor Ty aged 38.
Beulah Cottage - Georgina and Mary L Greenman, aged 67 and 59, who ran a Fine Laundry from the house after the death of
Mr G Greenman in 1925.[5]
Grove Cottage - Frederick Cannings, GWR signalman lived with his wife Lillian and five others.
Elmlea - Alfred A Fairbank, his wife Elsie and one child lived there.
Fern Lea - Alfred John Rawlings, his wife Ada Francis (nee Wilkins), and three others. Ada was Stella Clarke's mother.
Lyndale - Constance K Eyles, 42 year-old widow, two unnamed others and William Aitchison, age 47, and William H Meredith, age 52 Constructional Engineer.
Further west on the road was known as Woodland View. Listed in 1939 were:
Woodland View - Douglas WF Taylor railway clerk, wife Dorothy Temporary Railway Clerk, who had a lodger, Mary Tranter,
77 year-old retired shopkeeper and widow, who possibly ran a sweet shop on the corner of Townsend at the bottom of
Quarry Hill.[6]
Rose Bank, Woodland View - Sidney L Perry, Ella M Perry and Alice Coventry.
Lamb Inn, Woodland View - William Phelps (police pensioner and licensee) and his wife Bertha. They shared their house with George (waiter) and Isabella Marshal, and various paying guests: Henry Steele (plumber), Patrick Kilgallow, James Sweeney, Douglas Howell (who later settled in Bargates with his family) and John Ress.
Beyond this area the road was called Devizes Road proper covering the area of Alexander Terrace, Pye Corner and Charlotte Cottage, outside the scope of this article.
On the other side of the road were:
The Cottage - builder Edward George and Lilian Armstead and their daughter Gwendoline, who married William Baxter in 1940.
The bungalows on the Devizes Road were built on the site of the old Waverley Park in the 1950s, the first property (Waverley) and the last (Lauderdale) were constructed about 1956 and the others in-filled about 1959.[7]
We often pass by houses, giving them a cursory glance, but not realising how recently much of the village was built. The Devizes Road is a new estate in Box. What makes the properties seem older is the care with which they were built by local stone masons and craftsmen. We wouldn't seek to stop all future development in Box but we should insist that they are built to a similarly high standard to enhance the appearance of the village.
References
[1] Church terrier of 23 December 1704, courtesy Mike Lyons
[2] Historic Buildings, p.56
[3] Historic Buildings, p.55
[4] Builder's estimate courtesy Mark Daymond
[5] Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser, 6 June 1925
[6] Originally suggested by Geoff Bence
[7] Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser, 25 February 1956
[1] Church terrier of 23 December 1704, courtesy Mike Lyons
[2] Historic Buildings, p.56
[3] Historic Buildings, p.55
[4] Builder's estimate courtesy Mark Daymond
[5] Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser, 6 June 1925
[6] Originally suggested by Geoff Bence
[7] Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser, 25 February 1956