Northey Legacy in Box Alan Payne May 2020
The village that the later Northeys knew (courtesy Box Parish Council)
No-one can deny that the Northey family influenced Box, yet it isn't always easy to explain how. They helped to develop and improve three magnificent private properties at Ashley Manor, Cheney Court and the central farmhouse at Manor Farm, but they weren’t the original builders of these houses. The Northeys left little in the way of epitaphs commemorating the family name. There are no public buildings named after them, no roads and just a single pub utilising their name although even that was originally called The Railway Inn. We have to look harder to see the extensive Northey legacy in the village.
There were aspects of the Northey estates in Box that were unusual. They had no Home Farm, personal parkland or enclosed estate ground. Rather their houses in Box were already enclosed in smaller plots and let to individual people, originally farm tenants and cottagers, and later quarrymen. This tended to make the land unsuitable for mass building development. It was a feature exacerbated by the will trust structure of ownership requiring numerous consents and legal unscrambling to circumvent complications.
There were aspects of the Northey estates in Box that were unusual. They had no Home Farm, personal parkland or enclosed estate ground. Rather their houses in Box were already enclosed in smaller plots and let to individual people, originally farm tenants and cottagers, and later quarrymen. This tended to make the land unsuitable for mass building development. It was a feature exacerbated by the will trust structure of ownership requiring numerous consents and legal unscrambling to circumvent complications.
Early years of Box Cemetery (courtesy Box Parish Council)
Northey Generosity
This complex land holding made the disposal of individual property more likely but there were several disposals of larger plots, mostly for charitable purposes. The amount of land that the Northey family donated for the benefit of residents is significant. In 1858 the family were reported as much interested in the issue of the deaths of the Sudell sisters and the hazardous problem of burial in the Box Churchyard. The solved the matter by gifting land for the Cemetery on the western outskirts of the village.[1]
In 1875 they gave land for the New Box Schools, our current Church of England Primary School, one of the great treasures of the central village. Two years later the family arranged that their water supply from Washwells should be piped to the schools, the Poynder Fountain and houses in the London Road.
The same generosity is seen in the arrangements the family made with GJ Kidston to secure Box Rec as the centre of village life out of their former farming fields, Mead Farm in 1925. It forms the central meeting place for communal village events, such as the Box Revels, and the field has become the playground of schoolchildren and the home of many Box clubs and sports, including cricket, football, tennis and bowls. In a similar manner, it was the Northey affiliation with golf that secured Kingsdown as a splendid course for members to enjoy after the family granted a licence to the club in 1880.
Railway Era
The pulling down of the old Cuttings Mill at Ashley in the period 1822-31, possibly seemed to presage the end of an era for rural Box but, rather, it was the start of the flowering of the village when the Great Western Railway Company offered to purchase the site to build Box Railway Station.[2] It was an action of immeasurable consequence. The railway might never have gone through Box and the Box Tunnel, allowing the transportation of building stone on a national scale and the economic revitalisation of Box. Without this sale and the railway in Box, the village might have stayed in rural isolation like many other north Wiltshire villages. More than that, it put Box on the map and the village became an important point on the route between Bristol and London.
The sale was not without complication and in 1845 it led to the demise of springs of water at Box and the use of a cistern, pond and pipes.[3] In the end the Box Brook had to be diverted and new roads built to Bath, Ditteridge and Middlehill.[4] It was a single income but several family members owned shares in the company for long-term investment. However, the dramatic success of the railways was followed by disturbing decline and proved to be no long-term financial solution for the family, although the railways were a boom to the village for the next century.
Northey Legacy
The sale of the Northey estates marked the end of landlord control of the village, the conclusion of a period that had lasted since medieval times. It was also the opening of a new chapter in Box’s story, a village full of residences and community areas in the centre. It is why villagers do so much to enjoy local clubs and activities, helping to promote the community spirit of the area.
What was the Northey legacy? I would argue that it came in an unusual way through their individual sales of property. These were sold at market value to supplement the estate’s declining rental income but many of the areas had been compromised by the extraction of stone. The unusually-shaped plots which remained were often on steep hillsides needing underpinning and severely reducing the value of the sites. We see this with the haphazard development of Quarry Hill and Hazelbury Hill, parallel but unconnected routes for the transportation of stone blocks to the central village.
The piecemeal sales had a profound effect on the development of the village. They allowed an evolution of buildings along the roads of the village, limiting the density of large residential areas. It meant that almost all houses have easy access into the countryside from their doorsteps. The Northeys suffered the loss of heirs in World War 1 and 2, and the profligacy of one youthful endeavour. But the failure of the family was exacerbated rather than caused by these issues. In some respects, the stone quarry industry prolonged the Northey tenure of the village by supplementing their land rental income with leases of mineral extraction rights. It is also true that the quarry boom overwhelmed them and altered the basis of the land they owned. Having allowed quarrying on a site, the whole neighbourhood was altered by the workings and became significantly despoiled. We see this most clearly at Quarry Hill and Hazelbury Hill, which could no longer be sold or let as a viable unit of farmland.
The knock-on effects of piecemeal developments have shaped the village until the present. The Northey family made their decisions in ways which benefitted themselves and their tenants and I believe that they would be delighted with the charming, rural village they passed onto us.
This complex land holding made the disposal of individual property more likely but there were several disposals of larger plots, mostly for charitable purposes. The amount of land that the Northey family donated for the benefit of residents is significant. In 1858 the family were reported as much interested in the issue of the deaths of the Sudell sisters and the hazardous problem of burial in the Box Churchyard. The solved the matter by gifting land for the Cemetery on the western outskirts of the village.[1]
In 1875 they gave land for the New Box Schools, our current Church of England Primary School, one of the great treasures of the central village. Two years later the family arranged that their water supply from Washwells should be piped to the schools, the Poynder Fountain and houses in the London Road.
The same generosity is seen in the arrangements the family made with GJ Kidston to secure Box Rec as the centre of village life out of their former farming fields, Mead Farm in 1925. It forms the central meeting place for communal village events, such as the Box Revels, and the field has become the playground of schoolchildren and the home of many Box clubs and sports, including cricket, football, tennis and bowls. In a similar manner, it was the Northey affiliation with golf that secured Kingsdown as a splendid course for members to enjoy after the family granted a licence to the club in 1880.
Railway Era
The pulling down of the old Cuttings Mill at Ashley in the period 1822-31, possibly seemed to presage the end of an era for rural Box but, rather, it was the start of the flowering of the village when the Great Western Railway Company offered to purchase the site to build Box Railway Station.[2] It was an action of immeasurable consequence. The railway might never have gone through Box and the Box Tunnel, allowing the transportation of building stone on a national scale and the economic revitalisation of Box. Without this sale and the railway in Box, the village might have stayed in rural isolation like many other north Wiltshire villages. More than that, it put Box on the map and the village became an important point on the route between Bristol and London.
The sale was not without complication and in 1845 it led to the demise of springs of water at Box and the use of a cistern, pond and pipes.[3] In the end the Box Brook had to be diverted and new roads built to Bath, Ditteridge and Middlehill.[4] It was a single income but several family members owned shares in the company for long-term investment. However, the dramatic success of the railways was followed by disturbing decline and proved to be no long-term financial solution for the family, although the railways were a boom to the village for the next century.
Northey Legacy
The sale of the Northey estates marked the end of landlord control of the village, the conclusion of a period that had lasted since medieval times. It was also the opening of a new chapter in Box’s story, a village full of residences and community areas in the centre. It is why villagers do so much to enjoy local clubs and activities, helping to promote the community spirit of the area.
What was the Northey legacy? I would argue that it came in an unusual way through their individual sales of property. These were sold at market value to supplement the estate’s declining rental income but many of the areas had been compromised by the extraction of stone. The unusually-shaped plots which remained were often on steep hillsides needing underpinning and severely reducing the value of the sites. We see this with the haphazard development of Quarry Hill and Hazelbury Hill, parallel but unconnected routes for the transportation of stone blocks to the central village.
The piecemeal sales had a profound effect on the development of the village. They allowed an evolution of buildings along the roads of the village, limiting the density of large residential areas. It meant that almost all houses have easy access into the countryside from their doorsteps. The Northeys suffered the loss of heirs in World War 1 and 2, and the profligacy of one youthful endeavour. But the failure of the family was exacerbated rather than caused by these issues. In some respects, the stone quarry industry prolonged the Northey tenure of the village by supplementing their land rental income with leases of mineral extraction rights. It is also true that the quarry boom overwhelmed them and altered the basis of the land they owned. Having allowed quarrying on a site, the whole neighbourhood was altered by the workings and became significantly despoiled. We see this most clearly at Quarry Hill and Hazelbury Hill, which could no longer be sold or let as a viable unit of farmland.
The knock-on effects of piecemeal developments have shaped the village until the present. The Northey family made their decisions in ways which benefitted themselves and their tenants and I believe that they would be delighted with the charming, rural village they passed onto us.
References
[1] See the full report in Supplement to The Bath Chronicle, 21 January 1858
[2] Deeds and Conveyances Paper, Wiltshire History Society, 3226/1
[3] Wiltshire History Centre, 1126/47
[4] Wiltshire History Centre, 1126/48
[1] See the full report in Supplement to The Bath Chronicle, 21 January 1858
[2] Deeds and Conveyances Paper, Wiltshire History Society, 3226/1
[3] Wiltshire History Centre, 1126/47
[4] Wiltshire History Centre, 1126/48