Box People and Places
Latest Issue 31 Spring 2021 
  • This Issue
    • Celebrity Visits
    • Middlehill Tunnel
    • Doris Pepita Chappell
    • Local Roman Finds
    • Gingell
    • Jut the Ticket
    • Straightening & Levelling
    • Tottle Family
    • Rudloe Part 2
    • Bowdler
    • Bullocks Worldwide
    • James Shell of KIngsdown
    • Bill Peter Recalled
    • Rudloe WW2 Remnants
    • More Stink Pipes
    • Northey Tankard Found
  • Early Medieval
    • Britain in Late Antiquity
    • Box after AD 350
    • Why Speak English?
    • Art and Craft
  • Previous
    • Issue 30 - Georgian Rudloe
    • Issue 29 - Darkest Hour
    • Issue 28 - VE Day
    • Issue 27 - Northey
    • Issue 26 - Heritage Trail
    • Earlier Issues 1 - 25 >
      • Issue 25 - Slave Owners
      • Issue 24 - Highwaymen
      • Issue 23 - Georgian
      • Issue 22 - War Memorial
      • Issue 21 - Childhood 1949-59
      • Issue 20 - Box Home Guard
      • Issue 19 - Outbreak WW2
      • Issue 18 - Building Bargates
      • Issue 17 - Railway Changes
      • Issue 16 - Quarries
      • Issue 15 - Rail & Quarry
      • Issue 14 - Civil War
      • Issue 13: Box Revels
      • Issue 12 - Where You Live
      • Issue 11 - Tudor & Stuart
      • Issue 10 - End of Era 1912
      • Issue 9 - Health & Leisure
      • Issue 8 - Farming & Rural
      • Issue 7 - Manufacturing
      • Issue 6 - Celebrations
      • Issue 5 - Victorian Centre
      • Issue 4 - Slump after WW1
      • Issue 3 - Great War 1914-18
      • Issue 2 - 1950s & 1960s
      • Issue 1 - 1920s
    • Index By Author
    • Partner Sites & Book Reviews
    • Currency Converter
  • People
  • Places
  • General
  • Series
    • Northeys >
      • Early Family
      • World of the Northeys
      • Unpaid Bill: Smith & Northey
      • Family Tree
      • George Wilbraham
      • Life in Box
      • George Edward
      • Safe & Steady Son
      • Army Life
      • Theatrical Events
      • Rolls-Royce Pioneer
      • Northey Donkey Cart
      • Other Children
      • Later Family
      • Selling Up
      • Northey Legacy
    • Box School Series >
      • Box Charity School
      • Formation of Box Schools
      • Schools WW1 to WW2
      • Box Schools, 1920s
      • Boys' School, 1927
      • Evacuee Schoolboy 1941
      • Box School 1945-83
      • Class of 1954
    • Box Farms >
      • Weavern Farm and Mill
      • Old Jockey Farm
      • Hill House Farm
      • Coles Farm
    • Box Library Project
    • NATS Trails >
      • Heritage Trails 2019
      • Conservation Areas
      • Box NATS Trails 2018
      • Alcombe and Shockerwick
      • Mills on Box Brook
      • Saxon Footpaths
      • New History Trails 2017
      • Roman Road
      • Box Hill Trail
      • Georgian Middlehill
      • History Trails 2016
      • Mad House
      • Thomas Railway
      • Market Place Origins
    • Prehistory >
      • Kingsdown's Menhir Secrets
    • Roman >
      • Early History Hoard
      • Roman Road Finds
      • Ancient Discovery
      • Roman Mosaics in Box
    • Early Medieval
    • Feudal >
      • Magna Carta in Box
      • Monk's Tale
      • Norman Conquest of Box
      • Tracing Bartholomew Bigod
      • When it Rained and Rained
    • Late Medieval
    • Tudor & Stuart >
      • Box in Civil War 1642 - 51
      • Wolf Hall and Box
      • Marsh Family
      • People during Civil War
      • Original Box Revels
      • Tudor Local Government
      • Ordinary People
      • Religion in Box, 1475-1660
      • Where You Live in 1626 >
        • Ashley
        • Central Box
        • Ditteridge
        • Hatt, Old Jockey and Blue Vein
        • Hazelbury
        • Henley and Washwells
        • Kingsdown
        • Middlehill
        • Rudloe
      • Hugh Speke Shaped Box
      • Walter Bushnell
      • Reformation in Box, 1535
      • Ten Tudor & Stuart Mansions
      • Death at Thomas à Becket >
        • For Whom Box Bell Tolled
      • Tudor & Stuart Timeline
      • John Aubrey's Box
    • Georgian >
      • Napoleon versus Box
      • Revolutionary Times
      • Coaches in 1830
      • Agricultral Census 1803
      • Tithe Apportionment
      • Slavery Families
      • Mullins Family, Schoolmasters
      • Box Churchyard
      • Sheridan's Duel
      • Tree of Life at Middlehill
      • Box's Highwayman
      • 1752: Very Odd Year
      • Witches, Quakers and Chapels
      • The New Road, 1761
      • Vulgarity in Box
      • Rebuilding the Village
      • Speke Family
      • Georgian People
      • Georgian Timeline
    • Rail & Quarry >
      • Crane 57
      • Railway Men Remembered
      • Old Clay Pipe
      • Recalling Box Quarries >
        • Oily Series
      • Quarrymen and their Families
      • Built in Stoneyards
      • Quarries in 2000
      • Single Ticket
      • Trainspotting in Box
      • Light Through Box Tunnel >
        • More Light on Tunnel
        • Brunel Myth
        • Sunrise at Box Tunnel
      • Marl at Middlehill
      • James Moodey
      • Railway Staff in Box
      • Impact of Railways
      • Vivash Follow-up
      • Underground Quarries
      • Lambert's Stoneyard
      • Cranes at Work
      • Railway Policeman
      • Terror in Tunnels
      • Vivash Family
      • Railway Buildings and More
      • Why Railways Came to Box
      • Box in 1830
      • Building Box Tunnel
      • Boxing and Quarrymen >
        • More Jem Mace
      • Clift Quarry Steam Loco
      • Timeline 1830 - 1870
      • Trial Shaft
      • Underbridges
    • Late Victorian >
      • Edwardian Love Story
      • Northey Estate Sale 1912-1923
      • Box Fete & Friendly Societies
      • Methodism in Box
      • George Reeves, Quarryman Ganger
      • Dipsomania in Box
      • 1870 Start of Era
      • Victorian Farming
      • Ashley Leigh
      • Steam Mill and Cottages
      • Class Division
      • Grove Inn
      • Box House
      • Celebrations >
        • Jubilee Mug 1887
      • Parish Magazine History
      • Postcards of Box >
        • Postcard Solved
      • Skeate, Speck and Ponting
      • 1899 A Year of Festivities
      • Valens Terrace
      • Village Outings >
        • Excitement for Outings
        • Cycling Craze
      • Timeline 1840 to now
      • Local Pubs
    • Great War >
      • Photos 2014
      • Cecil Lambert's War
      • VAD Working Parties
      • After the War
      • Box School Research
      • School WW1 Projects
      • List of Servicemen
      • Embroideries
      • In Memoriam
      • Never Forgotten
      • Where They Lived
      • Christmas 1913 and 1914
      • Children in WW1
      • Neighbour Against Neighbour
      • Home & Far Away
      • Finding Private Hall
      • Box Before the War
    • Inter War Years >
      • Shops in 1920s
      • Fascism
      • Sports Day 1931
    • WW2 Index >
      • Land Girl Remembers
      • World War 2 Scrapbook
      • Box in 1943
      • Aircraft Factories
      • D Day Implications, 1944
      • Peace
      • VE Day 1945
      • After the War
      • Epitaph to WW2
      • Wartime Memories
      • Wartime People
      • Bath Blitz 1942
      • Invasion Threat 1942
      • Children in War
      • Air Raids on Box
      • Military Camps
      • Royal Visits
      • Your WW2 Tributes
      • Dunkirk Evacuation
      • Box Home Guard >
        • Home Guard Names
      • Life at Home
      • Evacuee Children
      • Village & Ammunitions Depot
      • Memories of WW2
      • In Service at Home
      • At War
      • Lead up to War
      • Servicemen & Women
      • Timeline 1939-45
      • VE Day Remembered
      • Dennis Moss >
        • Hazelbury Air Crash
        • Air Crash Wreath
        • Flight Crew Lost
        • Graham Brayshaw
      • Evacuated From Belgium
      • WW2 Resting Place
      • Sherman Tank Disaster
    • Modern >
      • Modern Art
      • Centre of Commerce
      • Shoe Sculpture >
        • Stiletto Sculpture
      • Characters in 1940s
      • Teenage Rebels, 1960s
      • Swingin Sixties or Not?
      • A Box Childhood
      • Box People from 1950s
      • Shops in 1950 Box
      • Box in 1950s
      • Village in 1950s
      • Summer of 1959
      • reCollections
      • Residents After the War
      • Coach Trips 1950s
      • Never Had It So Good !
  • Contact
    • Blog
    • Q&A
Picture

Valens Terrace


November 2014

Information and photographs provided by Hugh Sawyer, whose ancestors built the terrace.


Left: The terrace in course of construction, adding number 1.

Have you ever wondered about the row of houses at Valens Terrace? They are just down from the Selwyn Hall and are completely different to every other house in the village. This story tells how and why they were built.

We know a great deal about Valens Terrace because it was developed by a local man John Hardy, son of Charles Hardy, one of Box's earliest postmasters.[1]
Picture
John Hardy
John Hardy (1842 - 1927) was a local businessman, who ran a grocer's shop on the High Street. The building is still there, now called Hardy House (formerly the Comrades Legion Club). Have you noticed the family name carved in the top of the pillars?

He bought two plots of land in 1897 to the north of the Vicarage, including the Valens Terrace site and what is now part of The Wilderness grounds.[2]

John Hardy was a well-known person in the county of Wiltshire. His local reputation arose because it was he who uncovered the extent of the Roman Villa remains in Box. He was mentioned in a document produced by the nationally-renowned restoration architect and archaeologist, Harold Brakspear, in 1904.[3]

Brakspear was an important conservationist working on Bath Abbey, Windsor Castle and locally at Lacock Abbey and Great Chalfield Manor. And, of course, it was due to his efforts that St Thomas à Becket was restored in 1896.


Valens Terrace was named after a coin found during the excavation, which had on it the head of the Roman Emperor Valens (364 - 378).[4] [Incidentally, how do you pronounce Valens? In previous times residents used the correct pronunciation Vale-lens which has now modified to Vallance. There is another story to be told about how standard English has replaced the local Wiltshire dialects.]
John Hardy was far from being a cynical property developer. He was one of the original trustees of the Methodist Chapel in Box (opened 1897) and his obituary records that during the excavations he supplied tools and refreshments to encourage free workers in order that costs could be reduced.[5] It was John Hardy's son-in-law, Frank Sawyer, who actually undertook the building of the terrace. Frank was born in 1869, and married Elizabeth Hardy in 1894. They first lived in number 2 (as shown in the 1911 census), then in number 1, when it was added.
PictureFrank's son, Hubert (aka Bunno) Sawyer, around 1920. See the jagged bricks, on the left for the addition of number 1.
Building the Terrace
We can trace when and how the terrace was built from later documents. The Conveyance on the death of Frank Sawyer's widow, Elizabeth, in 1962, reads:

Upwards of thirty years ago the dwelling house Number 1 Valens Terrace was erected to the South of Number 2 Valens Terrace as a continuation of the Terrace on part of the land delineated in the plan drawn on a Conveyance dated 7th June 1897 made between Jane Elliott of the one part and the said John Hardy of the other part.



Picture
Plans from 1897 conveyance
Picture
The Terrace when it comprised only five houses
We can be satisfied that the land was purchased by John Hardy in 1897 from Jane Elliott but it was developed piecemeal, the build date of number 1 being somewhat later possibly just before 1932.

A local anecdote has it that bricks were used because they had been left over from Box Tunnel. If this is true it is likely that this was the 1906 re-roofing work of the eastern section rather than the original brickwork in the western section in 1841
.

In the plan above, the upper part is the Valens Terrace site and the lower part is where the Roman remains were found and which is now part of The Wilderness.

Picture
Conclusion

The houses at Valens Terrace are unique in the village, built in brick rather than the usual local Box stone. This wasn't just an accident.

They were built to be a fashion statement by John Hardy. They are working class properties befitting his Methodist beliefs.

These houses are stunningly original in the village, reflecting Hardy's Edwardian principles of a modern society for new, educated workers in Box, whilst venerating the village's inheritance of classical history.


Above: The Sawyer children sitting on top of number 2 before 1920 are: Back: Herbert, Hubert and Gilbert and Front: Doris (Barnett), Muriel (Rumming) and Florence Amy (Miller).
References
[1] The details and photos here have been kindly supplied by Hugh Sawyer
[2] Mark Corney, The Roman Villa at Box, 2012, Kobra Trust, p.21, 23
and 26
[3] Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History magazine, 1904
[4] Box WI
pamphlet
[5]
Bath Chronicle December 1927
Back to Issue 5
Back to Victorian Index