Woodland View and Rosebank, Devizes Road Research John Wilson March 2025
Early photograph of Devizes Road (courtesy Box Parish Council)
Woodland View and Rosebank are similar cottages, both detached stone-built properties on the Devizes Road in the Box Conservation Area. They were built in 1893 and 1894 respectively with a double front expressing their status as middle-class houses of distinction with an entrance hall, living room, kitchen and two bedrooms and a substantial garden in the rear. Until now, we have not been able to explain how and why the properties were built but, thanks to the family archives of John Wilson, we are now able to fill in these gaps.
Devizes Road Turnpiked
The Devizes Road was constructed as a turnpike road over a ten-year period after 1831. It was intended to provide direct access from Melksham and Devizes into Box and ultimately to Bath. Because of contours in the hillside of the area, the road required excavating and embanking at different sections, all of which is still evident today on the waysides. This made it difficult to develop properties along the route, although the Toll House was built at this time to collect tolls and the Lamb Inn may have existed already as an outlying property at Pye Corner. This situation suddenly altered after nearly 50 years with the will of the Epsom branch of the Northey family who owned the land.
The Devizes Road was constructed as a turnpike road over a ten-year period after 1831. It was intended to provide direct access from Melksham and Devizes into Box and ultimately to Bath. Because of contours in the hillside of the area, the road required excavating and embanking at different sections, all of which is still evident today on the waysides. This made it difficult to develop properties along the route, although the Toll House was built at this time to collect tolls and the Lamb Inn may have existed already as an outlying property at Pye Corner. This situation suddenly altered after nearly 50 years with the will of the Epsom branch of the Northey family who owned the land.
1844-1888 map showing plot 396 (courtesy Know Your Place)
Building Rosebank and Woodland View
On his death in 1878 Edward Richard Northey of Epsom left an annuity of £100 a year to each of his daughters, Harriett Isabella Ross and Agnes Constance Northey, payable out of the London rents from the Northey Trust. This arrangement changed when the co-trustee William Brook Northey died on 10 July 1880 and lands in Box and Ditteridge were acquired by George Wilbraham Northey in exchange for other Northey lands in London.[1] At this point the two annuities became payable from the Box lands. To fund the bequests, George Wilbraham granted building rights on plots of land on the Devizes Road, numbered 396, in return for the payment of annual ground rents.
The plot nearest the Lamb Inn (later called Rosebank) was granted to William John Sawyer, stone mason working for the Bath Stone Firms, on 22 October 1894.[2] The grant authorised him to construct a house on the plot subject to the payment of a ground rent of £2.6s per annum. He appears to have built the house as a speculative development and sold it shortly thereafter to the Batterbury family., who later bought the ground rent from the Northeys, which enabled them to own the property outright.
The second plot (later called Woodland View) was sold to William George Burton, mason, in return for payment of a similar annual ground rent on 11 December 1893.[3] Burton built the house. He kept the freehold reversion of the plot as an investment until August 1930 when he sold it to William’s daughter, Helen Batterbury.[4]
The land was subject to the restriction that it should not be the site of a steam engine nor the business of a public house keeper, beer house keeper, retailer of beer, cider, wine spiritous liquors. William Burton was free to build on the site at his own expense but was obliged to keep any buildings on the site in good repair and to insure them. The Northeys kept the freehold reversion on the land and received an income from the site which had previously been wasteland.
On his death in 1878 Edward Richard Northey of Epsom left an annuity of £100 a year to each of his daughters, Harriett Isabella Ross and Agnes Constance Northey, payable out of the London rents from the Northey Trust. This arrangement changed when the co-trustee William Brook Northey died on 10 July 1880 and lands in Box and Ditteridge were acquired by George Wilbraham Northey in exchange for other Northey lands in London.[1] At this point the two annuities became payable from the Box lands. To fund the bequests, George Wilbraham granted building rights on plots of land on the Devizes Road, numbered 396, in return for the payment of annual ground rents.
The plot nearest the Lamb Inn (later called Rosebank) was granted to William John Sawyer, stone mason working for the Bath Stone Firms, on 22 October 1894.[2] The grant authorised him to construct a house on the plot subject to the payment of a ground rent of £2.6s per annum. He appears to have built the house as a speculative development and sold it shortly thereafter to the Batterbury family., who later bought the ground rent from the Northeys, which enabled them to own the property outright.
The second plot (later called Woodland View) was sold to William George Burton, mason, in return for payment of a similar annual ground rent on 11 December 1893.[3] Burton built the house. He kept the freehold reversion of the plot as an investment until August 1930 when he sold it to William’s daughter, Helen Batterbury.[4]
The land was subject to the restriction that it should not be the site of a steam engine nor the business of a public house keeper, beer house keeper, retailer of beer, cider, wine spiritous liquors. William Burton was free to build on the site at his own expense but was obliged to keep any buildings on the site in good repair and to insure them. The Northeys kept the freehold reversion on the land and received an income from the site which had previously been wasteland.
Funding the Purchases
It might seem strange to us that a gardener should have the financial resources to speculate in property, but this is to misunderstand both the status of landscape gardeners at the time and the education that William Batterbury received. The role of gardeners was to design, propagate, and cultivate the estate land of middle-class wealthy residents, anxious to use the novelty of their gardens to emphasise their status as gentlemen and ladies. William Batterbury was a highly educated man with a shrewd, financial brain. His school exercise books are full of mathematical questions and answers, all written out in an immaculate, flowing Georgian script. The simplest of the questions was:
Distribute £12.10s among a number of poor people, giving each man a shilling, each woman a sixpence, and each child a fourpenny piece. How many were there of each, there being an equal number of each. Answer 7 of each and proof of calculation given.
With this background, it appears that William Batterbury had already acquired a significant property portfolio based on the family home at Bathford, where he owned two cottages. He had borrowed £80 as a mortgage from Thomas Evill, publican of Bathford, to fund the purchase.[5] It is probable that William used his cottage assets to help fund his new acquisitions of the Box properties. But he did not own the Box houses outright because the owner of the land, the Northey family, retained the freehold reversion of the land itself, whilst William’s asset was only the building standing on it.
Following the deaths of George Wilbraham and Louisa Northey in 1906 and 1907 respectively, the Northey’s Box lands were deeply mortgaged for sums listed as £14,800, £12,500 and £2,000. Repeated references to the Estate Duty Office imply that the family was struggling to pay estate duty to the government of sums such as £1,824, £170 and £304.[6] The name of the mortgagor is not specified but it is probable that it was either another family member or a Northey family trust. In 1913 the Box heir, George Edward Northey, and his son George Evelyn Anson Northey, were obliged to sell the ground rent of Woodland View (and with it the ultimate freehold) to George Bevan Jones, post office overseer in Bath, for £50.[7] In 1927 he sold it to William George Burton, groundsman (installer of footings) of Golders Green, London for the sum of £46 who then had full entitlement to the property at Woodland View.[8]
It might seem strange to us that a gardener should have the financial resources to speculate in property, but this is to misunderstand both the status of landscape gardeners at the time and the education that William Batterbury received. The role of gardeners was to design, propagate, and cultivate the estate land of middle-class wealthy residents, anxious to use the novelty of their gardens to emphasise their status as gentlemen and ladies. William Batterbury was a highly educated man with a shrewd, financial brain. His school exercise books are full of mathematical questions and answers, all written out in an immaculate, flowing Georgian script. The simplest of the questions was:
Distribute £12.10s among a number of poor people, giving each man a shilling, each woman a sixpence, and each child a fourpenny piece. How many were there of each, there being an equal number of each. Answer 7 of each and proof of calculation given.
With this background, it appears that William Batterbury had already acquired a significant property portfolio based on the family home at Bathford, where he owned two cottages. He had borrowed £80 as a mortgage from Thomas Evill, publican of Bathford, to fund the purchase.[5] It is probable that William used his cottage assets to help fund his new acquisitions of the Box properties. But he did not own the Box houses outright because the owner of the land, the Northey family, retained the freehold reversion of the land itself, whilst William’s asset was only the building standing on it.
Following the deaths of George Wilbraham and Louisa Northey in 1906 and 1907 respectively, the Northey’s Box lands were deeply mortgaged for sums listed as £14,800, £12,500 and £2,000. Repeated references to the Estate Duty Office imply that the family was struggling to pay estate duty to the government of sums such as £1,824, £170 and £304.[6] The name of the mortgagor is not specified but it is probable that it was either another family member or a Northey family trust. In 1913 the Box heir, George Edward Northey, and his son George Evelyn Anson Northey, were obliged to sell the ground rent of Woodland View (and with it the ultimate freehold) to George Bevan Jones, post office overseer in Bath, for £50.[7] In 1927 he sold it to William George Burton, groundsman (installer of footings) of Golders Green, London for the sum of £46 who then had full entitlement to the property at Woodland View.[8]
Present appearance of Rosebank (courtesy Carol Payne)
Batterbury Ownership at Rosebank
William Batterbury (1845-) lived at Rosebank next door to Woodland View with his family from the date it was built in 1893. It is probable that they acquired the whole of the leasehold and freehold of Rosebank from the outset but that is unproven. His daughter Helen came back to Box before the Great War and, when William’s wife Mary Ann died in 1917, Helen looked after her father. She was keen to invest in the area and in 1930 she bought the ownership of Woodland View for £570.[9] William died on 31 January 1933, leaving a considerable sum valued at £1,749.14s.7d (today worth £90,000) but no will. His estate included the two Devizes Road houses, three cottages in Bathford called Yeeles Cottages, and two cottages in Church Street, Bathford. The family were on good terms and arranged a settlement of the properties between them in 1933.
Helen did not survive her father for long, dying suddenly on 1 July 1935, aged 60. She left Rosebank and Woodland View to her eldest brother William Herbert Batterbury and two cottages in Church Street, Bathford known as The Hill, to her younger brother Ernest Thomas. The rest of her estate went to her four nieces who sold Yeeles Cottages in 1936. William Herbert Batterbury sold Rosebank to Richard George Browning on 25 November 1954 but kept Woodland View.[10]
William Batterbury (1845-) lived at Rosebank next door to Woodland View with his family from the date it was built in 1893. It is probable that they acquired the whole of the leasehold and freehold of Rosebank from the outset but that is unproven. His daughter Helen came back to Box before the Great War and, when William’s wife Mary Ann died in 1917, Helen looked after her father. She was keen to invest in the area and in 1930 she bought the ownership of Woodland View for £570.[9] William died on 31 January 1933, leaving a considerable sum valued at £1,749.14s.7d (today worth £90,000) but no will. His estate included the two Devizes Road houses, three cottages in Bathford called Yeeles Cottages, and two cottages in Church Street, Bathford. The family were on good terms and arranged a settlement of the properties between them in 1933.
Helen did not survive her father for long, dying suddenly on 1 July 1935, aged 60. She left Rosebank and Woodland View to her eldest brother William Herbert Batterbury and two cottages in Church Street, Bathford known as The Hill, to her younger brother Ernest Thomas. The rest of her estate went to her four nieces who sold Yeeles Cottages in 1936. William Herbert Batterbury sold Rosebank to Richard George Browning on 25 November 1954 but kept Woodland View.[10]
Woodland View (courtesy Carol Payne)
Story of Woodland View
Woodland View had a much lower valuation than Rosebank because it was occupied by protected tenants, Doug and Dolly Taylor. They started tenanting the property in 1930 from Helen Batterbury at first with no electricity, no hot water system and coal fires for heating. In 1973 Doug argued that the fair rent he was being asked to pay of £7 per week was far too high and suggested £5.[11] He wrote that he had a shed built by Miss Batterbury in 1932 and a greenhouse erected by him in 1953. The shed was used to store straw for poultry during the Second World War, which they kept supplementing their food rations. After Dolly’s death in 1991, the tenancy was taken over by Rev Thomas Selwyn-Smith until his demise in December 2003. In 2004 Woodland View was valued at £230,000 and afterwards let to Andy and Cindy Jackson.
Meanwhile the freehold of Woodland View passed down through the generations of the Batterbury family, whose full family story was in the last issue.[12] Helen left it to her brother William Herbert, then to his wife Rebecca White Batterbury in 1963. When she died two years later, it passed to their daughters, Evelyn May and Freda.
Woodland View had a much lower valuation than Rosebank because it was occupied by protected tenants, Doug and Dolly Taylor. They started tenanting the property in 1930 from Helen Batterbury at first with no electricity, no hot water system and coal fires for heating. In 1973 Doug argued that the fair rent he was being asked to pay of £7 per week was far too high and suggested £5.[11] He wrote that he had a shed built by Miss Batterbury in 1932 and a greenhouse erected by him in 1953. The shed was used to store straw for poultry during the Second World War, which they kept supplementing their food rations. After Dolly’s death in 1991, the tenancy was taken over by Rev Thomas Selwyn-Smith until his demise in December 2003. In 2004 Woodland View was valued at £230,000 and afterwards let to Andy and Cindy Jackson.
Meanwhile the freehold of Woodland View passed down through the generations of the Batterbury family, whose full family story was in the last issue.[12] Helen left it to her brother William Herbert, then to his wife Rebecca White Batterbury in 1963. When she died two years later, it passed to their daughters, Evelyn May and Freda.
The cost of property in Britain in the last 50 years has distorted the wealth of householders. The Northey family thought that ground rents would provide a secure and stable income but that was ruined by inflation. The Batterbury family raised a fixed mortgage and gambled that the value of the building would increase. They were partly correct but the value of Woodland View and Rosebank differed greatly. In 1983 Rosebank was valued at £35,000 with vacant possession, whereas Woodland View had a much lower value with a protected tenant.
References
[1] Abstract of Title of Woodland View
[2] Grant of a Plot of Land, 22 October 1894
[3] Grant of a Plot of Land, 11 December 1893
[4] Conveyance, 5 August 1930
[5] Will of William Batterbury, junior
[6] Abstract of Title of George Edward Northey, 1912
[7] Conveyance, 7 January 1913
[8] Conveyance, 30 July 1927
[9] Conveyance, 5 August 1930
[10] Assent in the estate of Miss Helen Batterbury dec’d, 27 November 1935
[11] Letter by DW Taylor, 23 May 1973
[12] Batterbury Family
[1] Abstract of Title of Woodland View
[2] Grant of a Plot of Land, 22 October 1894
[3] Grant of a Plot of Land, 11 December 1893
[4] Conveyance, 5 August 1930
[5] Will of William Batterbury, junior
[6] Abstract of Title of George Edward Northey, 1912
[7] Conveyance, 7 January 1913
[8] Conveyance, 30 July 1927
[9] Conveyance, 5 August 1930
[10] Assent in the estate of Miss Helen Batterbury dec’d, 27 November 1935
[11] Letter by DW Taylor, 23 May 1973
[12] Batterbury Family