Although now there is only one address for where we live, originally the plot it now occupies contained 2 “1 down-2 up” cottages. In the early 1950s the owner of the main building demolished the rather charming looking thatched cottage next door and reused its foudation layout to extend the main cottage.
Despite it’s age there have been relatively few actual owners of or cottage (actually cottages), as for the majority of their existance they have been occupied by tennants working in local businesses – usually the granite quarry.
For clarity, street numbers were only introduced into the village in 1921 – everyone probably knew where everybody else lived before that – but for ease we now refer to each property by their later number.
The owners of both houses
| # | Dates | Owner of #23 and #25 | Price paid (if known) |
| 1 | Pre-1841 to Jun 1922 | Lord Lanesborough’s Estate | – |
| 2 | Jun 1922 to 1949 | Elizabeth Barrs | £120 (both houses) |
| 3 | 1949 to 1952 | Douglas Vernon Bradshaw | £380 (both houses) |
| 4 | 1952 to 1986 | William Bernard Bradshaw | £430 (both houses) Demolised #25 & Extended #23 |
| 5 | Jul 1988 to Sep 2004 | Names redacted as still living | £80,000 (combined house) |
| 6 | Sep 2004 to Apr 2015 | Names redacted as still living | £240,000 (combined house) |
| 7 | Apr 2015 to Aug 2015 | Unkown owner (renovated and sold for rental) | £240,000 (combined house) |
| 8 | Aug 2015 – Apr 2020 | Unkown owner (rented out property) | £320,000 (combined house) |
| 9 | Apr 2020 to Apr 2024 | Names redacted as still living | £330,000 (combined house) |
| 10 | Apr 2024 onward | Us 🙂 | £350,000 (combined house) |
The first owner and probably also the builder is Lord Lanesborough (and if the house is early 19th century as we believe , this would be either Robert Herbert Butler, 3rd Earl of Lanesborough or his son Brinsley Butler, 4th Earl of Lanesborough), who built this along with several other properties for his workers. The properties remained in the Lanesborough estate until 1923 when they was sold as a pair by Charles John Brinsley Butler, 7th of Earl Lanesborough to Elizabeth Barrs for £120.
Elizabeth Barrs continued to rent the properties out to the tenants already staying in them, but ultimately sold them on again in 1949 to Douglas Vernon Bradshaw (son of the Lanesborough estate’s tax collector) for £380. He continued renting out the property for 4 years before selling it to his brother in 1952 for £430 after the final tenants were allocated a newly built council house in town. This ended the first period of of the property’s rental history.
His brother, William Bernard Bradshaw, was well known for growing prize winning flowers and to acheive this fame he set up a couple of very large greenhouses at the top of the garden, he also kept bantams, goats and stabling for a pony!
Bernard Bradshaw stayed on in the property raising his son and a daughter until he passed away in 1986. The house was then picked up for about £80,000 by the next owners who landscaped the garden to remove all traces of the chicken sheds, stables and greenhouses that were still there into something close to what we have today – From here on we’ll skip names as they are all the following residents are still alive as far as we know.
Six more sales happened after Bernard Bradshaw’s tenure in 1988, 2005, 2015 (twice), 2020 and 2024 with the third and forth of these buying the property as a buy-to-let and then renting out the place out on a series of 1 year rental agreements until 2020; our stewardship started in 2024 and the drama started!
The Gardens
A notable feature of our propertiy is the extensive lands oposite the house, these are shown in the 1816 “Watkinson Map” above and have been represented on every Ordnance Survey map since. The Watkinson map shows it split into 4 sections, corresponding to the number the houses oposite, this we assume shows land allocated to each house by the owner/builder of the houses as an allotment.
This land was purchased from the Lanesborough estate in 1958 and subsequently attached to the land registry entry for our house. It contains a few interesting covenants (which are a common thing to come across in this area)
“will not convert use or occupy nor permit to be converted used or occupied the said piece of land or any building or structures thereon or any part thereof into for the killing of any livestock or as a slaughterhouse or as a place for the manufacture or sale of any intoxicating licquor or of public entertainmant or instruction or public worship or as a club or for the erection of petrol pumps”.
So there went our plans for a bring your own fresh bbq and brewhouse petrol station with adjoining chapel and nightclub 😉
The residents of #23
| Pre-1841 to c1851 | John Landon – Agricultural Labourer | Ann Landon | |
| Pre-1841 to c1851 | Susannah Branson (Widow) – Lace Runner | 6 Children | |
| c1851 to 1905 | John Harriman – Quarryman | Jane Harriman (ne.Rudkin) | 11 Children |
| 1905 to 1928 | John Perkins – Farrier at quarry | Mary Ann Perkins (ne.Harriman – daughter of previous residents) | |
| 1921 | Harry Nix – Quarriman Getter | Annie Nix (ne.Burrows) | (Boarder) |
| 1929 to 1930 | John Bond | Rhoda Bond (ne.Smith) | 2 Children |
| 1931 to c1937 | John William Elliot – Driver for Clarke’s Boxes | Eveline Elliot (ne.Raven) | 1 Child |
| c1937 to 1952 | William Neal Oliver – Sewage Farm Worker & Special Constable | Sarah J Elliot (ne.Towell) | 1 Child |
| 1952 to 1986 | William Bernard Bradshaw | Erika Anna Bradshaw (ne.Ehrenwald) | 2 Children |
| 1988 to 2004 | Owner #5 | Names redacted as still living | |
| 2004 to 2015 | Owner #6 | Names redacted as still living | |
| 2015 to 2016 | Private tennant #1 | Names redacted as still living | |
| 2016 to 2017 | Private tennant #2 | Names redacted as still living | |
| 2017 to 2018 | Private tennant #3 | Names redacted as still living | |
| 2018 to 2019 | Private tennant #4 | Names redacted as still living | |
| 2019 to 2020 | Private tennant #5 | Names redacted as still living | |
| 2020 to 2024 | Owner #9 | Names redacted as still living | |
| Apr 2024 onward | Us 🙂 |
The residents of #25
| Pre-1841 to 1869 | John Wordle/Wardle – Agricultural Labourer | Ann Wordle/Wardle (ne.Geary) | 7 Children | |
| 1870 to 1914 | William Statham | Louisa Statham (ne.Wardle – daughter of previous residents) Widow after 1887 | ||
| 1915 to 1922 | Ernest Gilbert Page | Harriet Page (ne.Street – daughter of family at #31) | ||
| 1923 to 1924 | Arthur Taylor | Henrietta Taylor | ||
| 1925 to 1928 | Albert Edward Smith | |||
| 1928 to mid 1930s | John Perkins | Mary Ann Perkins | Moved from #23 | |
| Mid 1930s to early 1940s | Vincent Cook | Evelyn Cook | ||
| Early 1940s to Aug 1950 | Charles Young |