New instruction in Weston Park, Bath

Ground floor two double bedroom two bathroom apartment with award winning private garden and two private parking spaces. Located just above the Botanical Gardens, this gorgeous 1044sqft home has the expected high ceilings and period features plus a conservatory, private entrance and extensive communal grounds. A truly rare opportunity to live in such a peaceful spot yet be under a mile walk through Royal Victoria Park to the city. Interactive floor plan now available at http://content.metropix.co.uk/p/3777930

Meriden House was built on land leased from the Hospital of St John in 1793 and was originally under the auspice of Walcot Parish. The St Johns Hospitallers had leased the land from the early 1700′s to the Atwood family and, when the time came for renewal in 1790, the land was parcelled into five one acre plots. Henry Atwood built Ormond Place (now Ormond Lodge) in 1793, then began Cranhill House and Ormond Villa (renamed Meriden House in 1898).
The Atwood family were Weston locals. Thomas Atwood was a plumber by trade but  was also a City Councillor and Mayor of Bath. Given his political connections, he was routinely appointed City Architect for many Bath Corporation projects (including the Paragon, Oxford Row, the Guildhall and Grove St Gaol). He was killed during the collapse of a derelict building in 1775 and his apprentice (Thomas Baldwin) carried on his work. Thomas’s son, Henry (a Bath surgeon) took the leases of the Weston Road properties in question.
Ormond Villa had a name change to Meriden House under the ownership of Colonel Tredway Clarke, who took over the property in 1898. Born in Bangalore and a commander of the Madras based 21st Native Infantry, Colonel Clarke occupied Meriden until his death in 1924.

Having merited several Bath in Bloom awards over the years, the private gardens to Flat 3 are a delight and the subject of many years of love and attention from our clients. Accessed either by side gate from the communal driveway, from the master bedroom or from the rear conservatory, the gardens stretch across the entire northern boundary of the house and look out over the communal gardens at one end. Bounded by walls to the north and east. Several outbuildings to include two summerhouses and a shed. Primarily paving and borders for ease of maintenance, with seating areas interspersed amongst the planting.
The rear boundary wall pre-dates the property and has several carved niches along its length, as well as evidence of a doorway. Research from the Bath Historical Society would suggest a chapel once stood on this site, used by monks from the Bath Priory on their way from and to the sheep fields of Lansdown.

History of Oldfield Park road names

Oldfield Park is an area of Bath rarely featured in the city’s history. “In the late 19th century, there was a building boom in Bath to rival the activity in the Regency period. At the time, the city council was involved in improving civic amenities so private investment in speculative building financed extensive suburban housing developments. Desirable detached and semi detached residences on the outskirts of the city centre were widely advertised in the 1880′s and 1890′s” (taken from The History of Bath by Graham Davis & Penny Bonsall). “During the late 18th century Bath changed from “a genteel spa town to a place of commerce and industry” (Bath – Michael Forsyth). The farm fields of the lower southern slopes of the city started to be covered over by housing from 1873 (Upper Oldfield Park villas) and continued through the 1880′s (Oldfield Park became a “popular location for meeting the housing needs of Bath’s railway and Post Office clerks” – Davis & Bonsall). The name “Oldfield Park” is taken from the road names of what is now Upper and Lower Oldfield Park – at the time of building, the rest of the area came under various sub districts of the Twerton ward.

Having always been fascinated by the origins of road names, some exploration of the more local roads to our Oldfield Park office has led to the following postulations. There are certainly some potential themes identifiable –for example places of worship, standing stones, Roman settlement and the American Civil War – that tie some of the names together. Equally, there are road names seemingly completely unconnected to neighbouring addresses. It is quite possible that the builders may well have chosen names peculiar to their interests at the time! Anyway, see what you think of our findings and do let us know your thoughts.

We have not included information on the following roads; King Edward Rd and Coronation Avenue (both built at the time of Edward VII’s succession to the throne), First/Second/Third Avenues, Triangle East/West/North/Villas (too easy and even more obvious when viewed from above!)

 

Shaftesbury Road

Possibly named after Anthony Ashley Cooper, the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury. Lord Shaftesbury became a Tory MP in 1826, and almost immediately became a leader of the movement for factory reform. He was largely responsible for the Factory Acts of 1847 and 1853, as well as the Coal Mines Act of 1842 and the Lunacy Act of 1845. Serving as MP for Bath between 1847 and 1851, Lord Shaftesbury is more popularly commemorated by the Shaftesbury Memorial in Piccadilly Circus, London, erected in 1893, which is crowned by Alfred Gilbert’s aluminium statue of Anteros as a nude, butterfly-winged archer. This is officially titled The Angel of Christian Charity, but has become popularly, if mistakenly, known as Eros.

Alternatively, the road may be named after Shaftesbury in Dorset, one of the oldest and highest towns in England. Shaftesbury, like Bath, is an abbey town.

Winchester Road

Winchester (archaically known as Winton and Wintonceastre) is a historic cathedral city and former capital city of England. It is the county town of Hampshire, in South East England. The city is located at the western end of the South Downs, along the course of the River Itchen. Winchester developed from the Roman town of Venta Belgarum.

Canterbury Road

Canterbury  is an historic English cathedral city in Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour. Originally a Brythonic settlement, it was renamed Durovernum Cantiacorum by the Roman conquerors in the 1st century AD. After it became the chief Jutish settlement, it gained its English name Canterbury, itself derived from the Old English Cantwareburh (“Kent people’s stronghold”). After the Kingdom of Kent’s conversion to Christianity in 597, St Augustine founded an episcopal see in the city and became the first Archbishop of Canterbury. Thomas Becket’s murder at Canterbury Cathedral in 1170 led to the cathedral becoming a place of pilgrimage for Christians worldwide. This pilgrimage provided the theme for Geoffery Chaucer’s 14th-century literary classic The Canterbury Tales. The literary heritage continued with the birth of the playwright Christopher Marlowe in the city in the 16th century.

Arlington Road

There are three villages in the UK called Arlington, of which Arlington in Gloucestershire is known for being the ancestral home of John Custis II, who emigrated to the Colony of Virginia and named his palatial four-story brick mansion (built in 1675) in Northumberland County, Virginia, “Arlington” after this town. Arlington would be abandoned after just 50 years, but the name would be used by his great-great-grandson, George Washington Parke Custis, as the name for his large Arlington Estate on the south shore of the Potomac River near what is now Washington, D.C. Arlington Estate would later be owned by American Civil War General Robert E. Lee (himself a descendant of James I) and today is known as Arlington National Cemetery.

The name is derived from Ar(copper) el(people) ington(fortified village on a hill) so becomes “The people of the copper fortified village on the hill” presumably where copper and bronze were processed.

Livingstone Road

David Livingstone (19 March 1813 – 1 May 1873) was a Scottish Congregationalist pioneer medical missionary with the London Missionary Society and an explorer in Africa. His meeting with H. M. Stanley gave rise to the popular quotation, “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”

Perhaps one of the most popular national heroes of the late 19th century in Victorian Britain, Livingstone had a mythic status, which operated on a number of interconnected levels: that of Protestant missionary martyr, that of working-class “rags to riches” inspirational story, that of scientific investigator and explorer, that of imperial reformer, anti-slavery crusader, and advocate of commercial empire

Stanley Road West

Sir Henry Morton Stanley, GCB, born John Rowlands (28 January 1841 – 10 May 1904), was a Welsh journalist and explorer famous for his exploration of Africa and his search for David Livingstone. Stanley participated reluctantly in the American Civil War, first joining the Confederate Army and fighting in the Battle of Shiloh in 1862. After being taken prisoner he was recruited at Camp Douglas, Illinois by its commander, Col. James A. Mulligan, as a “Galvanized Yankee” and joined the Union Army on 4 June 1862, but was discharged 18 days later due to severe illness. Recovering, he served on several merchant ships before joining the Navy in July 1864. On board the Minnesota he became a record keeper, which led to freelance journalism. Stanley and a junior colleague jumped ship on 10 February 1865 in New Hampshire, in search of greater adventures. Stanley thus became possibly the only man to serve in the Confederate Army, the Union Army, and the Union Navy.

Beckhampton Road

Beckhampton is a village in Wiltshire in the parish of Avebury. The Beckhampton Avenue is a curving prehistoric avenue of stones that ran broadly south west from Avebury towards The Longstones at Beckhampton. It probably dates to the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age.

 St Kildas Road

The archipelago of St Kilda, the remotest part of the British Isles, lies 41 miles (66 kilometres) west of Benbecula in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides. Its islands with their exceptional cliffs and sea stacks form the most important seabird breeding station in north-west Europe. The five islands are called Hirta, Soay, Boreray, Dun and Levenish. There is no saint called Kilda and it is surmised that the islanders pronunciation of Hirta as “Hilta”, leading to misunderstandings with early visitors and misnaming of the islands as “Kilta” or Kilda.

Faulkland Road

The village of Faulkland lies just south of Norton St Philip in Somerset and is the site of several standing stones of unknown origin. Like the Beckhampton Avenue, these stones (two of which have been re-used as mountings for village stocks) may well date from the early Bronze Age. Today’s visitors may also enjoy a trip to Faulkland’s lavender farm.

 Melcombe Road

Melcombe Regis is an area of Weymouth in Dorset, England. Situated on the north shore of Weymouth Harbour and originally part of Radipole, it seems only to have developed as a significant settlement and seaport in the 13th century. It received a charter as a borough in 1268. Melcombe was one of the first points of entry of the Black Death into England in the summer of 1348. (The disease was possibly carried there by infected soldiers and sailors returning from the Hundred Years’ War, or from a visiting spice ship.)The two boroughs, Melcombe on the north shore and Weymouth on the south, were joined as a double borough in 1571, after which time the name Weymouth came to serve for them both. The port was a significant embarcation point for early settlers to the New World. The friary at Melcombe Regis was the last Dominican house established in England in 1418.

Melcombe Horsey (“milk valley well watered place with horses”) parish lies 10 miles North East of Dorchester and is the site of Higher Melcombe Manor, a grade 1 listed manor house of Elizabethan origins (built around 1570 by Sir John Horsey, High Sheriff of Dorset).

 Monksdale Road

Monk’s Dale (a dry tributary valley of the Wye) is a National Nature Reserve in the heart of the Peak District in Derbyshire. A limestone dale rich in wildflowers, this is a popular trekking haunt. The reserve consists of five separate limestone valleys – Lathkill, Cressbrook, Monk’s, Long and Hay.

Ringwood Road

Ringwood is a historic market town and civil parish in Hampshire, England, located on the River Avon, close to the New Forest and north of Bournemouth. It has a history dating back to Anglo-Saxon times, and has held a weekly market since the Middle Ages.

 Ringwood is recorded in a charter of 961, in which King Edgar gave 22 hides of land in Rimecuda to Abingdon Abbey. The name is also recorded in the 10th century as Runcwuda and Rimucwuda. The second element Wuda means a ‘wood’; Rimuc may be derived from Rima meaning ‘border, hence “border wood.” The name may refer to Ringwood’s position on the fringe of the New Forest, or on the border of Hampshire. William Camden in 1607 gave a much more fanciful derivation, claiming that the original name was Regne-wood, the “Regni” (or Regnenses) being an ancient people of Britain.

Lyndhurst Road

The name “Lyndhurst” is an Old English name, meaning ‘Wooded hill growing with lime-trees’. The name comprises the words lind (‘lime-tree’) and hyrst (‘wooded hill’). The village of Lyndhurst in Hampshire is the administrative centre of the New Forest and a royal desmesne dating from 1270.
Lyndhurst Road in Oldfield Park was constructed from 1895 (the first ten even numbered houses). The odd numbered homes were occupied from 1896. The Twerton Co-operative Society had a branch at No’s 16 and 18. The full road, to No54, was completed by 1900.

Millmead Road

The 1839 Twerton on Avon Parish map shows field names in the Oldfield Park area, one of which is Mill Mead. Mead (Middle English mede, from Old English mæd) is a pre 12th century term for meadow. There are numerous watercourses running from the upper slopes of Southdown and, although the parish map does not show a specific building on the field, this would have been a logical spot for a mill given it was at the bottom of the slope and close to the main traffic routes to Twerton village/River Avon.

Crandale Road 

Another mystery potentially solved from the 1839 parish map – A field close to the present day position of Maybrick Road was called “Crandles Field”. Moving forward to the 1880′s, parish maps then show “Crandales Nursery” occupying much of the present day Moorland Road area.

Lost Bath street names

In the course of our historical research on properties, we frequently come across records of Bath street names lost to antiquity. Here are five of our current favourites;

Whitehall Stairs – once on the east side of Cleveland Bridge

Rack Close – recorded by R.E.M Peach as the original name of Milsom Street

Gratious Street – once ran between Broad Street and Walcot Street

Fish Cross Lane – once ran from the High Street to the East Gate

Slippery Lane – now called Boatstall Lane and hidden away next to the Empire

New Year – New instructions Part 3

A very high spec development, completed in 2007 and situated on the southern ridge of Bath off Midford Road. Built by the well respected local developers, Future Heritage, the majority of homes on the development are constructed in gently sweeping crescents. A lot of thought went into the building of these houses and you can certainly see plenty of echoes of Bath’s World Heritage status within this development.

This substantial end of terrace house comprises of; kitchen/dining room, sitting room, WC and study/bedroom 5 on the ground floor. Four upstairs bedrooms (one with en-suite) and master bathroom. Externally there is an enclosed rear garden, as well as a garage which could be developed further.

Once you turn into Kempthorne Lane from Midford Road, follow the road around to the right and in the direction of number 55. Once you turn off to the right, the property will be found on the second row, on your left hand side.

Historical Notes: St Martins Hospital was built between 1836 and 1838 as the Bath Union Workhouse. Model plans were designed by the architect to the Poor Law Commissioners, Samuel Kempthorne, for the City of Bath Architect George P Manners. The unusual hexagonal style of the building with Y shaped wings is only found elsewhere in Britain in Abingdon – another Kempthorne design. The hospital chapel, designed by Manners in a Gothic Revival style, was opened in 1846 and a new lunatic ward added in 1857.

We haven’t seen a property with this much potential for some time and can assure you your imagination will run wild once you’re playing around with the best ways to enhance this family home.
With just over 1300 sq ft of accommodation, this semi-detached home offers; kitchen with door into integrated garage, entrance hallway and 29′ sitting/dining room on the ground floor. Three bedrooms and modern shower room on the first floor. Externally there are two garages and two driveways with hard standing areas for off street parking. Front and rear gardens as well as a side garden which, subject to planning permission, could be extended onto. Certainly liveable as it is with double glazing and gas central heating.

Full details, internal photos and floor plans on our website as always.

New Year – New instructions Part 2

We challenge you to find another Edwardian end of terrace house in Bath offering features to the extent this house does for under £200,000, let alone £190,000. Two double bedrooms and modern bathroom on the first floor, two good sized reception rooms and kitchen on the ground floor. Extra benefits outside to include a GARAGE to front and gardens to rear/side. The property has gas central heating, double glazing and has recently had new carpets, decoration and some further work.

From our office in Moorland Road proceed to Shophouse Lane and just before meeting the main high street, Orchard Terrace will be found on your left hand side. The property is the last house on the end of the terrace.

Historical Notes

Originally listed as built in 1904 and named as Orchard Cottages (most of the land now occupied by Landseer Rd, Highland Rd and Orchard Terrace is shown as orchards and market gardens on various maps of the period), the residents of the first 9 houses to be built included weavers, gardeners, dyers and bricklayers. By 1907, Orchard Cottages comprised of 35 homes, with No9 being occupied by a Mrs Louise Bullin (also listed as Ballin, with neighours at No8 of Mr A Bryant and No10 of Mr J.S Grant). A year later, the row was re-named in directories as No1 – 9 Orchard Terrace which begs the question where did the other 26 houses go? Given address changing was quite common in the early 20th century, it is possible the remaining homes became part of Landseer Rd or Waterloo Buildings.
By 1910, No 9 Orchard Terrace was the home of J.W Anstey, a local plumber, who lived in the house at least until 1961 – a remarkable tenure for any property.

I defy you not to love every inch of this spectacularly beautiful Oldfield Park family home! Three floors of accommodation, with a huge master bedroom in the dormer loft conversion, immaculately presented throughout and tucked away at the bottom of this quiet cul de sac right next to the park. Long rear garden with garage at the end, a total of three double bedrooms, full width kitchen/breakfast room to rear, palatial first floor bathroom, oodles of character – the list goes on and on. Full details and internal photos to follow shortly but, if you’re after a house in Oldfield Park, you’re unlikely to find a better one on the market so book a viewing swiftly.

Historical Notes

Lymore Gardens first appears in Bath street directories in 1907, with No’s 2 through 15 listed. The remainder of the west side houses were built and occupied between 1908 and 1910. The first listing of No30 is in 1927, suggesting the east side houses were either named differently or built considerably later than the homes on the other side of the road. In 1927, No30 was occupied by John Tanner, whose occupation is listed as a compositor (someone who set type into frames for mechanical printing devices – a job that required the ability to read in mirror image, which apparently comes easier to the left handed!). By 1929 the resident was Sidney Albert Tovey, who was followed by Alfred Maylott (an electrical fitter) in 1931.

Chic, convenient and characterful. Classic Bath Georgian grandeur in this exquisite first floor corner building conversion, with 65sqm of perfectly presented accommodation, located in the heart of Lansdown just above the Assembly Rooms and the Circus. Considerably larger than many one floor conversions, average ceiling height 12ft1, views to both sides and a profusion of period detail. Immaculate communal areas with a spectacular cantilever staircase, maintained by a residential management company. Generous 16ft5 x 14ft4 sitting room, two double bedrooms, bathroom, separate W.C and a large kitchen with plenty of space to dine. Residents parking permit on road outside.

From the city centre, proceed up Lansdown Road and turn second left into Bennett St. Turn first right into Russel St and right into Rivers St. The property will be found immediately on your right.

Tenure details

Brunswick House is run by a residential management company. The monthly service management charges for Flat 3 are £55pcm. Each flat has a residue 999yr lease from 1973 whilst the management company holds the freehold.

Historical Notes

Brunswick Place is built on the intersection of the Via Julia ( a Roman road running from Bath to Caerleon in Gwent) and the Fosseway. Developed from the late 1760′s alongside Rivers St by John Wood the Younger (who purchased the land from the Rivers Estate, owned by Sir Peter Rivers Gay), Brunswick Place was built in 1786 and is the last of the adjacent terraces to be constructed (Rivers St built between 1775 and 1786 whilst Montpelier was built in 1770 – 1776). These houses were, for some time, the northernmost boundary of the built up area of the city.
The church opposite (Christ Church Julian Rd, built 1798 by John Palmer) is “the first instance in England of a free church erected primarily for working class families and servants unable to afford pew rents”. The Museum of Bath at Work behind Christ Church is “a rare example of a Royal Tennis Court” and was built in 1777 by Richard Scrase.

Full details, photos and floor plans on our website as always.