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local and General News We can well remember when this garden was an ornament to
Clevedon, and a source of comfort to the visitors-and we must be excused for
telling the truth when we say that never did our Lord of the Manor make a
greater mistake then when he cut up a pretty little spot and made dwelling
sites,- had this garden remained intact, however townified Clevedon might have
become, we should have possessed one pleasant spot pleasing to the eye.' [Never had so quick a volte-face been made before either,
one would think! Nevertheless it must have been a beautiful and fragrant sight
with the apple, plum, and pear blossom showing in the spring and the beds of
Clevedon Violets in bloom across the slopes of the present Gardens Rd. For the
story of the Clevedon Violet read Jean Burrows chapter in 'The Annals of
Clevedon' a series of essays about Clevedon published by the Local History Group
of the Clevedon Civic Society] Hallam Rd., originally to
have been called Osborne Rd. [When the BoH proposed to call it by this name the
local residents took umbrage and put up a sign which they had themselves made
saying 'Hallam Road'. The BoH asked them if they would take this down and then
changed the name] was started by Palmer building Colin House and Campbell House,
from a spur off Victoria Rd. in 1873. Hartree had added Sisson Lodge and
Hughenden by the 1879 rates, with Palmer quickly building up the opposite side.
Firstly with a house for himself and then small villas which he let out.
Hardwidge & Tanner when the road had been adopted built at the Albert Road
end to take it to completion. 1880's Sunnyside Rd. at
the beginning was mostly by Caple. The first house that he built in Sunnyside is
listed in the rates as being in Princes Rd.!. By the 1890's at the other end of
Sunnyside Bernard Horsey had Ashley house built for him by Hardwidge and Tanner;
then later Oreston and Gilcrux. The stretch in the middle meanwhile had been
utilised by John Maynard [son of the Thomas Maynard who built the Regent House
on Hill Road] with Embleton and Ferncliffe, and Shopland who built on the
opposite side Highdale Villa and Hillview.
Queens Rd.
Followed quickly with houses by W.A. Green son of the earlier builder,
Hedges, Bennett, W Shopland, mostly fully built by 1881 - 2 but the houses from
29 up to the top by/for John Cordeux were not built until 1894-6. Madeira Rd.
Thomas Hill, John Norman who built two villas to the same plan as his ones in
St. John's Rd., and some by/for Dawes, mostly finished by 1883 but the top ones
built by Hill in the 1895's. A spur started Coleridge Rd, Caple on the North side &
later Harry Elston who built Swallowcliffe and Strathmore. While another new
road ran up from Old Church Rd. as Hillside Rd. which then had St. John's Avenue
off, with houses by Hedges, Tanner, Shorney, W A Green, by/for Ewing, Lower Queens Rd. where
Green had his yard was built almost entirely by him, extending out from the
dairy farm of Soloman Rich. He also built on the other side of the road 'Rivulet
Terrace'. Running off from Old St.,
and making use of a small orchard; Meadow Rd. or 'Temperance Row' as it was
called in the early days, was built by W Shopland at about this time. Showing as
having been started in the 1881 rates book, by the 1883 rates there were still
many empty houses. Was it because it was only just finished, or because they
could not find enough temperate people to whom they could let the cottages. I
know that my grandfather Edwin Lilly was a tenant there before he moved to
Nailsea with his growing family and became a 'foreigner.'
With the infilling in Old
Church Rd. and Old Street, came also Brighton Terrace, well down in Ken Rd.,
[now long gone 1967] it was built by William Shopland near his small brickyard.
Whilst on the west side of Stroud Rd. the 20 plus houses were built by Willcox
close to his, larger brickyard. St. John's Road in the 1890's had Green, Norman, Shopland
& Hardwidge & Tanner all busy with their building, the latter having at
that time their builders yard where later one of Type's coal yards was, on the
corner of Old Church Rd. & Coleridge Est. In the years 1895 to 1905
Jesmond Rd. was built entirely by Green and his style is well worth a visit, The
terra cotta tiles on the window bays, and the pattern work in the roofing tiles
and slates, show how well plain work can be decorated, without ostentation. Highdale Avenue which was
originally a track to the farm in medieval times, started when the Clevedon
Water Company built Anchor Lodge as a house for their manager, but little else
was done until John and Edmund Shopland built a pair of Semi- detached each in
the late 1890's. Dudden built 1 & 3, W Green the next six whilst on the
other side Thomas hill had 3 pairs of Semi Detached and Henry Tarr continued it
on down. Marson Rd. first started
1897, as the old Clevedon Vicarage gardens were built upon, the houses were
mostly by Coles. Dilke built Treefield Road, for Col Keen in the early 1890's.
It is well worth a look at the two terraces with brick lintels and doorframes.
Would it have been because the new owner had taken over the Conway Warne
Brickyard? There were also in fills in Old Church Rd. and Old Street
and yet more houses in Ken Rd., with the two Shopland Terraces, the three
Garland ones, and the T.C. Binding buildings. At the same time in Stroud Road
the three William Green terraces and the Woodington Boot Factory building and
terrace were built. Here we leave Clevedon
buildings of the Victorian age. The new generation of builders which were coming
on were developing the start of the 'Estate' type of houses. So from this study
we can see how, firstly Clevedon developed along already existing roads. Then
along fringe land which was sold off as being no use for agriculture, but was
seen as being of use for houses. Not necessarily for living in all the time, but
for leasing out to visitors coming to Clevedon because it was a watering place.
We must remember that George Cook was advertising bathing Machines on Clevedon
Beach in 1824? barely after the first Georgian houses were going up at East
Clevedon. If we could see the
development of Clevedon marked in on a map, there would not be dots of colour
intermingled all over it, but large splashes and swirls; in patches representing
the dates in which the various plots and fields became available to the
builders. Then as land became
available, rather than the delicate palette knife oil painting colours, the
broad sweep of an emulsion brush, the large streak of the secondary building,
firstly down the line of Elton and Bellvue Roads. Then the crests of the upper
part of the town, Albert Rd. to Victoria and the filling in between Princes Road
and Bellvue and between Bellvue and Copse Rd. Then the lower slopes Sunnyside and Queens Road. Most apt,
was the name Sunhill for one of the fields on the tithe map. Sheltered from the
strong southwest gales, and protected also from the cold winter winds from the
north and east, a perfect suntrap. While this development was
taking place, and the population was increasing, there was also the need for the
service trades, domestic servants, laundresses, jobbing gardeners, fly drivers,
chimney sweeps, market gardeners, dairymen, etc. This was the reason for the
continued expansion of the Stroud and Ken Road areas, and the infilling of Old
Church Road and Old Street. Many of the smaller places in the lower town were being
built on land reclaimed from road verges by enclosure. Some of these patches
measured just a couple of perch in size and were only suitable for a cottage and
small orchard etc. It was not possible to go very far up the present Walton
Rd., as just past All Saints Lane the parish of Walton-in-Gordano in Long Ashton
District started. Tickenham Rd. and Court Lane were a little far out for
convenience so did not get the pressure of building that the remainder of the
lower town had. Because of this pressure some of the small farms of 20, 30 and
40 acres vanished. Harriet Hollyman who was letting out about 25 - 30 acres
[10+ hectares] and a market garden plot in the Queens Rd. area saw all of her
land built on; with the exception of the market garden plot, which survived
until the new Police Station was built on it in the Post War years. Myrtle
Cottage, which was run as a small dairy farm, was also one of the early ones to
go. Later the larger Elton Farm leased by the Crease family, was demolished for
the site of St. John's School. Its barn lasted a little longer and was used for
a short time for services until the completion of St. John's Church. The Crease
family meanwhile had carried on Farming but were leasing Strode Farm; a farm,
which in its turn was also to have many of its fields, vanish beneath new
houses. Highdale Farm with the building of the cottage Hospital
had already lost one of its barns; by the late 1890's John Langford, Grocer; of
Old Street was renting the other at the Barton in Parnell Rd. As the fields got
more fragmented and further away, so a farm became less viable as a commercial
proposition, Griffin Road and Parnell Road further separated the fields so the
other nearer farms took the fields on in their leases. This left a patch near
the farm itself ripe for houses so Highdale Avenue came into being, and so it
went, on and on, as indeed it still does. |