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The start of the town
The early village consisted of Farmhouses and the houses
of the farm labourers. The only house of quality was Clevedon
Court, at the time
of the expansion, the home of the ELTON family. In the early 1800's 'Sea
bathing' was made popular by the Prince Regent (who later became George IV) and
the fashion spread to the West Country from the resort towns of the south coast. The first houses and cottages of Clevedon stood on the
flatlands along the base of the hills, in the original village this made water
easy of access, with none of the places being more than a few hundred metres
from a river. The Moor and Common Land was enclosed by an Act of
Parliament 1799, and the fields were shared out according to the amount of
‘Commonage’, which could be claimed by the various holders. Road waste,
which was also enclosed at the same time, was taken by the Court Estate for the
main, as part of their share. It was shortly after this that the building of the
cottages began in the strips, which were then leased from the Estate in 1808,
along the sides of Ken Road, Stroud Road, and Village Street as at the time both
Old Street and Old Church Road were called. (Culliford's Nest, Vicarage's Nest,
Hacks Nest, Pomeroy's Nest, Taylor's Nest) There was also a smaller strip at
Walton Road and Carey's Lane (now All Saint's Lane). Most of these cottages are
mistaken, as being 250 or 300-year-old houses, but were in fact built in 1808/9,
as the early 19th Century Land Tax files show. In the 1820's William Hollyman who was the agent for the
Court Estate, together with George Newton, a builder from Wraxall a village
about five miles away, leased from the estate some six acres (2.4 hectares) of
ground along the top hill slopes, overlooking the Tithing Fields near the sea
coast. This land, which was of no use for agriculture because of the steepness
and rockiness of the slopes, was ideal for building, giving outstanding views
down the Bristol Channel and over the flat lands of the moors. Hollyman, whose choice of style was good, also improved
some of the cottages in East Clevedon and made them into larger houses. Stone
was in good supply and the Elton family when they leased the building sites,
also kept control over the quality of the houses which were built upon them;
laying down strict conditions as to the use of the building and also its
finishing. By 1841 two large hotels had been built and well over 100
houses. Another plot of land along the seacoast had been leased and many of the
local building tradesmen were engaged in building and then letting out houses
for holidaymakers. In 1850 it had become apparent to the heir to the Title
and Estate, (Mr Arthur Elton) that some things badly needed doing. There was no
sewer main system, and no piped water supply. [See Clevedon Sanitation Report
and Mr Arthur Elton's booklet] With the passing of the Public Health Act of 1848
the government had made it possible for small local authorities to take charge
of Health, Roads, Sanitation etc. A Clevedon Local Board of Health was formed in 1853. The
town was now growing rapidly and new roads were needed for the continued
expansion. Taking into use fields made these, which had formerly been farmland
on the upper slopes of the town. As the farm leases ran out these fields were
withdrawn from agricultural use and were re-leased as building land. This was
the start of the period, which gradually saw the farms of Clevedon decrease in
size and number as the farm leases became vacant. The town was built mainly upon the south facing slopes of
the southern end of the Failand ridge hill, which ran from Clevedon north to
Portishead. These slopes which extend for about one and a half miles, (two and a
half Kilometres approx.) made a perfect site for the larger houses of Victorian
Clevedon The villas of the middle classes were then built on the
lower slopes and in turn these were added to by the terraced houses, built in
the lower part of the town for the working class families, many of whom provided
services such as gardeners, laundry, charwomen, maids, and servants etc. In the 1880's there was no factory work, for the only place of
large employment was the Brick works, which had been established in the 1850's.
The town still grew however and most of the working class families took jobs in
the service of some large house owner or farmer. By 1894 Clevedon had become large enough to apply for
higher status and the Local Board of Health applied for an Act of Parliament, in
order to become an Urban District. This was granted and from 1895, Clevedon
Urban District Council ran the town with elected council members, until the
change of County Status brought into being the much-discredited AVON County.
After this Clevedon was returned to having a Town Council but is now ruled from
Woodspring. In growing thus Clevedon did not destroy the old town to
rebuild on top of it but spread gradually so that all shades of the development
can still be seen today. Clevedon Court the oldest occupied manor house in England
still has the main hall of the original building. Highdale Farm which present
building dates from about 1650's although much altered, is standing on the site
of the early Domesday recorded, Hide Hall messuage. A small cottage in Old
Street once called Village Farm has been expanded from the early Hall House of
the 1500's. At the West end of the town, a cottage now called 'Whiteladies',
and a house now known as 'Tennyson House', are little changed from their
original usage as Burryatt's Farm, (1690's) and Perry’s West Farm (1630's).
Dowlais Farm in lower Stroud Road, which was one of the farmhouses, rebuilt by
Sir John Knight in the later 1600's still stands. It occupies the site of the
earlier Perry's West Farm in the Marsh. Cole House, (now known as Lake Farm) the
farm and lands which were brought to Sir John Knight by his marriage to the
heiress of the Cole Family, is in 1995, gradually mouldering with no occupant,
this he place Sir John rebuilt in Elizabethan time. The Barn alongside still
shows some of the evidence of its state when it was the original 1460 'Hall'
House of the Cole Family. [The Cole family are still living in Clevedon, their name
has been changed to Coles by the intrusive habit of the local people of putting
an 's' on to the ends of some words. e.g. Regent Park one of the recently built
housing estates is inevitably referred to as Regents Park] New House Farm (New in 1700) was built by Sir John when
re-placing the old building 'Burnt House' (see plate page 29) which was
destroyed by fire. It stands out towards the moor land at the easternmost end of
Moor Lane near the junction of Court Lane. Although the houses and buildings of the farms in the
middle of the town have been demolished, the early house of the warrener or
rabbit keeper still stands on the heights of Dial Hill. Now called Old Park
House it was in the 17th Century a lodge to which the Lord of the Manor could
come in order to shoot deer. The warren itself lay under the spot where now
stands Hallam Hall, a very large building erected in the 1870 are as a boarding
school. Now as so many of the other over large Victorian houses, it has been
turned into flats. Another Rabbit warren was on the northern slopes of the hill behind the Court. Called Conygar its name derives from Coney (early term for Rabbit) and Gaer (Celtic word for Fort) A further small warren was on the hill at the extreme west of the town, Wain's Hill, this was a smaller warren which one of the Farmer lessees [Wain's Hill was at that time part of Spurriers Lease] was licensed to run. All Rabbit Warrens and also Dovecotes required a licence from the Crown to own. |