At the beginning of the 19thC, The Field had a number of domestic buildings. After James ARUNDELL died in 1813 and the estate was inherited by little Elizabeth GREGORY (later Elizabeth HAWKINS) the house, its cottages and land were rented out to tenants. Her estate was managed jointly by her mother Elizabeth GREGORY and her husband the Revd John Cunningham Calland Bennett Popkin HAWKINS (henceforth called JCCBPH!).
The occupants, and the apparent number of dwellings, varied as the century went by. This is what we know about The Field and its domestic buildings from maps, or can infer from the censuses.
1810 Indenture of Fine
between Joseph WATTS Plaintiff and James ARUNDELL Esq, recorded at the Court of Common Pleas in the Michaelmas Term 51st Geo 3rd (this could be 1811 and not 1810) in which, in addition to acres of pasture and meadow, and a one-acre millpond, these items are listed specifically:
- Two Messuages [= two dwelling houses - The Field, and the Mill House?]
- One Toft [= homestead or farmhouse; often on a hill]
- Four Cottages
- Two Barns
- Three Stables
- One Water Mill [down on the river side]
- One Curtilage [= enclosed land around a house - the mill yard?]
- Three Gardens
- Four Orchards
This is a much enlarged detail from an 1811 map of Cheltenham area attributed to Robert Dawson, stored at the British Library. It is still possible to make out Lower Street and cottages, and The Castle plus hillside, at the left.
The Field and its cottages are at the centre top, Field House on the bend of Bowbridge Lane, the mill and its buildings next to the millpond, and there is an unexpected square building part-way up the hill above the mill. This does not appear on any other maps. I expected one barn near The Field because it is mentioned later; maybe this is the second barn of the 1810 Indenture, demolished before Charles Baker drew his map in 1820. And I was pleased to see there is no road along the valley bottom. I had read that the turnpike was the first road along there; before that any traffic went along to Thrupp and Chalford via tracks and paths further up the hillside, and this 1811 map seems to confirm it.
1820 map by Charles Baker
And yet by 1820 there was certainly a road - a turnpike even because there is a tiny Toll House marked at its junction with Bowbridge Lane. But the mysterious (1810) square building in the fields just above the mill has vanished.
The only other detail we have about the mill is from 1865 when it was sold, and even then we only have a plan, which shows that the mill then looked like this. The long terrace to the left is new.
The next illustration zooms in on the 1820 map of the area around The Field itself (mistakenly labelled Field House) and its cottages, in an attempt to identify the buildings named in the 1810 schedule provided for the Court of Common Pleas. I have numbered the buildings, and refer to these numbers in later paragraphs.
- The Field (rectangular)
- outbuildings? stables?
- internal passageway to long cottage (Mulberry)
- end cottage (Daneway)
- long building at roadside
- large square building
- L-shaped building
and here is a 2012 birdseye view.
1821 census
Unusually, the 1821 census for Stroud survives and is stored at the Gloucestershire Archives. However, it only lists householder names and occupations, by tithing; there are no addresses. In the Upper Lypiatt tithing (the area covering The Field and the town centre) it is tempting to assume that the list of names indicates the enumerator's route. But that could be misleading. However, we know from the Victoria County History for Glos that John GORDON was running Arundell Mill and he is in the 1821 list at No 92 - a clothier. At No 91 is Nathaniel WATHEN, also a clothier, and he is known to have rented The Field in 1845. So he could be at The Field in 1821. But the adjacent names on the 1821 census are all weavers or clothworkers; no farm workers or domestic servants who could have been living in The Field's cottages.
1825 Charles Baker
- 1) 3) 4) and 6) are there
- 2) and 5) are not
- 7) has grown an extra bit on the east side
1835 John Wood
- 1) 5) and 6) are there
- 3?) 4?) are shown as separated from the back of The Field, and a completely different shape!
- 7) is unshaded and now has a rounded-end instead of an L
[the O H N initials are part of the name Revd John Hawkins, written repeatedly across the estate]
1841 Tithe Apportionment
- 1) 3) and 4) are joined together again but are described as one building: House and Pleasure Garden
- 2) has vanished
- 6) has changed from a square to an L-shape and is labelled House, Garden, yards and buildings
- 7) has got bigger, with another wing on the east side and is described as yard and buildings [I'm sure this is the bakehouse]
1841 census
At The Field: Thomas MARLING aged 35, clothier, born Gloucestershire; wife Maria (21), two female servants;
At the Field cottages:
- William and Mary HARMAN, servants, both aged 60, and lodger Enoch Wear (aged 10)
- George and Ann REDMAN (servants) and their three little children, and Edwin Proverb (14), servant
- Robert KEENE aged 60, yeoman; his wife Hannah (55), daughter Hannah (20), grandson Edward (2); his sister-in-law Elizabeth HOBBS, and a 3-year-old lodger Ann BALL (farmed out from the workhouse? it did happen).
1845 mortgage transfer
This indenture concerning the transfer of one of the Hawkins mortgages says that the present tenant of The Field 'with the garden and appurtenances thereunto belonging' was Nathaniel WATHEN. The WATHENs were Stroud bankers and lawyers, though a Nathaniel WATHEN was living in Bloomsbury in 1843 so he might have been sub-letting the house.
1846 Lease agreement
In February 1846, Rev JCCBP HAWKINS & Elizabeth GREGORY of Little Coxwell, widow, signed a 14-year lease with William Bentley CARTWRIGHT of The Field House, Stroud. He appears there in subsequent censuses, and an unexpected family link is revealed in the 1891 census that could explain his arrival in Stroud (see the footnote to the 1861 census entry below).
1846 Alfred Smith
- The Field (1) looks much like it does in 2012, with its double roof;
- Mulberry (3) has a dropped roof, a chimney midway, and two dormer windows in the lower roof, and an extension?
- The ?barn (6) looks to have two right-angled gables
- 7) looks like two adjoining cottages, facing south, one with a gable
1848 Harmer engraving
I always assumed that the Harmer engraving was based on Alfred Smith's oil painting, but the cottages around No 7 look very different. The gable has moved, and there seems to be an outhouse of some kind. Goodness knows!
The engraving does remove the trees on the north side, and with them the possibility of a third roofline (No 5?) near Mulberry cottage. Are there two southfacing cottages? Six households here altogether?
1851 census
In the 1851 census, London-born retired gentleman William Bentley CARTWRIGHT (70) is settled in at The Field with his wife Susan, daughter Susan, local servants Ann BISHOP and Eliza MORGAN, and a ?granddaughter Margaret Isabel WEST (4) (whose mother was Mary Hester CARTWRIGHT - his daughter?) There were three occupied cottages all identified as 'Field Cottage':
Immediately next to The Field was William HARMEN (72) cloth dresser, his wife (72) cloth picker, and grandson Charles MORRIS (17) labourer.
Then came William BARTLETT (66) gardener from Fairford, his wife Ann (60), niece Ann TAYLOR (18), and very young visitor David HOLLAND (6) also from Fairford.
In the furthest cottage was Robert KEENE. He was now 71, still a farmer; his wife Hannah, son William (33) and daughter Hannah all helped on the farm; grandson Edward was now 13 and at school, sister-in-law Betty HOBBS (77) was visiting.
1859 Lease agreement
In March 1859, William Bentley CARTWRIGHT renewed his lease for a further 7½ years. The agreement describes the property as "Messuage called Field House and two closes of meadow or pasture (9 acres) in Stroud".
1861 census
In the 1861 census, William B CARTWRIGHT was still at The Field. He was now 80, a widower, and two grandsons were living with him: H D (7) and Marcus Gage1 (6). The older boy had been born in Bombay and the younger one in Stroud. They were all being looked after by two servants - Eliza JEFFRIES (31) born in Kings Stanley, and Maria PAUL (30) born in Stroud.
Marcus stayed on and in 1881 he was at Rodborough Villa, a boarder of householder William L STANTON. Both were 26 and both were assistant managers at a woollen cloth factory (I wonder which one? – the 1871 census for The Field suggests it could have been Stafford Mills). They had a housekeeper: widow Hannah TAYLOR (66). I can find no further trace of his brother H D. Maybe he went back to India. The 1891 census throws up an unexpected ink: Marcus, now 36 and a cloth manufacturer, and married to Ethel Jane (22, b Stone) is visiting Walter Bentley MARLING, 37, an Army Officer b Selsley, Stroud, at his home at Clanna Falls, Alvington (Forest of Dean). So, his grandfather must have known the earlier MARLINGs of Stroud and there was a family marriage in there somewhere.
The on-site cottages are not named. Assuming that the enumerator was working systematically, the adjoining cottage was occupied by gardener Henry OCKFORD, his wife and seven children. Next door was Charles HORMAN, a 54-year-old engineer +wife +6-year-old daughter.
The next cottages - between The Field and Field House, housed a coachman, a stonemason and an umbrella stick worker. The reason for including this is that the stickmaker was called John KENSIT and was mentioned in a Who Do You Think You Are? programme about actress Patsy Kensit!
1865 auction plan
This makes no sense at all. I know that The Field and its buildings were not included in the auction sale, which concentrated on the Mill land by the river, and the Upper Fields, above what would become Bisley Road. But this plan is a bit minimal!
1871 census
In 1871, The Field is the home of Frederick STANTON and his cook, coachman, parlour maid and housemaid, although he was absent at the time of the actual census so his place of birth and age is not recorded. Although only shown as Bowbridge Lane on the census, the other households on site seem to be: 56-year-old Joseph GAY and his wife Mary - a baker (which is promising), Thomas HARDING (30, wheelwright) and his wife and 6 children aged 12 down to 8 months. The next two households could be anywhere but I record them because of a coincidence of names:
Next to the HARDINGS is Hannah CARR, a laundress. She was the widow of Alfred CARR who, in 1861, was a coachman, but it is difficult to say whether he was then attached to The Field, or to Field House. But the coincidence is here: Hannah's neighbour was called Hannah VICK. She was 61, no occupation, but had a lodger called Jane GREENSLADE, unmarried, 24, and helping her neighbour out with the laundry. Was Jane related to James, the builder living at Field Farm in 1881? Was she related to Reuben Greenslade USHER, the brother-in-law of one of the 1871 auctioneers? I'm going to stop there.
Where and who was Frederick STANTON? The 1867 Trade directory for Stroud is full of influential STANTONs:
- Stanton & Son at Stafford Mill
- Watts Hallewell, Biddell, and Stanton, brewers, Stroud brewery
- William Henry Stanton Esq DL JP at Downfield House
- Alfred John Stanton Esq JP at The Thrupp, a Trustee of the new Hospital Board and later an MP
- Walter J Stanton Esq of Stratford Lodge, Chairman of the Board of Health, later at Coopers Hill
- James T Stanton at The Culls
but no Frederick. However, he does appear in the 1851 census so we know he was the son of William H Stanton of Thrupp, and born about 1833. In 1851 he was 18, an Ensign in the East India Service so presumably home on leave. Since the older CARTWRIGHT grandson was born in Bombay (in 1853), and JCCBPH's son Croft (born 1831) was in the Bombay Staff Corps there must be a story to tell about the linked lives of these families - it never stops!
However, Frederick's name does appear in Schedule 1 of the 1873 Abstract of Title of William Cowle to The Field estate, where with James PEGLER he was the tenant of most of the central section of the estate. He married in Cheltenham in 1884 and is probably the Frederick Smith STANTON who died in Uxbridge in 1892, aged 59, so he left this story for good.
1873 (Feb) purchase by W Cowle
The silhouette of The Field and its adjoining buildings has returned to the shape drawn in 1820!
The only other consistent feature is the straight line boundary separating The Field+wing from what would soon by Lot 28 - the other collection of buildings. They seem to have all joined up! And a new long building is at the roadside
For completeness, here are the names of all of the people mentioned in the Conveyance of The Field estate to William Cowle:
- William CAPEL, James Scarlett PRICE, Robert ROWLES (by then holding the outstanding mortgages);
- the then owners - the HAWKINS sons: Richard Berens Bradford (solicitor and executor), Croft Augustus Charles (retired half-pay Major), Francis Goodlake (sometime solicitor) and Arthur (remittance man in Vancouver)
- and daughters: Isabella Eliza (the only married daughter, husband Revd John BARTON), Elizabeth Gregory, Harriett Catherine, Sarah Charlotte, Louisa Elizabeth, Caroline, Emily Calland, and Fanny. The seven unmarried daughters and Francis had been living with their parents all this time and when JCCBPH died the tied vicarage went too. JCCBPH's will instructed Richard to take responsibility for all his siblings and he had a house built in Ramsgate for his seven sisters. Francis lived there too and Isabella returned to that house much later when her husband died. Richard was by this time very well settled into a pleasant house in Woodstock (now the Oxfordshire museum) with regular work from the Beaulieu estate and in local politics. I do not think that any of them ever visited the estate in Stroud that had been won at such a cost by their grandmother. [the full story is told elsewhere]
1873 (Oct) auction sale
Lot 27 is described as a Family Residence approached by a Carriage Drive, with portico entrance, eight good bedrooms with suitable dressings rooms, bathrooms, attics, WC, etc; entrance hall with rare old carved oak staircase, elegant drawing room, oak dining room, morning room, study, a newly-erected conservatory, large kitchen, butler's pantry, china pantry, back kitchen, scullery, etc etc and extensive dry cellarage.
Outside: good stabling for four horses, two coachhouses, potting house, an attached comfortable cottage, and 3 acres of pleasure gardens, kitchen garden, croquet ground, and a piece of pasture land.
Lot 28 is described as: a Cottage and Garden, Wheelwright's Shop, Smith's Shop, Bakehouse, Barn, Farm Buildings, Greenhouses, and a piece of land currently used as a garden for Lot 27.
1873+ at The Field
In the 1873 auction catalogue, William Cowle had made public his intention to retain certain lots for a short period of time. These included The Field itself, to be held back until 24th June of the following year, together with the greenhouses on Lot 28. The cataglogue also specified that a stretch of land would be used to provide access to the rear of the lots that would be facing Park Road. This would ensure that there was an easy access by coach and horses along a level route. You can still see the route of that level driveway from Field Road and along the south side of the Maternity hospital, and Park House still has a back entrance marked by stone gateposts and a coachhouse.
It seems that William Cowle wanted to move out of his High Street apartments in Exchange Buildings. He had already chosen the architect (John Birch) and design for Park House (we have the architect's description) and shortly after the auction he and his wife Helen must have moved to live temporarily at The Field.
This is confirmed by one of those lovely coincidences that happens occasionally to spur the researcher on. In a box of photographs at the Museum in the Park is a very faded one showing four views of The Field. The treasure is to be found in this annotation in the top right-hand corner: H. Cowle Grand father's sister's house
This can only mean Helen Cowle. She had many brothers but the mostly likely one to be 'grandfather' was her brother Joseph, a saddler with a prospering business in Stroud, and a number of children of his own. This is all we know. The photographs are on a loose page in the Museum's collection and otherwise anonymous. The photographer was standing near a splendid arched pergola built across the south side of The Field's gardens, looking back at the house and its neighbouring cottage.
1881 census
The census shows that the occupant at The Field was Henry Hamilton MILLS, an unmarried solicitor living there with his mother, housekeeper Louisa RESTALL and housemaid Sindonia SESSIONS (both local girls), with a gardener living in the adjacent cottage. Was Mr MILLS a tenant, or the new owner? We don't know. But the 1879 Post Office Directory for Stroud also puts him there, so we know that the COWLEs had moved to their new house before 1879.
But there was a builder at the cottage described as Field Farm - was this Daneway? or was it the since-demolished cottage previously occupied by the KEENE family? We don't know. The builder was called James GREENSLADE, a Devon-born man but with a Bowbridge-born wife Anne (HOLLAND). He must have been around for some time because he had bought Lots 80 to 82 at the 1873 auction. John Libby writes [p29] writes that 'James Greenslade of Bowbridge' built the very expensive foundations and chimney for All Saint's Church at Thrupp. Lots 80-82 were at the top end of Bisley Road, where those very handsome yellow brick villas now overlook the cemetery and the common beyond. Someone who could build 14' church foundations would have no difficulty in realising those (I wonder whose plans he used?).
The census enumerator continued down Bowbridge Lane towards Spider Lane. But before he got there he recorded three more households - a dyehouse man, a brewer's labourer, and a butcher, before writing down "4 buildings" which could well be part of the as-yet-unoccupied new terrace of 1-6 Fort View just across the road. It's hard to tell, but the timing is about right.
1882 OS map
The Field has acquired its conservatory.
- The 1873 connection between 6) and 7) has gone
- the odd little rectangular block along the front of Huckvales (") is darker - an outhouse of some kind? Must ask Victoria - it is there at No 2 on the 1820 map
- 7) has acquired a long glasshouse and an odd little U-shaped addition on its eastern side.
1884 OS map
This is just the same as the 1882 map, so I have not copied it here.
1891 census
In 1891 The Field had another occupant: the Revd John Norman SHELDON, his wife, and daughter Hilda. The staff had changed (Elizabeth RUSSELL was the cook and Martha JAQUES the housemaid) and there is no further mention of outdoor staff, or even of the other cottages.
But - listed on the far side of Berkshire/Devonshire - Charles MARSH, a baker, is listed which is encouraging to see - maybe the bakehouse was back in production but it is not clear where he, his wife, and five adult children were living.
Berkshire House had tenant Charles DIMOCK, a commercial traveller, and Devonshire was the home of the Congregational Minister the Revd George T COSTER. He and his wife had been born in Chatham but their daughter Alice was born in Devon and Catherine in Hull - illustrating the itinerant lives of churchmen.
Ulrich HOLBOROW, who is also shortly to appear, was living nearby at No 2 Whitehall. He described himself as a Steam Engine Maker. In 1881 he was living in Cliffordine Lane, Stonehouse, a mechanical engineer. Cannot yet link him to H G Holbrow & Co of Dudbridge Iron Works (wound up in 1901), though the link seems obvious.
And Daniel McKELLAR, who appears properly in 1901, was living at No 2 Bath Place in Stroud. He was a woollen cloth merchant, as was his son Daniel Jnr, and I think he must have known David WILLIAMSON (see the 1901 census paragraphs) who was living at Albert Buildings, just along the London Road.
1900 title deed
From a title deed for Berkshire House dated 7th May 1900.
This transaction must have been part of the activity of William Cowle's executors, after his death in December 1899.
The side note says of the adjacent land "contracted to be sold to Mr U Holborow" who bought The Field and most of the rest of the central block of land between Bowbridge Lane and Park Road, opposite the hospital.
1900 plan in title deeds
This different plan appears in the title deeds of Daneway and of The Bakehouse in Cowle Road, as part of the Abstract of Title produced for each property in the 1930s. But it it clearly dated as being in an Indenture dated 5 July 1900.
It names the neighbouring landowners:
- J H TRATT
- J W CHAMPION
- W H BISHOP
- D McKELLAR Esq (Berkshire/Devonshire)
- W C CHAMBERS (the adjacent Field House land)
and my inference is that the larger red-outlined plot is the land bought by Ulrich Holborow.
1901 census
William DYER, the District 9a census enumerator walked along and up Park Road, noting the residents of those lovely new villas that had provided a regular income for the COWLEs (Hazelmere/Landour, Grosvenor/Brunswick, Richmond/Westminster, then Daisyfield - later Southfield), until he got to the TRATTs who had bought Park House from the Cowle executors. (James TRATT had married Alice Beatrice KIDDLE and was in partnership with her guardian David WILLIAMSON - the man who built the factory that became the Hill Paul building. David WILLIAMSON was a Scot but he had moved to Stroud by 1871 and set up a clothing manufacturing business in George Street. He could well have had business dealings with fellow-Scot Daniel McKELLAR - but that is possibly just wishful thinking.)
From Park House the enumerator walked up Field Road and around into Bowbridge Lane.
The next house he recorded was The Field (he must must have gone to the adjoining cottage first) home of gardener and domestic servant Charles SALMONS.
The next entry was for Ulrich HOLBOROW, now settled in at The Field itself, with his wife and children. He had bought most of William COWLE's estate, some of which was later sold to the Trustees of the Hospital. He was a local engineer with works in Dudbridge, and there is yet another family story to be unearthed here.
Next came Daniel McKELLAR Snr at Devonshire House, and the Revd Charles DAVIS at Berkshire House. Daniel McKELLAR Jnr - who had married Lucie Gertrude BAILY in Stroud in 1897 - was by then living in Lewisham but he did not stay there long.
1902 OS map
We still do not have a good copy of this map, but this online thumbnail (British History Online) does show that the new semi-detached villas of Berkshire House and Devonshire House have been built
1911 census
In 1911, Ulrich HOLBOROW was still at The Field with his wife Maria. He described himself as a retired cloth manufacturer (why?). His son Arthur Conrad (31, solicitor) and daughters Elsie Mary (27) and Eugenie Hildan (24) were there too, being looked after by cook Margaret SMITH and housemaid Beatrice WILLIAMS.
Gardener Alfred JONES and family were at the cottage called Field Cottage in this census but there are no other households on site.
The next entries are for the villas called Berkshire and Devonshire. Daniel McKELLAR Jnr. woollen cloth merchant, was at Berkshire House with his wife and mother-in-law, and three young sons Robert, Donald and John. Daniel Snr was at Devonshire House. He was now retired, and a widower, and his daughter Lily was acting at his housekeeper, along with live-in maid Lily HARDGRAVE.
Ulrich HOLBOROW died at The Field at the end of 1912, and once more the house was up for sale.
1913 auction
The large outbuildings of 5) and 6) are now much smaller - shown here as A and B. The plan also shows a driveway down to the rear of Berkshire House, and a path from that driveway to a small building on the roadside, just behind the garden wall.
The auctioneer's catalogue shows that the whole of the frontage to Bowbridge Lane was being sold, together with the paddock to the west of Park House, and the lot to the east on which Southfields was later built.
This photograph was on the auction catalogue. In the catalogue (we have a separate full transcript) The Field is described as having:
Stone portico and entrance hall; oak panelled drawing room, dining room, inner hall with corridor to WC, breakfast room, larder, kitchen with h&c, and scullery.
Upstairs are three double bedrooms. Outside is a large Motor House with pit, and a coalhouse, a coach-house with two loose boxes and a loft, well-timbered sloping lawns, a walled kitchen garden, and a conservatory communicating with the dining room.
Unfortunately the adjoining cottage is just described as Gardener's Cottage with no further detail. This must be Mulberry cottage (later Huckvales) and maybe even Daneway as well. We don't know.
1921 OS map
This map shows Daneway as an adjoining but a separate house (it was extended in the 1980s - plans are available; Tony Gould thinks he has a copy).
Identifies some of the central outbuildings (A and B on 1913 plan) as greenhouses.
1938 OS map
No noticeable change.
1939 title deed
The 1939 plan is in the title deeds for Daneway: it shows the splitting-off of Mulberry+Daneway from The Field itself.
1946 title deed
From the Title Deeds of Rylands, one of the houses on the south side of Cowle Road, showing the houses on the newly-built Cowle Road.
These appear similarly on the 1950s OS map
The story of the development of Cowle Road is a separate research note in the FEWC archives.
1960s
Going slightly later than our 1950 cut-off date, the title deeds of Ryelands on Cowle Road include an undated SNJ newspaper cutting which shows Professor H H Rowley, DD.
The SNJ described him as 'a leading authority on the interpretation of the Dead Sea scrolls'. He lived at The Field because it offered room for his 14,000 books, there was an excellent train service to London, and Oxford was close enough (he was helping to translate the Old Testament there). The newspaper report included this description:
'Extensive restoration work has been carried out on the old house which had fallen into a semi-derelict condition, many of its best features, including the excellent oak panelling in the drawing room, having been completely restored ... and probably saved from demolition.'
At the time of the interview Dr Rowley was 73. He was born in 1890 so he moved to The Field in about 1962.
The Field Estate of William Cowle - a research project for the Museum in the Park Marion Hearfield 14May2012