Cold Elm Cottage

At the time of the Inclosure Act, 1806, there were no buildings on the plot of land behind No 375.  It was then Plot No 373, an allotment in Lower Churchfield, 7-3-25 in area and owned by Thomas Rudge.  It is believed that the first two of the three houses that later stood here were built in 1815.  This will discuss the first of these cottages coming from the south.

[1806]

Norton is lucky inasmuch as it has a surviving ‘Terrier and valuation of the messuages, lands, and other hereditaments liable to poor rate in the parish of Norton’ dating from 1838 which gives a reliable record of the properties in the village.  At this time the site in question was still described as Plot No 375, 0-1-17 in area.

Identifying the residents of this cottage through the nineteenth century has proved impossible so far and the first we can be sure about are Albert and Kitty Stephens who were definitely here in 1923.

Albert Reginald was born at Norton in 1894, son of Frederick George Stephens and Annie Amelia nee Jefferies.  He grew up with his parents at Dunsworth Cottage, Norton, later employed as a general farm labourer.  Mr Stephens served with the Gloucestershire Regiment in the First World War and was badly wounded in that conflict.  Albert married Clarice Kate ‘Kitty’ Hughes in 1922 at Down Hatherley, and had two children; Pamela Joy and Douglas Michael.  Kitty was born at Down Hatherley in 1896, daughter of John Hughes and Anne nee Meadows.  It appears that Albert and Kitty came to live here straight after marriage.  A toolmaker by trade, in 1939 Albert was employed as a scaffolder and drainer and was also a Special Constable.  

The Gloucester Citizen newspaper of 12 September 1958 reported; “A Norton man who wanted to widen his right of way to the main Gloucester-Tewkesbury road so that his son could drive his car along it yesterday appealed against the County Council’s refusal to let him do so.  At a local enquiry held at the Shire Hall, before Mr A E Rochard-Thomas, the man, Mr A E Stephens, appealed against the refusal of the County Council to permit the change of use from pedestrian vehicular of the existing access onto land fronting the trunk road A38 at Cold Elm, Norton.  Because his son had bought a car, as he worked away from home, Mr Stephens converted one of his pig houses into a garage with the Council’s permission.  When he applied for a vehicular exit from his house, his application was refused on the grounds of poor visibility, and the potential dangers of a car reversing on the highway.  Mr Stephens said that the visibility was 180 yards on one side and a quarter of a mile on the other, which he thought was reasonable.  He added that he had now made it possible for his son to drive straight in to the drive.  He had a single gate right of way to the main road for about 30 years.  During the war he reared pigs and had used his exit to transport them, after altering the fencing to give him an extra width of six feet.  The total opening at that time was 9ft 6ins.  The gate was about three feet wide.  Cross-examined by Mr J G Omerod, assistant solicitor to the County Council, Mr Stephens said that his son’s car could easily pass through a width of nine feet.  Speaking on behalf of the County Council, Mr C D Sanders, representing the Divisional Road Engineer, said it was considered that the access onto a trunk road, where visibility is restricted, would create conditions which are not in the interest of the safety of other road users.  The road, he said, was a heavy industrial trunk road.  At the most recent traffic census taken at a point three miles away from the site, 8,116 vehicles were recorded during the day with a tonnage of 25, 145.  There was no speed limit on the road, and a white line passed in front of the site.  After hearing the evidence, Mr Rochard-Thomas agreed to inspect the site”.

Albert died in 1981 and Kitty was still at Cold Elm when she died in 1988.  They both have a churchyard memorial at St Mary's, Norton.

Kitty and daughter Pamela

In 2002 the cottage was occupied by Janet Smith, a lawyer of Gloucester, and Chris Willie, an engineer of Cheltenham.