Elm House (Cold Elm House)
It is believed that a house was first built here c1794 but is not the house that still stands here.
In 1806, at the time of the Inclosure Act, there were few properties at Cold Elm but there was a building on the site of Elm House. It was then Plot No 386, described as being a house, garden and piece of arable land, owned by Thomas Rudge, and measuring 1-2-28. Thomas Rudge owned a number of plots around Cold Elm, and the village in general, at this time.
[1806]
Henry and Henrietta Tuthill were the first clearly identified occupants when in 1881 they were living with five young children at Cold Elm House/Villa. Henry was originally from Weston Super Mare and had married Henrietta Evans in 1863 at Bristol. Their first four children were born at Gloucester but their fifth was born at Norton in 1876 suggesting they had already been here a number of years and this can be confirmed by Henry’s presence in a trade directory for Norton for 1876. Henry was employed as a clerk to the Highway Board. At some time prior to 1891 the family left Norton for Rudford. During the time the Tuthills were in residence John Morton Niblett was also on Norton’s electoral list as owner of Cold Elm Villa but Henry Tuthill and family actually lived here. John Niblett lived at 38 Midland Road, Gloucester, where he was the curate at St James’, Gloucester.
In 1891 the residents were John Raymond and Mary Pope who were recorded as farmers and later John’s son from a previous marriage, John Arthur, also used the address.
John Arthur Pope was an interesting person. Born on 6 July 1860 at Abinghall, son of John Raymond Pope and Mary Esther nee White. In 1871 he was attending a boarding school at Elton, Westbury On Severn. In the same year we find his father was widowed and farming at Abinghall. In the household at this time was also a 16 year old governess, Mary Dyke. By 1881 John Arthur was living with his widowed father and siblings in the household of Mary Dyke at Pembroke Street, Gloucester, where he was employed as a clerk at a salt works. Father John Raymond remarried Mary Poole Dyke in 1885 and by 1891 the couple were living at Elm House, Norton. In the Register of Electors for Norton in 1898 John Arthur Pope was qualified to vote on the grounds of ‘freehold house and land, Cold Elm House’ but his place of abode was recorded as Washington Avenue, New York. He was still on the Electoral Roll but with an address in New York in 1904. At this time father John Raymond was also eligible to vote due to a dwelling house at Cold Elm. John Raymond Pope died in December 1910 and this prompted the sale of the house at Norton. Son John Arthur spent the remainder of his life in America where he married Martha, had no children, was employed by the Continental Gin Company, and resided at Dallas for 58 years until his death in 1946.
On 10 June 1911 Bruton, Knowles and Co were instructed by Mr John Arthur Pope and others to sell by auction at the Bell Hotel, Gloucester; “Elm House, a convenient dwelling house, together with stabling, outbuildings, and a pasture orchard, well planted with a choice selection of fruit trees, occupying a very pleasant position close to the terminus of the Gloucester and Norton Omnibus Service. There is a good supply of water. The property is freehold, is numbered 302 and 303 on the Ordnance Map, and is about 1a 2r 34p in extent. It has a long frontage to the Tewkesbury Road and is bounded on other sides by lands of G N Walker Esq and Mr A J Cook. Possession may be had on completion or earlier by arrangement”.
So, Elm House passed into new ownership in 1911. The house has not been positively identified again until 1931 when Jack and Lucy Boodle were here although the Boodles owned the property much earlier than this, probably from the 1911 sale. It is likely that the family lived in their Gloucester home using Elm House as their second home and country residence.
In October 1930 they were placing advertisements in the local newspapers; "For sale, 13 1930, white Wyandotte pullets - 6s 6d each. - Boodle, Norton".
Admitted to the school on 11th September 1939 Valerie and Keith Skinner came from Enfield and were evacuees lodging here. They both returned to Enfield on 12 April 1940.
In approximately 2000, Denis Williams who, with his wife Lily, had lived in several houses at Cold Elm from the early 1950s wrote the following; “Returning to the east side of the road the next property was ‘Elm House’. A large brick built double fronted property under a tiled roof, occupied by Mrs Boodle an extremely talented lady. She made her own clothes, which she wove and dyed, also musical instruments and basketry, which she taught to the prisoners in Gloucester prison. Related to Boodles the dental practitioners of Gloucester she told me of the days when weekend tennis parties were a regular happening with the guests arriving by horse drawn carriage. Before the A38 was cut through her garden it extended to the far side of the road. The tennis courts were to the side with lawns to the front. She told me that a school had also been held there. When her house was sold a live hand grenade was found and taken away by the bomb squad. The contents of the house were a collectors paradise and a sale attended by a large crowd of people was held on the premises to dispose of all the items. In the garden was a large metal advertising sign on which was written ‘Boodles teeth are best’ surrounded by a set of grinning false teeth”.
Jack Alfred Boodle was born at Gloucester in 1898, the son of Edward James Bailey Boodle and Edith Alice nee Sterry. The tennis parties the family held at Elm House, whilst they continued to live at Gloucester, likely stopped when Jack married and settled at Norton. Jack married Lucy Mabel Harris at St Catherine’s, Gloucester, in 1924 and they came to live at Elm House, having the one child; Rachel Ann Gore. They were to live at Elm House for the remainder of their lives with Jack dying in 1958 and Lucy in 1981. Jack was a dental mechanic with the Boodle’s having their own business. In 1939 Lucy recorded herself as employed on ‘unpaid domestic duties’ but this doesn’t the tale at all. A keen member of the Womens’ Institute Lucy featured in an article, ‘Around the WIs’ that was published in the Gloucester Journal newspaper of 14 October 1950; “Mrs L Boodle, of Elm House, Norton, is the most versatile WI craft worker I have so far met. Not only does she weave beautiful tweeds for her costumes, but also makes baskets, gloves and stool seats. She is a member of the county handicraft sub-committee, and has demonstrated at the Bath and West Show and Three Counties. Mrs Boodle teaches leather-work at Campden Art School, basketry at the adult evening school at Sir Thomas Rich’s, both once a week, gives demonstrations at WI monthly meetings throughout the county, and takes WI classes. She also plays the piano for Norton Institute folk dancers. She has done crochet work, and used to paint on china, and pen-paint on fire screens and cushions when young. With all these activities I think it amazing she has time to do such a terrific amount of craft work at home. She does her weaving ‘when I have a spare minute’. She likes to get something on the loom all the time and is not satisfied until it is off, but hates to see the loom empty. The threading up of her Swedish type foot loom is the most tedious part and takes a lot of time. It will weave cloth up to 44 inches wide, but she never uses more than 42 inches width in case the warp slips off at the side. The costume she was wearing was made from 9½ yards of blue, brown flecked material in heather mixture and scotch handspun wool. She has also made enough cloth for her mother’s and sister’s coats, and one large coat and three costumes.
She weaves also for cushion covers, curtains and chair covers. When I visited her a length of heather coloured material was on the loom for two costume lengths. How did Mrs Boodle start weaving ? It was three years ago that she went to the school of art for two sessions, she acquired a loom of her own and then carried on”.
In the late 1940s Lucy’s widowed mother, Winifred Harris, appears living with the Boodles at Elm House until her death in 1951. Lucy’s daughter Rachel married Roy Sparrow who was the son of George Norton Walker’s chauffeur, George Frederick and Nellie Myrtle Sparrow who lived at Norton Court Garage. In 1956-60 Roy and Rachel were also in residence.
With Lucy Boodle dying in 1981 the next identified record of the house is in 1985 when Peter Hendrickus Herman Wilhelm Zegveldt and Susan Dawn Vaux (Hillier) were in residence and they married at Gloucester Register Office in 1986.
[2002]
In 2002 James W and Shona McKechnie, plus two children. Property had a separate ‘granny annexe’.
