The Orchards (Malvern View / Wiggins)
The first time I have identified a reference to the name 'The Orchards' was in 1897 when Kelly’s Trade Directory for Gloucestershire records Samuel Preston living at The Orchards. The following plan taken from the 1806 Inclosure Act shows where this property stood, and still stands, at Plot Nos 345, 346 and 347, annotated with the name Thomas Cook. When looking at this plan it must be remembered that the road passing through the centre has been much altered in its course since that time.
Although the name 'The Orchards' doesn't appear for the first time until 1897 we have a detailed record of its owners etc for many years before this time under different names. The script and complicated styles of writing legal documents from this period have made the papers relating to this property at best difficult to decipher but the following piece is based on my best interpretation of the same. The first identified record dates from an indenture of 8th November 1777 between Thomas Wiggins of Norton, carpenter, and Esther his wife on the one part and Ebeneezer Hownes of the City of Gloucester of the other part. The indenture in part reads;
“… whereas by indenture of lease and release bearing date respectively the 5th and 6th days of November last past before the date of these presents and made or mentioned to be made between Thomas Butt of Down Hatherley, yeoman, and Sarah his wife … Jeremiah Herbert of the parish of Newent … yeoman … and Ann his wife … the said Thomas Wilkins … and Hester his wife … and John Carpenter of Tuffleigh in the same County yeoman and Betty his wife of the one part and John Ballinger of the King’s Holme in the City of Gloucester … victualler of the other part … did grant … convey to the said John Ballinger … all that one cottage or tenement with a close of pasture wherein the same stood in Norton … called or known by the name of Dearly Close containing by estimate one acre and a half or thereabouts … in the tenure holding or occupation of Edward Stephens deceased and then in the occupation of the said Thomas Wiggins and Hester his wife”.
This gives us details about the residents at the property and its owners as well as an early name for a piece of land here; Dearly Close. Thomas Wiggins was living at St Catherines, Gloucester, when he married Hester Starkey, also of St Catherines, at St Mary de Lode, Gloucester, in May 1770. They were living at Norton by 1772 when a son, Walter, was baptised here and it is likely they came here shortly after their marriage. Several more children arrived in the following years. An entry in the minute book of the trustees for repairing and widening the roads from the City of Gloucester towards Cheltenham and Tewkesbury between 1 May 1778 and 30 January 1798, also records a Thomas Wiggins living at Priors Norton and it is supposed that this is the man who gave his name to this property. When Hester/Esther died in 1828 she was buried at Norton.
Articles of agreement for the sale of an estate dated 13th February 1796 between Samuel Selwyn of Westbury, a doctor, and Thomas Cook, husbandman of Norton, are the next documents we have. Thomas Cook paid £10 10s deposit with a balance of £199 10s to be paid “… for all that messuage or two tenements with the close of pasture ground … in Norton … called or known by the name of Dearly Close …” along with several other pieces of land in the area of Churchfield, Norton. The balance of the monies was to be paid before 25th April that year.
Thomas Cook married Johanna Loveridge of Taynton in 1803, then settled in Norton where they had a number of children.
At the time of the Inclosure Act in 1807 the property was still owned by Thomas Cook and was described as follows :-
No 345 House & Garden 0-1-9
No 346 Orchard 1-3-36
No 347 Allotment in Churchfield 2-2-28
On 16th August 1809 Thomas Cook became bound to John Spillman of Gloucester. The document states “ … in the sum of eight hundred pounds …” then goes on to say that Thomas Cook shall pay to John Spillman “ … four hundred pounds of lawful money of the said United Kingdom with interest for the same after the rate of five pounds per century per annum on the sixteenth day of February next … according to and in full performance and discharge of the proviso or condition mentioned in our indenture of mortgage …” It appears that the mortgage referred to was taken against the property we now know as The Orchards.
John Spillman died just a few years later and we find an indenture dated 28th February 1814 between James Wintle of Gloucester, Thomas Cook, yeoman of Norton and William Nelmes of Crickley Hill in the parish of Cowley … timber dealer. James Wintle was the sole executor named in the will of John Spillman. The indenture goes on to say that Thomas Cook had sold certain properties at Norton to John Spillman in an indenture dated 16th August 1809. This would appear to have been the mortgage referred to above. The properties concerned were “… all those two messuages tenements or dwelling houses then in the occupation of Hester Matty widow, and William Holder cordwainer as tenants thereof…” also “… all that orchard near or adjoining to the said messuage tenements or dwelling houses and gardens commonly called or known by the name of Derely Close …”. On 28th August 1815, £400 was paid to James Wintle and presumably this was to go into the estate of the deceased John Spillman. Thomas Cook paid £50 and William Nelmes paid £350. William Nelmes appears to have paid the money in the form of a mortgage to Thomas Cook.
William Nelmes held this mortgage for a number of years until it passed to what must have been a relative. On 26th August 1828 we find an assignment by the way of a mortgage from William Nelmes, by then of Charlton Kings and still a timber dealer, to Mrs Mary Nelmes, a widow of Crickley Hill. The properties are recorded as being formerly in the occupation of Hester Matty and William Holder but then in the occupation of Thomas Cook and William Cook, yeomen.
Thomas Cook died, intestate, on 9th January 1830 and Mary Nelmes on 25th August 1837. Amongst other bequests Mary Nelmes left “… the principal sum of three hundred and ninety pounds secured to her on mortgage of property at Norton … belonging to the late Thomas Cook …”. To several friends including Samuel Davis, carpenter and builder of Prestbury. Things were not that simple, however, and for some reason now unbeknown to us, on 17th June 1842 Samuel Davis made a disclaimer disavowing all trusts to him in Mary Nelmes’ Will. A further indenture of 23rd June 1842 names Mary Nelmes’ executors as her daughter Mary Rogers and Thomas Taylor as well as Samuel Davis. The indenture is between James Rogers, farmer of Charlton Kings, and husband of Mary Rogers, and Thomas Taylor builder of Cheltenham and William Cook of Norton and Philip Boulter Cooke gentleman of the City of Gloucester. William Cook was required to pay the outstanding balance of £427 19s 6d to Mary Nelmes’ executors and it would appear that Philip Boulter Cooke paid and took on the mortgage. The indenture also states that William Cook was now in occupation of the property and that “… the said William Cook is desirous that the residue of the said term of five hundred years so vested in the said Mary Rogers and Thomas Taylor … be assigned to the said Philip Boulter Cooke in tryst for him to attend the reversion and inheritance of the said premises…”. This was agreed.
We are lucky to still have a ‘terrier and valuation of the messuages, lands, and other hereditaments liable to poor rate in the parish of Norton’ from 1838 that tells us the property, then known as ‘Wiggins’, was a house, garden and orchard, and was owned and occupied by William Cook. William was born at Pauntley, in 1807, the son of Thomas and Johanna Cook.
It would appear that the mortgage was sold on again to Nathaniel Reeve, gentleman of the City of Gloucester, on 25th June 1842. Nathaniel died on 1st November 1842 having willed the mortgage to John Russell Esq of Barnwood and Edwin Jones, flock manufacturer of the City of Gloucester. An indenture dated 27th February 1843 appears to show that William Cook and Susannah Cook, widow, transferred the mortgage to James Francillon, barrister at law in the City of Gloucester and John Hill of Baldwins in the parish of Newent, gentleman.
In 1851 William Cook was farming 14 acres ‘near the church’, and his widowed mother lived with him. The electoral rolls confirm this to have been Wiggins. William appears to have remained here until his death in 1859 when Johanna went to live with another son, Edwin Cook, who owned Benges Farm, Priors Norton, but lived and farmed at Newland. Johanna died here in 1868 but was buried at Norton.
Edwin Cook, gentleman, formerly of Clearwell in the parish of Newland and late of Newhouse Farm, Aston Ingham, Hereford, died on 12th March 1877. Edwin was also buried at Norton. He willed his estate including the properties at Norton to his trustees Thomas Lane and Arthur Cook. Strangely, following the example of Samuel Davis some 30 years previous, Thomas Lane renounced his probate leaving the execution to Arthur Cook.
On 23 April 1877, Bruton, Knowles, and Bruton, had been instructed by the executors of the late Edwin Cook to auction; "Two pieces of valuable freehold pasture land, fully planted with choice fruit trees, with the dwelling house, mill house, buildings, and gardens known as 'Wiggins', containing together about five acres, desirably situate in the parish of Norton, about four miles from the City of Gloucester, adjoining the Gloucester and Tewkesbury Road, and bounded on other parts by lands of Mr J W Cliff, in the occupation of Mr Weston". John Weston actually lived at The Leigh but occupied freehold cottage, garden and land near the roadside at Norton from 1870-1900.
We later find an indenture dated 31st May 1878 between Arthur Cook, a chemist of the City of Westminster, and Albert Cook, farmer of Cliffords Mesne, Newent, whereby Albert paid Arthur Cook £800 to take on the properties at Norton. Albert and Arthur were both sons of Edwin Cook.
On 1st June 1878 we find an indenture between Albert Cook, still farmer of Cliffords Mesne, and John Jackson, gentleman of the Spa in the City of Gloucester, whereby Albert borrowed £600 in the form of a mortgage. It would appear that on 30th August 1879 Albert Cook signed over ownership of the properties contained in the mortgage to John Jackson.
On 19 July 1879 Wiggins was to be auctioned again, at the New Inn Hotel, Gloucester, by Bruton, Knowles & Co, suggesting that the property either didnt sell first time around or the new owners wanted to pass it on. There is no mention of the Cook family in the auction notice but the description of the property is otherwise identical to the 1877 sale described above.
John Jackson died leaving a will dated 14th October 1882 leaving Richard Warne and Samuel Clutterbuck as trustees. A case was heard in the High Court of Justice, Chancery Division, on 7th January 1890, “… in the matter of the trusts of the will … of John Jackson … between Eliza Ann Cottrell Ashbee (the wife of Henry Ashbee) plaintiff and Richard Warne and Samuel Clutterbuck, defendants…”. The case seemed to revolve around ownership and rights to the property and resulted with “… this Court doth declare that the Plaintiff is entitled for her separate use in fee simple to the Real Estate of the Testator John Jackson subject only to the annuity of £80 per annum bequeathed by the Will of the Testator to his widow Ann Jackson for her life or widowhood and it is ordered that the defendants … do let the Plaintiff into possession of the Testators Real Estate and into the receipt of the rents and profits thereof … the Plaintiff is entitled to receive the income … during her life”.
In 1891 and 1892 Thomas Henry Norris, a tailor from Cheltenham, is at The Orchards with his wife Alice but their time here was brief. Thomas had married Alice Jane Collins at Gloucester in 1885 and in 1889 they were living at Upton St Leonards. By 1894 they had moved again to Churchdown. Both died young, Alice in 1902 and Thomas in 1903, both at Cheltenham.
As we stated earlier, Kelly’s 1897 Trade Directory for Gloucestershire records Samuel Preston living at The Orchards and this is the first time the name seems to have been associated with the property. The 1898 parish electoral roll also shows Samuel Preston holding the qualifying property of ‘land and tenement’ at The Orchards and he still held the property in 1899.
In August 1900 there is a sale for 30 trees worth of plums and damsons at Whishaw poultry farm, Norton. The following month, on 29 September , Sandoe and Son, received instructions from Mr B J Whishaw to sell by auction “the entire plans and appliances for a complete poultry farm” at Norton, as he was giving up the farm. The sale was to include “250 head of prize-bred poultry, poultry houses, cold brooders, foster mothers, three 100 egg incubators” as well as “a rick of hay and the growing crop of fruit”.
In 1901 a Bernard Wishaw could vote at Norton based on 'land and tenement' at Malvern View. Bernard John Whishaw had an interesting background being born at St Petersburg, Russia, in 1868, the son of Bernard and Sophy Whishaw. Bernard Snr had also been born at St Petersburg, son of Bernhard and Elizabeth. He married Isabel Marie Cattley, who died in 1863, then remarried Sophy Blessig at the British Chaplaincy, St Petersburg, on 9 March 1866. It appears that Bernard Jnr was one of 16 children. Bernhard Snr was employed as a ‘kaufmann’, or a merchant with the firm Hills and Whishaw in St Petersburg.
Bernhard Whishaw Sophy Blessig
In 1881 Sophy had returned from Russia and was living at Fauconburg Terrace, Cheltenham, along with four daughters and two sons, all born at St Petersburg. Sophy is recorded as being married to an English merchant of St Petersburg. Husband Bernard is absent so perhaps he was still in Russia. Family are still in Cheltenham in 1891 minus Bernard Snr. Bernard senior died at Cheltenham in 1900, aged 78, and in 1901 we find Sophy living at Shurdington Road, Cheltenham. Sophy died at Cheltenham in 1917 aged 77. In 1911 Bernard John Whishaw was living at Cheltenham. He married Joanna and they had two children. Bernard John died at Cheltenham in 1951. There are still Whishaws in Cheltenham today and large amounts of information about the family and their Russian connections can be found on the internet.
The name of the Orchards/Malvern View property becomes slightly confusing around the turn of the 1900s with both names in use. In the 1901 Census we find a George Walter Parrott, a pig dealer, living with his wife and two daughters at Malvern View. Kelly’s Trade Directory for Gloucestershire for 1902 records George Walter Parrott, farmer, The Orchards. These were almost certainly the same property and the names crop up again later. The electoral roll for Norton in 1902 records Alfred Turner holding a qualifying property at The Orchards.
George Walter Parrott would have been tenant rather than owner. George was born at Gloucester in 1873, son of George Parrott and Sarah Ann nee Jordan, he married Emma Elizabeth Rea in 1893 at Gloucester and by the time they came to Norton they had two young daughters, both born at Gloucester. Later we find the following advertisement; “The Orchards, Norton. Sandoe and Son, instructed by Mr G Parrott, will sell by auction, on Tuesday, September 22nd, 1903, commencing at one o’clock, a useful pony, sow in farrow, bacon pig, 8 stores, 170 head poultry, spring trap, float, 2 orchards of fruit, hay, household furniture, and outdoor effects”. In other sources this was more detailed and listed “a useful pony, 7 years old, sow in farrow, bacon pig, 5 porkers, 8 strong stores, 6 ducks, 17 geese …”. On 8 March 1904 we find George departing Glasgow aboard SS Sarmation, travelling steerage to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, bound eventually for Winnipeg. He was travelling with George Ernest Rea, a 25 year old farmer of Gloucester, his wife’s brother. His family seem to have travelled separately later the same year. By 1911 he was settled with his wife and three daughters farming at Qu’Appelle, Saskatchewan, and they were still here in 1926.
Kelly’s Trade Directory for Gloucestershire for 1906 has William Taylor, farmer, The Orchards. The property was put up for auction on Saturday 27th July 1907 at The Bell Hotel, Gloucester. The following is an extract from the Bruton, Knowles & Co auction leaflet that also gives a detailed description of how the property would have been constituted at that time.
“Lot 1 – Malvern View. A desirable small holding, conveniently situated in the Parish of Norton, on the main road from Gloucester to Tewkesbury, and within four miles of Gloucester. It comprises a well-built modern dwelling house, occupying an elevated position facing south, and commanding fine views of the Malverns; it contains 2 sitting rooms, 3 bed rooms, pantry, dairy, and kitchen with furnace. Adjoining is a good garden with fruit trees, and the outbuildings include cider-house with loft over, wash-house, cider mill-house with mill and press, shed, poultry-house, trap-house, and piggery. There are also two enclosures of valuable pasture orcharding, well stocked with table and cider fruit trees, and having a pond in each. The property comprises Nos 146,157 and parts of 137 and 236 on the Second Edition of the Ordnance Map, contains about 5a 2r 12p, has long and valuable frontage to the main road from Gloucester to Tewkesbury, and is bounded on other sides by land of Mr L Roberts. It is let to Mr William Taylor at £30 a year, the tenancy expiring at September 29th next. In addition to his purchase money the purchaser shall pay the sum of £28 15s for the timber growing on this Lot”.
This tells us that William Taylor was the tenant and not the owner. The property was also advertised for sale in local newspapers where it was stated that it was put up under the instruction of Mr Henry Ashbee. In September 1907; “Sale of fruit. Bruton Knowles and Co will sell by auction in Gloucester Market, on Monday, September 6th, 1907, at 10:30 o’clock, punctually, - … at The Orchards, Norton, by direction of Mr. W. Taylor, about 90 trees of pears, all Perry Fruit”.
Kelly’s Trade Directory for Gloucestershire for 1910 has Ambrose Browning, farmer, The Orchards. A list of properties and owners recorded in 1910 as a result of a recent Finance Act became known as ‘Domesday Book’ and also shows Ambrose Browning in residence but states that the property was actually owned by a Mrs Ashbee. She may well have purchased the property at the 1907 auction or may have been the same ‘Eliza Ann Cottrell Ashbee (the wife of Henry Ashbee)’ who was involved in the court case of 1890. In 1921 Ambrose was living here, in what was described as a 7 room property, with his wife Laura and children Marjory and Phillip, and he was then employed as a wagon maker at the Gloucester Carriage and Wagon Co. Ambrose Browning appears to have remained in residence until 1926 when the family moved to Tythe Cottages near Hill Farm. Ambrose died in 1931 when the Parish Magazine for February included the burial of Ambrose Edmund Browning, aged 51 years, on January 3rd. The vicar recorded that “we have all lost a faithful deputy parish verger and sexton, and we shall miss him very much. If ever a man had consciously prepared himself for death it was Ambrose Browning. For a long time he had suffered from the effects of an accident, which itself might well have been fatal. Then, the extraction of his teeth last summer further marked a stage in the progress of physical weakness. The way in which he kept on with his work, living a full life, right up to the end, showed his strength of purpose. As a relative said to me shortly afterwards, ‘He was a good son, a good husband, a good father, and a good brother’. I found him a good fellow worker and a faithful friend. The many tributes of esteem and affection will show his widow and children of our sympathy for them in their great loss”.
In August 1926 The Orchards was put up for sale and this must have been when Ambrose Browning moved out; “ For sale, vacant possession, The Orchards. Norton, near Gloucester; modern double fronted seven-roomed Dwelling House, pleasantly situated, about 5 acres pasture orcharding, with numerous brick out-buildings, high elevation, good supply water, ‘bus route. – apply Fryer, 85 Stroud Road, Gloucester”.
In 1929-30 Archibald and Emma Dunstan were at The Orchards likely taking it on when Ambrose Browning left in 1926. Archibald was born at Truro, Cornwall, in 1864, married Nancy Ellen Haworth at Haslingden, Lancs, in 1885, and they settled here with Archibald employed