West House - (The White House, 'W' Cottage)

The earliest record I have come across to what was then the ‘W’ House dates from 1795.  This may have been the year that the property was built or the year it came into the ownership of the White family.  

Details recorded at the time of the Inclosure Act in Norton in 1807 reveal that there were several properties on this site at that time and this can be seen from the following map.

What is now West House was entry No 340 and was owned by Mary Charter, a widow.  It was described as follows; “… all that tenement with the court yard, gardens thereto adjoining and belonging called or commonly known as the W House containing one acre…”.    Mary owned considerable land in the vicinity of the house as well although this could have been in the hands of her son Thomas.

Mary Savery had married Thomas Charter of St John the Baptist, Gloucester, in 1762 at Mary’s home parish of Withington, and in 1764 they had a son, Thomas.  The Charters would have been an important family in the city with an earlier Thomas Charters having married Mary Maisey at Gloucester Cathedral in 1737.  Father Thomas died in 1783 leaving Mary [Savery] a widow, and he was buried at St Aldates, Gloucester.  Between at least 1783 and 1801 Thomas Charter Jnr owned property at Norton with Henry Fox as tenant in 1783, occupied by himself thereafter and was assessed for £5 2s land tax.  On 10 August 1802, a Thomas Charter of St John the Baptist, Gloucester, married Hester Cotteril, by license, at Bishops Cleeve, Hester’s home.  Between 1804 and 1830 Thomas was still in residence at his property at Norton paying £5 2s tax and he also had another property on which he paid 6s and rented additional land from a Gen Fitzroy.  In 1818 a Thomas Charter was a maltster in the city of Gloucester.  Thomas wrote a Will in 1834 and died in 1838 leaving his estate including “all and singular my freehold and leasehold messuages or tenements lands hereditaments and premises situate in the Parish of Norton” to his widow Hester.  Thomas Charters, ‘parish of Norton’ was buried at St Aldates, Gloucester, on 14 September, aged 74 years. It is not definite if the property occupied by Thomas Charter during these years was ‘W’ House but it seems likely.

The property is mentioned, although not by name, in 1859 in the Will of Thomas Charter, gentleman of Norton, and later formed part of a marriage settlement between John Raymond Pope of Abinghall, farmer, and Mary Esther White of Coombe Hill, in 1859.  This is the White family whom I believe the ‘W’ in the rear wall of the house refers to.  Before the current Tewkesbury Road was constructed this used to be the front of the house facing onto the original main road and what is now a narrow lane.  Thomas and Hester Charter had a daughter, Mary Ann, baptised at Norton in 1803, who married an Arthur White, cabinet maker of Cheltenham, also at Norton in 1833.  Another link to the same White family perhaps ?

John Raymond Pope and his wife Mary Esther are buried at St Mary’s, Norton, just inside the church gates to the right; “In memory of John Raymond Pope who died December 2nd 1910 aged 85 years.  ...also Mary Esther...  Dear little Thomas Harry their youngest child died January 22nd 1872 in the 5th year of his life”.

In 1847 William Marston married Emma Cole at St Mary de Lode, Gloucester, and by 1851 the property recorded as the White House was in their occupation; William Marston, a 26 year old farm labourer of Norton, wife Emma 26 shopkeeper of Norton, and their daughters Mary (3) and Justina (6m) both of Norton.  The family remained here for many years with a growing number of children.  In 1881 the property was recorded as the W House and Emma was still a grocer/shopkeeper so presumably on the premises.  They were still there in 1891 but I guess it was shortly after this that the property changed hands as William died in 1898, Emma in 1902, both living at Twigworth at the time and both were buried at Norton.  In 1901 Emma’s occupation was recorded as ‘selling a few sweets’.

Sam and Linda Hughes lived at West House from marriage in 1923 till their deaths in 1976 and 1978 respectively.  In 1925-30 it was known as W Cottage but was West House by 1939. 

It is believed this sketch was drawn by Peter Putnam, a cousin of Pat Ward (nee Wareing) who lived with her parents at The Orchards and later at The Green, Norton.  The Wareing family were great friends with Sam and Linda Hughes and both Pat and Peter spent their honeymoons at West House.  Pat's daughter Carolyn tells me; "The kitchen, if you can call it that, was the little ‘lean to’ on the right made of a timber frame and covered with a tin roof and green canvas wall".

In 1985 it was occupied by David J and Carole A Brennan.  

In 2002 Edward M A and Karen S Krupa were in residence.

In 2020 West House was the home of Stephen 'Jock' Scott.