ashgrove

ashgrove

30 Mudford Road

 

Ashgrove, also known as Ashgrove House, is a substantial Regency-style residence dating to 1839. It was built by Yeovil builder George Harris for 29-year-old Yeovil glove manufacturer and later Mayor of Yeovil, Elias Whitby the Younger (1810-1880) for £500 (mortgaged to tea dealer Silas Feaver - around £62,000 at today's value). The house is set in once-extensive grounds on the northern corner of the junction of Sparrow Lane (now Sparrow Road) with Mudford Road.

Ashgrove was built, as Madeley's map of 1831 shows, in a large empty field (later subdivided) and described as a "Close of Pasture, known as Penny's Ground" after its owner Henry Penny (see Documentation). Ashgrove is clearly shown on the Tithe Map of 1842 as Parcel 1064 (see Maps). The 1846 Tithe Apportionment noted that the owner / occupier at this time was glove manufacturer Elias Whitby the Younger.

Ashgrove is of two storeys (plus cellar) and three bays with colour-washed render scribed with course lines under a hipped Welsh slate roof with wide overhanging eaves. There is a projecting central porch with Roman Doric unfluted columns and flat pilasters carrying a full entablature with a flat roof. Fenestration comprises 12-pane sash windows to the ground floor and 9-pane sashes to the first floor.

In the 1851 census, Elias Whitby gave his occupation as gloving master. He, his wife Hannah and ten of their children were listed living at Green Quarry - although this was almost certainly Ashgrove.

In the 1851 census, at the age of 21, Martha Softley was lodging in the boarding house of Mary Lukins in Kingston and listed her occupation as a schoolmistress. Indeed, it was in 1851 that Martha started her own school, later to become The Park School, at Ashgrove. In the 1861 census Martha was listed at Ashgrove as 'Principal of School' with her sister Harriett and cousin Catherine, known as Kate, both listed as 'Assistant in School'. There were three boarding students; Fanny and Mary Stone, aged 9 and 5 respectively and 7-year old Ellen Indoe. There was capacity for eight boarding students, housed in two bedrooms on the first floor. Also in the house was a boarder, a cook and a housemaid. Shortly after founding her school at Ashgrove, she moved to a house on the corner of Mudford Road and Higher Kingston. However, certainly by 1869, the school was in Park Road since this is the address given in an advertisement announcing the commencement of the new term.

In 1854, Elias Whitby Jnr sold Ashgrove to his son, Joseph Whitby (2). Although he lived at Ashgrove in his childhood, Joseph didn't live here after his marriage and in the 1861 census Joseph was listed at Church House with his wife Eleanor.

In 1857, Joseph Whitby sold Ashgrove to draper and pawnbroker James Edwards. In his will, James Edwards left Ashgrove to his son-in-law Elias Lyndall Whitby and on 9 January 1859, James Edwards died. Although Elias Lyndall Whitby owned Ashgrove until his death in 1911, he never lived at Ashgrove - although for many hears he lived in Holcote House, just up the road.

The 1871 census for Mudford Road is somewhat confusing with almost all properties being listed as "cottage". However, one property is listed as a "Private House" occupied by 70 -year-old bachelor Henry Cole, a "Professor of Music"

In 1891, Ashgrove was the residence of Congregational Minister Samuel Allen, his wife Mary, son Herbert and a domestic servant. By 1901 it was the home of Henry Monk who, with his daughter Edith, ran the Grammar School in Flowers House in Hendford. Kelly's Directory of 1919 listed Ashgrove as the residence of Henry James Foote.

The building survives but its plot was divided and the former rear gardens now contain a small, four-storey block of flats, Blackdown House. 

 


maps & AERIAL PHOTOGRAPH

 

This section of Edward Bullock Watts' 1831 map of Yeovil shows Fiveways at the left, with Mudford Road running straight to the top and, at the right, is Goldcroft. Sparrow Road runs across the top, connecting the two. What appears to be an empty triangular field at top centre, was Penny's Ground. The field would, during the next ten years, be subdivided and Ashgrove would be built in the southwest corner plot.

 

The 1842 Tithe Map, also by Edward Bullock Watts, showing Fiveways towards bottom right and Sparrow Lane coming in from top centre right. Ashgrove is shown as parcel 1064 left of centre.

 



This map, based on the 1886 Ordnance Survey, shows Ashgrove with its extensive landscaped grounds at centre, on the corner of Mudford Road (running vertically left of centre) and Sparrow Lane (now Sparrow Road) running off to the right.

 

An aerial photograph of 1946 showing Sparrow Road running across the photograph from Mudford Road at left to Goldcroft at right. The two roads at the bottom of the photograph are Roping Road at left of centre and Mitchelmore Road at right of centre. Ashgrove is at the bottom left corner of the photograph. 

 

The modern aerial view (courtesy of Mr Google) shows Ashgrove in its much-reduced setting.


gallery



Courtesy of David Perry

Ashgrove, just left of centre, seen from the top floor of the Yeovil College building during the snows of early 1963.

 


This colourised photograph features in my book 'Yeovil From Old Photographs'.

Ashgrove, photographed in the 1970s.

 

.... and seen from the other direction - for sale by auction by Palmer Snell & Co in two lots; a freehold development and a residential property.

 

Ashgrove, glimpsed through the trees of Yeovil College campus. Photographed in 2013.

 


This photograph features in my book "Yeovil In 50 Buildings"

.... and photographed in 2017.

 

 

owners, tenants and events of Penny's Ground and  Ashgrove

 

Date Owner / Event Purchaser / Occupier
1818 George Daniell Henry Penny
1838 Henry Penny John Moody
1839 John Moody & Trustee George Harris
1839 George Harris Subdiviision of Penny's Ground 
1839 Silas Feaver mortgage of £500 to Elias Whitby the Younger
1839 Ashgrove built by George Harris
1840 George Harris John Noake Highmore buys the rest of Penny's Ground
1839 - 1851 Ashgrove occupied by Elias Whitby Jnr Moves to Kingston House by 1851
1851 Elias Whitby Jnr Martha Softley rents Ashgrove for her school 
1854 Elias Whitby Jnr Joseph Whitby (tenant)
1857 Joseph Whitby & Silas Feaver James Edwards
from 1857 James Edwards  
9 Jan 1859 Death of James Edwards Elias Lyndall Whitby (son in law of Edwards, inherited)
1861 Elias Lyndall Whitby Joseph Whitby (tenant)
1891 Elias Lyndall Whitby Rev Samuel Allen (tenant)
1901 Elias Lyndall Whitby Henry Monk (tenant)
1920 Trustees of Elias Lyndall Whitby The Reverend Arthur William Gummer Butt 
1924 The Reverend Arthur Gummer Butt  Mrs Maud Adams (died 1925)

 

 

Documentation