Chaddleworth's Round House

An intriguing Chaddleworth history item is one of its (now long gone) houses that used to be situated in the garden of ‘Jasmine Cottage’ Main Street and was formerly known as number 17 when all Chaddleworth’s houses were just given a number and not necessarily in the right order.

There is much conjecture about why the house was round but there is a very simple answer. It was constructed from a windmill that was taken down on Windmill Hill above Manor Farm. All the timbers slotted together and it was relatively easy to infill the brick walls.

During its long life it had been a carpenters shop and was even used for a short period as an over spill school. In the very early seventies it became structurally unsafe and was taken down. What intrigues many people (and even today I hear this spoken of) are the chambers and tunnels that were hewn through the chalk. Most of them have been filled in but I went down in the early eighties at the invitation of Mr & Mrs Pearce who lived in Jasmine Cottage at the time and found that there was indeed a tunnel traversing several feet in a westerly direction before becoming blocked.

After quite a bit of research I discovered that there was a tunnel under the road leading to the nearest well, and a number of other tunnels and chambers beside. One is reputed to go all the way to the old Augustinian Priory at Poughley that now is sited right inside RAF Welford. This being a distance of between 1 – 1.5 miles would be quite a feat of effort and engineering. Legend has it that the monks used the tunnel to hide from ‘dark forces’ during the dissolution of the monasteries.

In the Priory (which became a farmhouse until requisitioning during World War 2 to build RAF Welford) cellar there is what looks to have been a doorway in the wall in the right direction (the bricks are different) so it is a possibility but not a strong one, but why let the truth get in the way of a good story!

Moving back to Chaddleworth in 1920 there was a large sale of cottages held at The Parish Room (latterly the Village Hall) by Messrs Dreweatt Watson & Barton of Newbury. There were 38 cottages with gardens, a Blacksmiths shop, Stabling and Capital Meadow and Allotment Lands. All these properties were being let and producing Gross Rentals of £122-5 shillings per annum.

Looking through the particulars in detail there are some interesting facts, Long Row no’s 9 through to 14 were rented out for a total of £18 13 shillings per year so a little over £3 per year each.

Number 15 which is now Marlpost was used even then as a Post Office and had a brick built Blacksmiths Shop next door where ‘The Anvils’ now are. Number 16 & 17 (now Jasmine Cottage and The Round House were sold for £100.

Lot 5, numbers 26 and 27 where ‘Lilacs and White Oriels bungalows now are were a pair of cottages that sold for £160. A point of note for the buyer here was that the timber and corrugated Iron Roof shed is claimed by the tenant!

Grahame Murphy