Huish Cottages are a curiosity: They look like a typical pair of 1930s cottages, but a plaque on the front wall proudly declares that they date from 1794.

 

They certainly were renovated and updated very thoroughly in the 1930s or thereabouts, by the Crawley family who lived there and ran the cress beds behind them. (See previous article on watercress in the Sydling Valley).

In 1992, they were sold as a pair, and needed significant renovation, still having the original 1930s wiring and dark brown bakelite light switches. (We were told at the time that these were the first cottages in Sydling to have electricity. Does anyone know otherwise?) It was obvious during repair work that the front walls of the ground floor were thick stone and rubble, much more typical of an older cottage. The other walls having been built, or rebuilt, in the 1930s most probably.

 

1 Huish Cottages became Huish Forge, where Duffy Fox worked as a farrier from what had been the old bunching shed, until he and Merrill moved away in 2019.

But what was here before the cress beds and the Crawleys?

In 1831 Huish Cottages and the land stretching south behind them belonged to John Melliar, and were described as “The Old Dog Kennels”.

 

In the 18th century, the Smith Family of Sydling Court kept a pack of hounds. A painting of the house, thought to be from 1787 (before its gothic frontage was added) shows hounds going home. The green coat of the huntsman, and the French style round horn he is carrying, fit with that date.

The hounds depicted in the painting almost certainly lived at Huish. They appear to be West Country Harriers, a lighter breed of hound, often used for hare hunting.

 

 The plaque on Huish Cottages has the initials JS, for John Smith. Presumably 1794 was the date when the hounds were no longer kept there, and he converted the kennels to cottages, adding the upper floor.

 

John Melliar (1759-1840) was a surgeon and apothecary, who lived within Sherborne Abbey precincts, and was an old Shirburnian and school governor, very involved in Sherborne society, and ultimately an important benefactor to the town, leaving many bequests to individuals and public institutions and establishing a parochial charity.

In 1797 he married Ann Devenish, whose family owned Huish Farm. He obviously loved Sydling, as his last will and testament starts with:

“It is my particular wish to be buried at Sydling, in a very private manner, and that I may be followed to the grave only by the two William Devenishes, the one now living in Bradford Peverell, and the other at Huish Farm in Sydling St Nicholas”.

 

Perhaps he acquired the cottages to house workers on Huish farm, for his wife’s family.

 

There is still more to find out about these very unique cottages