A Brief History of Greystones, 3 High Street, Sydling St. Nicholas

When writing about Sydling St. Nicholas in his architectural guide to Dorset, Thomas Pevsner remarked that the three most interesting houses in the village stand in a row at the southern end of the High Street, "The middle house ... ... ... is a very late survivor ofthe earlier tradition, as the date stone 1733 shows; for the walls are stone andflint banded, the windows mullioned, with an ovolo moulding. But there is symmetry, and, a telling detail, an inconspicuous stone modillion cornice. Elsewhere in his book, he wrote, "Tradition died hardest in the west ofthe county ... ... ... mullioned windows can be found at Sydling St. Nicholas dated 1733 ... ... ... ".

However, that date stone is misleading and the house was, in fact, built long before 1733.

In her book, Sydling St. Nicholas, Glimpses ofits History, Sheila Phillips maintains that the house dates from 1640, but her source of information is unclear.

Of greater importance is a surviving legal docurnent dated 16th September, 1719, which indicates that the house was certainly in existence in 1678. At that time it was owned by Edmund Bowyer, who lived in Spetisbury in Dorset. Edmund Bowyer was probably descended from Sir John Bowyer, Lord of the Manor of Spetisbury, who died in 1599. In 1678, Edmund Bowyer leased the house to the sisters Margaret and Alice Stagg, both of whom were spinsters.

At some time prior to 1691 the freehold appears to have passed into the hands of Robert Hussey Esq., of Stourpaine in Dorset, and Sarah Gower, and was occupied by Williarn Gower and, subsequently, by his son, also named Williarn Gower. In 1691 the freehold was acquired by Thomas Broad, described as a Gentleman, of Sydling.

By 1719 the lease had passed from the younger William Gower to Henry Watts, a yeoman farmer, but, in that same year, the remainder of the lease of 200 years was acquired by John Kiddle, also a yeoman farmer, on behalf of his grandson, Thomas Kiddle, who, at that time, was less than twentyone years of age.

It appears likely that, in 1719, the house, which at that time was known as the Free Suite, was part of a larger mansion on the side of the present house. If that is so, that larger building must have extended onto the land now utilised as a driveway and it may also have occupied part of the land now owned by the neighbouring East House (which was not built until 1790). It also appears that the land to the immediate south of the house, now occupied by an eighteenth century extension to the Vicarage, was a garden to that mansion.

The house appears to have been continuously occupied by succeeding generations of the Kiddle family from 1719 until the late nineteenth century. In the mid-eighteenth century the house was owned by one John Kiddle and, on his death, it passed to the eldest son and heir, John Chapman Kiddle, Esquire, of Fordington in Dorset. John Chapman Kiddle, perhaps having no need for the house, gave it to his brother, Emanuel Kiddle. Towards the end of the century Emanuel Kiddle died and the house passed into the hands of a younger brother, William Kiddle, a yeoman farmer. In 1806 William Kiddle sold the house to Robert Devenish, a gentleman of the parish of Charrninster for the sum of f 141. Robert Devenish was, almost certainly, a member of the Devenish family of brewers.

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On 12th July, 1837, Robert Devenish, who continued to reside in Charminster, wrote a Will giving the house to Henry Kiddle, his nephew, who was a carpenter and who, at that time, appears to have been living at the house. And so it seems possible that, despite the sale to Robert Devenish in 1806, the house continued to be occupied by William Kiddle and subsequently by his son, Henry.

However, on 1 Ith April, 1837, before the Will was written, Henry Kiddle somehow obtained E50 from Montague Charles Weston, a gentleman in Dorchester, using the house as security for the loan. Robert Devenish died in 1839. By 1851, Henry Kiddie had become the Parish Clerk in Sydling.

Henry Kiddle died in 1876 and the house was inherited by his wife, Mary Kiddle, who, in 1882, obtained a further loan of E86 from Montague Charles Weston using the house as security. In 1887, by which time Mary Kiddle had moved to London and the house was occupied by one James Wiltshire, a shopkeeper and carrier, Montague Charles Weston sewed notice on Mary Kiddie for the repayment of both loans. However, nothing further appears to have been done and, in 1892, Montague Charles Weston died. His interest in the house was inherited by Lt. Col. Gould Read Hunter-Weston, otherwise known as Gould Hunter-Weston, who was on the retired list of the Indian Army and who lived at Hunterston in Ayrshire.

By 1898 the house was unoccupied and Gould Hunter-Weston sold it for El 50 to Samuel George Dubben, a miller and baker who appears to have lived profitably as such until his death in 1934. By that time the house was known as "The Bakery" and it was then sold to Percival Frederick Brown, a baker and confectioner in Dorchester. The agreed price was E475. Percival Frederick Brown died a few years later, in 1938, and the house was inherited by his wife, Dorothy Gladys Brown, who carried on the business until 1954. On her death, in 1971, the house was inherited by her daughter, Dorothy Mary Newman who sold it to Annabel Kristin Broome in 1991

Annabel Broome and Stephen Guild, an architect, then embarked on a major programme of renovation and extension. Their first task amounted to a total reconstruction of the outbuilding to fonn a self-contained annex to the house. They then moved on to the main house, which required complete renovation, and to the building of a large extension. Their work was essentially completed in 2001 and, in 2002, they sold the house to Lene and Christopher Wade.

Like all histories, there is no beginning and no end, and there are many unanswered questions:

When was the house built?

Who was Edmund Bowyer? It seems likely that he was the first occupant of the house, but was that indeed the case? Why did he come to own a house in Sydling? What was his occupation?

Was the house, in fact, part of a larger mansion in the early eighteenth century? What is the meaning of the term Free Suite?

What is the significance of the year 1733 on the datestone?

Prequel: The Free Suite

 

Further investigation reveals that Edmund Bowyer was not the first occupant of the house. Its existence can be traced back a further 200 years, to the mid 16th century, and by implication much further. And the house was indeed part of a larger mansion.

 

 In 1557, John Bowyer, of Beere in Somerset, leased “all that moiety or halfendele and all his part and parcel of the mansion house of Broadsydling and the suite appertaining to the same”, to Edmund Hardy (along with some ground in Maydgeston in the parish of Sydling) for 99 years.

There is no mention of who owned the other moiety, or half, of the mansion house, although it may well have been the Christmas family, who lived at Magiston at this time. because

In 1667 Edmund Bowyer of Spetisbury and Nicholas Hardie of Sydling were said to be joint owners of “certain freehold lands situate lying and being in Sideling aforesaid, late in the tenure of Richard Christmas gent deceased And commonly knowne by the name of the Free Suite”. They agreed “to part and divide the said Free Suite with all the houses, outhouses edifices, gardens meadows pastures and arable lands thereto belonging”.

They divided the mansion house in two, giving great detail as follows:

 

“Edmund Bowyer for him and his heirs and assigns is contented and well pleased to accept and take for his divided part of the whole this part and parcell of the premises following, vis the buttery, the little parlor, the larder, the kitchen, the Brewhouse, the buttery chamber, the brewhouse chamber called the pidgeon house, the oven house, the furse house with the ground thereof, the garden called the best garden and that part of the pigs pound next the house of office called the north piggstie, that part of the other garden which lyeth on the south side of a path called Church path leading from the dwelling house to the church.

 

Nicholas Hardie for himself his heirs and assigns is likewise contented and well pleased to accept and take for his and their several and divided part, this part and parcell of the said Free Suite and premises hereafter following. Viz the hall, the greate parlor, the hall chamber, the parlour chamber, the staire case leading from the hall to the hall chamber, the gatehouse, the gatehouse chamber, the stable, the south pigg pounds, that part of the garden bounded on the south by the church path.

 

And it is also covenanted and agreed by and between the said parties that the partition between the upper rooms of the house and the lower shall be erected and made by the said Edmund Bowyer. And the west end and part of the fences of the court from the stile in the said Churchpath so far as unto the oven house shall be likewise from time to time repaired by the said Edmund Bowyer, his heirs and assigns. And that the court or yard adjoining to the mansion house shall be and remain to and for the use of both parties, their heirs and assigns in common and to be fenced by the said Nicholas Hardie his heirs and assigns from time to time, when and as often as need shall, and that the church path ……..and ingress, egress and regress through the gatehouse shall be in common to and for both parties their heirs and assigns. And also the house of office which shall be from time to time repaire at the equal charges of each party their heirs and assigns”.

 

In 1667Edmund Bowyer leased his half of the mansion house to William and Sarah Gower

In 1675 Margaret and Alice Stagg were renting the premises, but the freehold had been taken over by Joseph Hussey of Stourpaine.

In 1691the Husseys still own the freehold, William Gower has died and w=his widow Sarah and son William take on the lease.

The Hussey family were the occupants of Sydling Court from 1630-1684, so presumably the Stourpaine Husseys were close relatives.

 

Discussion: Free Suite

The mansion house must have existed long before the first documented reference to it in 1557. By this time it was already occupied in two parts. It was then a freehold property. 

Before 1540, all property in Sydling belonged to the monks of Milton Abbey, and subsequently passed to Winchester College.

The ONLY freehold properties in the whole village after 1540, were the vicarage and glebeland, and the Kiddles house adjoining the vicarage (ie this house). Even the Court house was owned by the college and leased out. This implies that these properties didn’t belong to the abbey, but presumably both belonged to the church. It isn’t clear when or how John Bowyer came to own his half of the Free Suite.

 

But what is a free suite?

A Vicar’s free suite is probably a term for the free accommodation provided for a clergyman to live. This may include house and land.

Milton Abbey detailed the assets of Sydling Church in 1315, and again in 1333, when they appropriated the church, but allowed the vicar to have the parsonage and various lands. The description of the lands matches the later description of the Free Suite lands quite well. It’s tempting to believe that there may have been a dwelling her dating back as far as 1315 and before.

In 1559, “Edmund, Francis and John Hardye, sons of Edmund Hardye, took of the lord, after Thomas Hardye’s surrender…..a pasture for grazing cows above the lord’s land in Brodesydling. This pasture once belonged to the vicar and is called Le Vicar’s Suyte”.

Did the free suite also belong to the church as a separate entity to the vicarage and its suite, before 1540?

In 1722 a survey of Sydling mentions cattle belonging to “the two free suites of the vicars of Sydling”

 

18th century

From the descriptions of the house gardens and paths, it seems clear that Edmund Bowyer owned the south portion of the house, and Nicholas Hardy the north part.  This is confirmed by the map below, showing the South part  (by now Kiddles'), and the north part still Hardy's. The south part has been continually occupied until this day, but it’s difficult to know if any of the present structure dates back to medieval times, or if it was renovated or rebuilt, perhaps in 1733 as the date stone suggests.

The north part of the house must have fallen into disuse or been demolished.