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 Duffey 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, WMttVedfnTV*Er SydTing.

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?

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Appendices

Transcript of indenture dated I st September, 1719, signed by Henry Watts and his wife Elizabeth granting Thomas Kiddle the lease for one year.

Transcript of indenture dated 16th September, 1 71 9, between Thomas Broad and Henry Watts.

Transcript of indenture dated 23rd January, 806, between John Chapman Kiddle and William Kiddle, and Robert Devenish.

Transcript of indenture dated 24th January, 1806, by John Chapman Kiddle and William Kiddle to Robert Devenish and his trustee (release of promise).

Sources

The Buildings ofEngland — Dorset, by John Newman and Nikolaus Pevsner, Yale University Press, 2002.

"Sydling St. Nicholas, Glimpses ofits History", Sheila Phillips, 1993

Indenture dated 1st September, 1719, signed by Henry Watts and his wife, Elizabeth granting Thomas Kiddle the lease for one year.

Indenture dated 16th September, 1 719, between Thomas Broad and Henry Watts.

Indenture dated 23rd January, 1806, between John Chapman Kiddle and William Kiddle, and Robert Devenish

Indenture dated 24th January, 1806, by John Chapman Kiddle and William Kiddle to Robert Devenish and his u-ustee.

Indenture dated I Ith April, 1837by Henry Kiddle to Montague Charles Weston

Extract from the Will of Robert Devenish, proven on 7th August, 1839.

Abstract of title dated 1898

Notice to pay dated 24th March, 1887

Indenture dated 8th November, 1898, between Gould Hunter-Weston and Samuel Dubben www.caverswall.org.uk