It’s an afternoon in August and, after the morning’s continuous rain, my wife and I have been out for a brisk walk around the wooded roads of Brownhill, Merdon, Lake and Lakewood. It’s warm and the overpowering sweet smell of Scots pine and Douglas fir pervades the landscape. There are still large numbers of conifers among the mature oak trees where they were once a dominant species.
I first moved into Lakewood Road in 1955 when the woodlands prevailed; the area to the west of the Lake was a pine forest through which I regularly went horse-riding. It is now, tragically, an inaccessible tangle of overgrown species – but that’s another story!
At that time, in the rectangle of land formed by Hiltingbury, Hocombe, Lakewood and Hursley Roads, there was little development, the oldest house being our neighbours’ house,The White House, the land for which had been acquired in 1908. The area was woodland and heathland. I galloped across this land frequently and, like many other boys, rode my bike aerobatically over ‘the bumps’ behind the present Ashdown Road.
As a young boy, I had that wonderful sense of freedom, space and adventure. The land was ripe to be plundered and developed and, from the 1890s, the land from Ford to Brownhill, and Hiltingbury to Hocombe was destined to fall under the woodman’s axe to make way, initially, for exclusive houses.
It is not surprising that, in the 1890s, portions of the vast Hursley Estate had been sold off, bought by William Lodge Wallis and his wife, Mary, and the Chamberlaynes of Cranbury Park. Wallis had made his money from selling land at Eastleigh for the Railways and recognised the potential of buying land to sell on. The Wallises bought the Ford and Hiltingbury/Hocombe portion, a triangle of land south of the Cranbury Estate and in 1892, Mary Wallis bought the Brownhill Estate, also from the Heathcote family’s Hursley Estate.
The couple built their first grand home in 1894 and Kings Court is still in existence today. Realising the potential of the area, in a very short time the land was divided up and sold for development. The Times, in 1896, marketed the area as ‘a charming neighbourhood with a salubrious climate and well timbered’.
Wallis told his friends and acquaintances that the area was like an inland Bournemouth and it certainly felt like that on our afternoon walk.
By 1901 the Wallises had moved to another large house in Brownhill Road. The following two splendid Edwardian houses, Nos: 77 and 81 Brownhill Road, were built on land sold by Mary Wallis in 1899.
Mary Wallis also sold land in Valley Road for building development in the early 1900s. The following picture – of 10 Valley Road – is an example of the stylish Edwardian houses that were being built there at that time.
One of my favourite houses in Chandler’s Ford is No: 6 Park Road, again on land sold by Mary Wallis in 1895. Recognisable by the four spectacular chimneys and decorative fascia boards it is truly a treasure and a credit to those early builders.
The Wallises must have made a fortune because they then built Chandler’s Ford’s piece de resistance, Merdon House, situated in what is now Merdon Close. This house was, without doubt, the jewel in the crown of Chandler’s Ford’s Edwardian houses with its decorative belvedere, extensive gardens with exotic plants and ornamental rocks and six ponds or water gardens, overgrown but still there today as part of the Lakes complex. It was built in 1904 and, tragically, demolished in 1960. What a loss to the architecture of the vllage.
Magnificent houses sprang up in the early 1900s, many with extensive grounds and lodges; again, tragically, some are no more. Connaught Lodge and Terriote in Brownhill Road and Limberlost in Lakewood Road have disappeared, their grounds sold off for profitable housing development. Much of the land surrounding the grand Edwardian houses has also been lost to the chainsaw and the bulldozer for smaller houses.
Merrieleas thankfully survives. Built in the early years of the twentieth century, it is now divided into flats while the attractive houses and bungalows in Merrileas Drive and Merrileas Close were built on its estate. Its Lodge also survives.
There are still some of the grand houses around: the beautiful Garth House remains in Lakewood Road and the outstanding Ormiston House stands proudly in its large grounds in Merdon Avenue.
In 1924, land in Hiltingbury was divided into lots and sold and substantial family homes built in roads like Lakewood Road and along the main Winchester Road.
In the 1950s, my father bought a plot of land in the upper part of Lakewood Road. It was full of deciduous and coniferous trees and had a dense floor covering of bramble, bracken and rosebay willow herb. I demolished the former family home in 2004 and built the new Wykeham House. Two of my former homes in Chandler’s Ford were built in the grounds of larger properties, so I followed a trend set many years before and am as guilty as anyone before me who has changed the face of Chandler’s Ford!!
Hiltingbury and Hocombe are now a special policy area.
In order to protect the special character of Hiltingbury, the subdivision or redevelopment of plots will not be permitted unless the following criteria are met:
- The size of a plot is not significantly smaller than those in the immediate vicinity
- It must not prejudice existing healthy, mature trees on the site
- It must not involve backland or tandem development
- It must be sympathetic to the arcadian character of the locality.
If these rules had been in place fifty years ago, the character of Chandler’s Ford would be very different. As it is, it’s a delightful and popular place to live inhabited by the most friendly and sociable people you’d meet anywhere.
Acknowledgements:
• The Land Registry
• Hiltingbury Lakes (Merdon House Gardens) – Hampshire Garden Trust
• Chandler’s Ford Local History Blog 2006
• Chandler’s Ford – Barbara Hillier
One of the oldest houses in Chandler’s Ford is one you haven’t even mentioned; you probably assume, as most people do, I think, that it’s just another 1930s house.
It’s in Pine Road, facing down Park Road. Google Street View thinks it’s No. 46 Pine Road, though it was 28 when my husband lived there as a boy. The only external clue to its 17th century origins, from the days when it was Cuckoo Bushes Farmhouse, are its chimneys, but internally in the 1950s it was easy to see the former dairy, and when my in-laws had some work to do that require drilling through the ground floor walls, they were found to be nearly four feet think – well over a metre.
Have a look at it on Street View!
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.995046,-1.3834331,3a,15y,330.25h,96.32t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s1NMPjdCu6BmgVs78TjSgbA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
Hi Gill, Your comment is fascinating – I have admired that house over many years but never realised its seventeenth century origins. The chimneys are very special. Thank you.
The title of my article is the Grand Houses of Chandler’s Ford and I have focused on the houses of the late Victorian/early Edwardian period, many originally set in large grounds with accompanying lodges. While the Pine Road house is certainly historic and beautiful in its own way, it was, as you say, a farmhouse rather than a grand house. Robbie
Indeed – it’s nothing grand, but it is old, and most people just never notice it. Even the sainted Barbara Carpenter Turner seems never to have noticed it, and she was always assumed to know everything of historic interest in the area!
When my husband lived there, from about 1950 to 1960, there was a CWS egg packing station behind it, which my father in law ran, and beyond that was the Polish Camp. They’re all long gone, of course, but the house is still itself.
Thank you Robbie for your informative piece on the grand houses of Chandler’s Ford I love seeing the old large houses and wondering if my ancestors were involved in building any of them??
I think my great uncle Gilbert was a carpenter and I think I’m right in saying that he built the stair case in Kings Court. I think Dad has some more stuff to add soon…. watch this space!
Hi Clare,
Your father’s great grandfather, Levi Lawford Hammerton, is mentioned several times in the old records of Chandler’s Ford as a builder.
Robbie
Gilbert is my great grandfather not my Uncle (oops)
Thank you for this article.
We live in Merrieleas Close near to the lodge house.
The big houses around here (especially those down Hursley Road end of Park Road) are wonderful to look at and it’s nice to know a bit about their history.
Thank you for the fascinating history of Chandlers Ford. We have lived in ‘the Ford’ for 49 years & in middle Kingsway for 37 of those years. My husband and I enjoyed learning more of the area.
Hi Helen,
Thanks so much for your comment. I have known Kingsway for most of my life – It is such a lovely road with many attractive houses, old and new. You may well know the story of Mr Purkess, Chair of the Parish Council, who asserted his right to walk the path over Mr Wallis’s land from Brownhill Road to Kings Road (?Lower Kingsway). Wallis said he was trespassing and took him to the high Court where Purkess’s claim that it was a Right of Way was upheld. The villagers, it is said, treated Purkess as a hero and bought him a gold watch.
Diane, Thanks so much for your comment.
In researching the article, I discovered the Lodge in Merrileas Close. Your neighbours came out to chat with me – What a friendly and charming location you live in.
Robbie
Yes we are very lucky. We moved here six years ago and were made very welcome. Our neighbours are a lovely bunch.
I love the lodge house. Very Arts and Crafts in style.
Robbie
I wonder in your research if you came across a House called Hazelwood , my father , mother and Uncle
all worked there probably in the early 1920’s ,my father was chauffeur / under gardener ,mother was a domestic probably housemaid and my Uncle was head gardener Mr Tribbeck , the house was owned by a Major and Mrs Kendall I believe ,I was born and grew up in Chandler’s Ford and never found it ,think it must have been in the Hiltingbury area. .
Hi Roger
You have probably checked yourself, but in the 1950 Phone Book I did find a KENDLE, Kathleen R. at Hazelwood C/F, but unfortunately no street name, so no help I’m afraid, but, somewhere in the back of my mind, I place it in Lakewood Road.
Cheers !
Doug
Hi Roger,
Thanks for your interesting comments. I can’t remember the location of Hazelwood – I do remember Mr Tribbeck. I believe he became a nurseryman. I’ve spoken to my sister Marny and we both think that his nursery was in Chalvington Road near to the junction with Leigh Road. There were certainly large greenhouses there. Could we be right? This is going back to the early fifties, I guess, and time confuses and distorts.
Robbie
Hi Robbie et al
I do remember the name Tribbeck, but he is not in the 1950 Phone Book in C/F … I cannot remember any greenhouses in Chalvington Road near Leigh Road (the gardens were not large), but there were certainly greenhouses at 272, Leigh Road, near corner of Chalvington Road, which was a Nursery owned and run by a Mr.R.C.Fox (Ron) … I am not sure when Mr.Fox retired, but certainly after 1956, because we regularly bought tomatoes from him until then … it is possible Mr. Tribbeck took over from Mr.Fox.
Hi Doug
Thanks yes I assume it may have been that house probably long gone , it must have been a fairly substantial house where my parents worked { and met } I have a photo of my father standing in front of 3 cars in the yard outside garages so the family were quite well off in the 1920’s , my mother must have lived in as she was originally from Andover and there was no “commuting ” in that era !!
Hi Robbie et al
I do remember the name Tribbeck, but he is not in the 1950 Phone Book in C/F … I cannot remember any greenhouses in Chalvington Road near Leigh Road (the gardens were not large), but there were certainly greenhouses at 272, Leigh Road, near corner of Chalvington Road, which was a Nursery owned and run by a Mr.R.C.Fox (Ron) … I am not sure when Mr.Fox retired, but certainly after 1956, because we regularly bought tomatoes from him until then … it is possible Mr. Tribbeck took over from Mr.Fox.
Hi Robbie
My Uncle Bert , {Mr Tribbeck } lived in Hursley Rd just before Ramally lane his house was named Hazelwood also, certainly in the 50’s he sold plants cuttings etc but never a full on nursery man sold them at his gate. We use to go and pick his apples and Aunt Lil his wife gave us cake and sandwiches . That house is certainly not grand and has no great drive or garages , he probably named it after the place he worked for years . He was a very good and keen gardener and certainly had a green house there and fruit trees I know of other people even from Hedge End that have told me they bought plants from him, he never moved from there and ended his days there. Incidentally that house is still there and still named Hazelwood ,on the left going towards Hursley .
So the elusive grand ” Hazelwood” still remains a mystery and the owners !!
Although my cousin , his son in law seems to think it was or is in Merdon Avenue area but he is now well into his 90’s ,and I have looked around that area and found nothing .
Hi Roger, Doug and anyone else out there interested…
Doug, you are of course right – Mr Fox owned the nursery at the end of Chalvington Road – the entrance was from Chalvington – now called North End Drive, as confirmed by my old schoolmate Derek Fox. I’d forgotten his father was the nurseryman.
Derek says that Mr Tribbeck had a nursery between Keble Road and Shaftesbury Avenue in the dip – maybe, Roger, there was another Mr Tribbeck but it’s not a common name! Very interesting to learn more about your Uncle Bert.
Best wishes and G’day to you, Doug, in Sydney – my favourite city anywhere – but I also love Melbourne and Perth!!