The Old Village Houses

 

As well as the houses along the road below the church, of which no trace remains, there were also a few along Englefield Street as far as the turning towards Tidmarsh, as shown by both Roque and Pride and in more detail by Ballard. Four of these still stand and are listed by English Heritage, although one other house in the village now may have early origins and that is the old school, now 11/12 in the Street.

 

The old school building originally consisted of the schoolhouse, also known as the "Mission Cottage", of which the gable end is shown in the picture on the right and the schoolroom at right angles to it towards the road. The schoolroom was originally only a single storey but had an upper floor added when it was converted into a separate house after the new school was built. The brickwork of the lower portion of the schoolroom and the schoolhouse is of the early type with irregular bonding and non-standard sized bricks, believed to date from the early 18th century or even before. This may possibly have been part of the house of Thomas Horne sited here and detailed in Ballard's 1762 survey.

 

The brickwork on the gable end of the old schoolroom is of three distinct periods. On the lower right hand side is the early type while on the lower left hand side is a section of newer bricks with Flemish Bond, probably because the windows were added at a later date. The whole upper part of the wall has different bricks again, laid in Sussex bond. The rearmost part of the house is a Victorian extension, probably added at the same time as the upper floor to the schoolroom when the building was divided into two houses in the 1880s or 90s.

 

One of the early, listed houses is number 10 in the Street, pictured left in the 1960s, and supposed to date from 1760 because of that date on a plaque, and is said to be the earliest house still standing in the village. It is built sideways on to the road, which is known to be characteristic of early domestic buildings. In fact, the original structure may well be somewhat earlier than 1760 because the side wall facing the road is constructed with brickwork in English bond, supposed to have been superseded by Flemish bond in the late 17th century. The front of the building, including the apparently bricked-up window where the 1760 plaque is situated, is constructed with Flemish bond brickwork. The catslide roof at the rear might indicate a later "outshut" or single-storey extension to an existing building with the original roof line continued down over it. Another possibility is that the original building was entirely single-storey (as the majority of old cottages were) and it had an upper storey added later. Whichever might be the case it looks probable that the house was re-fronted, perhaps in 1760. The porch is a 20th century addition. The presence of an apparent bricked-up window opening is popularly taken to indicate a window blocked up to avoid Window Tax, which was in force from 1696 until 1851 and came into effect when there were more than six windows but houses were sometimes built with this as an architectural feature. Until 2017 the next-door number 9 had just such a feature and that was not built until some 30 years after the tax was repealed.

 

Number 1 (seen right, also in the 1960s) is also one of the early houses and is Listed as "early 18th century" so would be older than number 10 if that indeed dated from only 1760. It is probably the house featured in a newspaper advertisement in 1782: a "modern-built sashed house with coach house and stables for four horses" in the Street and standing in half an acre of ground with two and a half acres of pasture adjoining. The accommodation then consisted of two parlours, kitchen, stores, servants' hall, pantry, brew house, cellars, six bedrooms, lobby and four garrets. It is also probably the Georgian house referred to by Betjeman and was at one time the Crown Inn, later known as Crown Cottage. Like number 10 it is built sideways on to the road and also like number 10 shows different styles of brickwork. In the case the bricks to the left of the chimney breast in the wall facing the road are laid in Flemish bond while on the right of the chimney and on the front of the house the bricks are laid in header bond with rusticated quoins.  The plan of 1822 shows the house on the site of number 1 to be considerably larger than it is now, so perhaps it was later reduced in size and re-fronted. The survey of 1844 shows Caroline Hopkins as owner not only of the house (then the Crown Inn) and garden but also all the land between it and number 10 as well as two fields behind it.

 

The shop too originates from before the building of the new village and although it fronts onto the road that may be considered usual for commercial premises. Part of it is listed as 18th century and the remainder 19th century but its origins may be even earlier for again there is a mixture of brickwork styles. In this case a single-story part at the rear of the right hand side as seen from the road is in English bond while the two-storey main building in front of it is in Flemish bond, hinting at an early, possibly single-storey, building later extended forwards

 

Number 4/5 (left) dates from the mid-18th century and is unique in form, being a pair of cottages in terrace formation. The front is in header bond with burnt ends and the sides are in Flemish Bond, in keeping with others in neighbouring parishes thought to date from the 1820s or 30s. Like number 1, this building may have been re-fronted at that time in the then current style or this may be the original example, copied in the later houses. Aaron Grey, a shoemaker (or cordwainer) is believed to have been at number 5 as early as 1841 and was still there in 1881.

 

Wimbleton's also existed in the 18th century as a farm and Wimbleton's Barn, now a house, may be part of the original buildings. The adjacent pair of cottages were built in 1891/2 (and subsequently extended) but they took the place of three earlier ones that had formerly been the farmhouse. The estate yard also has early origins having been the site of Chantry Farm in 1779. Although many of the oldest buildings there are mainly constructed in timber they have the lower wall in brick with English bond so they may be the original farm buildings.