|
Carvarvon House is a large well-proportioned square
shaped solid detached house standing a few yards back from Long Acre and
with a long garden. It is not of overtly 'fancy' construction but there
are some attractive embellishments to make it the more impressive.
The land on which it stands was, as is common in
Bingham, once part of the Shelford Estate belonging to the Earls of Chesterfield
and then, through a marriage settlement, to the Earls of Carnarvon. The
land was part of the homestead of Walkers Farm, which stretched between
Long Acre and The Banks, almost to Tithby Road and possibly as far as
the orchards that used to be on the west side of Fisher Lane. As the Walkers
turned to building, plots of land were used for 'infilling' for building
houses over the turn of the nineteenth century.
The Abstract of Title of the Earl of
Carnarvon recites a marriage settlement whereby The 8th Earl
of Chesterfield, George Philip Stanhope settled the land on
the 4th Earl of Carnarvon in 1874, in anticipation of his
forthcoming marriage to Evelyn, sister of the 7th earl and
daughter of the 6th Earl of Chesterfield. The 7th Earl died
without male hairs so the title and estates had passed to
the 8th Earl via a separate line going back as far as the
1st Earl. (See 1 Market Place
for details).
A missing lease probably dated 29th September 1900
(see below) would have referred to a 99-year lease of the land for the
lessee to build a house upon. As with the leases for 9 Newgate Street
and for Cromwell House in Station Street, it would probably have specified
a minimum sum to be spent on the new house. This may well have been £350,
the sum for which it had to be insured under the terms of the lease noted
below. There would also have been a date by which it was to be erected.
The first indenture we have is dated 30th January
1901. The abstract was prepared in 1900, which is why it looks
as though there is one deed missing from the collection. The
1901 deed sets the annual rent of £3-2-6d. It is between
the (5th) Earl of Carnarvon and Frederick Taylor, a Grocer,
of Bingham. He is recorded at living at the Gables in 1908
and Porchester Terrace in 1920. We know from some documents
from 24 Newgate Street that he also leased land on the south
side of the Banks from the Earl in 1898.
The plan is attached to the 1901 lease, and clearly
shows the extent of the Earl's holding at that time. It shows that plot
number 199 was split into two. Indeed the eastern half was further divided
to accommodate the semi-detached houses number 8 and 10. The plot shaded
green is Carnarvon House. It is more than likely that the parcels of land
for these houses were part of the larger Walkers Farm, later Walkers Builders
Yard where Walkers Close is now. Number 4 was independently owned. A Bingham
resident whose father worked for him remembers that James Walker built
the houses opposite. Victoria Villa has a date stone for 1887. The land
for these houses is shown as owned by the earl so presumably they also
would have been leasehold – one wonders if the freeholds were also
sold in 1920.
The 1901 indenture records that the plot of
land measures 1000 square yards (it still does) and that a dwelling house
already exists. It also refers to the unexpired portion of a 99-year lease
dated 29th September 1900. Thus the house would seem to have been built
between September 1900 and 30 January 1901. Bingham library has a photograph
taken in 1900 of no 4 Long Acre, next door, which shows the garden wall
of Carnarvon House. There is a small wicket gate halfway along the wall
but no driveway gate.
There are several interesting covenants to the lease.
The Earl covenants to leave Taylor to 'quietly enjoy the demised premises'
so long as he adheres to all his covenants. Taylor covenants to adhere
to the conditions in the schedule attached. Many of these are the equivalent
of planning requirements in today's terms and include such things as regular
painting of exterior (in original colours) and interior, payment of any
land taxes, not to add any extra buildings, and not to 'use the premises
as a factory, workshop, public house, club, brew house or for sale of
alcoholic liquors or for any noisome noxious noisy or offensive trade
or business'. This was a standard condition imposed by the Earl on other
properties for which we have examined deeds. Taylor also had to insure
the property for £350 (which gives a clue to the likely minimum
cost of the house to be erected, see above) with a named insurer - Alliance.
He also had to give notice within 14 days of the transfer of lease and
pay one guinea to the Earl for this. Two letters doing just this are in
the bundle of deeds. The Earl could repossess the property if he defaulted
on the payment of ground rent.
In 1903 Taylor assigned the lease to
Miss Sarah Lascett for the remainder of the 99-year term from
29 September 1902; the required letter giving notice to Lord
Carnarvon is included in the bundle of deeds. Sarah is described
as a widow of Radcliffe Road, West Bridgford. She paid £465.
Also on 30 July she took a mortgage on the property from William
Marriott, a farmer of Aslockton, for £300 at 4%. The
mortgage document was witnessed by C Cecil Lucas, 'clerk to
Mssrs Richard Marriott, Solicitors, Nottingham' - perhaps
his son. When Taylor sold to Sarah Lascett he seems to have
moved to The Gables at the corner of Fosters Lane and Long
Acre East. It may be he only developed the house to sell,
and either lived there for a year or not at all. The Gables
was built in 1903, so he may well have moved from Carnarvon
House quite quickly.
On 11 November 1905 Miss Lascett assigned the remainder
of the lease (again the letter to Lord Carnarvon is included in the deeds
bundle) to Mrs Amelia Bridger, a widow. Lascett had moved to Addison Street,
Nottingham and Bridger came from Forest Road, Nottingham. Mrs Bridger
paid £460 for the house, without apparently needing a mortgage,
of which £300 paid off the principal owing by Miss Lascett to William
Marriott. These papers make the first reference to the house as 'Carnarvon
House', so perhaps Miss Lascett bestowed the name. In her will of 3 May
1899 Mrs Bridger is described as 'wife of James Bridger, gentleman, so
perhaps this is an indication of why she did not need a mortgage.
She died on 21 October 1909 but her executors (including
the son Samuel Campion Bridger) did not sell until 1918. He continued
to live at his mother's house in Forest Road and was in business as a
gentleman's outfitters on Radford Road, Nottingham. Samuel's business
went into liquidation and clearly he had to sell Carnarvon House along
with his other assets. An indenture of 24 August 1918 (which was a standard
form with gaps completed for the particular case) transferred his assets,
including all real and personal estate, to his accountants as trustees.
The only exception was 'necessary wearing apparel and bedding of the debtor
and his family not exceeding five pounds in value'. So he is bankrupt.
If he were lucky, any 'surplus after settling the estate would go to the
debtor after paying creditors and expenses'. The indenture gave the trustee
power to make subsistence payments to the debtor.
On 7 December 1918 the Trustees on Samuel's behalf
assigned the lease to Thomas G Bowstead, a farmer of Oxton, to £550.
Again the deeds have the letter to the earl's solicitors notifying the
assignment.
Up to now the property had been leasehold,
with the lessees paying ground rent to the Earl of Carnarvon.
On June 22 1920 the Earl sold the freehold to George Bowstead
for £78-2-6d. The Earl sold the freehold of several
other properties in Bingham (number
8 next door, for instance) in 1920. At the time he was
heavily involved in archaeological excavations in Egypt with
Howard Carter, finding the tomb of Tutankhamen in 1923. He
was probably short of cash and perhaps selling freeholds was
a means of raising some finance for the work. As in the other
cases the Earl reserved the mineral rights below 600 feet
and had full power to do 'whatever is necessary for mining
and working and carrying away the same by underground workings
doing as little damage as possible and paying compensation'.
A schedule to the freehold conveyance rather suggests
that there was not a lease before the 1901 but that the 1901 lease was
signed after the 99-year term had started. There may have been an agreement
to lease once the house was built - as there was for 9
Newgate Street in similar circumstances.
The Kellys 1922 directory shows Bowstead as resident
at Carnarvon House. Maybe he retired there. Bowstead died
on February 1937 and on 18 June his executors conveyed the
property to Mrs Lizzie Burton of The Firs, Foston, for £800.
She is described as 'wife of George Burton' and it is noted
that 'the consideration of £800 was paid by the purchase
out of her separate estate (i.e. it was not her husband's
money). Lizzie Burton died in 1966, 'late of Carnarvon House',
so she had lived there and her executors sold to John Anthony
Leach, of the Caravan, Main Street, Coddington, for £2800.
He was later described as a 'civil engineer' in a mortgage
agreement with The Halifax Building Society.
The present owners purchased from Mr Leach about 1990. |
