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Kirkland House originally occupied a two-acre site
known as Chapel Close, the name deriving from an old chapel thought to
have been hereabouts in the 14th century. It had been a piece of a larger
property described as a close, of about 10 acres on which stood one of
the Bingham windmills. The 1883 map places the windmill on the south side
of School (formerly Mill) Lane, about where numbers 1 and 3 now stand.
The first dwelling house, in the shape of a U, was built after 1857 and
a second adjoining bakehouse, stable and other offices, also U-shaped,
a little later but before 1867. At the same time the room on the School
Lane corner was converted into a shop and an entrance door cut across
the corner. The remains of a painted advertisement are still visible.
The rest of the two acres was pasture and later arable land. Kirkland
House now occupies a site of about 750 square yards; most of the remainder
runs northwards alongside Kirkhill and is occupied by two pairs of semi-detached
houses, a detached house (Westholme) on
Kirkhill and the row of semi-detatched houses known as Kirkhill Cottages
on Carnarvon Place. The primary school also stands on this plot. A local
builder, James Walker of Walker's yard (now Walkers Close off Long Acre),
bought Chapel Close in 1908 and had built most of these by 1910. Walker
pulled down most of the 'extension' to build a further pair of houses
next door. The remainder of the house became a children's home and came
back into private ownership in 1957. The 46 victims of the plague which
affected Bingham in 1646 may also have been buried here, as one source
reports they were buried in an enclosure to the west of the town (Bingham
In The Past, p12).
Kirkland House is thought to stand in the cemetery
and perhaps even the site of the lord of the manor's private chapel founded
by Richard de Bingham in 1301 and dedicated to St Helen, supposed to have
been here somewhere! Several human remains have been found over the years,
including a stone coffin in 1768 with the remains of a woman and child.
The coffin contained several large silver pins and a silver ring, showing
her to be a woman of substance.
On 31st December 1832, the site known as Chapel Close
and measuring 2 acres, 1 rood and 33 perches was 'leased' by the miller,
one Thomas Walker, to John Tomlinson, a farmer of Thorpe Latimer Lodge,
Lincolnshire. Walker owned the whole ten-acre site upon which the mill
stood. Presumably mortgaging this small plot raised some much-needed cash.
Walker seems not to have lived at or near the mill.
A Thomas Walker is recorded in Pigot's 1822 directory as a 'flour dealer
and miller' of Union Street. By 1829 he had moved to Church Street.
The one thousand year lease was in fact
a loan of £200 plus annual interest, redeemable at any
time. The land was described as 'a close or meadow or pasture'.
There is no mention of buildings. By 1856 the land to the
west was being described as 'formerly called Day Close, otherwise
Kirkhill Close and latterly known as Mill Close.' The 1841
Tithe map shows a second mill on an enclosure named Mill Close,
the former grounds of number 9 School Lane. We think this
was operated by Robert Wilson who the 1841 & 1851 censuses
show as living in Fair Close. See the plan at 15
Fairfield Street.
Early descriptions of the land described
the eastern boundary as the road from Langar to Newark. By
1857 the name Chapel Lane was used. The name Kirkhill was
not applied until the 1950's. The North East boundary was
land owned by the Earl of Chesterfield - now Carnarvon Place.
The land to the south-west (the opposite side of School Lane)
was owned by William Beet. William Beet the younger, a bricklayer
(builder in modern terms) built numbers
15 and 11 Fairfield Street in 1822 on land conveyed to
him by his father William Beet the elder. In 1832 John Beet
was a coal dealer of Fair Close.
Thomas Walker died on 19th January 1833 having made
his will the day before! He left the mill, its machinery and the whole
10-acre site to his sons William, Samuel and Thomas. He left £50
each to his eight daughters. One of the daughters, Eliza was (presumably)
in service at Shelford Manor, the Earl of Chesterfield's house occupied
by the Agent, John Hassal.
On 5th June 1843 John Tomlinson assigned the lease
- i.e. sold on the debt - to Rowland Williams, gentleman of Sleaford,
Lincolnshire. During this period Joseph Oliver, presumably a tenant occupied
the close until William repaid it. The deeds of number 9
School Lane show Oliver also occupied Kirkhill Close. In 1801 Joseph
Oliver and his mother (Ruth Timms) bought the property now occupied by
the post office house on Long Acre from the Needham family. The Abstract
of Title recently discovered recorded him as being a maltster. In the
1822 Directory Joseph Dodsley Oliver was recorded as a farmer and wine
and spirit merchant.
In the 1844 directory Thomas Walker junior is shown
as a miller and baker living in Church Street and Samuel the same living
in Union Street. William Walker is shown as a farmer of Newgate Street.
William Walker died on 7th February 1845 without
heirs and intestate leaving his brother Samuel as his heir-in-law. According
to the deed papers, Samuel was a seed merchant and Thomas a miller. Lascelles
1848 directory describes Samuel as a baker and seedsman of Church Street.
In the 1853 Kelly's directory Samuel and Thomas Walker are both described
as bakers and millers, Samuel in Church Street and Thomas in the Market
Place. On the 24th March in that year John Crooke, a butcher of Bingham
purchased Chapel Close at auction on behalf of his father-in-law, William
Richmond, a cordwainer (shoemaker) of Radcliffe. The price was £580,
£200 to Rowland Williams to redeem the debt and £380 to the
Walker brothers. 10 shillings was paid to each of the eight sisters! The
same document assigned the land to John Smith of Bingham for the remaining
period of the lease, 'in trust for W Richmond'. In the 1829 directory
of Bingham a John Crooke is listed as a butcher of 'Fair Close' and in
1832 of the Market Place. By 1853 he had disappeared from the directory
although Kelly's of 1855 shows a John Crooke, farmer.
On the 3rd April 1856 William Richmond, still a cordwainer
but now 'of Bingham' and living with his daughter Martha and son-in-law
John Crooke, gifted the property to him 'in consideration of his natural
love and affection (a phrase used in deeds for other properties) for his
daughter and in consideration of the many good services rendered by John
Crooke…'. John Smith, now described as a joiner, was paid 10/- as
trustee.
The property is now described as 'arable land formerly
described as meadow…'. There is still no mention of buildings. If
Crooke was a butcher he would presumably have used the land (described
as pasture) to graze cattle to be sold in the shop!
On 21st February 1857 John Crooke mortgaged the property
to Samuel Swanwick, of Bingham, for £350 at 4½% interest.
It is still arable land; there is no mention of buildings, and Chapel
Lane is now used to describe the eastern boundary. A condition was included
whereby in the event of Crooke defaulting on the loan, Swanwick could
sell the property at public auction or by private contract
On 21st February 1866 Crooke borrowed a further £200
(at 5%) from Swanwick even though the original loan had not been repaid
- but interest had been paid as due. The property description now includes
'together with all those houses and outhouses erected thereon.… and
then legally vested in S Swanwick'. So the house has been built between
1857 and 1866, presumably with the original loan. Perhaps he needed some
extra cash to finish the job! Or perhaps the extra was to reflect the
increased value of the property now included in the mortgage agreement.
Or perhaps it was to pay for the extension - see below. Crooke covenanted
to repay both loans by the following August.
But during the following year Crooke must have run
into trouble as the loan was not repaid and Samuel Swanwick put the mortgaged
property up for public auction at the Chesterfield Arms on 19th December
1867. The highest bidder was Joseph Swanwick (coincidence or what!) at
£665.
In 1879 the Bingham Station Master is named as John
Crooke. Did the owner of Kirkland House end up working for the railway?
The land is now described as enclosed arable land
still at the original acreage, together with 'all that messuage or tenement
with the shop, bakehouse, stable and outbuildings lately erected by John
Crooke. The bakehouse etc was probably a (slightly) later building and
the shop an alteration to the already existing building. Did the erection
of the bakehouse imply a bread shop? Or does Crooke's occupation suggest
it was a butcher's? In 1865 a Thomas Woodward was a baker of Chapel Lane
and could well have been at Kirkland House but there is no mention of
this by 1889.
Joseph Swanwick then agreed with Samuel Walker Chettle,
a farmer of Aslockton, for him to substitute as the purchaser, still at
£665. Samuel Swanwick and Samuel Walker Chettle are both listed
in the directory of 1879 as farmers in Long Acre, although Chettle actually
lived at Aslockton Abbey Farm. Was Joseph Swanwick acting as Chettle's
agent?
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1901 Plan
1910 Plan
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Samuel Walker Chettle was a leading member
of the Independent Primitive Methodist temperance movement centred
on the 1843 Chapel off Long Acre. His feelings were so strong that
he converted the malting house on his farm at Aslockton into a temperance
hall. Was he perhaps a descendent of the original Walkers who owned
the Mill - a son of one of the daughters, then spinsters but who
later maybe married a Chettle (another old Bingham family name).
In 1871 he was elected to the First Bingham School Board as the
Wesleyan School became. He stood for compulsory non-sectarian teaching.
The 1906 plan shows two adjoining U-shaped
buildings, whereas the present building is a single L shape. Photographs
in Bingham library of the rear of the house show a lean to building
at the west end that is no longer there. The westernmost part of
the present house does look like an extension. The brickwork is
of similar colour but there is a joint of mortar all the way down
and the eaves are at different levels. The change in roofing material
between slate and pantile is also a bit of a giveaway! Could this
be part of the addition to house the bakehouse? The plan of 1922
attached to a rate rebate application clearly shows part of the
western portion of the L shape as a distinct piece - probably the
remains of the western U-shaped building (bakery and stable).
On 27th August 1871 Chettle seems to have mortgaged
the property to the Nottingham Permanent Benefit Building Society
for £1628, a sum to which he was entitled by his ownership
of 21 of its shares. The mortgage was repaid on 22 October 1878.
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Samuel Walker Chettle died on 10 August 1894 and
in his will directed that his properties be held in trust and the rents
used for the maintenance and education of his three grandchildren, the
offspring of his daughter Elizabeth Ann Hall. These were Edith (b 3.6.1882),
Donald (b 24.5.1883) and Constance Mary (b 6.12.1884). The properties
were to be sold when the youngest girl reached the age of 21. The trustees
had been Henry Hardwick Smith and William Miller Oates, but on 22 January
1901 Oates 'retired' and his trusteeship passed to Thomas Richard Hall
of Granby, gentleman, the girls' father. The properties were to be sold
when the youngest girl reached the age of 21.
Constance May Hall was 21 on December 5th 1905 and
the property was sold on at Auction on 13th June 1906 to John Walker,
builder, of Bingham for £500. He operated from Walker's Yard, the
present Walkers Close off Long Acre. For the first time a plan is attached
to the document and shows two adjoining U-shaped buildings.
At his death Chettle also owned Hall Farm, Bingham,
and Kirkhills Close - originally part of the 'Windmill' property. Perhaps
this is further indication that he was descended from the original Walkers.
Perhaps he always did own Kirkhills.
These properties were also sold in 1906 (for a total
of £5164, including Kirkland House), so the trust must have generated
a goodly amount for the support of his grandchildren. A well-off family!
By now, Andrew Shepperson owned the southern close, including the windmill
site, marked on the 1901 OS map as disused.
1908 Plan |
James Walker soon sold the house on 22 October
1907 for £520 to the Board of Guardians of the Poor, who managed
the workhouse, but not the land to the north or a piece to the west.
By now some portion had been demolished since the plans attached
to the conveyance of 1908 clearly show an L-shaped building. This
conveyance also establishes the right of way to the piece retained
by Walker (for building the pair of semi-detached houses on School
Lane next door to Kirkland House) and to Kirkhills. |
The Guardians already rented the portion of the house
now being sold to them, possibly from when Walker acquired it, for use
as a home for children from the workhouse. Presumably the other portion
was used for some other purpose for a short time.
1915 Plan |
So James Walker sold just the house for more
than he had paid for the whole plot, and by 1915 (OS map) had built
four semi-detached and one detached house (Westholme). Comparison
of the 1905 and 1915 plans, adjusted to the same scale, suggests
the Chapel Close plot also included the land used to build Kirkhill
Cottages on Carnarvon Place and the Primary School in School Lane.
One might assume Walker built all of them (we are still checking).
Kirkhill Cottages on Carnarvon Place are on the land shown in the
plans as belonging to the Earl of Carnarvon. The semi on Kirkhill
nearest Kirkland House was built after 1915.
On 21 January 1915 the Guardians bought a further
228 sq. yds. from Walker to use as an additional pay area. |
Photographs of the house taken in 1908 and available
for inspection at Bingham library clearly show the shop, with doorway
angled across the corner of the house. It is not like that now and we
don't know when it was removed. One could speculate that the Guardians
altered it to suit their required use. The remains of a painted advertisement
can still be seen on the wall above where the shop window was.
The house continued in use as a children's home for
many years. On 16th December 1947 the County Council, who by now had assumed
responsibility for the home, presumably through the Children's Department,
signed an agreement with the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Electric Power
Company for the attachment of a street light bracket to the corner of
the house.
On 14th June 1957 Kirkland House - this is the first
mention by this name - was conveyed to Mrs Daisy Rebecca Loveluck, the
mother-in-law of Mr E W Dixon the then well known Bingham pharmacist.
His shop was in Market Street now occupied by the Halifax Building Society
and the white goods showroom of L Mees Ltd. He lived in the farmhouse
to the rear of his shop. By now the Kirkland House was valued at £900.
Mrs Loveluck took out a small very short-term mortgage with Bingham RDC.
She was resident at Kirkhill House at the time of her death in 1983, when
the house was sold to Mr and Mrs Turner and then in October 2000 to the
present owner. |
