Porchester Terrace

The original Local History Society trails leaflet has Porchester Terrace as built between 1883 and 1887. Examination of old maps suggests this is about right. Numbers 71/73 and 75/77 are earlier than the other pair; they are on the 1883 map whereas the other pair are not on the map (see Victorian Bingham, ed Val Henstock, in the library). They are all on the 1901 map, as one would expect. There are no maps in between!

What was there before?

The tithe map of 1840 shows a large house to the west of Porchester Farmhouse and fronting onto the street. West of that is another farm complex. The local history group managed to tie up some tithe numbers with the 1841 census but not for this block. However an intelligent guess from the census is that the large house was occupied by John Crofts, of independent means, and the farm to the west by William Chettle (70) and his son John, who were both farmers. The farmland went back to the path between Church Street and East Street.

The house is on the 1883 map but the farm has been replaced by numbers 71/3 and 75/77. Thus 79/81 and 83/85 are on the land previously occupied by the house of John Crofts. This is a name to look out for in any deeds that may be available. We don’t yet know of him through directories etc.

The land was probably owned by the Shelford Estate. The fourth Earl of Carnarvon acquired some of the Bingham estate on his marriage to the sister of the earl of Chesterfield in 1860. Lord Porchester was the courtesy title of the first son of the Earl of Carnarvon, hence the name. The farm was probably sold or leased when Chettle senior died. Perhaps John went to a new farm. The builder (possibly James Walker, who built many of the Victorian houses on Long Acre and Church Street and often built in small phases) would probably have built the first pair before buying or leasing the old house to demolish it and build the second pair. Walker did a similar demolition job in Church Street (see 12 Church Street).

Whether leased or freehold, our experience of other similar properties suggests there should be some deeds dating back at least to the building of the houses and possibly before that if, say, the independent house had been privately owned. It could have been sold off from the estate in the early 1800s, a not uncommon occurrence).

The 1894 directory lists seven residents of Porchester Villas, but we don’t know in which house each of them lived. They will be names to look out for in any deed papers: