The first owner of The Old Cottage, that we have any record of, is William Hallett who was listed as one of the former owners when William Hine purchased the house in 1867. Hallett was a popular surname in the parish, the second most popular in the 1861 census, and there is no shortage of William Halletts in the Parish Registers. Without any dates or other details to help it has been impossible to identify the individual referred to.
The Netherbury Character Analysis Extract of the Netherbury & Broadwindsor Conservation Area Appraisal (2007) suggests the house dates from mid 19th Century. If this is correct it's probable that William Hallett was the first owner. The high gable with water tables (stones on top of the walls) above the southern wall suggest that the roof was originally thatched, which was typical in Netherbury at the time. The lack of this feature at the northern end suggests the house may have been modified or extended here since the roof was slated. The house was not damaged by the Great Fire of Netherbury which destroyed many neighbouring, thatched, properties indicating it may have been re-roofed before 1892.
The second owner referred to is John Clare. There were two John Clares, father and son, who both lived at Great Strode and owned many properties in the parish. We know that this John Clare sold the house to Henry Brown in 1838 which means it must have been the son who presumably purchased it from William Hallett although no record of the purchase has been found. This would also suggest the house was probably built in the early, rather than mid, 19th Century.
Henry Brown, having acquired the house the year before, is recorded as the owner in the Tithe Apportionment (1839) along with the orchard behind it and the two pastures that made up a field called Hemplands which ran behind the houses of St James Rd and Bridge St. He also owned and lived in a property in the centre of the village on a plot that is now occupied by Pound Cottage & Chantry Cottage. The Tithe Apportionment tells us that The Old Cottage, then known as Hempland House, and the orchard behind it were occupied by William Guppy.
It's assumed this was William Flower Guppy and he was confusingly listed as the Occupier of four houses, including The Old Workhouse, and as the Owner of two of them so it is also assumed he was sub-letting some of them. The 1841 census lists him as living in Bridge St which suggests he was occupying a house he owned opposite The Star Inn. Although it is thought he was sub-letting Hempland House it hasn't been possible to identify who the tenant was.
The 1851 census no longer lists Henry Brown as living in Chantry St and he is now recorded as a Draper and Grocer at an address in High Street which is almost certainly Hempland House. The 1861 census lists him as a Grocer and the address is still High Street. He died in May of that year naming Benjamin Seymour, an Ironmonger from Beaminster and Thomas Webb, Tallow Chandler of Netherbury (Myrtle Cottage), as trustees to keep the property for Mary Ann, his wife, for the rest of her life or until she remarried. Webb died in 1866 and the following year Seymour, with the consent of Mary Ann, sold "All that dwellinghouse shop and garden then in the occupation of John H. Downton situate in Netherbury St, Netherbury." By then what is the current day St James Rd was no longer called High St and had become Netherbury St.
Unfortunately it has not been possible to uncover any trace of John Downton who was probably only in occupation for a year or so.
The first purchase of the house that we have any documentation for records that William Hine, a young Blacksmith, paid £300 in 1867 to secure the copyholdType of feudal land tenure
with duties and obligations
to the Lord of the Manor lease. He moved in with his wife, Harriet, three young children and almost certainly Harriet's parents. Sadly their first few years there proved to be a difficult time and they lost Harriet's mother, also called Harriet, in 1870 followed by their eldest daughter, Alice, at the age of ten the following year.
Harriet was a Dressmaker and it would appear that what had been Henry Brown's Drapery and Grocer's shop was continuing to be used in the textile trade. William and Harriet's surviving daughter, Susan, went on to be a dressmaker like her mother and their son, James, was apprenticed to a Draper before becoming a Draper in his own right whilst still living in the house.
It is not known what happened to William's forge or exactly where it was but odd bits of metal are apparently occasionally unearthed in the garden to this day. William died very suddenly in 1890 but he'd made a Will twenty years earlier in which he decreed all his property was to be held in trust for the use of his wife Harriet by his brothers James Walbridge Hine and David Hine. If Harriet should remarry or die the estate would pass on to his children once they were 21 years old.
The two Hine brothers who were acting as trustees both died before Harriet and in 1903 she appointed D. G. Hine & Henry Hine as new trustees. Harriet herself died in March of 1909 whereupon James and his sister Susan, by then married to Stephen Stevens, became the beneficiaries of the trust. The following year Susan made over her share to her brother and the next day John Russell Cox, the Lord of the Manor, "enfranchised" what had been copyholdType of feudal land tenure
with duties and obligations
to the Lord of the Manor premises as freehold. James Hine then formally requested D.G. Hine & H. Hine to convey it to him, which they did.
James and his family stayed living in the house, continuing the Drapery business, until his own death in 1931. It is still possible to see where there was a wide shop window in the wall that faces onto St James Rd. The window has long since been replaced by something more in proportion with the rest of the casements but above it you can see a much wider lintel.
James had made a Will at the beginning of 1929 leaving all his property to be divided equally between his wife, Charlotte, and his two daughters. The year after James died Charlotte sold the house for just £150 - half what her father-in-law paid for it 65 years earlier. It had been advertised for auction at the end of March 1932 and the detailed description included the sentence
"This House at present is not in good state of repair, but could, with little outlay, be made an excellent Country Residence"
It is assumed any bidding didn't go high enough for the sale to go through because six months later, in September 1932, it was bought privately by Louisa Morley, the wife of one of the Auctioneers. It is not known if they invested the required "little outlay" to repair the property but just two months later the house was sold on to Diana Watts Rudkin for £300.
It seems rather more likely that Diana Watts Rudkin and her retired Army Colonel husband, Charles Rudkin, invested in improving the state of the property because two years later they sold it to Millicent Caine for £1300. It's not known if the Rudkins actually took up residence in Hempland House but, by the time they sold it, they had renamed it The Old Cottage.
Millicent Caine and her husband Douglas were both originally from Cheshire. Sadly Douglas died only four years after Millicent bought The Old Cottage and he was buried in St Mary's graveyard in December of 1938. The following year the 1939 England and Wales Register lists Millicent as a widow, living on "Private means" at The Old Cottage with six other people. Two of the records are still officially closed but the other four were all women. Millicent's maiden name was Armstrong and two of the women listed as Betty S. Armstrong and Ruth B. E. Armstrong, aged 16 and 13 respectively, were probably relatives and they are both described as "At school". There was also a "Domestic servant", Rosemary J. Moxon, aged 29 and single, and there was a Mary O. M. Parker, 31, described as "Wife of RAF member". It has not been possible to identify the other two occupants.
Millicent had a son, Douglas Andrew, and a daughter, Evelyn, but it's unlikely either of them were living with her in Hempland House. Evelyn had married the year before and Douglas was recorded in the 1939 Register as being married and a farmer in Cornwall. However, when Douglas died at the young age of 48 he was buried with his father in the Netherbury graveyard. Ten years later, after a 34 year stay in Netherbury, an 87 year old Millicent sold the house for £6,500 to Charles (AKA Hugh) & Caroline Hindley who ran Stones Store at the top of Bridge St.
It's impossible to know why Millicent sold the house but two years later she died in a Nursing Home in St Austell, Cornwall so it's probable she moved to be nearer her daughter-in-law and grandson. Although Millicent is described as "of The Old Cottage Netherbury" in the conveyance document that transferred ownership to the Hindleys her signature is witnessed by a State Registered Nurse in Truro, so it is likely she had already left the village. In her Will drawn up in 1959, the year after her son Douglas died, Millicent declared that the bulk of her estate should be split evenly between her daughter and her daughter-in-law. She also left a few specific bequests including £100 to the Netherbury Churchyard Fund, £75 to Mrs Mabel Harris who lived opposite The Old Cottage in what would now be No.6 Bowdowns "in gratitude for her devoted service to me" and £15 to William Harris of the same address "as a token of my regard".
Six years after they bought The Old Cottage the Hindleys transferred ownership to their son William who was living in Nairobi, Kenya. Their address was given as Stones Cottage, Netherbury suggesting that they had closed their shop sometime during the six years they owned The Old Cottage. Caroline died the following year and Charles five years later. They are both buried together in St Mary's graveyard.
Three years after taking ownership of the house William, still resident in Nairobi, sold it to Leonard & Susan Scammell of Batson's Farm, Adber near Sherborne. Leonard had been a Veterinary Surgeon in Sussex, formally retiring from a partnership in Crawley at the beginning of 1977, the same year they bought The Old Cottage. After selling the house to Roger Gill in 1983 Leonard went on to become a Director of the Melplash Agricultural Society Ltd. living at Barbridge Farm, Melplash.
Many thanks to David & Susan Beale for their help with compiling this page.
