HTML © F.Coakley , 2011
[From William Cooper's Castletown]
| Cooper's Text | Notes by Eva Wilson |
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| The first house [1 Arbory Rd] was rebuilt by Mr. W. H. Cudd. He was a retired draper and this happened when I was about eight years old. I do not remember the old house but I remember going up the foot-go. The masons used this for getting up their building materials. Mr. Cudd left it to Mrs. Usher, one of the Billown Moores. She married Mr. R. C. Cretney, who was manager of the Manx Bank. It now belongs to Mr. Moore, Billown. |
The house would have been rebuilt in about 1878. In the 1881 Census Mr Cudd, Harbour Commissioner, and his wife are living here. In 1884, William Henry Cudd was elected as one of the five first Castletown Commissioners and was appointed vice-chairman. |
| The second house [3 Arbory Road] was occupied by the Rev. E. Ferrier, Chaplain of St. Mary's Church, and his widow. After she died it was sold to Miss May Gawne, who afterwards married a Mr. Murray from New Zealand. When she died it came into the possession of Miss McHarrie, who married, and is now living in it. In my young days it had posts and chains in front which were later replaced by railings. Mrs. Murray called it Pargys. |
3 Arbory Road. This house has now lost its rendering and it can be seen that the three-storyed part of it may be older than a later two-storyed extension. In a different context Cooper mentions that this part of the house was added at about the same time as the rebuilding of Mr Cudd's house next door. Canon Ferrier was Government Chaplain to St Mary's in Castletown from 1855 to 1896 |
| The third [5 Arbory Road] was owned by Mr. W. Kneen of Ballacreggan who put dormer windows in the roof and built a small bathroom, etc. at the back. The first tenant I remember was Mrs. Kirkpatrick, sister of the Misses Clague, Bakers, who kept borders. It was later occupied by Mrs. Clague and daughters, after they gave up the butcher's shop, and until they went to California. It is now occupied by a Mr. Bridson, a retired official from Douglas |
Cooper records that the Misses Clague and their sister also at one time ran a boarding house at 35 Arbory Street. |
| The fourth [7 Arbory Road] was occupied most of my life by Mr. H. E. Gelling, lawyer, and when he moved to Port St. Mary was sold to Mrs. Kneen, widow of Deemster Kneen. Later [it was occupied] by her daughter, Mrs. Butler, and when she moved to Colby it was then occupied by Mr. Stanley Cubbon, butcher. |
Westend House. Henry Evans Gelling, Advocate. His offices were in Parliament Square. |
| The fifth [9 Arbory Road], the small house adjoining the last, was a separate house in my young days and was occupied by my great uncle Dan Karran and my aunt Ellen Cooper. When the Christians were evicted out of Scarlett House they came to live in half of it. Mrs. Christian was a ladylike person and used to read to the children, sitting round the fire, the adventures of Tom Pippin out of a paper called The Penny Pictorial. The floor was lower than the street and we youngsters used to sit on the step listening to her. Mrs. Christian was a Miss Quirk who married the shepherd. Scarlett was at that time owned by the Quirks, two sisters and a brother, and the yarn was that Mr. Quirk got into debt and the Court ordered the estate to be sold and his share taken to pay his debts and the balance divided between his sisters. One sister married and went to America and Mrs. Christian refused to take her share, saying they had no right to sell it, and lived in poverty all her life. Scarlett was then bought by the trustees of Miss Lucas who mortgaged Knockrushen to buy and repair it about 1878. |
Westend Cottage. In deeds of 1838 this was stables to the big house next door. It has undergone many changes. The cottage received its present outward look when H. E. Gelling adapted it as storerooms and a workroom for his son Robert whom Cooper, in another context, describes as 'a good amateur cabinetmaker'. High praise from Cooper, himself a highly thought of carpenter. |
| The sixth [13 Arbory Road] was owned by Mrs. Woods, Westwood, and was occupied by her gardener-coachman, Mr. Ned Clague. When Mrs. Woods daughter died about 1891 it was sold and bought by the Misses Clague, baker, and was left by them to Mrs Clague, butcher, who sold it. It was then bought by Capt. Squires of the I.O.M. Steam Packet Co's. cargo-boat, who repaired it and put on a new roof and when he died it was sold again. |
The number of this cottage is now 12A. After recent refurbishment it was for a while holiday accommodation, which may account for this superstitious change. |
| The seventh [15 Arbory Road] was occupied by the Misses Wilson, their brother and his daughter. Mr. Wilson married again and went to England and it later came into the possession of her half-brother and sister who sold it a few years ago. The first person I remember living in the eighth house [17 Arbory Road] was a Mr. Cunliffe, who was School Enforcing Officer, and has had several tenants since. I think this house and the buildings adjoining and Farrant's Flatt was someone's croft. My father used to say that in his young days the Flatt was divided into several small fields. It was owned at that time by a Mr. Gelling, who went by the name of Bun Gelling. When I was a lad he used to stay at the George Hotel and would have the lads running races on the Market Place. He was rather fond of drink and I have been told that he was left a sum of money if he joined the Church, which he did not want to do, and he kept studying but not trying to pass. I do not know what became of him but all his property about here was sold. The houses above here, except the Windmill House, were built in my time. The land was divided into plots and sold. All the plots were taken up and there was supposed to be a terrace of the same design. The land belonged to Mr. Quilliam, Stonecutter, and was sold by his executor. The first to be built was by Mr. G. E. Kewley at the top end. He used two plots for his house and afterwards took another for his garden. It would be built about 1882. |
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| (Additional note to the house belonging to Mr. G. Kewley) [Brownedge]. When this place was sold his garden was bought by Mr. Mead who owned Cronk my Chree before Mr. Pratt. When he died it was bought by Mrs. [Deemster?] Kneen who put up a wooden garage on it. When she moved from here, she sold it to Mrs. Anderson, who built a bungalow using the garage as part; she also converted the hen house and storeroom at the back into a sitting room. When she died it was bought by a Miss Collins who died lately. It is now owned by Col. Collin who lives at Balladoole House. |
The terrace was never completed, but Mr. Kewley's house, Brownedge, was clearly intended as an end of terrace. The design of this house, with two angled bays and dormers above each bay, is repeated in the semidetached houses built at the Farrants Way end, Westfield and Ormly. The terrace, if completed, would have been very grand. Mr. George Edward Kewley, Bank Manager, was the son of James Kewley, for many years Chief Clerk in the Rolls Office. |
| The first of the two at this end [Westfield] was built by Mr. James Clague, Mr. Quilliam's son-in-law, and it had several different tenants. One was a curate at St. Mary's Church, his mother and sister. When his mother died there, they padded her up in her coffin with shawls. After them Mr. Tom Fisher of Balladoole farm and then Mrs. Alma Roberts, daughter of Mr. J. M Jeffcott, High Bailiff, until she died. After that by the wife of Mr. Gell, who was an officer in the Merchant Service, and went to the U.S.A. It was left by Mr. Clague to Mrs. J. E. Quayle and when she died it was sold. It now belongs to Mrs. Milne-Smith who has converted it into two flats. The second [Ormly] was built for the Misses Llewellyn who went by the name of Miss Walker and Miss Talker. When they died it was sold to Mr. Faragher, farmer, who lived in it until he removed to the Great Meadow. Then it was again sold to Mr. Lyon-Smith and after his death to Mr. Wheeler who lives in it. Of the other two houses, the first built [Norwood] was for Mr. Bramwell Cubbon, retired farmer, and when he died he left it to Miss Gell who lives in it. It was built about 1910. Mr. Cubbon bought two plots to build the house on and afterwards bought another to enlarge the garden. The bungalow [The Haven] was built by Mr William Clucas after the First World War on two plots and it is now occupied by his widow. The remaining plot was bought by my father and is now a builder's yard. |
A three-bay modern house with dormers, an approximate copy of Norwood, has been built on this site and was completed in 2004. It has been named Ty'R Barilwr. The Southern Local Authorities Swimming Pool and Castle Rushen High School are now in the space between Mr. Kewley's house and garden and Tower House and the Windmill. The school began in 1948 on a site 'which comprised seventeen acres of fields with a long dividing wall, and a miscellany of scattered single brick buildings, which had been used by the Royal Air Force and Fleet Air Arm for initial war time training.' 2 |
| In my young days the Windmill House, or Tower House, as it was called, was empty for a long period and I and a lot of lads got into trouble for breaking the windows. Shortly afterwards Mr. E. Martin bought it and lived in it until he died. His widow [lived in it] until she died, when it was sold and bought by P. C. Quayle who lived in it until he was moved to Douglas. He let it to Mr. Kinvig who still lives in it. |
In the 1901 Census the house is named Tower Hill, and as Martin was the Enumerator of this area of the census he should know! Edward Martin was an accountant who also held various offices in Castletown. He was Coroner of Rushen, Deputy Registrar and Honorary Clerk, Rate Collector and Sanitary Officer of the Commissioners. The Commissioners first meetings were held in his office in 22 Arbory Street. |
| The Windmill yard and some of the buildings were occupied by Mr. W. Cooil, who went by the name of Buller, as during the Boer War he kept saying "Hold on until Buller gets to them". He kept horses and did carting and some farming. He worked his horses hard but fed them well. He did a lot of carting to Port Erin, timber etc., for Mr. Joseph Qualtrough, until Qualtrough started doing his own carting. When Mr. Cooil died it was taken over - the house part and stable - by Mr. T. Watterson, who put a man on it when he removed to Scarlett farm (Balladoole) that was. The first man was a smith and he went off to the First World War. The next man was Mr. Tom Moore and, when the Wattersons got more land at Scarlett and gave up the Redgap land, he took it over and Mr. J. Kennaugh took over Redgap. The large barn at the Windmill is now a `Witches' Kitchen' and the house is occupied by the proprietor. I have heard my father saying that at one time the old windmill was supposed to be haunted, but the ghost turned out to be a woman walking in her sleep. |
In the 1950s the old Windmill (built in 1828) and associated buildings became a Museum of Witchcraft and soon after, now owned by Dr. Gerald Gardner, the Witches' Mill, with a collection of objects associated with witchcraft and a café. When Dr. Gardner died in 1964, he left the Mill to 'The White Witch of the North' at that time, a Mrs Wilson, who came to live there with her husband and daughter. They formed a coven in Castletown which caused a sensation and much disapproval. When she left in the early 1970s Gardener's collection went to America. The conversion and development as a residential enclave of the old Windmill, the farmhouse and outbuildings, was undertaken by Mr. Tony Petty and completed in 1998. He subsequently bought Tower Hill and erected a row of cottages in its garden fronting to Windmill Lane. The row of houses and cottages, from Westview to Red Gap House have suffered some changes reflected in Coopers notes about them. It has been suggested that the hamlet got its name from the red bricks supplied to many eighteenth-century buildings in Castletown from brick- works in this area. |
| Westview was built, according to my father, by Mr. John Taggart, grocer, for his father and mother when they gave up farming at Poolvaaish. It was only a small house but was enlarged later and occupied by a Mr. Pyne, a master at K.W.C., and for a long time afterwards by Mrs. Moore- Lane and family, widow of an Indian official. It is now owned by Miss M. Kennaugh who lives in it. The next two cottages were thatched but were raised and slated when I was a lad. The first was occupied by Mr. Harry Kneale, a quarrier at Scarlett, for a good many years. The second was occupied by Mr. John Cringle, a skipper of a nickey, also for a good number of years from the time they were slated. The next house was built for Mr. H. Cubbon, the baker, when he retired, but he did not live long and it was sold and bought by Mr. T. T. Callow, brewer at the Brewery. After his death it was again sold and it belongs to one of the McHarries. The plot on which the house is built was Mr. Abraham Champion's garden. |
3 Red Gap. Mr. Cubbon may not have lived here very long, but his name is on a small plaque on the door. Abraham Champion, a political refugee from France, lived in Queen Street. |
| The site of the next two cottages in my young days was overgrown with brambles and weeds with ruins among them, but the site was cleared and the two cottages built by Mr. Bridson of Strandhall and are now owned by Mr Collister, his nephew. The next two were occupied by Mr. Fayle and Mr. Creer. When Mr. Dodd built Cronk-my-Chree he turned one of the cottages into a stable and coach house and the other into a house for his man, Mr. Thomas Clague. It is now owned by Mr. Clague's son Sam. |
The cottage is named Red Gapp! |
| Red Gap House: the first tenant I remember was Mr. W. Preston who moved to Poolvaaish and then Mr Sansbury who had a corn-store in Malew Street, and later Mr. T. Watterson who farmed the land until he removed to Scarlett. The house was owned by Mr. Ambrose Woods and when he died it was sold and bought by Mr. J. Kennaugh, whose son Alfie now lives in it. The farm was left to the longest liver of the Woods family and when she died the daughter sold it to Mr. Pratt. |
The substantial farmhouse was demolished for road widening some years ago. Part of the farm buildings are now the present home of Mr. Alfie Kennaugh's daughter. |
| Cronk-my-Chree was built by Mr. Tom M. Dodd about 60 years ago. He built a lot about here, Milnes and Athol Terrace, stabling in Hope Street, the two Arches and Storerooms in Arbory St., and started the Golf Links Hotel, all of which were sold. |
Tomas Milner Dodd (1858-1912). Born in Manchester, Dodd was brought up by his uncle, John Taggart, grocer, of 19 Malew Street. He took over the business when his uncle died and expanded it to become a major grocers, wine and spirit merchants, taking in the additional properties of 21 Malew Street, 18 and 26 Arbory street and the areas between, where a mineral water and bottling factory was located. Among his many other concerns was the initiating of the Castletown Golf Links and the building of the Fort Island Hotel. |
| Westhill was occupied by Mr. R. Crellin who was the last Comptroller of Customs at Castletown. After his death his widow and two daughters and son lived in it. His son was the manager of Dumbell's Bank, Port St. Mary. Then it was let to an Irishman named Somerville, who lived in it for some years. Afterwards Mr. W. A. Stevenson, whose wife was a daughter of Mr. Crellin, came to live in it from Ballakaighen House. When he died in 1919 Mrs. Stevenson moved out and Sur[geon] Gen[eral] Stevenson moved in from Lorne House. When Balladoole Estate was sold the General bought the house and moved there and sold Westhill to Col. Webb-Ware, a retired Indian Army Officer. |
Westhill was a fine Regency villa, originally owned by the Quayle family from whom Robert Quayle Crellin was descended. Eddie Clague went to work as an apprenticed gardener at Westhill in 1919, then owned by Surgeon General Stevenson. He continued to work for Colonel Webb-Ware and for Mr. Tongue, Secretary to the Harbour Board in Singapore, who bought the house for his retirement and for his parents. It was he who laid out the garden. When his parents died in 1938 he moved to Switzerland. Westhill became the Buchan School for Girls. Eddie continued to look after the garden for another fifteen years - this included the kitchen garden which ensured a superior standard of food which was enjoyed by pupils and staff during the war years.3 |
| Westham House was occupied by Mr. Newton and his daughter. After his death Miss Maclellan came to live with her and, after Miss Newton's death, let the house furnished. The cottage is now occupied by Mr. Craine. This cottage was originally the stables, harness room, and part of the coach-house and hay-loft. The stables were made into the cottage for Mr. Varley, gardener and coachman when I was a very small lad, but the coach-house was altered at a much later date, and lowered a storey. The first tenant of the cottage I remember was a Mrs. Cochran, and I think also that the Varleys had the use of part of the cottage, as I have often played with them on the gravel plot in front of it. They had a large family of ten or eleven children and there would be hardly room for them all in the small cottage. |
Westham. For many years the house was occupied by Lt. Col. Gordon Ponsonby MacClellan. After whom the Manx Regiment Museum in Tromode is named. There is now a development of four modern houses on Westham land, Westham Lea, with a private access road between The Vicarage, built in the 1960s, and Westcroft |
2 Atkinson J. Callister W. C. 1998 Castle Rushen High School 1948-1998. A Celebration of 50 Years. "Thiat myr toilliu" Quine & Cubbon 1998.
3 From notes and tapes taken during conversations with Eddie Clague in Abbotswood Nursing Home shortly before he died in 2000.
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Any comments, errors or omissions
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Editor HTML © F.Coakley , 2011 |
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