The Manor House Range, South Green

by Janet Kennish

Photo taken from scaffolding round the church steeple, 1970s

From left: Grosvenor Stores, Old Council Offices (mock timbered), WI Hall & shops, Old Manor House,  1 & 2 The Manor House (four mock timbered gables), Manor Green Cottage, Manor Cottage, Manor Hotel

Introduction

This whole range of buildings belonged to the Lord of the Manor of Datchet from at least early Tudor times, when they were built, to the beginning of the 20th century. The gentle curve of the Green in front of the houses represents the original pool or watercourse which occupied the centre of the village until it was culverted underground in the mid 1800s. An earlier medieval manor house was likely to have been on the opposite side, near to the church and sharing its high ground, as the Royal Stag and Bridge do now (seen in the right foreground here). It seems that the lower-lying south side of the village centre was a later development in the 1500s and 1600s, but there is very little historical evidence apart from the buildings themselves.

The problem is that the lords of the manor appear not to have lived in the Manor House. During the period from 1472 when the manor was a royal property it was probably the home of the steward or bailiff and no records of who occupied it have survived. The chief residence was a much grander house called Riding Court which lies to the north of the village, now on the far side of the M4. It was here that the Wheeler family were already living when they bought the Manor of Datchet from Charles Ist in 1631; they appear to have rented out the village Manor House to high status tenants (including Thomas Brinley Auditor of the Revenue to Charles I and II) but no list of them has survived before 1793. For the 19th century the censuses every ten years from 1841 provide full details of who was living along here, but this source is not available for the 20th century so information about recent times is more fragmentary.

It is likely that there was originally a main dwelling house with bakehouse, brewhouse, washhouse, outbuildings, cottages and barns strung out along the edge of the pool. There may have been a manorial home farm here as well, and there was certainly enough meadow land behind the buildings and running down towards the river to house livestock. It is now almost impossible to ascertain the age or function of all the various elements in the range, especially since some have been lost to modern infill and all are much changed. 

By the mid 1800s the Manor House had fallen far down the social scale; at one time it housed the post office, a parish school and overspill from the workhouse, but also the first Baptist congregation in the village. The other cottages and tenements had become a hive of building craftsmen's workshops which persisted into the 20th century; the families included Sears, Cleversley, Bidwell and Hunt. By the 1870s, the main house was remodelled, including a very smart mock Tudor timbered facade, to be let out at higher rents to more respectable tenants. All the dwellings were rented directly from the Lord of the Manor until eventual sale, so inhabitants listed below are occupants rather than owners. Several of the families are interesting, especially the Bidwells, redoubtable women plumbers in the 19th century.

Village looking east, William Corden 1870s  (not to be reproduced)

From left: Hall Cottage, Chestnut & Rose Cottage, Church Cottage black- smith's workshop (beneath tree), Old Council Offices (School belfry beyond) 'Old Manor House', Manor House, Manor Cottages, Manor Hotel (red brick & white), High Street corner, then old White Hart pub extreme right

In 1896 the Montagu family put the whole range up for sale at auction and though not all were actually sold then, the auction catalogue and plan describing each lot is a very useful source for identifying each building at that date. (More detail on interpretation of this plan with each separate section below.)

Montagu Auction Sale plan of lots, 1896; village green to south at bottom of plan

Lot 10: Old Council Offices (facing road); Grosvenor Stores now built in space to its east; old workshops to its rear now modern offices
Lot 9: 'Old Manor House' on W of plot; single storey workshop in centre & workshops on east demolished to build WI hall & shops
Lot 8: Number 1 Manor House
Lot 7: Number 2 Manor House
Lot 6: Manor Green Cottage
Lot 5: Manor Cottage (followed by Manor Hotel which was not for sale)

On these webpages the buildings are grouped and numbered thus: 
        1) Old Council Offices
        2) Old Manor House + WI Hall + Grosvenor Stores
        3) 1 & 2 The Manor House
        4) Manor Cottage & Manor Green Cottage
        5) The Manor Hotel

1) Old Council Offices

photo circa 2000		circa 1920, Old Council Offices on far left behind pump

This view of the village is dated by the presence of the 1920 war memorial. It shows that the mock Tudor facade of Old Council Offices was not added until at least the1920s, even though it looks as if it was done at the same time and by the same builder as that of the Manor House. (A more distant view of the building in the same state can be seen in the Corden painting above.) In fact, this is another case of a mock timbered facade applied to a genuine timber framed building, probably of the late 1500s or early 1600s. Its name is due to the new parish council hiring the two front rooms as an office from 1895. In more recent years it was familiar as the village betting shop but is now used as offices. 

Several years ago the whole ground floor was completely stripped out and rebuilt, when the complete timber frame was uncovered. There was also a complex hearth which included a bread oven. Its state was fully photographed but a lot of reconstruction with modern materials had to be carried out for the rooms to be used as offices. One section of wattle and daub wall has been left visible within the restored building. On the east side of the house is a later extension, probably 19th century, with a curiously low chimney on the corner. During restoration a well was found within the extension, which would originally have been in a yard outside the house.

Ceiling beams towards front of house		Hearth and chimney stack in centre of house

Wattle & daub wall  surface	Extension to side & added chimney

 Use of the Building and Past Occupants

The house was bought in 1953 by the building developer George Scott as part of a property extending west to the main Manor House, but he seems not to have updated this building as he did the others.  Scott bought it from Phillip Willcocks, who had himself acquired it from the Widcombe family. In 1896 The Montagu sale plan (lot 10) shows that the building was part of a complex of workshops:
 

The auctioneer's suggestion of buying the site for development as modern housing was not followed up, but George Scott filled the gap in the east side of Lot 10 with the Grosvenor Stores.  For many years in the early 20th century Willett's coal yard ran from Old Council Offices right up to the boundary of the school on the east of lot 10. Mr Willett was a builder, though he also managed the coal yard, as recorded in the 1891 census. Before that the Sears family of builders were tenants, and further back the Newmans. Before 1781 nothing at all is known about this house or its occupants.

19th century censuses, Old Council Offices

2) 'The Old Manor House' (+ WI Hall & Grosvenor Stores)

The Cleversley Family, early 20th century to 1950s
Despite its name, which was in use at least by the 1940s, there is really no evidence that this dwelling is earlier than any of the others in the range. As it stands, it is largely a 1955 rebuild of an artisan's house of 18th or 19th century date. George Scott the developer used the site of the old workshop outbuildings to build two new shops, currently the Post Office and a hairdresser's, with a new hall for the Women's Institute occupying a large garden at the rear shown on the auction plan for Lot 9. Scott gave use of  this hall free of charge to the WI, while at the same time he remodelled and extended the existing house as a wedding present for his daughter. It is very likely that a house or outbuilding has existed here since the 1500s as part of the Manor House complex (and the name could be a genuine memory), but no fabric from such an early date has survived. 

Detail from a photo of Datchet's Special Police in front of Cleversley's workshop east of Old Manor House, 1940s		George Cleversley outside Old Manor House; he died in 1946 age 93 (family photo)
The advert painted on the house front reads: Cleversley & Son, Plumbers, Builders & Decorators, Sanitary Engineers, Undertakers

The original size of the old house can be seen here, before George Scott extended it by absorbing part of the old workshops, as well as the single storey 'double-fronted builder's shop' (see below) which he demolished to make way for the shops and hall. This workshop was called the 'shepherd's hut' within living memory, and that may be what it was originally when  

The 'gothic' windows seen in the door of this latter building were probably a Cleversley speciality; they appear all over Datchet (eg in the side of the Royal Stag) and can be dated later in the 20th century than their style suggests. One of those in the front of the workshop seems to have been re-used by Scott at the back of the remodelled house, while the fanlights over the front door of the Old Manor House and over the doors and window of the Grosvenor Stores are in a similar style.

The Cleversley family were another of the prolific building trade families based along this range but also building their own houses in other parts of the village as they prospered. The Cleversleys arrived in Datchet in 1876 from London. From 1887 the family were enthusiastic members of Datchet's own fire brigade which was led by Captain George Cleversley. he began the first social club at the old workhouse (near to where Cleversley then lived), which moved to the Working men's Club in 1881; Cleversley was one of the chief fundraisers and also one of the first Parish Councillors in 1894. His tenancy of these buildings follows that of the Bidwells who are listed in the 1891 census and as in the auction catalogue (see below).

It was typical of the period that a building firm should also be undertakers. During George Scott's building work a number of tiny skeletons were dug up from the old yard; were these stillborn or aborted babies which families were too poor to bury or wanted to conceal? Perhaps the Cleversleys or the Bidwells (or earlier occupants of the premises) were fulfilling a social need by not reporting such deaths and by dealing with the remains. George Scott did not report what had been found to the coroner, although he probably should have done, because too many people who may have been involved in secret deaths and disposals were still alive in the 1950s.

The Bidwell Family, 1890s back to 1790s
The 1896 auction sale catalogue described Lot 9 as:

The Bidwells are chiefly remarkable for the roles of their women. (See also Link article for more on this family) Both Mary and Thirza (see below) are listed in their own right as tradespeople, following in their husbands' businesses. In 1871, the redoubtable Mary Bidwell then aged 82 was living at Church Cottage with Elizabeth Pearce, described as 'former farrier' age 53. Thirza, the second wife of William Bidwell junior is recorded in the same year as a plumber employing seven men, with her daughter as the clerk. The relationship between the Bidwells and the Church Cottage families were already close in 1841 when William and Theodosia were at (probably) our Horton Cottage. 

19th Century censuses, Old Manor House
 

The Land Tax lists (1782-1832) record a Mr Bidwell as occupying a tenement of the Manor House itself from 1795, as well as the workshops here.
The Bucks list of men liable to military service in 1798 (the Posse Comitatus) lists John Bidwell and John Bidwell junior, both carpenters.
In 1795 the Barker Bridge House Trust paid 'Bidwell the carpenter' for work on bridges across streams on the common (Horton Road).
In 1793 (in the only manorial rental to survive) Mr Bidwell was at one of the tenancies here.

3) 1 & 2 The Manor House

From Tighe & Davis's Annals of Windsor, 1858	Photo before recent pedestrianisation of Manor House roadway

As can be seen in this drawing the house has been divided into at least two separate dwellings with their own front doors for a very long time. It was originally built as one in the late 1500s, though with alterations or additions to the east end made by about 1650. The earlier phase consists of the three bays with lower gables, while the later crosswing at the east end is considerably higher at first and second floor and roof levels. None of the timber frame is expressed on the outside of the building, which was plastered over instead; this was a fashionable treatment and can also be seen at Church Cottage. The new facade skilfully minimises the differences between phases by integrating the different levels into the mock timber design. Inside, little was altered and much of the original timber frame is exposed in the eastern half, although in the west most of it has been plastered over. Both front doorways now look like the arched one in the drawing and it is not clear whether they are an original and a copy or are both 19th century.

Structurally, the original house follows a standard plan; the open hall occupied the space of the two central bays with a single service room at the far west end divided from the hall by a screens passage. The east was the 'high' end and still has a carved bracket supporting the spinal joist at the east end of the present dining room, where the deep undecorated joists suggest a plaster ceiling originally, perhaps moulded. Up in the roof space, it can be seen that the wall at the end of the three earlier bays has been an exterior surface exposed to the weather for some years before the taller easternmost crosswing bay was added. The spiral stair here is probably contemporary with the cross wing, while the oddly shaped one in the present western half is a later insertion.

Twentieth Century Occupants: Sopwith and Killick
Little is known of the many tenants who have lived here, but two are of more interest. In 1906 one of the halves was leased from Lord Montagu to Mrs Lydia Gertrude Sopwith, although the actual tenant was Francis Raikes, a son in law of Mrs Sopwith. (He was still the tenant in 1915, but by 1924 Mrs Raikes is recorded at Moy Lodge in Slough Road.) This was the family of Tommy Sopwith and was the reason for his dramatic flying visits to Datchet; he landed his plane on the golf course in 1911. He was away at school during the earlier years his mother and his sister's family were here but often visited, being remembered as racing motorbikes around the village with 'such a racket as sent the hens a'scattering'.

Charles Killick was the person who finally bought the Manor House from the Montagu estate in 1929, buying both dwellings, living in 1 (west half) and subletting 2 (east half). The legal paperwork at Beaulieu shows that quite a lot of updating of the building was done at that time, but perhaps only the west half. He was involved in the London theatre scene (any information would be welcomed) and was socially ambitious. In 1961 a legal case established that although Killick had bought the Manor House that did not entitle him to the 'lordship' and Lord Montagu was confirmed as Lord of Datchet Manor.

The 1896 auction catalogue describes the two houses, Lot 7 (west) & Lot 8 (east). Both had two bedrooms on the top (though the east had an extra one) and two on the first floor, with a drawing room on the right and dining room on the left of their front doors. The west house was already differently fitted from the east one, with stoves in most rooms and bathroom upstairs. They both had kitchens, sculleries, larders and coal cellars. The west house was let to Captain Chisholme at £45 per annum, and the east one to Mr Arthur Druce at £40; the latter was the retired licensee of the Manor Hotel.

Nineteenth Century Occupants from the Censuses, the Post Office & Shoemakers

The Cameron family outside Manor House west in the 1890s. John Cameron had been in service with the Royal household. John's wife and eldest daughter were both called Emily, with Margaret, Harriet, and Donald, aged between 14 and 19 in 1891.   After the 1870s remodelling the tenants were of much higher status than before, which of course had been the intention.  Before that, craftsmen predominated, including the Hunt family of carpenters who also ran the post office, and the shoemakers Philby and Bampton.

Occupants from Land Tax: 1830s to 1780s, Shoemakers & the Baptists' Meeting House
It becomes more difficult to identify occupiers before the first census; the land tax records do list all owners and tenants every year, but without any attempt at addresses so that working out the sequence of the list relies on guesswork to some extent. The one manorial rental which survives, from 1793, is also included here. It is very likely that rooms would have been sublet and occupied as a warren of tenancies while only one family was officially recorded.

The shoemaker Philby continued the business formerly run by Willday, so that this house may have been a shoemaker's from 1850 back to at least 1780. In 1801 some part of the house was licensed for use as a Meeting House by religious dissenters 'under the denomination of Baptists'. Since 1785 they had met in a barn in the High Street on the site of the church later built there.The license, which was from the Archdeacon of Bucks, describes the house as 'the dwelling house of Her Grace the Duchess of Buccleuch, occupied by William Hughes'. This has been misinterpreted in the past as being the house in which the Duchess lived, but she was only its owner. As well as William Hughes, the application was signed by Francis Willday and Charles Buckland (who was at Old Manor House). Shoemakers and menders are traditionally associated with religious dissension, and there seems to have been a nest of similarly minded families in this row of dwellings. The Bamptons, related to the Philbys, were one of the first families recorded as worshippers at the new Baptist Chapel in 1841.

William Hughes' occupation as a ferryman in 1798 is due to the fact that the bridge over the Thames had collapsed in 1795 and was not rebuilt until 1811, but George III re-instated the ferry service over to Windsor in the intervening years. His occupation when the bridge was in use is not known. However we do know, from a series of family wills, that William Hughes had married David Ogilvy's daughter Elizabeth. Ogilvy's will of 1793 left his tenancy of the Manor House, where he said he lived, to his daughter Elizabeth Hughes. The Hughes had taken up residence by the time of the 1793 rental, though they may have already been living there with her father Ogilvy. This family is one of those whose graves are lined up on the south side of the church, re-sited when the church was rebuilt in the 1860s. More than twenty Aldridges, Marshes, Ogilvys and Hughes who were related and intermarried are recorded there from the 1690s, although most of the stones are nearly illegible now. (See also Link article on these related family gravestones)

Back to the 1600s: Royal Revenue Officials; Richard Budd, William Wase & Thomas Brinley
Before the 1780s there is no direct documentary evidence for any occupants of the Manor House or its subsidiary dwellings. It is assumed that the Manor House was lived in by the manorial bailiff or steward from the 1500s, because the manor belonged to the Crown and was managed by a royal representative. The grandest house was not this one but Riding Court, now cut off from the village on the far side of the M4, which was leased out separately by the Crown. Datchet was one of many manors sold off by Charles I in 1631, when it was bought by William Wheeler who was already living at Riding Court.

Datchet was a magnet for Tudor and Stuart courtiers and officials, being within reach of London and close to Windsor. In particular there was a close-knit group of Auditors of the Royal Revenue based in Windsor, Eton and Datchet. With their skills combining those of an accountant, a surveyor and an estate agent, they were an emerging professional group of importance to 16th and 17th century monarchs in their constant search for ready money and sources of income. Richard Budd is the first auditor known to have lived in Datchet (by 1625 from taxation lists) and his partner Thomas Brinley was here by at least 1647 when his youngest son was baptised in the church. Brinley's gravestone in the chancel floor of the church is often visited by Americans seeking their ancestors because several of his children were sent out to Long Island, New York, in the 1650s when the Civil War had made life here precarious for a royal official.

Richard Budd was related by marriage to Richard Hanbury of Riding Court (grandfather of William Wheeler), who also had several relations in the auditor business. This is probably the connection which brought Budd to Datchet to rent the whole Manor House as one dwelling. Thomas Brinley was Richard Budd's deputy and married to Anne Wase who was also related to Budd by marriage. It seems that William Wase and his family occupied the Manor House after Budd and was followed in turn by Brinley. There is one piece of evidence for Brinley having lived here: as was usual, an inventory and valuation of Thomas Brinley's possessions was made after his death, and the route which the valuer took through Brinley's house matches the layout of the whole Manor House at that time, still fully traceable through later changes and divisions. Firm proof may never be found, but it is very likely that these inter-related families could have been the tenants of such a high status house from the early 1600s to the 1660s and perhaps beyond, as at least one of Thomas Brinley's children did stay in the village after Thomas's death in 1661.

4) Manor Cottage and Manor Green Cottage

Early 17th century timber frame, Manor Green Cottage	photo of Manor Cottages (on right) as shops c1910

When this photo (right) was taken, Manor Green Cottage (east of pair) was J.Dunster the draper and Manor Cottage to its west was C.J Hunt, builders. (This house still belongs to the Hunt family at the time of writing.)  The brick facade and sash windows are a modernisation of the late 1700s, but both cottages were originally built as one timber framed dwelling in the early 1600s. It was a subsidiary to the Manor House, and the later end chimney of the taller building is embedded through the roof structure of Manor Green Cottage, as can be seen in this photo. The chimney of the actual cottages is in the centre between the two, serving back-to-back hearths and perhaps inserted into an original open hall house (see history of Church Cottage). In the east half the timber frame is all still exposed, but in the other half it has mostly been plastered over, perhaps by Hunt the builder. There seem to have been two dwellings as far back as records of tenants exist, into the 1780s, but as with all this manorial range there is no information from earlier periods. The front windows of both halves have been altered in the late 19th and 20th centuries when they were shops or businesses, and Manor Cottage has had an extension built to the west so that it abuts on to the Manor Hotel and is bigger than the eastern half.

 Use of the Building and Past Occupants

                                             
  Nineteenth Century Occupants from Censuses; retired Manorial servants & butchers
 

Back to the 1780s

Tucker the butcher had occupied Manor Cottage from about 1820, including quite a large meadow behind the cottages were the animals grazed. Before Tucker, John Bradley (probably a baker) lived there at least back to 1781, the first year for which land tax evidence exists. There are Bradley graves among the re-sited group on the south side of the church with those of the Ogilvys, Marshes, Aldridges and Hughes; all of high social status in the village context. The evidence from this period is both scant and confused, but it seems likely that one of these families was responsible for adding a fashionable Georgian brick facade and sash windows to the old timber framed houses. It is also possible that the Lord of the Manor updated them in order to charge higher rents, but as no work was done on the Manor House itself at the time, that seems less likely.

5) The Manor Hotel

Meet of Sir Harvey's harriers outside the Manor Hotel 1874 by William Corden (not to be reproduced)

Little is known about the history of this building, except that it was part of the manorial range and has been an inn since at least the 1750s. In this painting, the parts of the building in red brick with mock timber patterning in the gable had been recently rebuilt; the lower white part on the corner is much older and less smart. (This can be seen more clearly in the Corden painting in the Introduction to this section.) In 1888 the corner block was rebuilt with its overhanging first floor and has changed very little since. The building probably has a core dating back to the 1600s, but there have been so many refurbishings in recent years that no early fabric has been identified. It is not known when the hotel was finally sold by the Montagu estate or to whom, but it was not for sale at the 1896 auction.

The Lord of the Manor also owned the building on the opposite corner of the top of the High Street (in the centre of this picture, where the Wine Rack  is now), which had been a public house called the White Hart and is first mentioned in 1565. Both were in business through the later 1700s, sometimes run by the same publican. In the 1780s and 90s both were leased by Mr Isherwood (though sublet to a publican) who owned an important brewery business at Datchet Lane in Windsor. The Manor may always have been more prestigious, and had stabling in the yard behind reached by an archway in High Street (now an internal part of the building), though it was not a significant coaching inn for the changing of stagecoach horses as has been suggested. The White Hart was a lower status alehouse with a skittle alley out at the back on the site of the present offices' car park.

The Manor Hotel's name has changed several times:

From 1753 to 1766 The Half Moon.
From 1767 The Horse and Groom
At sometime between 1853 and 1877 it became The Manor Hotel  

Two stories are told about this pub, of which one is true and one is not:

It has been said that it used to be a prison for Windsor Castle, but this is a virtually impossible idea, perhaps arising from a modern misreading of a letter written in 1648 during the Civil War by Lady Winwood of Ditton Park.

The other story, that the pub was a mortuary, is true and not at all unusual. When an inquest had to be held after an accidental or suspicious death, the body would be viewed by the coroner at the chief inn of the place where the victim was found.

Listed Building information from local authority

Old Council Offices: Windsor & Maidenhead 40712, The Old Council House (sic), The Green, Grade II, SU 9877 & 9977, 5/22, GV

House now commercial premises probably mid-late C16 altered & refronted late C19/early C20.Timber frame, plastered, & front with applied timber framing; clay tile roof. One storey & attic. 1x2 bays gable-end to road with late C19/early C20 side outshut on left under catslide roof. On right, shopfront is recessed below jettied first floor & has 1/2 glazed panelled door on right with flanking console brackets supporting fascia & 3 light leaded casement, similar 1-light window on left; bracketed oriel to 1st floor with 3x1 light leaded casements, barge boards; terracotta finial side outshut has 2-light window, rear; C20 door below sash window with glazing bars, round arched to upper sash. C20 extension of outshut to right has door leading to upper floor.

Interior: on ground floor, large scantling spine beam, attic has wall plates tie beams, that at centre cambered, & windbraces. Top od one wall post is visible, decorated cast iron fire place at centre with panelled cupboard door beside. Probably more of the frame survives behind the internal wall claddings. (This has since proved to be so)

(Old Manor House not listed)

The Manor House & Manor House Antiques: Windsor & Maidenhead 40665, Grade II, SU 9877, 5/9, GV

Late C16/earlyC17 four bay timber framed house refaced late C19 or early C20. Front rendered & colourwashed with applied timbers in 'Jacobean' style, done well. Three storeys with oversailing second floor. Three gables & one larger to left hand with attic. Three two-storey bay windows with six-light wood casements. Four-light oriel window under left hand table. Plain tile patterned roof.

Interior: of Manor House (east) has many original exposed timbers, original door surround on ground floor to left hand room with carved trefoil spandrels, moulded & stopped jambs. Original spiral newel stair with cut balusters on third floor landing, in square gabled stair tower. Stone surround with four centred arch to fireplace on first floor.

Interior of Manor House Antiques is lined with modern panelling, no frame is showing.

Manor Cottage & Manor Green Cottage: Windsor & Maidenhead 40664, Grade II, SU 9877, 5/8, GV

Late C18 red brick front on C17 three bay timber frame. Two storeys, old tile roof, central chimney. Parapet with brick coping. Seven double hung sashes with glazing bars, two modern doors. Windows & doors have cambered arches. West house has two-light window bay on ground floor.

Sources of Information
Beaulieu Archives
        Rental 1793
        Manor Court rolls
Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies, Aylesbury:
        Archdeaconry of Bucks licenses
        Land tax lists
        Barker Bridge House Trust minutes
        Vestry minutes
        Posse Comitatus 1798
        1839 rate map & schedule
Northampton Record Office
        Manor Court Rolls 
Slough library
        Census returns (also online)
        Kelly's Street Directories

Researcher: janetkennish@tesco.net