© Zofia Everett
(with research by Dick Lloyd)
Reprinted from: Saffron Walden Historical Journal No 8 Autumn 2004
Eastacre in Chaters Hill is one of the most elegant houses in Saffron Walden. Its classical Georgian proportions and the superb craftsmanship with which it was built contrive to provide a feeling of tranquil respectability, yet we know from a journal written by its architect, the surveyor William Robinson, that his life in the house was far from tranquil.
Eastacre, originally known as The Grove, is also unusual because its history is exceptionally well-documented. Robinson’s journal provides an intimate and personal account of the house’s construction, and records his own domestic turmoil. Many other documents, such as the original deeds and the will also survive to give a complete history of the house, and one of Robinson’s later journals is in the town museum.
The house has Grade II listed building status. To the person responsible for the listing, the quality of the architectural detail suggested the date of construction as 1840, but in fact Robinson built the house in 1804. The house boasts a magnificent front elevation which has changed very little since William Robinson’s time. The central entrance is approached by wide Ketten stone steps leading to a deep porch supported by Ionic columns. Two enormous bay windows on each side of the entrance reach from the floors to the ceilings giving the principal rooms a great deal of light and magnificent views of the Common and the parish church. The house is flanked to one side by a coach house and a serpentine-roofed Victorian conservatory. At the back, there is evidence of a much older, timber- framed structure.
The 1804 journal
Robinson’s 1804 journal is a gift for a family, local or social historian, as it reveals far more than just the bare facts noted by the writer. He charts the building work of The Grove. He designs his garden and plants trees and shrubs with equal care and precision as in the designs for the grounds of aristocratic houses. He also reveals complex family loyalties, local business connections, details of daily life at the turn of the 19th century and much more. From his brief daily notes a careful reader can discover something of William himself. His will completes the story. Perhaps I will be forgiven for giving so much prominence to the story of William Robinson, rather than concentrating on the house alone, but I hope that readers will find his story fascinating and relevant to the character of the house he created. The journal starts in January 1804:
Tuesday 3 Jan: I set all the trees upright near my canal, occasion’d by high winds.
Tuesday 10 Jan: Put 2 does 1 buck into my vault. Began digging the ditch round the New Warren. [the vault was the magnificent deep chalk cellar under the house]
20 Feb: Planted laurels, privet, jasmines and hollyhocks that were left by the heels by Mr. Rivers. [Thomas Rivers, the famous nurseryman from Sawbridgeworth]
Friday 4 May: I planted scarlet and white runners about my garden. William Green & Son laid out part of the stucco to my new house. J. Linsdell planted his potatoes.
Saturday 12 May: Struck the scaffold at my new house on the common.
Monday 28 May: Put into the warren five rabbits half grown.
1 June: A dog or fox got into my warren and killed a great many rabbits.
Sunday 5 Aug: Mr. Gaton look’t over my new house & shrubbery.
Monday 6 Aug: Insured my new house for £900…
Thursday 23 Aug: Drawing my new house on the Common.
4 Sept: Busy in my new house garden.
Thursday 11 Oct: Slept first time at new house on Common.
Sunday 14 Oct: Sister Martha, Sarah and Mrs. Normington drank tea and supp’t at new house on Common.2
Robinson carefully planned and executed the building work on his new house. He established his garden and vegetable plot as well as the rabbit warren and dovehouse to provide cheap, fresh meat. On 8 September he notes ‘Put 12 pigeons into my dovehouse‘. It is interesting to note that this centuries old practice of providing a fresh meat supply for the household is still carried out at the beginning of the 19th century when fresh meat is obviously in plentiful supply. He is very proud of this enterprise, as many friends and acquaintances visit the building site throughout the year. Yet, there are one or two puzzling entries in the journal as: Tue 14 Feb ‘Wrote to G. Brooke Esq. Piazza Coffee House, Covent Garden about selling my house on the Common’. From time to time his heart fails him and he is contemplating selling his ‘new house on the Common’. Why? For the answer we need to look more closely at William’s family circumstances.
The Robinsons
He was the son of William and Susanna Robinson. His father was a surveyor and joiner at Audley End. They were well connected and well to do. His mother was Susanna Pettit, daughter of a local butcher. The Saffron Walden Register on 17 September 1759 shows the marriage of William Robinson and Susanna Pettit. Their daughter, also Susanna, was christened 29 July 1760. She later married Richard Hart of Linton, and was the mother of William Hart, so often referred to in the journal. On 28 October 1761 William, son of William and Susanna Robinson, was christened, sister Elizabeth on 16 April 1766, Ann on 10 May 1769, Martha on 8 April 1772 and Sarah on 16 September 1774.
William frequently mentions visits to his sisters, Susanna Hart in Linton, and Martha and her husband James Linsdell. James was an umbrella and stay maker and one of William’s closest friends. James and Martha lived in one of William’s houses in Tanners Row. In the parish register of 7 July 1789 there is an entry recording the marriage by licence of William Robinson and Caroline Muriel.4 However the first three months of the journal do not mention any wife? We know that he has a maid as on 5 January he notes ‘my maid Sarah Sutton taken ill with fever‘. William’s life style is that of a bachelor. His job takes him frequently away from home, and when he is in Walden there is hardly a night when he is not spending an evening with family or close friends. His social life is very full, but always away from his own hearth. It is therefore difficult to understand why he is building such a magnificent house for himself. What has happened to Caroline Muriel?
The brief entries in the journal reveal William as very industrious and well- organised. He is assisted in his work by his nephew William Hart, son of his eldest sister Susanna. William Hart was born around 1785 so he would have been 19 years old in 1804. His youngest brother Henry Hart was born in 1801 and subsequently founded the firm of Hart’s booksellers and printers in Walden. See article on Hart history here: https://saffronwaldenhistory.org.uk/the-misses-hart-of-saffron-walden/ The journal testifies to a well-established and wide- ranging surveyor’s practice, requiring a great deal of correspondence and accounting, in which Robinson was engaged almost every day. He and his assistant travelled a great deal, often on foot, sometimes on horse back or in a wagon in all sorts of weather. In January alone William Robinson visited Helions Bumpstead, Newport, Newmarket, Puckeridge, London, Stortford, Finchingfield and Sampford. Whenever possible he stayed overnight with family or friends as for example in London with Mr Patch, a fellow builder and lifelong friend, or with his Hart sister in Linton. At other times, he stayed at country inns.
In February his business takes him to Ashdon, Arkesden, Wratting, Ickleton, Dunmow, Thaxted, Sawston, Ely, Cambridge, Soham and Bottisham. William Hart his apprentice travels even further afield on his uncle’s business, delivering correspondence and bills. When both of them are fully occupied William Robinson engages another courier and messenger, usually a local man, Joseph Duberry. Robinson must have been very fit, as he thought nothing of walking long distances, working all day and returning to Walden to socialise till late in the night. In fact he is an exceptionally sociable man and hardly an evening goes by without him visiting family or friends, or spending an evening in the Rose & Crown in Saffron Walden Market Place: ‘Friday 9 March walked from Balsham and dined at my sister Hart’s‘. There are constant references to meals and evenings at Mr Pettitt’s at Springwell, as well as a very special relationship with his brother-in-law James Linsdell. William Robinson was deeply attached to his family and greatly enjoyed their company. The entry of 4 May tells us that James was allowed to plant his potatoes in William’s new vegetable plot. They are also involved in a venture, rearing pigs for the London market. There are constant entries: ‘drank tea and suppe’t at Linsdell’s‘; Tue 31 July ‘Walked to Linton Fair. Dined with brother and sister Hart and walked home with brother and sister Linsdell and the two Miss Garnells’; Thurs 19 July ‘Fishing and dinner with Mr Pettitt at Springwell‘.
From the bills paid to frock maker, velvet stocking maker and others, we know that William Robinson took care of his appearance. He not only dined and played cards at family and friends, but also loved dancing: Wednesday 4 January ‘Danced with Miss Payne in my back parlour till she fainted away, and soon after Miss Sarah Ryder fainted’. The entry on Monday 9 July reveals even more of his personal circumstances: ‘Taxes paid to Mr Brown due Lady Day 1804. Land tax 11s, Hinge & window £2.0.0, inhabited house 6s 8d, tax cost 12s, horse for riding £1.0.0, dog 3s, hair powder 10s 6d, total £5.3.2‘ (his dog was called Tippoo, possibly from the Indian Ruler of Mysor killed in 1799); Monday 20 August: ‘Sent for Shakespear ticket by Tomson £3.3.0′ (for this price it must have been a season ticket).
‘A certain woman’
The entry of the 26 April comes as a total surprise: ‘self and wife, Linsdell and wife tea’d at mother’s‘. Why has he not mentioned his wife before? The subsequent entries reveal much more: Friday 26 June ‘A certain woman this day excessively drunk and sorry I am to say makes a common practice’; Saturday 23 June: ‘A woman broke open my cupboard and got drunk with rum’; Sunday 24 June: ‘Sister Hart came and dined and slept at my house’. The situation was so desperate for William that he called on the help of his eldest sister Susanna, who came from Linton to deal with an obviously alcoholic wife. But things did not improve as on Tuesday 9 July he writes: ‘A certain woman very drunk’, and on Monday 16 July: ‘This evening I was most violently abused by a certain woman excessively drunk‘; Monday 28 August: ‘A certain woman most intolerably drunk – the while she has a house full of company invited unknown to me. I therefore did not go home till it was over’. The sad entry for Christmas Day reads: ‘Dined at captain Pettit’s as did chemist Burch. On 26 December ‘The Common so wet with snow… Brother and sister Linsdell and sister Sally and Mrs Thomson dined with me‘. Why is there no mention of his wife? William tells us about his family and friends, we know his servant by her name, even his dog’s name, but his wife’s name is never mentioned. She is referred to throughout the journal as ‘a certain woman’. I suspect that she is not Caroline Muriel as he refers to ‘a certain woman’ in his will as ‘my present wife’. The entry from 28 February shows that he has a good relationship with two Miss Muriels, who must have been perhaps sisters or close relatives of his first wife. If Caroline was this ‘certain woman’, William’s relationship with his troublesome wife’s family would not be so friendly. I have no proof, however, that this is the case.
It is possible that he became a widower and at some stage married again. I was not able to find the burial of Caroline in the parish register, but I found the following: 5 May 1790 baptism of Charles William, son of William Robinson and Catherine his wife; 10 October 1790 Charles Robinson infant buried; 18 October 1790 Stephen Robinson infant buried; 29 October 1790 Catherine Robinson buried.5 William Robinson and Caroline Muriel married in 1789, so it is possible that they had a child or children born a year later. It is also possible that the vicar made a mistake and entered Catherine instead of Caroline, but this is only speculation. If we assume that Caroline died before 1804 this ‘certain woman’ might be William’s second wife. However, I was not able to find William’s second marriage in Saffron Walden registers.
In spite of the tragic circumstances at home, William prospered professionally and when he died in 1820 aged 59, he left a substantial fortune. The witnesses to his will were Joseph Shephard, William’s solicitor and his good friend from London, William Patch. The administration was in the hands of William Hart and John Good. Again the will demonstrates extreme caution and immaculate planning: ‘This will is set in 4 sets of paper label that affixes them together. I put my hand to seal and to the first and the last sheet 23 March 1820’. Was he afraid that someone might tamper with the will? The will stated: ‘…ample provision made to my present wife on our marriage I give and bequeath to her the sum of five pounds only to be paid at the end of twelve months after my death’.
All his other possessions including his house on the Common were to be sold and money divided equally between his remaining close relatives except: ‘To my nephew William Hart 18 volumes of Repertory of oils and all my books of drawings and Apparatus of drawing of every description and his Majesties Letters Patented for a certain invention or improvement in warming and airing of rooms by means of air tight door slides’.
He leaves to his beloved apprentice and nephew the tools of his trade and the most personal possessions: ‘I bequeath my door slides, springs and models and other materials together with my right title and interest in the said letters patent unto my nephew William Hart and my nephew William Linsdell to be divided between them share and share alike‘ (William Robinson was obviously in the forefront of the latest innovations relating to his trade).
Then: ‘To my brother in law all my free messuage and out houses in Tanners Row near Market Place as the same is now in his own occupation‘. (The will mentions ‘my late sister Martha‘ so by 1820 James is a widower.) At the end of the will there is an additional explanation, which is so typical of precise and careful William:
In consequence of my wife having repeatedly and openly declared in the presence of my servant that she would do everything in her power to shorten my days and also at that moment of my death she would break open every lock and door in the house and take and carry away everything that is valuable. I do hereby order and direct that the £5.00… which I have directed in my will to be paid to her that this sum to be erased and cancelled from my will and moreover to prevent trouble to my Executors I do most seriously insist that at my decease immediately she my wife be recovered to some private lodgings in Walden and all her parts of every description to be delivered up to Mr. Shepherd. I beg leave to say in the presence of Almighty God that in taking this severe step that I am not actuated by hatred or malice towards her but only from a motive of preventing confusion and trouble to my executors. I direct that my funeral be afforded with little possible expense.
Was she really so terrible or was he a bit paranoid? She was obviously an alcoholic and when drunk engaged in rages and violence. Reading between the lines she must have been a formidable woman and he was slightly afraid of her. Did she hasten his death? Why did he die aged 59?
This is rather a tragic story. His pleasure and joy in building his house and planning his garden are overshadowed by this nightmare at home. This very sociable and generous man was not able to bring family and friends home. Not only did he spend most evenings away from home, but even at Christmas he is not able to enjoy the comfort of his own hearth. However he left a lasting monument to his skill and taste, his beloved house on the Common. He also engaged in the improvements to the town itself. From John Player’s notes, we know that he built several other houses in the town, and that he published ‘an account of the festival which took place on Walden Common at the return of peace in 1814, where 2.600 people were entertained’, and ‘an appeal to the legislature on behalf of the peasantry with regards to athletic exercises‘. He also executed some drawings of the town, planted a huge number of trees and re-cut the Maze on the Common. William was also a keen member of the Volunteers or ‘Levies’ who carried out their drill on the Common.
William’s wishes were carried out to the letter: the Cambridge Chronicle 5 May 1820, advertised for sale possessions of the late Mr William Robinson, including ‘100 volumes of books, a fine toned barrel organ, a chest of well selected joiner’s tools, furniture, carpets etc’. in the issue of 23 June 1820, to be sold by auction:
Desirable freehold villa called Walden Grove, fit for the Residence of a small genteel family, most delightfully situated on the East side of Saffron Walden Common, surrounded with thriving Plantations, and Shrubberies, with a cottage at a convenient distance; outhouses, Yard, Garden, Orchard, Paddock, the whole containing three acres more or less. The front entrance to the house is by a flight of stone steps, with a portico over the same. There are five bedrooms, a small drawing room, a dining room, fitted up with an elegant side board in a recess, 2 circular wings, used as a breakfast room and study, and roomy kitchen and wash- house, with cellars and suitable offices; and a very capital hydraulic pump, to force water as well for the supply of the house, as for the water closet and cold bath. The house was built a few years since by the late proprietor, Mr. William Robinson, surveyor and builder, for his own residence, and is situated in a most respectable neighbourhood in a county… commanding rich and extensive views of the surrounding neighbourhood.
Other owners
After William’s death, the ownership of the house changed hands in quick succession from Daniel Hockley (also a builder, who was responsible for the new Edward VI Almshouses) to Joseph Allan. According to rate books, the occupier between 1821 and 1829 was Rev William Clayton, pastor at Abbey Lane Congregational Church. From 1825 William Chater was living next door (Hatherley House was not yet built, his residence is listed as Nurseries). In 1831 Hannibal Dunn, a very colourful Walden character, rented The Grove. Dunn owned several properties in Lime Tree Court, including his counting house. William Robinson may have built Lime Tree House for Hannibal Dunn as there is mention of ‘the late Mr Robinson, who built Grove House, as well as curious and convenient residence of the present Chief Magistrate, Hannibal Dunn Esq’.
In 1833 Luke Taylor paid the rates for The Grove. He is listed in Pigot’s Directory of 1832 as master of ‘gents boarding and day school’ in Bridge Street, and in 1839 William Taylor Jones was listed as having a school on Walden Common. The rate books show him in the property from 1835 and he was the owner between 1839 and 1850. He also appears in the 1841 census as William Jones, aged 30, schoolmaster, with his wife and two small boys. Luke Taylor is also listed in this household, by then aged 70, as well as several scholars. Next door, William Chater is listed aged 35, nurseryman and appears in the rate books from 1825. He was a dedicated nurseryman, famous for developing the Chater breed of hollyhocks. The deeds and rate books tell us that Edward Stokes and his wife Priscilla are the owners of the Grove between 1850 and 1869.
The 1851 census lists him as maltster and corn merchant, aged 44, born in Saffron Walden and his wife, aged 42 born in Sampford. Between 1856 and 1862 Priscilla pays the rates, Edward is no longer there, and from 1862 the house is rented to William Murrey Tuke. He was a banker and brother-in-law to George Stacey Gibson. He was renting The Grove while waiting for his own house, The Vineyard on Windmill Hill to be built. Priscilla Stokes is back between 1867 and 1869, when the house is sold to Benjamin Thurgood and remains in his hands for 23 years. Thurgood came from a very old Walden family. He owned The Bell coaching inn, which was pulled down to make space for the new cattle market (now Saffron Walden Herts & Essex Building Society). He was a councillor from 1860, mayor in 1863 and alderman a year before his death. In the 1871 census he is listed as aged 51, land agent, auctioneer and landowner of 65 acres, employing four men, with his wife Elizabeth and two sons, John 25 and Edwin 22. In the 1881 census they are still at The Grove with the addition of a maid, but by the 1891 census his wife no longer appears. He died in 1891 and the house was sold to Barclay Hanbury, a bank manager.
The schedule of deeds of 1892 shows a conveyance between the trustees of B.T. Thurgood and Barclay Hanbury, and from 1899 a solicitor Charles Wade became the owner of The Grove. His firm Wade & Lyall was in Hill Street. His two sons distinguished themselves, as Emlyn Capel Stewart Wade became a professor of constitutional law at the University of Cambridge, and Douglas Ashton Lofft Wade became a Major-General after serving in both world wars; he later joined the newly-formed Independent Television Authority. The 1901 census lists the family as: Charles S. D. Wade aged 36, his wife Ethel Wade aged 39, his sons Emlyn aged 5 and Douglas aged 3, Theodora Chaplin 24, nursery governess, Ada Sharp 21, cook, Annie Halls 21, parlour maid and Lizzie (illegible) 17, house maid. It was Charles Wade who built two rooms above the original coach house in order to create a nursery.
In 1919 William Thomas Freeman, a farmer from Hempstead, bought the house from Mr Wade for £1,500. In the indenture the property is described as: ‘All that messuage or tenement with the yards gardens conservatory carriage house stables outbuildings and appurtenances thereunto belonging known as The Grove’, with a paddock and kitchen garden. The indenture is written in the same archaic language as used in Walden deeds in previous centuries. Mrs Jean Gumbrell in her book Down Your Street includes the recollections of Mr William Freeman of Cambridge, the son of the owner. He remembered that the property had unique cellars, cut out of chalk, and envied by Mr Scruby, the wine merchant, living next door. The cellars were very deep, had gas lighting and maintained constant temperature ideal for storing good wines. The coach house had been converted to a garage. He also remembers walking through the meadow behind the house to the Grammar School in Ashdon Road.
In 1921 Mr Freeman sold the house to Haylett Thomas Horner, a bank manager, for £1,800. The original deeds include the tithe payment on the property from 1923 at £4 7s 3d. Mr Horner sold The Grove to John Fiske Wilkes Esq of Elmdon Bury, in 1928 for 2,200. During his ownership the house was rented, first to the two Miss Gowletts, who moved their academy from Cambridge House to The Grove, and later to Mr Gotch, who was the owner of the Plaza Cinema in Station Street. He was there until 1950.
The original house had over three acres of land, but in the 1930s the meadow was sold to Saffron Walden Borough Council for local authority housing, now Hollyhock Road. The name of the property also changed during Mr Wilkes’ ownership, from The Grove to Eastacre, presumably to avoid confusion and distinguish it from Grove Place and Grove Lodge. In 1951 Dr and Mrs Clifford purchased Eastacre from John Fiske Wilkes. Montague Clifford had studied natural sciences at Downing College, and his wife Angela had studied nuclear physics. They were living in Wimbledon, but when Dr Clifford returned to his old college as a lecturer they needed to be closer to Cambridge and decided to settle in Saffron Walden. Dr Clifford was one of the founder members of the local Countryside Association and an active campaigner on its behalf. He gave lectures in the Town Library on topics relating to countryside, ecology and geology. He was always accompanied by his tiny wife Angela, who operated the projector. Mrs Clifford must have been of Indian or Pakistani origin, as she was dark-skinned, with beautiful black eyes, and sometimes wore a sari. This was very exotic in 1950s Walden! Dr Clifford often wore long, baggy, khaki shorts and sandals, this was not so unusual. He was a tall man, and he and his diminutive wife made an exotic pair. They had two children.
After the Cliffords left, the house stood empty for a time, until 1987, when a local business partnership bought it for development. They not only applied to convert the original house into four flats and the coach house into two cottages, but also to develop the garden. The application was granted in 1989 with strict restrictions designed to protect ‘all the existing trees, shrubs, and hedges on this site’. The spacious, elegant, Georgian house was imaginatively converted into four flats by Easthope Perrin Associates, a firm of architects from Royston. The famous cellars were used to provide additional space for the bedrooms of the ground floor flats. In order to do so, the ceilings of the cellars were lifted, resulting in a reduction in the height of the ground floor rooms. As the windows span from floor to ceiling, raising the floor levels presented a problem. However the architects preserved the original windows by designing a step from the raised floor to the lower window sill. The size of the original fireplaces also had to be adapted.
Until 1987 this magnificent house escaped untouched by any major changes, almost as William Robinson designed it. In spite of the conversion the intrinsic character and the beauty of the house survived, even though the coach house was converted into two cottages in 1989, and the small stables in the garden into a separate dwelling.
In 1992 the property was sold to a local builder who erected the block of six flats, now known as Beech House, in the garden, for which planning permission had been granted at the time of the conversion of the old house. The original house, which Mr Robinson built, is magnificent and undaunted, standing as a witness to the imagination and excellence of its builders and its time. The views from its windows, still enjoyed by the residents of today, are almost identical to those admired by William and his contemporaries. The Common and the Maze, which he restored, are still here. The magnificent parish church is still in the distance and the lights from the visiting circuses and fairs continue to delight the residents of today as they enchanted generations before. The Grove, now Eastacre, is still part of the historic fabric of our unique town.
Note: It is hoped that this article may prompt the re-discovery of the 1804 journal which begins the tale of the house that William Robinson built and where he slept for the first time on 11 October 1804, over 200 years ago.
Notes
Cambridge Chronicle, 5 May, 23 June 1820.
Department of National Heritage, revised list of buildings of special architectural or historic interest. District of Uttlesford (TL5438, 669-1/2/94 , 01/11/72).
Essex Record Office: ERO D/DHt/T284/15 Dec.1761 deeds also 9, 10 January 1761 D/DU 219213,, D/P 192/1/5 & 7.
Obituary, Daily Telegraph 19 January 1996.
Original Conveyances, 1928, 1951 Saffron Walden rate books.
Saffron Walden Year Books 1935, 1937, 1949/50.
Schedule of Documents relating to The Grove, 1921, ERO Acc. A10656. Uttlesford District Council 1989 UTT/1934/87/LB; 1995 UTT/1391/94/UL.
Will of William Robinson, PRO ref 11/1633 , proved in London 02 August 1820.
William Robinson’s journal 1814, Saffron Walden Museum 405, 1939.10.
Bocock, N.W., The Abbey Lane Congregational Church, Saffron Walden 1665-1933 (1933).
Cooper, J., The well-ordered town: a story of Saffron Walden, 1792-1862 (2000).
Everett, M. & Stewart, D., The Buildings of Saffron Walden (2004).
Gumbrell, J., Down Your Street Vol I (1989).
Lovatt, K.J. ‘William Robinson’s Journal’, Saffron Walden History, nos 9-13 (1976-78).
Munro, B., ‘Saffron Walden buildings and their architects’, Saffron Walden Historical Journal (Spring 2003).
Player, J., Sketches of Saffron Walden and Its Vicinity (1844).
Robinson, W. The Festival, Saffron Walden 1814 (Original mss, Saffron Walden Town Library).
Stacey, H.C., ‘Around the Common’ (part I) Saffron Walden History No. 27 (Spring 1985).