The Georgian House

Owners

Thomas Clark
Our earliest source is an Indenture dated 20th March 1767.  This show that the property had previously been part of the estate of Thomas Clark, a tallow chandler.  He left it to his son, also Thomas and also a tallow chandler.  Thomas Clark junior and his wife, Sarah, had a daughter also called Sarah who was baptised 18th July 1733 in Thornbury.  On March 20th 1767, the property passed from Thomas Clark junior to George Rolph, an Attorney at Law, who was to marry Thomas's daughter, Sarah, within a couple of months of the sale.  

George Rolph was born in 1727, the son of John Rolph of Almondsbury.  His first wife was Susannah Cox and they had seven children.  She died 25th September 1765 aged only 41, soon after their seventh child was born.  On 20th March 1767, shortly before he married Thomas Clark's, daughter, Sarah, George bought the property from him, including the must mill.  Click here to read more about George Rolph and his family

James Ford
In January 1824 a "ruinous toft and garden" were sold by George Rolph, the son of Thomas and Francis Rolph who was living in Canada, to James Ford, an inn holder.  James Ford owned a large parcel of land which included all of Laburnum Terrace (the terrace of houses at the top of the Gloucester Road) and the surrounding property.  The agreement of February 12th 1839, makes it plain that there was a house on the property when James Ford owned it and that James Ford let the house to a Mrs Cooke.  This ties in with the information we have been given about a plaque on the wall (probably in the garden) which bore the date of 1835.  By 1841 James and his wife, Lydia had moved to Bredon in Worcestershire and then in 1851 they had moved to Castlemorton in the same area.  James was aged 67 by this time and described as a farmer of 32 acres.

William Knapp
On February 12th 1839 James Ford conveyed the property and house to William Knapp.  This is confirmed by the 1840 Tithe Map which shows that property number 243, a house garden and workshops, is owned and occupied by William Knapp.  Click here to see more about William Knapp

The Merediths
When William Knapp died in 1862, ownership of the house and workshops passed to his only surviving child, Mary Ann and her husband, Mark Crossman Meredith.  Mark was a farmer at Latteridge Road, Iron Acton.  He obviously preferred life on the farm to the idea of living in central Thornbury, so he let the house to tenants.  Click here to see more about the tenants who occupied the house during the period of Meredith's ownership

Mark Meredith died in 1894 aged 77 years.  In 1898 Mark's daughter, Hannah Hardy Crossman Meredith relinquished her interest in the property to her brother, Thomas, another farmer, for £700.  In 1898, Thomas sold the property to Charles Symes.

Charles Symes
In 1898 Charles Symes bought the house for £690.  Click here to read more about Charles and his family

Rose Symes  Click here for more information about Rose, one of the children of Charles and Jane Symes

Albert & Marjorie Pridham - click here for more information about Albert and Marjorie

The shop has sold fruit and vegetables and then videos before becoming an electrical shop.  The Georgian House itself  became a residential home run by Tony Johnson and Bev Kelly, before being a chiropractor's. Click here for information about the owners of the House in more recent times

This page was last updated: 04/05/2010