Pullins Green

Numbers 2 - 12

Numbers 2 - 12 are the row of six old cottages facing the old smithy on Pullins Green.  We are not sure when they were built.  We have heard that they were built in the early 19th century for quarry workers, but we have not yet found any evidence to support this theory.  The cottages were listed in the 1840 Tithe Survey when they were owned by Daniel Burchell, a carpenter then living in St Mary Street.  We have heard that it may have been Daniel who built the cottages. 

We do know that in March 1819 Daniel Burchell bought a substantial piece of ground that was a burgage plot stretching from St Mary Street to what is now Pullins Green.  Click here to read more about this plot  The documents we have seen however do not mention these buildings, although they mention other premises on the property.  In the absence of any further evidence so far, we believe that this terrace of houses was built by Daniel Burchell after he bought the land in 1819 and before the Tithe Apportionment Map of 1840 was drawn up.

The cottages were owned by the Burchell family for a long time.  Daniel Burchell died in 1866 and after a period where it was administered by his Trustees, the 1885 Rate Book shows it had been passed to his daughter, Jane Burchell.  Jane died in 1903 and her Will directed that the properties be passed to her brother, Frederick Burchell.  Frederick died in 1905 and the houses were put up for auction in 1907.  It is possible that Frederick's son, Frederick Henry, bought the six properties at the auction.  An estate duty certificate for Frederick's properties shows that the six houses were sold for £730 by 1908 and the 1910 Rate Book shows the properties were then owned by Frederick Henry Burchell.

We know that in 1909/10 rents of about three shillings per week (£8 per year) were being paid to Frederick Henry Burchell.  In 1918 the houses were put up for sale at auction as three separate lots of two houses.  We know that two of the lots (i.e. the four houses later known as 6 - 12 Pullins Green) were bought by Charlie Davies for £437 10s.  It is possible that Charlie bought the other two houses at a later date.  We understand that number 12 was sold again at a later date.

By the 1960's, the rented houses had fallen into disrepair and lacked modern amenities.  They were at one stage condemned by the Council.  They were however saved and the Council chose to renovate and modernise them as part of the town centre development which took place in the 70's.

The Occupants
Although the Tithe Survey lists the occupiers of the six houses in 1840, it does not make it clear who is living in each house.  The six people were: John Screen, Charles Owen Pearce (a cordwainer), Mary Jackson, Mary Langobeare, Mary Olive and John Birt.   In many cases like this, we can link people to houses by using the 1841 census.  However in this case it is difficult to link the names in the census to any of these houses and none of the people listed in this census (or the 1851 census) are the same as those listed in the Tithe Survey.

Click on the hyperlinks in the column on the left to read about the OCCUPANTS of each house.

This page was last updated: 18/08/2010