Sunnyside, Timberscombe, on the Road to Cowbridge and Dunster / Maggie Brewer and Nellie (nee Brewer) Hooper at Brewers Green, Autumn 1990
Title
Sunnyside, Timberscombe, on the Road to Cowbridge and Dunster / Maggie Brewer and Nellie (nee Brewer) Hooper at Brewers Green, Autumn 1990
Subject
Description
The upper undated photograph, used as a postcard, is of the house known as Sunnyside, on the northeastern edge of the village of Timberscombe. It is alongside the road that became classified as the A396 in 1922 (1), probably more likely known as the Dunster Road to the children seen in the middle of it. Across the road, while a barn-like structure can be seen (visible beneath the right side of the tree), nothing else has yet been constructed. By the mid-1930's, the Timberscombe Post Office will move into a house called Little Farthings, that was built in 1929 roughly across the road from Sunnyside (2).
The land where Sunnyside sits was part of the Knowle Estate, sold at auction in 1916 (3). It had been owned by Worsley and Jesse Battersby since c. 1885. Mr. Battersby died in 1896 (4) and Knowle House, the manor house of the estate, by 1905 was leased to the Lord Justice, Sir George Farwell (5). Mrs. Battersby lost two of her four sons, Eric and Philip in World War I, Eric dying at Neuve Chapelle in 1914 (6). Sir George Farwell died in 1915 (7) and the Battersby family decided to auction off the entire Knowle Estate, consisting of over 2100 acres (8), over a third of the land in the parish of Timberscombe (9). Philip Battersby died in 1917 when his plane was shot down near Lille, France in 1917 (10).
The Knowle Estate Public Auction was held on the 20th of July 1916 at the Luttrell Arms Hotel in Dunster. At that time Thomas William Brewer, Jr., a carpenter, was leasing The Dell, a 17th century farmhouse on adjoining land, just northeast of the current site of Sunnyside. The Dell, and its surrounding lands, was listed as Lot 30 (out of the 67 lots offered that day), purchased by a "Somerset Investor" for £245 (11).
Thomas William Brewer, Jr. was the son of Thomas Brewer, also a carpenter, born in 1842 and his first wife, Fanny (nee Palfrey) Brewer, born in 1848 (12). They were married on the last day of 1867 in Carhampton (13). Thomas and Fanny had two daughters, Laura and Helena Fanny, followed by Thomas William, who was born in 1872. Another sister, Florence followed before Fanny died in 1879, around the age of 31 years (14). In 1899, the senior Thomas Brewer married again, to Margaret Matilda Knight, born in 1847 at Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire (15). After years of working as a servant, this was her first marriage (16). Their wedding was in London at Christ Church of Kensington and Chelsea (17).
In 1905, Thomas William Brewer, Jr. married Maud Kate Fletcher (18), born in 1877 at Gloucestershire. Maud Kate Fletcher was the niece of Margaret Matilda Knight, the future second wife of Thomas William Brewer's father. Maud's mother, Mary Jane, was Margaret Matilda's sister (19).
The younger Brewer family moved into The Dell, where their children were born, Florence Mary in 1906, Thomas William Fletcher, born in 1908, Margaret Bessie, born in 1910, John Thomas Brewer, born in 1913 and Ellen Kate, born in October 1916 and always known as "Nellie". The fourth child, John Thomas was born on 8 November 1913 and died four days later (20). (At the time of the 1911 Census, the Brewer family appear to have temporarily relocated to No. 4 Jubilee Terrace but were back at The Dell by 1916).
After the Knowle Estate Auction, the young Brewer family were not immediately homeless. Indeed Nellie was born at The Dell, almost three months after the auction date. Adjoining the western end of The Dell land were two more lots that had been listed as No. 31 and No. 32 at the auction. The former was described as a "Close of Freehold Water Meadow", with a small Orchard and a frontage to the main Dunster Road. In the Sales Particulars, it was revealed that this lot was already occupied, under yearly Ladyday tenancies, by Mr. W. H. V. Thorne , who paid £15 annually and "Mr. T. Brewer, Junr.", who paid 10 shillings a year. Lot 32 was described as valuable "Water Meadow Land". On the day of the auction, neither lot sold (21).
Perhaps other arrangements had already been made, because on the 29th of September 1916, Lot 31 and portions of Lot 32 (properties 249 and 250) were officially sold by "The Trustees of Worsley Battersby, deceased", being Stuart Edward Smyth, an original trustee and Mr. Battersby's eldest son, Charles Worsley Battersby, who was still serving in World War I. He had become a trustee on his 21st birthday. A copy of the conveyance was sent to Charles, which he signed in the presence of a lieutenant at the Army Ordnance Department at Aldershot.
The Purchaser was Mrs. M. M. Brewer--the stepmother of Thomas William Brewer. The price is not inscribed on the Conveyance, but faintly visible across the top, written in pencil, is "pd. £710 Minehead 16. 10. 16 " (22). Shortly afterwards, construction began on the house that became Sunnyside, being built by both the younger and the older Thomas Brewer (23).
They built a good looking two storey house, with a slate roof and full length front slate porch. It was constructed of local red sandstone and rubble, with cream-coloured dressings around the windows and the four corners of the house, giving an Edwardian house an Arts and Crafts appeal.
Officially the house was owned by Margaret Matilda Brewer. In her will, dated 1925, she bequeathed "the house Sunnyside to my niece, Maud Kate Brewer and her children", on the condition that it "shall be of the use of my husband, Thomas Brewer, as long as he lives." At the same time she left the meadow, called Farthings Meadow, to her nephew, Fredericks Hawkins Knight, a farmer in Wick, Gloucestershire at Rodley's Farm, with the instruction that on his death it also went to Maud Kate and her children (24). Margaret died 24 February 1928. Her husband died 23 January 1930. They were buried together at St. Petrock's Churchyard, along with Fanny, his first wife (25).
Except for the eldest "child", Florence Mary (who was always called "Mary"), all of the family was at Sunnyside during the time of the 1939 England and Wales Register. Florence had married Frederick Hensley, a carpenter, in 1932 and they moved to 44 King George Road (26). They had a son, Frederick John born in April 1934 and who died in July 2013, the only child born to them and the other Brewer siblings. In 2020, Frederick John's daughter, Mrs. Jo Atkins of Hopcott Terrace in Minehead shared this information, also the only child born in the family to her generation.
In 1939, Thomas William Fletcher worked as a Fishmonger Manager, a job he will continue when he later moved to the High Street at Marlow, in the County of Buckingham (27). In 1942, when he was 35, Thomas married Hilda Beanie from Kent (28). Margaret Bessie, now mostly called "Maggie", was listed in the 1939 Register as "Domestic and Dairy". Nellie also worked as a Domestic.
Also at Sunnyside in 1939 were 9 year old Margaret Talbot and 7 year old Evelyn Talbot, sisters evacuated from West Ham in London, because of the advent of World War II. In 2011, Evelyn, then Mrs. Hilton, remembered that they returned to West Ham "just before the Doodlebugs started". Her sister became Margaret Plested (29).
Frederick Hawkins Knight died in 1934. When his will was probated, Farthings Meadow was granted to his widow, Emily Knight. On the 25th of October 1954, Mrs. Knight assented the meadow land to the Brewer siblings (30).
Maud Kate had died in 1953 and her will specified that Sunnyside would be shared equally among her children and that it would be a home for her husband until his death (31).
Mr. Brewer died in 1960 (32). At that time, Thomas William Fletcher Brewer was still fishmonger-managing in Buckingham and in October of 1960, Nellie Brewer, aged 44, married Frederick W. Hooper. She and her husband moved to 28 Marshfield Road in Alcombe, a house that they renamed "Sunnyside"(33).
For the first time, Maggie Brewer was alone at Sunnyside. According to family memories, she was once engaged, a date was set but she broke it off, feeling she needed to tend to her parents. Perhaps in anticipation of Nellie's marriage a month later, on 14 September 1960, Florence, Thomas and Nelly sold the house to Maggie --although in the oddities of legalities, Maggie also had to be listed as selling Sunnyside to herself (34). Well remembered in Timberscombe, Maggie Brewer remained active in the community and established a Bed & Breakfast at Sunnyside. Erica Holmes, of Timberscombe, used to assist Maggie and in 2020 fondly recalled how hard Miss Brewer worked and she always had her laundry hanging out on the line earlier than anyone else in the village.
Still living at 44 King George Road in Minehead, Florence (nee Brewer) Hensley died in 1989. Her husband, George, had passed away 10 years earlier (35). Nellie's husband died in 1990 and Thomas William Fletcher retired and his wife, Hilda, passed away in March 1994. Nellie and Thomas both returned to Sunnyside, moving back in with Maggie. Erica Holmes remembered how, despite the passing years, the women still deferred to Thomas as the older brother. By 1999, no longer able to run a house on their own, Sunnyside was put up for auction (36). The brother and his sisters went to the Windsor Nursing Home in Minehead, where Jo Atkins, the grand-daughter of their sister Florence, worked and she was able to aid in their care. Thomas died in 2000, Nellie died in 2001 and Maggie died in 2005 (37).
The lower photograph depicts the two sisters in the autumn of 1990. Timberscombe's village green, was created in 1989 (38), across the road and a short walk west of Sunnyside, being named Brewers Green after the Brewer family. Maggie Brewer had donated the land. Joyce Smith of Ford Cottage, Timberscombe, took this photograph when a tree was being planted on the green. Maggie Brewer shovels in some dirt and Nellie Hooper holds the tree in place. Joyce Smith, who knew both women, suggests that Nellie was trying to tell Maggie how to do it and Maggie was doing it how she wanted.
This may not be the only photograph of Maggie Brewer with a spade. At SP-078, she appears to be photographed, c. 1924, with a group of Timberscombe schoolchildren at the school garden, again prepared to shovel.
Behind the women, Dougie Short is seen in the jacket with the green collar and George Henry Burnell of Wootton Courtney is on the right in the black jacket. Mr. Burnell died on the 3rd of August 2020, aged 90 years (39). Mr. Short, a longtime bellringer at St. Petrock's, passed away in the later 2010's (40).
Besides being a Bed & Breakfast, likely operating from the mid-1950's, Sunnyside became an adjunct surgery to the Dunster Surgery, open one to three days a week (41). In May 2020, Marion Jeffrey, of the St. Petrock's History Group, spoke to the retired Dr. Mike Currie. She had been put in touch with him by John Gratton, Churchwarden of St Petrock's in Timberscombe, who knew Dr. Currie. Dr. Currie and his wife were the last people to run the surgery, from 1987 until it closed. The first surgery seems to have been across the road at Rosemont, the apartment complex run by Beatrice (nee Pyne ) Hole, a great friend of Maggie Brewer who also assisted with the apartments. Mr. David McCluskey and his cousin, Mr. Reg England, nephews of Mrs. Hole, remembered in 2023 that as boys they would visit their aunt at Rosemont and recalled the weekly/regular surgery there and if they were visiting when it was open, they were advised to make themselves scarce for the day. They also remembered that the surgery was "certainly still in place in the 1950's" at Rosemont. In 2023, Jenny Hansford, who grew up in Timberscombe as Jenny Bond and lived at Little Farthings, across the road from Sunnyside when it was the post office, was sure that the surgery had operated at Rosemont since at least 1941 and very likely earlier. Mrs. Hole retired from running the apartment house in the 1950's and although she continued to live next door (in the house later named Linhay), it is likely at this time the surgery moved over to Sunnyside.
When Marion Jeffrey spoke to Dr. Mike Currie, he believed that the first doctor of the surgery at Timberscombe was Dr. William Thomas Pearce Meade-King (42), who began at the Dunster Surgery in 1923, did his rounds on his horse and lived at Archer House in Dunster. Jenny Hansford remember that Dr. Meade-King came to Berrowcote, the cottage semi-detached on the western end of the row containing Rosemont, to tend for her sister, Leonora, who died in 1929. Meade-King's wife, Olive Marjorie (nee Johnston) Meade-King was a registered Physiotherapy Masseuse (43).
Dr Meade-King died in 1945 (44) so likely never treated at Sunnyside. He was followed by an ex-naval doctor, Dr. Alec Atkinson, from 1948 to 1971 (and who Jenny Hansford does remember treating her for an ear infection and is recalled attending at Sunnyside). The next doctor was Dr. Bob Nicholson (1962-1971), then followed by a husband and wife team. He was Dr. Julian Edward Von Bergen who died in 2018 at the age of 93 in Dorking, Surrey (45) but who had lived before then at Hatch Green Lodge in Taunton (46). He and his wife, Sheila (nee Thomas) Von Bergen (47) were at Dunster until 1971 to 1988 and attended at Sunnyside until 1987.
Dr. Currie's wife was the daughter of the Von Bergen's. He told Marion Jeffrey that they opened the surgery every Thursday at 11 AM. There was no booking system and as people turned up, they sat on the stairs of Maggie Brewer's sitting room in the order in which they were to be called. He remembered everyone could probably hear what was being said between him and the patient, so that "confidentiality was suspect". Boxes of commonly prescribed drugs were brought by the doctors so they were at hand to be dispensed.
Labelled "Sunnyside, Timberscombe", a copy of the upper photograph was bound in a leather booklet along with eleven other Timberscombe area postcards. It was owned by the Huxtable family and donated in 2019 by Maurice Huxtable and is archived with the St. Petrock's History Group. The version seen here was donated in February 2024 by Tim Collins. Joyce Smith donated the lower photograph in August 2020.
The land where Sunnyside sits was part of the Knowle Estate, sold at auction in 1916 (3). It had been owned by Worsley and Jesse Battersby since c. 1885. Mr. Battersby died in 1896 (4) and Knowle House, the manor house of the estate, by 1905 was leased to the Lord Justice, Sir George Farwell (5). Mrs. Battersby lost two of her four sons, Eric and Philip in World War I, Eric dying at Neuve Chapelle in 1914 (6). Sir George Farwell died in 1915 (7) and the Battersby family decided to auction off the entire Knowle Estate, consisting of over 2100 acres (8), over a third of the land in the parish of Timberscombe (9). Philip Battersby died in 1917 when his plane was shot down near Lille, France in 1917 (10).
The Knowle Estate Public Auction was held on the 20th of July 1916 at the Luttrell Arms Hotel in Dunster. At that time Thomas William Brewer, Jr., a carpenter, was leasing The Dell, a 17th century farmhouse on adjoining land, just northeast of the current site of Sunnyside. The Dell, and its surrounding lands, was listed as Lot 30 (out of the 67 lots offered that day), purchased by a "Somerset Investor" for £245 (11).
Thomas William Brewer, Jr. was the son of Thomas Brewer, also a carpenter, born in 1842 and his first wife, Fanny (nee Palfrey) Brewer, born in 1848 (12). They were married on the last day of 1867 in Carhampton (13). Thomas and Fanny had two daughters, Laura and Helena Fanny, followed by Thomas William, who was born in 1872. Another sister, Florence followed before Fanny died in 1879, around the age of 31 years (14). In 1899, the senior Thomas Brewer married again, to Margaret Matilda Knight, born in 1847 at Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire (15). After years of working as a servant, this was her first marriage (16). Their wedding was in London at Christ Church of Kensington and Chelsea (17).
In 1905, Thomas William Brewer, Jr. married Maud Kate Fletcher (18), born in 1877 at Gloucestershire. Maud Kate Fletcher was the niece of Margaret Matilda Knight, the future second wife of Thomas William Brewer's father. Maud's mother, Mary Jane, was Margaret Matilda's sister (19).
The younger Brewer family moved into The Dell, where their children were born, Florence Mary in 1906, Thomas William Fletcher, born in 1908, Margaret Bessie, born in 1910, John Thomas Brewer, born in 1913 and Ellen Kate, born in October 1916 and always known as "Nellie". The fourth child, John Thomas was born on 8 November 1913 and died four days later (20). (At the time of the 1911 Census, the Brewer family appear to have temporarily relocated to No. 4 Jubilee Terrace but were back at The Dell by 1916).
After the Knowle Estate Auction, the young Brewer family were not immediately homeless. Indeed Nellie was born at The Dell, almost three months after the auction date. Adjoining the western end of The Dell land were two more lots that had been listed as No. 31 and No. 32 at the auction. The former was described as a "Close of Freehold Water Meadow", with a small Orchard and a frontage to the main Dunster Road. In the Sales Particulars, it was revealed that this lot was already occupied, under yearly Ladyday tenancies, by Mr. W. H. V. Thorne , who paid £15 annually and "Mr. T. Brewer, Junr.", who paid 10 shillings a year. Lot 32 was described as valuable "Water Meadow Land". On the day of the auction, neither lot sold (21).
Perhaps other arrangements had already been made, because on the 29th of September 1916, Lot 31 and portions of Lot 32 (properties 249 and 250) were officially sold by "The Trustees of Worsley Battersby, deceased", being Stuart Edward Smyth, an original trustee and Mr. Battersby's eldest son, Charles Worsley Battersby, who was still serving in World War I. He had become a trustee on his 21st birthday. A copy of the conveyance was sent to Charles, which he signed in the presence of a lieutenant at the Army Ordnance Department at Aldershot.
The Purchaser was Mrs. M. M. Brewer--the stepmother of Thomas William Brewer. The price is not inscribed on the Conveyance, but faintly visible across the top, written in pencil, is "pd. £710 Minehead 16. 10. 16 " (22). Shortly afterwards, construction began on the house that became Sunnyside, being built by both the younger and the older Thomas Brewer (23).
They built a good looking two storey house, with a slate roof and full length front slate porch. It was constructed of local red sandstone and rubble, with cream-coloured dressings around the windows and the four corners of the house, giving an Edwardian house an Arts and Crafts appeal.
Officially the house was owned by Margaret Matilda Brewer. In her will, dated 1925, she bequeathed "the house Sunnyside to my niece, Maud Kate Brewer and her children", on the condition that it "shall be of the use of my husband, Thomas Brewer, as long as he lives." At the same time she left the meadow, called Farthings Meadow, to her nephew, Fredericks Hawkins Knight, a farmer in Wick, Gloucestershire at Rodley's Farm, with the instruction that on his death it also went to Maud Kate and her children (24). Margaret died 24 February 1928. Her husband died 23 January 1930. They were buried together at St. Petrock's Churchyard, along with Fanny, his first wife (25).
Except for the eldest "child", Florence Mary (who was always called "Mary"), all of the family was at Sunnyside during the time of the 1939 England and Wales Register. Florence had married Frederick Hensley, a carpenter, in 1932 and they moved to 44 King George Road (26). They had a son, Frederick John born in April 1934 and who died in July 2013, the only child born to them and the other Brewer siblings. In 2020, Frederick John's daughter, Mrs. Jo Atkins of Hopcott Terrace in Minehead shared this information, also the only child born in the family to her generation.
In 1939, Thomas William Fletcher worked as a Fishmonger Manager, a job he will continue when he later moved to the High Street at Marlow, in the County of Buckingham (27). In 1942, when he was 35, Thomas married Hilda Beanie from Kent (28). Margaret Bessie, now mostly called "Maggie", was listed in the 1939 Register as "Domestic and Dairy". Nellie also worked as a Domestic.
Also at Sunnyside in 1939 were 9 year old Margaret Talbot and 7 year old Evelyn Talbot, sisters evacuated from West Ham in London, because of the advent of World War II. In 2011, Evelyn, then Mrs. Hilton, remembered that they returned to West Ham "just before the Doodlebugs started". Her sister became Margaret Plested (29).
Frederick Hawkins Knight died in 1934. When his will was probated, Farthings Meadow was granted to his widow, Emily Knight. On the 25th of October 1954, Mrs. Knight assented the meadow land to the Brewer siblings (30).
Maud Kate had died in 1953 and her will specified that Sunnyside would be shared equally among her children and that it would be a home for her husband until his death (31).
Mr. Brewer died in 1960 (32). At that time, Thomas William Fletcher Brewer was still fishmonger-managing in Buckingham and in October of 1960, Nellie Brewer, aged 44, married Frederick W. Hooper. She and her husband moved to 28 Marshfield Road in Alcombe, a house that they renamed "Sunnyside"(33).
For the first time, Maggie Brewer was alone at Sunnyside. According to family memories, she was once engaged, a date was set but she broke it off, feeling she needed to tend to her parents. Perhaps in anticipation of Nellie's marriage a month later, on 14 September 1960, Florence, Thomas and Nelly sold the house to Maggie --although in the oddities of legalities, Maggie also had to be listed as selling Sunnyside to herself (34). Well remembered in Timberscombe, Maggie Brewer remained active in the community and established a Bed & Breakfast at Sunnyside. Erica Holmes, of Timberscombe, used to assist Maggie and in 2020 fondly recalled how hard Miss Brewer worked and she always had her laundry hanging out on the line earlier than anyone else in the village.
Still living at 44 King George Road in Minehead, Florence (nee Brewer) Hensley died in 1989. Her husband, George, had passed away 10 years earlier (35). Nellie's husband died in 1990 and Thomas William Fletcher retired and his wife, Hilda, passed away in March 1994. Nellie and Thomas both returned to Sunnyside, moving back in with Maggie. Erica Holmes remembered how, despite the passing years, the women still deferred to Thomas as the older brother. By 1999, no longer able to run a house on their own, Sunnyside was put up for auction (36). The brother and his sisters went to the Windsor Nursing Home in Minehead, where Jo Atkins, the grand-daughter of their sister Florence, worked and she was able to aid in their care. Thomas died in 2000, Nellie died in 2001 and Maggie died in 2005 (37).
The lower photograph depicts the two sisters in the autumn of 1990. Timberscombe's village green, was created in 1989 (38), across the road and a short walk west of Sunnyside, being named Brewers Green after the Brewer family. Maggie Brewer had donated the land. Joyce Smith of Ford Cottage, Timberscombe, took this photograph when a tree was being planted on the green. Maggie Brewer shovels in some dirt and Nellie Hooper holds the tree in place. Joyce Smith, who knew both women, suggests that Nellie was trying to tell Maggie how to do it and Maggie was doing it how she wanted.
This may not be the only photograph of Maggie Brewer with a spade. At SP-078, she appears to be photographed, c. 1924, with a group of Timberscombe schoolchildren at the school garden, again prepared to shovel.
Behind the women, Dougie Short is seen in the jacket with the green collar and George Henry Burnell of Wootton Courtney is on the right in the black jacket. Mr. Burnell died on the 3rd of August 2020, aged 90 years (39). Mr. Short, a longtime bellringer at St. Petrock's, passed away in the later 2010's (40).
Besides being a Bed & Breakfast, likely operating from the mid-1950's, Sunnyside became an adjunct surgery to the Dunster Surgery, open one to three days a week (41). In May 2020, Marion Jeffrey, of the St. Petrock's History Group, spoke to the retired Dr. Mike Currie. She had been put in touch with him by John Gratton, Churchwarden of St Petrock's in Timberscombe, who knew Dr. Currie. Dr. Currie and his wife were the last people to run the surgery, from 1987 until it closed. The first surgery seems to have been across the road at Rosemont, the apartment complex run by Beatrice (nee Pyne ) Hole, a great friend of Maggie Brewer who also assisted with the apartments. Mr. David McCluskey and his cousin, Mr. Reg England, nephews of Mrs. Hole, remembered in 2023 that as boys they would visit their aunt at Rosemont and recalled the weekly/regular surgery there and if they were visiting when it was open, they were advised to make themselves scarce for the day. They also remembered that the surgery was "certainly still in place in the 1950's" at Rosemont. In 2023, Jenny Hansford, who grew up in Timberscombe as Jenny Bond and lived at Little Farthings, across the road from Sunnyside when it was the post office, was sure that the surgery had operated at Rosemont since at least 1941 and very likely earlier. Mrs. Hole retired from running the apartment house in the 1950's and although she continued to live next door (in the house later named Linhay), it is likely at this time the surgery moved over to Sunnyside.
When Marion Jeffrey spoke to Dr. Mike Currie, he believed that the first doctor of the surgery at Timberscombe was Dr. William Thomas Pearce Meade-King (42), who began at the Dunster Surgery in 1923, did his rounds on his horse and lived at Archer House in Dunster. Jenny Hansford remember that Dr. Meade-King came to Berrowcote, the cottage semi-detached on the western end of the row containing Rosemont, to tend for her sister, Leonora, who died in 1929. Meade-King's wife, Olive Marjorie (nee Johnston) Meade-King was a registered Physiotherapy Masseuse (43).
Dr Meade-King died in 1945 (44) so likely never treated at Sunnyside. He was followed by an ex-naval doctor, Dr. Alec Atkinson, from 1948 to 1971 (and who Jenny Hansford does remember treating her for an ear infection and is recalled attending at Sunnyside). The next doctor was Dr. Bob Nicholson (1962-1971), then followed by a husband and wife team. He was Dr. Julian Edward Von Bergen who died in 2018 at the age of 93 in Dorking, Surrey (45) but who had lived before then at Hatch Green Lodge in Taunton (46). He and his wife, Sheila (nee Thomas) Von Bergen (47) were at Dunster until 1971 to 1988 and attended at Sunnyside until 1987.
Dr. Currie's wife was the daughter of the Von Bergen's. He told Marion Jeffrey that they opened the surgery every Thursday at 11 AM. There was no booking system and as people turned up, they sat on the stairs of Maggie Brewer's sitting room in the order in which they were to be called. He remembered everyone could probably hear what was being said between him and the patient, so that "confidentiality was suspect". Boxes of commonly prescribed drugs were brought by the doctors so they were at hand to be dispensed.
Labelled "Sunnyside, Timberscombe", a copy of the upper photograph was bound in a leather booklet along with eleven other Timberscombe area postcards. It was owned by the Huxtable family and donated in 2019 by Maurice Huxtable and is archived with the St. Petrock's History Group. The version seen here was donated in February 2024 by Tim Collins. Joyce Smith donated the lower photograph in August 2020.
Creator
Anonymous /
Joyce Smith
Joyce Smith
Source
Date
post 1916, likely later 1910's
2020
2020
Contributor
Language
English
Identifier
Sunnyside and Maggie and Nellie Brewer on Brewers Green / Timberscombe / northeastern Timberscombe
Acquisition Date
2024
2020
2020
Acquisition Method
Gift
Category
PLACES: Houses / Timberscombe
PEOPLE: Named / Timberscombe
PEOPLE: Named / Timberscombe
Condition
Good
Condition Notes
Entered by Tom Sperling
Condition Date
2024
2020
2020
Dimension Type
W X L
Dimension Units
cm
Dimension Value
8.5 X 14 (PHOTOGRAPHS)
8 X 13.5 (PROPERTIES)
14 X 10 (PHOTOGRAPHS)
8 X 13.5 (PROPERTIES)
14 X 10 (PHOTOGRAPHS)
Institution Name
St. Petrock's History Group
Notes
(1) sabre-roads.org.uk (2) TimberscombeVillage.com/ History of Timberscombe/ Other Historic Structures/ History of the Post Office, written by Tom Sperling and rightmove.co.uk 3) "PLAN OF THE KNOWLE ESTATE", a map produced for the Knowle Estate auction on 20 July 1916, by Messrs. W. R. J. Greenslade & Co. ,Taunton and Wellington (4) "TIMBERSCOMBE'S FALLEN OF WORLD WAR I", compiled by Harvey Grenville, produced for St. Petrock's Church and the parish of Timberscombe, 2014 (5) TimberscombeVillage.com/ History of Timberscombe/ Past Residents/ Sir George Farwell, written by Lesley Webb and Farwell was at Knowle House by 1905 when he was nominated to be a Churchwarden at St. Petrock's Church in Timberscombe by the Vicar, Henry Herbert Bell, SHC Churchwardens Accounts, 1808-1943 re TRO D/P/Tim/4/1/2 (6) Jockeys K. I. A. , WWI (7) TimberscombeVillage.com / Sir George Farwell (8) "THE KNOWLE ESTATE. DUNSTER, SOMERSET, PARTICULARS, PLANS AND CONDITIONS OF SALE of THE KNOWLE ESTATE", by Messrs. W.R.J. Greenslade & Co., of Taunton and Wellington, for the Public Auction at the Luttrell Arms Hotel, on 20th July 1916 (9) VictoriaCountyHistory.ac.uk (10) "TIMBERSCOMBE'S FALLEN OF WORLD WAR I" (11) An original copy of "THE KNOWLE ESTATE, DUNSTER, SOMERSET", the Sales Particulars for the 1916 Knowle Estate auction was saved by Sam Grabham (1887-1971), who apparently wrote the names of the purchasers and the prices paid over each lot number. This was passed down to his son, Kenneth Grabham (1920-2007), then to Derek Poole (1942-2011), who left it to his daughter, Angie Gummer, who shared it with the St. Petrock's History Group in 2019 (12) "PASSING OF AN OLD PENSIONER", obituary of Thomas William Brewer, giving his birth date as the 22nd of November 1842 (a clipping of the obituary is saved in the History Group Archive but the newspaper is not identified) and UK and Ireland, Find A Grave Index, 1300s-Current (13) Somerset, England, Marriages, Registers, Bonds and Allegations, 1754-1914 (14) 1871 England Census, 1881 England Census and UK and Ireland, Find A Grave Index, 1300s-Current (15) England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915 and Bristol, England, Church of England Baptisms, 1813-1918 (16) 1871 England Census, 1881 England Census and 1891 England Census (17) Bristol, England, Church of England Marriages & Banns, 1754-1937 (18) London, England, Church of England Marriages & Banns, 1754-1937 (19) Somerset, England, Marriages, Registers, Bonds and Allegations, 1754-1914 (20) 1911 England Census, England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007 and Somerset, England, Church of England Burials, 1913-1914 (21) "KNOWLE ESTATE SALE, DUNSTER, SOMERSET", pages 47 and 48 (22) Conveyance, dated 29th September 1916, from The Trustees of Worsley Battersby, deceased to Mrs. M. M. Brewer, shared in August 2020 by Elisabeth Powls, current owner of Sunnyside (23) as recalled in 2020 by Erica Holmes of Timberscombe, who assisted Maggie Brewer at Sunnyside in the late 20sth century and was told by Miss Brewer that the house was gifted by the senior Thomas Brewer (24) handwritten "Notes on Title", for Sunnyside, Timberscombe and Farthings Meadow, Timberscombe and Abstract of the Will, Death and Probate of Frederick Hawkins Knight deceased, dated 1954, by Thorne & Bowman, Minehead, included in deeds and abstracts shared by Elisabeth Powls, August 2020 (25) "UK and Ireland, Find A Grave Index, 1300's-Current (26) 1939 England and Wales Register and England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005 (27) 1939 England and Wales Register and Conveyance dated 11th September 1960, of Mrs. F. M. Hensley and Others to Miss M. B. Brewer of Sunnyside, Timberscombe, Somerset (28) as recalled in 2020 by Mrs. Jo Atkins, the grand-daughter of Florence Mary (nee Brewer) Atkins (29) 1939 England and Wales Register and as recalled by Mrs. Evelyn Hilton on June 28 2011 to the Francis Frith Archive page of Memories (30) Assent, dated 25th October 1954, "In the Estate of Frederick Hawkins Knight Deceased ....in respect of land known as 'Farthings Meadow', Timberscombe, Somerset" (31) 1954 Abstract of the Will, Death and Probate of Maud Kate Brewer deceased, Thorne & Bowman, Minehead (32) England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007. LOWER (33) Find My Past, Forebears.io. ,England & Wales Marriage Index, 1837-2008 and as recalled in 2020 by Jo. Atkins (34) Conveyance dated 11th September 1960, of Mrs F. M. Hensley and Others to Miss M. B. Brewer (35) England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Indexes, 1916-2007 (36) as recalled in 2020 by Elisabeth Powls (37) England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Indexes, 1916-2007 (38) Victoria County History.ac.uk (39) "DEATHS", George Henry Burnell, West Somerset Free Press, Friday, August 14 2020 (40) as recalled in 2020 by Elisabeth Powls (41) recalled in 2019 by Elisabeth Powls and as remembered in 2019 (being a patient) by Wendy Hellewell, The Bracken, Hole's Square, Timberscombe (42) 1939 England and Wales Register (43) UK, Physiotherapy and Masseuse Registers, 1895-1980 (44) England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007 and as confirmed by Ian Budge, the manager of the Dunster & Porlock Surgery in 2023. (45) England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1989-2018 (46) UK, Electoral Registers, 2003-2010 (47) England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005
Storage Location
St. Petrock's History Group Archive
Storage Date
2020
2024
2024
Storage Notes
St. Petrock's History Group PHOTOGRAPHS
St. Petrock's History Group PROPERTIES
St. Petrock's History Group PROPERTIES
Item Reference
SP-047
Technique
Copies
Citation
Anonymous /
Joyce Smith, “Sunnyside, Timberscombe, on the Road to Cowbridge and Dunster / Maggie Brewer and Nellie (nee Brewer) Hooper at Brewers Green, Autumn 1990,” St. Petrock's History Group, accessed May 5, 2024, https://stpetrockshistorygroup.omeka.net/items/show/3390.
Comments