A Francis Frith Photograph of the Junction of Timberscombe's Brook Street, Great House Street and Jubilee Terrace (featuring the "E. B. Coles, Saddler" sign), c. 1955
Title
A Francis Frith Photograph of the Junction of Timberscombe's Brook Street, Great House Street and Jubilee Terrace (featuring the "E. B. Coles, Saddler" sign), c. 1955
Subject
Description
A Francis Frith photograph, dated c. 1955, with the southern end of Timberscombe's Brook Street visible along the bottom centre of the picture. At the end of the row of buildings on the left, the beginning of Great House Street is visible, known in 1955 to many of Timberscombe's inhabitants as Duck Lane (1). The large white building at the end of Brook Street is the northern side of The Lion Inn, the village's public house. Towards the right, in front of The Lion Inn, the road swoops upwards a bit where it will continue in a western direction becoming Jubilee Terrace. This junction could be considered to be the northern side of the village centre, an area of importance, yet there is a bit of desolation in the photograph, perhaps a sense of changes that have occurred-- or will do so soon.
The most obvious change will be the two semi-detached buildings on the left, seen under one thatched roof. The doorway to the building on the right, with street level and first storey windows on both of it's sides, enters into the dwelling named Brook House, believed to have been built in the 17th century (2) and still known in 1955 to some people as "the old Stenner family home". To Brook House's left, is the former S.J. Stenner's Butcher Shop. Now closed, it was a successful business in the earlier 20th century. The front facade still has a storefront window. Samuel James Stenner was born at Timberscombe in 1888 (3). He and his family lived at Brook House. Mr. Stenner's parents, Samuel and Jane (nee Hale) Stenner were the proprietors of The Lion Inn (4).
In 1926, at the young age of 38, Samuel James Stenner died (5) and afterwards his widow and children relocated to a newly built home, No. 6 Bemberry Bank, on the western edge of Timberscombe (6). Both the former butcher's shop and Brook House became multi-family residences. The photograph above is probably taken about six years before they were demolished, as seen at SP-033, to be replaced by a car park, which did not survive for very long (7).
Other shops did survive and thrived on this side of Brook Street and are well-remembered by Timberscombe's older residents. Semi-detached to the right of Brook House (unseen here because of the angle and because it's front facade is set back further from the road) is the building known in modern times as The Old Malt House. While Stenner's Butcher Shop was operating, this may have been a slaughterhouse that supplied it (8) but by 1939 it was another butcher's shop, known as Burnell's, owned by Ernest and Rhitta Burnell (9). Later it remained a butcher's shop but was named Bond's, run by two brothers of that name who also had a shop on West Street in Dunster. It is remembered as being here on Brook Street, well into the 1960's (10).
Visible here, at the end of this row, are two residential cottages, Brooklyn (with the gabled porch and bay window) and Butterflies, which also has a storefront window, that it retains in modern times. These had been the site of R. Poole's Shop, a Grocer, Tailor and Draper, perhaps Timberscombe's largest store. Robert Poole was born in Timberscombe in 1872 (11) and died in 1932 (12). The shop became known as The Stores, operated by Mrs. Ethel Hyde (13) but up to and during World War II was still called "Poole's" by the locals (14). However in this photograph, it is apparent that these shops were gone by 1955, victims of changing times and more automobiles, allowing people to travel further to shop for their goods.
On the left end of The Lion Inn, a woman can be glimpsed in a doorway up a small flight of steps. This is the entry to a cottage often affiliated with the pub. In 2019, when this dwelling was known as Honeysuckle Cottage, Malcolm and Judy Passmore, the current owners of the pub, were living here and erected a tiled porch over the doorway, making an attractive entry at the base of Great House Street.
On the bottom right corner of the photograph, part of two stone parapets to a small bridge are visible. It crosses a stream, an offshoot of the River Avill, that runs along the right side of Brook Street and throughout the village. The stream crosses under the road where it is turning to the west, with the stream reappearing beneath the stone parapet visible in front of The Lion Inn and continuing under the steps of the pub cottage to travel a bit more on the right side of Great House Street, before shifting toward the northeast .
The small bridge, on the right corner of the photograph, appeared on the 1843 Tithe Map of Timberscombe, where it allowed access from the road to a house, linhay and slaughterhouse across the stream, all owned by James Hole, Esquire and operated by Samuel Hales and Thomas Tudball. Between 1844 and 1888, these structures were consolidated as a single building closer to the stream, so that the small bridge ends at it's front door--as can be seen as SP-035 and SP-195.
This building also became a shop, run by Robert Coles and his wife, Henrietta (nee Bartram) Coles, an enterprising couple also listed as Grocer and Draper at another shop known as The Stores, situated within Combe House (15), around the corner in the centre of Jubilee Terrace-- the same storefront that became the Timberscombe Post Office in 1969 (16). By 1910, with perhaps with their interest shifting to the Jubilee Street location, Mr. Coles was able to let his son, Ernie Bartram Coles, set up his own business as a Saddler and Harness Maker at the Brook Street location (17). It is his sign that can still be seen here, just past the bridge, in this 1955 photograph.
Ernie was born in 1889 as Ernest Bartram Coles, at Paddington, London to Robert, then a Draper's Assistant and his first wife, Maria (18), who he had married on 26 November 1883 at St. Martins-in the-Field, Westminster, London (19). Maria Coles had been born Maria Bartram in 1855 at Bishop Lydeard, northwest of Taunton, the fifth daughter of George and Charlotte Grace (nee Davey) Bartram (20). By 1857, their sixth daughter, Georgina, was born, but at Timberscombe where George Bartram had brought his family after being appointed the village's first Police Constable (21). Maria likely left Timberscombe at about the age of 14 to look for work. It is not clear where she went but at the age of 27 her address was listed at Hays Mews in London, next door to 27 year old Robert Coles, who worked at that time as a Porter (22).
On the 1891 census, Mr. and Mrs. Coles and two year old Ernie are in Paddington. By the 1901 census, the father and son are still at Paddington but Robert Coles is a widower. In 1908, Robert remarried, but in Timberscombe and his new wife was Henrietta Bartram (23), Maria's sister and the youngest child of nine other daughters and one son of the now retired Police Constable George Bartram and his wife, Charlotte (24).
Ernie's father and stepmother would have been renting the Jubilee Terrace shop at Combe House, as it was part of the Knowle Estate, owned by the Hole family that included almost a third of the land of the Timberscombe parish (25) and was broken up and sold off at a public auction held 20 July 1916 at the Luttrell Arms Hotel in Dunster (26). One has to wonder if the buyer of both Combe House and No. 1 Jubilee House (on the corner of Brook Street and Jubilee Terrace ) was a surprise to the Coles, as it was Georgina (nee Bartram) Stitch, now of Bristol (27) but originally the sixth Bartram daughter, born in Timberscombe in 1857, the sister of Henrietta and Robert's former and present sister-in-law. Georgina now owned their shop and No. I Jubilee House (later re-addressed as No. 2 Jubilee Terrace) was the house immediately next door to Ernie's business. The hedge seen just past his sign on the photograph, is in front of this other property-- newly owned by Mrs. Stitch.
Georgina Stitch never relocated to Timberscombe, although she and her husband, John Henry Stitch, and a beloved son, Harry Grant Biggin Stitch, who was killed in a Bristol cycling accident, were all buried together at St. Petrock's Churchyard in Timberscombe (28). Mrs. Stitch may have bought the Timberscombe properties just to secure them for her family. It appears Robert and Henrietta Coles continued to manage the store at Combe House and also live there. Henrietta died in 1924 (29).
A year before the 1916 auction, Ernie had married Emily Eliza Burton, a dressmaker who lived at Venns Cottage, Timberscombe (30). In 1934, the year before her own death, Georgina sold Combe House, but just to Emily Coles (31)--essentially taking it away from Robert Coles. It appears that Emily and Ernie Coles moved into Combe House and Ernie now billed himself as "Master Saddler and Grocer". He did inherit the Brook Street Saddlery from his father when Robert died in 1937 (32).
Emily Coles died in 1947 and left Combe House to her husband (33). In 1948, Ernie married Lilian Mary Pearson (34). Ernie Coles passed away on the 18th of July 1954, leaving both Combe House and the Saddlery to his second wife (35). Lilian Cole remained the owner of Combe House when it became the site of the post office, continuing to own the property until 1972 (36).
At some point after the 17th century Brook House across the road was demolished, Ernie Cole's Saddlery became known as Brook House. It was purchased in 1997 by Allan Poulks. At the time of purchase, remnants of the building materials of Mr. Coles' saddles and harnesses were still inside the property (37). Ironically and slightly contributing to the feeling of this photograph, if it was taken in 1955, the sign with Ernie Coles' name was still hanging months after his death.
The most obvious change will be the two semi-detached buildings on the left, seen under one thatched roof. The doorway to the building on the right, with street level and first storey windows on both of it's sides, enters into the dwelling named Brook House, believed to have been built in the 17th century (2) and still known in 1955 to some people as "the old Stenner family home". To Brook House's left, is the former S.J. Stenner's Butcher Shop. Now closed, it was a successful business in the earlier 20th century. The front facade still has a storefront window. Samuel James Stenner was born at Timberscombe in 1888 (3). He and his family lived at Brook House. Mr. Stenner's parents, Samuel and Jane (nee Hale) Stenner were the proprietors of The Lion Inn (4).
In 1926, at the young age of 38, Samuel James Stenner died (5) and afterwards his widow and children relocated to a newly built home, No. 6 Bemberry Bank, on the western edge of Timberscombe (6). Both the former butcher's shop and Brook House became multi-family residences. The photograph above is probably taken about six years before they were demolished, as seen at SP-033, to be replaced by a car park, which did not survive for very long (7).
Other shops did survive and thrived on this side of Brook Street and are well-remembered by Timberscombe's older residents. Semi-detached to the right of Brook House (unseen here because of the angle and because it's front facade is set back further from the road) is the building known in modern times as The Old Malt House. While Stenner's Butcher Shop was operating, this may have been a slaughterhouse that supplied it (8) but by 1939 it was another butcher's shop, known as Burnell's, owned by Ernest and Rhitta Burnell (9). Later it remained a butcher's shop but was named Bond's, run by two brothers of that name who also had a shop on West Street in Dunster. It is remembered as being here on Brook Street, well into the 1960's (10).
Visible here, at the end of this row, are two residential cottages, Brooklyn (with the gabled porch and bay window) and Butterflies, which also has a storefront window, that it retains in modern times. These had been the site of R. Poole's Shop, a Grocer, Tailor and Draper, perhaps Timberscombe's largest store. Robert Poole was born in Timberscombe in 1872 (11) and died in 1932 (12). The shop became known as The Stores, operated by Mrs. Ethel Hyde (13) but up to and during World War II was still called "Poole's" by the locals (14). However in this photograph, it is apparent that these shops were gone by 1955, victims of changing times and more automobiles, allowing people to travel further to shop for their goods.
On the left end of The Lion Inn, a woman can be glimpsed in a doorway up a small flight of steps. This is the entry to a cottage often affiliated with the pub. In 2019, when this dwelling was known as Honeysuckle Cottage, Malcolm and Judy Passmore, the current owners of the pub, were living here and erected a tiled porch over the doorway, making an attractive entry at the base of Great House Street.
On the bottom right corner of the photograph, part of two stone parapets to a small bridge are visible. It crosses a stream, an offshoot of the River Avill, that runs along the right side of Brook Street and throughout the village. The stream crosses under the road where it is turning to the west, with the stream reappearing beneath the stone parapet visible in front of The Lion Inn and continuing under the steps of the pub cottage to travel a bit more on the right side of Great House Street, before shifting toward the northeast .
The small bridge, on the right corner of the photograph, appeared on the 1843 Tithe Map of Timberscombe, where it allowed access from the road to a house, linhay and slaughterhouse across the stream, all owned by James Hole, Esquire and operated by Samuel Hales and Thomas Tudball. Between 1844 and 1888, these structures were consolidated as a single building closer to the stream, so that the small bridge ends at it's front door--as can be seen as SP-035 and SP-195.
This building also became a shop, run by Robert Coles and his wife, Henrietta (nee Bartram) Coles, an enterprising couple also listed as Grocer and Draper at another shop known as The Stores, situated within Combe House (15), around the corner in the centre of Jubilee Terrace-- the same storefront that became the Timberscombe Post Office in 1969 (16). By 1910, with perhaps with their interest shifting to the Jubilee Street location, Mr. Coles was able to let his son, Ernie Bartram Coles, set up his own business as a Saddler and Harness Maker at the Brook Street location (17). It is his sign that can still be seen here, just past the bridge, in this 1955 photograph.
Ernie was born in 1889 as Ernest Bartram Coles, at Paddington, London to Robert, then a Draper's Assistant and his first wife, Maria (18), who he had married on 26 November 1883 at St. Martins-in the-Field, Westminster, London (19). Maria Coles had been born Maria Bartram in 1855 at Bishop Lydeard, northwest of Taunton, the fifth daughter of George and Charlotte Grace (nee Davey) Bartram (20). By 1857, their sixth daughter, Georgina, was born, but at Timberscombe where George Bartram had brought his family after being appointed the village's first Police Constable (21). Maria likely left Timberscombe at about the age of 14 to look for work. It is not clear where she went but at the age of 27 her address was listed at Hays Mews in London, next door to 27 year old Robert Coles, who worked at that time as a Porter (22).
On the 1891 census, Mr. and Mrs. Coles and two year old Ernie are in Paddington. By the 1901 census, the father and son are still at Paddington but Robert Coles is a widower. In 1908, Robert remarried, but in Timberscombe and his new wife was Henrietta Bartram (23), Maria's sister and the youngest child of nine other daughters and one son of the now retired Police Constable George Bartram and his wife, Charlotte (24).
Ernie's father and stepmother would have been renting the Jubilee Terrace shop at Combe House, as it was part of the Knowle Estate, owned by the Hole family that included almost a third of the land of the Timberscombe parish (25) and was broken up and sold off at a public auction held 20 July 1916 at the Luttrell Arms Hotel in Dunster (26). One has to wonder if the buyer of both Combe House and No. 1 Jubilee House (on the corner of Brook Street and Jubilee Terrace ) was a surprise to the Coles, as it was Georgina (nee Bartram) Stitch, now of Bristol (27) but originally the sixth Bartram daughter, born in Timberscombe in 1857, the sister of Henrietta and Robert's former and present sister-in-law. Georgina now owned their shop and No. I Jubilee House (later re-addressed as No. 2 Jubilee Terrace) was the house immediately next door to Ernie's business. The hedge seen just past his sign on the photograph, is in front of this other property-- newly owned by Mrs. Stitch.
Georgina Stitch never relocated to Timberscombe, although she and her husband, John Henry Stitch, and a beloved son, Harry Grant Biggin Stitch, who was killed in a Bristol cycling accident, were all buried together at St. Petrock's Churchyard in Timberscombe (28). Mrs. Stitch may have bought the Timberscombe properties just to secure them for her family. It appears Robert and Henrietta Coles continued to manage the store at Combe House and also live there. Henrietta died in 1924 (29).
A year before the 1916 auction, Ernie had married Emily Eliza Burton, a dressmaker who lived at Venns Cottage, Timberscombe (30). In 1934, the year before her own death, Georgina sold Combe House, but just to Emily Coles (31)--essentially taking it away from Robert Coles. It appears that Emily and Ernie Coles moved into Combe House and Ernie now billed himself as "Master Saddler and Grocer". He did inherit the Brook Street Saddlery from his father when Robert died in 1937 (32).
Emily Coles died in 1947 and left Combe House to her husband (33). In 1948, Ernie married Lilian Mary Pearson (34). Ernie Coles passed away on the 18th of July 1954, leaving both Combe House and the Saddlery to his second wife (35). Lilian Cole remained the owner of Combe House when it became the site of the post office, continuing to own the property until 1972 (36).
At some point after the 17th century Brook House across the road was demolished, Ernie Cole's Saddlery became known as Brook House. It was purchased in 1997 by Allan Poulks. At the time of purchase, remnants of the building materials of Mr. Coles' saddles and harnesses were still inside the property (37). Ironically and slightly contributing to the feeling of this photograph, if it was taken in 1955, the sign with Ernie Coles' name was still hanging months after his death.
Creator
Francis Frith
Source
Publisher
Francis Frith
Date
c. 1955
Contributor
Language
English
Identifier
the southern end of Brook Street / Timberscombe / village centre
Acquisition Date
2021
Acquisition Method
Gift
Category
PLACES: Village Streets / Timberscombe
Condition
Good
Condition Notes
Entered by Tom Sperling
Condition Date
2021
Dimension Type
W X L
Dimension Units
cm
Dimension Value
11 X 19
Institution Name
St. Petrock's History Group
Notes
(1) as recalled in 2019 by Wendy Hellewell and Allan Sutton, longtime residents of Timberscombe (2) Victoria County History.ac.uk and Historic Environment Record, Exmoor National Park, MSO10611 (3) England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915 (4) 1911 England Census (5) England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations) 1858-1995 (where Samuel James Stenner's address, at the time of his death, is given as Brook House on Brook Street) (6) the 1939 England and Wales Register records Julia Stenner and her children at No. 6 Bemberry Bank, where Stenner family members will indeed live for many decades (7) as recalled in 2019 by Wendy Hellewell of The Bracken, Hole's Square, Timberscombe (8) as recalled in 2018 by Peter Bright of Orchard Close, which also had been a slaughterhouse, situated to the left and rear of Ye Olde Malthouse and adjacent to the garden area of Berrowcote, which had been used as a pig farm at least up to the end of World War II, as remembered c. 2012 by an unnamed woman from London, who had been a Land Girl during World War II working at Burrow Cottage, as told to Thomas Sperling, the current owner (9) 1939 England and Wales Register (10) as recalled in 2019 by Mary and Reg Holcombe who had been able to store belongings at Bond's when they moved to Timberscombe in the mid 1960's (11) 1881 England Census and Somerset, England, Marriage Registers, Bonds and Allegations, 1754-1914 (12) England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007 (13) 1939 England and Wales Register (14) as written in "AWAY & HOME Somerset and Essex 1939-1945", a 2016 memoir by Pat Herniman, whose Aunt Phyllis Prole (later Bryant) worked at "Poole's" in 1939, published by Papermill Books, Little Baddow, in association with The Little Baddow History Centre (15) "TIMBERSCOMBE 1910 LIST OF RESIDENTS", minehead-online.co.uk and 1911 England Census (16) as recalled in 2019 by Mary Holcombe, who also had a shop next door at No. 3 Jubilee Terrace and in 1969 was in consideration to house the Timberscombe Post Office (17) "TIMBERSCOMBE 1910 LIST OF RESIDENTS", minehead-online.co.uk (18) 1981 England Census (19) Westminster. London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1935 (20) 1861 England Census and 1891 England Census (21) England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915 and 1861 England Census (22) Westminster, London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1935 (23) England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837-1915 (24) England Censuses of 1871, 1881, 1891 and 1901 (25) VCH (26) "THE KNOWLE ESTATE, DUNSTER, SOMERSET", PARTICULARS, PLANS AND CONDITIONS OF SALE of THE KNOWLE ESTATE by Messrs. W. R. J. Greenslade & Co., Taunton and Wellington, by Public Auction, 20 July 1916 at the Luttrell Arms Hotel, Dunster (27) England, Select Marriages, 1538-1973 and 1891 England Census (28) UK and Ireland, Find A Grave Index, 1300s-Current (29) England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007 (30) England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837-1915 (31) 7th December 1934 Conveyance from Mrs. Georgina Stitch to Mrs. Emily Coles of freehold property known as The Stores, Timberscombe in the County of Somerset (32) 1939 England and Wales Register and England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations) 1858-1995 (33) 26th January 1948 Assent in the Estate of Emily Eliza Coles, Deceased, in respect of freehold property known as The Stores, Timberscombe, Somerset to Ernest Bartram Coles (34) England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005 (35) 1955 Abstract of the Death Index and Probate of the Will of Ernest Bartram Coles, Thorne & Bowman Solicitors, Minehead (36) 27th June 1972 Conveyance from Mrs. L. M. Coles to Mr. and Mrs. Fuller of Freehold Property situate and known as The Stores, Timberscombe in the County of Somerset (37) as recalled in 2018 by Caroline Walker-Blair
Storage Location
St. Petrock's History Group Archive
Storage Date
2021
Storage Notes
St. Petrock's History Group PHOTOGRAPHS
Item Reference
SP-196
Technique
Copy
Citation
Francis Frith, “A Francis Frith Photograph of the Junction of Timberscombe's Brook Street, Great House Street and Jubilee Terrace (featuring the "E. B. Coles, Saddler" sign), c. 1955,” St. Petrock's History Group, accessed May 3, 2024, https://stpetrockshistorygroup.omeka.net/items/show/3467.
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