The Timberscombe Post Office, Eva Huxtable's Motor Spirit Service Station and the Origins of Rose and Bamboo Cottages, by Alfred Vowles, c. 1921
Title
The Timberscombe Post Office, Eva Huxtable's Motor Spirit Service Station and the Origins of Rose and Bamboo Cottages, by Alfred Vowles, c. 1921
Subject
Description
The upper photograph, taken by Alfred Vowles, is labeled on the bottom left with "THE POST OFFICE TIMBERSCOMBE"(albeit a bit blurred), printed with capital letters enclosed in a faint rectangular box. The post office is the white rendered structure. In the same style, "VOWLES COPYRIGHT" is printed on the bottom right. A renowned Somerset photographer, Vowles used this form of lettering rarely, also being utilised on a series of photographs of nearby Wheddon Cross, identified as being taken in 1912 (1)--suggesting a similar date for this photograph.
Also seen, on the right edge of the photograph, is a recently built building (2), likely by Frank Huxtable, that was not often photographed. Here it is seen, housing a motor spirit service station operated by Eva Huxtable. The left half of a Motor Spirit British Petroleum logo is across its front, with the B (of "BP") visible, mounted over a Union Jack. This logo was not created for British Petroleum until c. 1921 (3), suggesting a more likely date for this photograph. Nevertheless, it is a rarely seen Vowles photograph, found in the home of Maurice Huxtable, after his death in July 2021. A lifelong resident of Timberscombe, Mr. Huxtable was the grandson of Eva Huxtable. His daughter, Marion (nee Huxtable) Fewlass, presented the photograph to the St. Petrock's History Group in August 2021.
The post office, also known as Berrowcote, is on the western end of a row of four buildings. Also rendered, semi-detached to the eastern side of Berrowcote, is the cottage that was known as The Retreat. (A second first floor window, surrounded by render, is part of The Retreat.) Past The Retreat are two larger and un-rendered buildings.
The complete row dates from the late 18th or early 19th century. All four buildings were owned and likely were built by Robert Blackmore (4). Born about 1775 in Brompton Regis, he was established in Timberscombe by 1800, when he married Hannah Merchant, born and raised in the village (5). As visible on this photograph, the row was alongside the Old Dunster Road, a main entrance into Timberscombe from the northeast. The next-to-last building (with the large chimney on the western end) was likely built as a public house and is known to have been operating as The Rose and Crown by 1822. The end building served as stables for the inn (6).
For unclear reasons, the Rose and Crown lost its license around 1915 (7). By late 1917 or 1918, it had become an apartment house called Rosemont (8), under the proprietorship of Charles and Beatrice Ann Marie (nee Pyne) Hole (9). Mrs. Hole had grown up in the property, as her parents had managed The Rose and Crown at the turn of the century (10). The former stables became a private residence, known as Rosemont Cottage (11). In modern times, it is called the Linhay. As an apartment house, Rosemont operated until at least the mid 1990's (12). Later, as a private home and occasional Bed and Breakfast, it was called Wellum (13) and in the 2010's, was renamed Game House (14). In April 2022 it was again renamed, becoming Rosemont House--a tribute to its past.
In 1843, Berrowcote was described as a "House and Shop", leased by Issacs Thomas, from Robert Blackmore. On the 1841 Census, Mr. Thomas was listed as the head of the household, which included his son, James Thomas, a carpenter born in Timberscombe, and James' wife, Elizabeth (nee Moody) Thomas, as well as their children, 6-year-old Mary, 4-year-old John and Henry, aged 7 months (15). On the 12th of July 1844, James Thomas was appointed the village' s first Post Master, swearing an oath to Thomas Luttrell, acting as Magistrate for the County of Somerset (16). Berrowcote would become the Post Office and it appears that Elizabeth did the bulk of the postal work (17). James Thomas died in 1878 (18). In 1858, his 6-year-old daughter, Mary, had grown up and married a tailor named Thomas Lyddon. Probably after her father's death and certainly by the 1881 Census, Mary and Thomas Lyddon and their four children moved into The Post Office. Mary served as "Sub-Post Mistress" and her mother, Elizabeth James remained in residence as well -- listed as "Formerly Sub-Post Mistress"(19).
On the 30th of December 1899, ownership of the Post Office was assumed by Alice Floyde and her children, William and Eva Jane Floyde, with Mary Lyddon, now a widow, continuing in occupancy and still serving as Sub -Post Mistress. Alice Floyde, born in Timberscombe in 1853, also was a recent widow and in 1901, lived at next door at The Retreat (20).
Mary Lyddon died in 1913 (21). Her daughter, Elizabeth Mary Lyddon, who aided her at the Post Office, married John Coles Jr. (22). At some point after the death of Alice Floyde, Mr. and Mrs. Coles moved into The Retreat and continued to run the post office next door, at least until 1931 (23). This would have been the state of affairs at the time that Alfred Vowles took the upper photograph.
By 1935, Constance Olive Lyddon, a grand-daughter of Mary Lyddon and niece of Elizabeth Mary, had married Fred Bond (24), who became the village Sub Post Master. Mr. and Mrs. Bond moved the post office up the road, situated in the house known as Little Farthings. After being Timberscombe's first post office for around 90 years, the rendered building in the centre of the photograph was again just a house called Berrowcote. During the 1960's, the render was removed from Berrowcote, as well as The Retreat, with the entire row now with exposed outer walls of red sandstone and rubble (25). By 1977, the name of Berrowcote had been updated to Burrow Cottage (26) but in July 2022 reverted to Berrowcote.
On 18 November 1987, the Old Dunster Road was closed just before reaching the building that had become the Linhay and construction began on a bypass, so that traffic did not have to travel through the centre of Timberscombe (27). The old road, as seen in the photograph, was narrowed to a pavement and classified as the northeastern end of Brook Street. By 1989, a village green named Brewers Green-- after the family that donated the land--was created in front of these four structures (28).
Eva Huxtable was born Eva Buttle in 1886 at Hemycock, Devon (29) and was living in Minehead by 1901 (30). In 1911, she married Frank Huxtable, a carpenter, wheelwright (31) and village undertaker (32). They lived in a house behind the service station, occupied by the Huxtable family from at least 1843 (33). In the Vowles photograph, a tall roofline is visible past the flat roof of Mrs. Huxtable's business. The tall roof was over the Huxtable's house, with a slanted white line seen on the roof (at the right edge of the photograph) indicating a 90 degree bend of the house with the main living area in a wing facing toward the road--obscured here by the service station. Eventually Mrs. Huxtable will add petrol pumps alongside the road, not evident in this photograph but which can be seen at SP-026 and SP-164. After the pumps arrived, the Huxtable house became known as Pump Cottage. It was renamed Tiki Cottage in the later 1980's, when the pumps--which had not been in use for years--were removed.
Besides petrol, Mrs. Huxtable sold nails, pyrex dishes, oil, paraffin and other odds and ends. She passed away in 1975. After closing as a service station, this small building, situated on Brook Street just as it turns to the south and the village centre, was used to sell and assemble model airplanes, a sweets shop, an antiques shop and finally sold carpets and other floor covering. The building was demolished around 2009 (34).
Alfred Vowle's photograph also gives a rare glimpse of the two semi-detached buildings seen between Berrowcote and the service station, set back in a courtyard and usually missed by the camera. At the time of the 1843 Tithe Map, only the building on the right--with the higher roofline--existed. Also owned (and likely built) by Robert Blackmore, in 1843 he had leased it as "House and Garden" to Elizabeth Tarr. Subsequently it became part of the Huxtable house.
The building to the left (with the lower roofline and a chimney) was built later, semi-detached on the right to the older section with the higher roof. Blocked from view here, by the Post Office, the left side of the newer building was semi-detached to the back of The Retreat. A subtle difference in the colour of the red sandstone and mortar of the two sections is still apparent and makes clear where they were joined.
Mary Floyde, who purchased Berrowcote as the Post Office in 1899, came to live in this newer cottage, working as a sick nurse until her death in 1917 (35). Her daughter, Eva Jane, who had been a domestic servant at Knowle Manor in Timberscombe and later in Oxfordshire (36), returned to Timberscombe and also moved into this cottage--which came to be called Rose Cottage. This was likely her home at the time of the photograph. While never living in the Post Office, Eva Jane Floyde was still part-owner (with her brother, William) and is remembered in her later years as sometimes hand-delivering the mail (37). Maurice Huxtable, born in 1932, recalled going around to Rose Cottage to buy Miss Floyde's homemade ice-cream. Ironically part of the first floor of Rose Cottage was under the higher gabled roof, where two small windows can be seen in the photograph. This section could only be accessed by crawling through a small and low passageway on the first floor (38), which does not sound very convenient for the now elderly Eva Jane. She passed away in 1949 (39).
The chimney seen on the edge of the roof of Rose Cottage in the Vowles photograph, was later removed. By 2004, it was decided to renovate these two sections more distinctly into two cottages, divided by a ground floor passageway. The work was taken on by David Pershouse, who in 2021 recalled the challenges of how to make the best use of two relatively small spaces. By chance, in February 2016, his daughter, Kelly Pershouse and grandson, Zander Smith, came to live in the former The Retreat, renamed in the 21st century as Ivy Cottage.
The bottom colour photograph was taken in September 2021. The doorway of Rose Cottage is seen to the left, ornamented with sunflowers by the current occupant, Mark Reynolds. The yellow doorway, visible within the passageway, is to the newest cottage created in 2004 by Mr. Pershouse and named Bamboo Cottage. The passageway was cut out of the original section with the higher roof, and leads to the gardens of not only Rose and Bamboo, but also Ivy and Berrowcote as well.
Also seen, on the right edge of the photograph, is a recently built building (2), likely by Frank Huxtable, that was not often photographed. Here it is seen, housing a motor spirit service station operated by Eva Huxtable. The left half of a Motor Spirit British Petroleum logo is across its front, with the B (of "BP") visible, mounted over a Union Jack. This logo was not created for British Petroleum until c. 1921 (3), suggesting a more likely date for this photograph. Nevertheless, it is a rarely seen Vowles photograph, found in the home of Maurice Huxtable, after his death in July 2021. A lifelong resident of Timberscombe, Mr. Huxtable was the grandson of Eva Huxtable. His daughter, Marion (nee Huxtable) Fewlass, presented the photograph to the St. Petrock's History Group in August 2021.
The post office, also known as Berrowcote, is on the western end of a row of four buildings. Also rendered, semi-detached to the eastern side of Berrowcote, is the cottage that was known as The Retreat. (A second first floor window, surrounded by render, is part of The Retreat.) Past The Retreat are two larger and un-rendered buildings.
The complete row dates from the late 18th or early 19th century. All four buildings were owned and likely were built by Robert Blackmore (4). Born about 1775 in Brompton Regis, he was established in Timberscombe by 1800, when he married Hannah Merchant, born and raised in the village (5). As visible on this photograph, the row was alongside the Old Dunster Road, a main entrance into Timberscombe from the northeast. The next-to-last building (with the large chimney on the western end) was likely built as a public house and is known to have been operating as The Rose and Crown by 1822. The end building served as stables for the inn (6).
For unclear reasons, the Rose and Crown lost its license around 1915 (7). By late 1917 or 1918, it had become an apartment house called Rosemont (8), under the proprietorship of Charles and Beatrice Ann Marie (nee Pyne) Hole (9). Mrs. Hole had grown up in the property, as her parents had managed The Rose and Crown at the turn of the century (10). The former stables became a private residence, known as Rosemont Cottage (11). In modern times, it is called the Linhay. As an apartment house, Rosemont operated until at least the mid 1990's (12). Later, as a private home and occasional Bed and Breakfast, it was called Wellum (13) and in the 2010's, was renamed Game House (14). In April 2022 it was again renamed, becoming Rosemont House--a tribute to its past.
In 1843, Berrowcote was described as a "House and Shop", leased by Issacs Thomas, from Robert Blackmore. On the 1841 Census, Mr. Thomas was listed as the head of the household, which included his son, James Thomas, a carpenter born in Timberscombe, and James' wife, Elizabeth (nee Moody) Thomas, as well as their children, 6-year-old Mary, 4-year-old John and Henry, aged 7 months (15). On the 12th of July 1844, James Thomas was appointed the village' s first Post Master, swearing an oath to Thomas Luttrell, acting as Magistrate for the County of Somerset (16). Berrowcote would become the Post Office and it appears that Elizabeth did the bulk of the postal work (17). James Thomas died in 1878 (18). In 1858, his 6-year-old daughter, Mary, had grown up and married a tailor named Thomas Lyddon. Probably after her father's death and certainly by the 1881 Census, Mary and Thomas Lyddon and their four children moved into The Post Office. Mary served as "Sub-Post Mistress" and her mother, Elizabeth James remained in residence as well -- listed as "Formerly Sub-Post Mistress"(19).
On the 30th of December 1899, ownership of the Post Office was assumed by Alice Floyde and her children, William and Eva Jane Floyde, with Mary Lyddon, now a widow, continuing in occupancy and still serving as Sub -Post Mistress. Alice Floyde, born in Timberscombe in 1853, also was a recent widow and in 1901, lived at next door at The Retreat (20).
Mary Lyddon died in 1913 (21). Her daughter, Elizabeth Mary Lyddon, who aided her at the Post Office, married John Coles Jr. (22). At some point after the death of Alice Floyde, Mr. and Mrs. Coles moved into The Retreat and continued to run the post office next door, at least until 1931 (23). This would have been the state of affairs at the time that Alfred Vowles took the upper photograph.
By 1935, Constance Olive Lyddon, a grand-daughter of Mary Lyddon and niece of Elizabeth Mary, had married Fred Bond (24), who became the village Sub Post Master. Mr. and Mrs. Bond moved the post office up the road, situated in the house known as Little Farthings. After being Timberscombe's first post office for around 90 years, the rendered building in the centre of the photograph was again just a house called Berrowcote. During the 1960's, the render was removed from Berrowcote, as well as The Retreat, with the entire row now with exposed outer walls of red sandstone and rubble (25). By 1977, the name of Berrowcote had been updated to Burrow Cottage (26) but in July 2022 reverted to Berrowcote.
On 18 November 1987, the Old Dunster Road was closed just before reaching the building that had become the Linhay and construction began on a bypass, so that traffic did not have to travel through the centre of Timberscombe (27). The old road, as seen in the photograph, was narrowed to a pavement and classified as the northeastern end of Brook Street. By 1989, a village green named Brewers Green-- after the family that donated the land--was created in front of these four structures (28).
Eva Huxtable was born Eva Buttle in 1886 at Hemycock, Devon (29) and was living in Minehead by 1901 (30). In 1911, she married Frank Huxtable, a carpenter, wheelwright (31) and village undertaker (32). They lived in a house behind the service station, occupied by the Huxtable family from at least 1843 (33). In the Vowles photograph, a tall roofline is visible past the flat roof of Mrs. Huxtable's business. The tall roof was over the Huxtable's house, with a slanted white line seen on the roof (at the right edge of the photograph) indicating a 90 degree bend of the house with the main living area in a wing facing toward the road--obscured here by the service station. Eventually Mrs. Huxtable will add petrol pumps alongside the road, not evident in this photograph but which can be seen at SP-026 and SP-164. After the pumps arrived, the Huxtable house became known as Pump Cottage. It was renamed Tiki Cottage in the later 1980's, when the pumps--which had not been in use for years--were removed.
Besides petrol, Mrs. Huxtable sold nails, pyrex dishes, oil, paraffin and other odds and ends. She passed away in 1975. After closing as a service station, this small building, situated on Brook Street just as it turns to the south and the village centre, was used to sell and assemble model airplanes, a sweets shop, an antiques shop and finally sold carpets and other floor covering. The building was demolished around 2009 (34).
Alfred Vowle's photograph also gives a rare glimpse of the two semi-detached buildings seen between Berrowcote and the service station, set back in a courtyard and usually missed by the camera. At the time of the 1843 Tithe Map, only the building on the right--with the higher roofline--existed. Also owned (and likely built) by Robert Blackmore, in 1843 he had leased it as "House and Garden" to Elizabeth Tarr. Subsequently it became part of the Huxtable house.
The building to the left (with the lower roofline and a chimney) was built later, semi-detached on the right to the older section with the higher roof. Blocked from view here, by the Post Office, the left side of the newer building was semi-detached to the back of The Retreat. A subtle difference in the colour of the red sandstone and mortar of the two sections is still apparent and makes clear where they were joined.
Mary Floyde, who purchased Berrowcote as the Post Office in 1899, came to live in this newer cottage, working as a sick nurse until her death in 1917 (35). Her daughter, Eva Jane, who had been a domestic servant at Knowle Manor in Timberscombe and later in Oxfordshire (36), returned to Timberscombe and also moved into this cottage--which came to be called Rose Cottage. This was likely her home at the time of the photograph. While never living in the Post Office, Eva Jane Floyde was still part-owner (with her brother, William) and is remembered in her later years as sometimes hand-delivering the mail (37). Maurice Huxtable, born in 1932, recalled going around to Rose Cottage to buy Miss Floyde's homemade ice-cream. Ironically part of the first floor of Rose Cottage was under the higher gabled roof, where two small windows can be seen in the photograph. This section could only be accessed by crawling through a small and low passageway on the first floor (38), which does not sound very convenient for the now elderly Eva Jane. She passed away in 1949 (39).
The chimney seen on the edge of the roof of Rose Cottage in the Vowles photograph, was later removed. By 2004, it was decided to renovate these two sections more distinctly into two cottages, divided by a ground floor passageway. The work was taken on by David Pershouse, who in 2021 recalled the challenges of how to make the best use of two relatively small spaces. By chance, in February 2016, his daughter, Kelly Pershouse and grandson, Zander Smith, came to live in the former The Retreat, renamed in the 21st century as Ivy Cottage.
The bottom colour photograph was taken in September 2021. The doorway of Rose Cottage is seen to the left, ornamented with sunflowers by the current occupant, Mark Reynolds. The yellow doorway, visible within the passageway, is to the newest cottage created in 2004 by Mr. Pershouse and named Bamboo Cottage. The passageway was cut out of the original section with the higher roof, and leads to the gardens of not only Rose and Bamboo, but also Ivy and Berrowcote as well.
Creator
Alfred Vowles /
Tom Sperling
Tom Sperling
Source
Date
c. 1921
2021
2021
Contributor
Format
Language
English
Identifier
The Timberscombe Post Office, the sites of the future Rose and Bamboo Cottages and Eva Huxtable's Motor Spirit Service Station, c. 1921 / Brook Street / Timberscombe
Acquisition Date
2021
Acquisition Method
Gift
Research
Research
Category
PLACES: Village Streets / Timberscombe
PLACES: Cottages / Timberscombe
PLACES: Cottages / Timberscombe
Condition
Good
Condition Notes
entered by Tom Sperling
Condition Date
2021
Dimension Type
W X L
Dimension Units
cm
Dimension Value
8 X 13.5 (original)
8 X 13.5 (copy)
8.5 X 13
8 X 13.5 (copy)
8.5 X 13
Institution Name
St. Petrock's History Group
Notes
(1) Historic Environment Record, Exmoor National Park, MEM24603 and "EXMOOR CENTURY" by Hilary Binding, Brian Pearce and Steven Pugsley, Exmoor Books, 2001, page 13 (2) the small rectangular building that housed Mrs. Huxtable's Motor Spirit Service Station first appears on the Ordnance Survey Map of 1921 to 1943 (3) Branding Lessons From BP: How To Improve Your Company Image Through Rebranding, logaster.com/blog/bp-1090 (4) VictoriaCountyHistory.ac.uk and TIMBERSCOMBE TITHE MAP 1843, Source: Somerset Record Office, Taunton, redrawn and researched for the Timberscombe School by John Burns, February 1989 (5) Somerset, England, Church of England Baptisms and Burials, 1531-1812 (6) Somerset, England, Marriage Registers, Bonds and Allegations, 1754-1914, Journal of the House Of Lords, June 1822, books.google.com>books and UK, Poll Books and Electoral Registers, 1538-1914 (7) VCH (8) in late 1917 or 1918, Robert Baker moved his family into the Rosemont after their former home, Heber Vale was sold in the 1916 Knowle Estate Auction, as indicated in the Timberscombe School ADMISSION REGISTER, 1897-1944, No. 347 (9) Kelly's Directories of Somerset, 1923, 1935 and 1939 (10) 1901 England Census (11) 1939 England and Wales Register (12) County of Somerset, Bridgwater Constituency, REGISTER OF ELECTORS, 16th February 1993 to 15th February 1994 (13) "A Village History", 1998, a booklet researched, photographed and photocopied by the children of Timberscombe School and as recalled in 2020, by Tom Sperling, who booked accommodation at Wellum in 2007 (14) as recalled in 2019 by current neighbours, Nick Webber at Rose Cottage and Marion and Roger Fewlass at Tiki Cottage (15) 1841 England Census and TIMBERSCOMBE TITHE MAP 1843 (16) in 2019 a copy of this document was rediscovered in the Timberscombe School and donated to the St. Petrock's History Group (17) England Censuses of 1851, 1861 and 1871 (18) England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1837-1915 (19) England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837-1915 and 1881 England Census (20) Deed of Conveyance of the Post Office to Alice Floyde, William Floyde and Eva Jane Floyde, 30 December 1899, shared in 2021 by Alan Hines and Thomas Sperling, current owners of Burrow Cottage (21) FindMyPast.com, Family History Resources/ Deaths (22) Kelly's Directories of Somerset, 1914, 1919. 1923 and 1931 (23) TIMBERSCOMBE 1910 LIST OF RESIDENTS, minehead-online, co.uk (24) FindMyPast, Family History Resources/ Marriages and 1939 England and Wales Register (25) the render being removed at Berrowcote in 1967 is photographed at SP-201 (26) Berrowcote is identified as Burrow Cottage on the 17 October 1977 Deed of new occupants, Mr. and Mrs G. J. Tose (27) Somerset County Council, County Hall, Taunton, License No. LA07683X for the Linhay, shared in 2021 by Barry and Maggie Chaffey of the Linhay (28) VCH (29) 1939 England and Wales Register and 1891 England Census (30) 1901 England Census (31) 1939 England and Wales Register and Kelly's Directories, 1919, 1923, 1931 and 1935 (32) as recalled in 2019 by Marion (nee Huxtable) and Roger Fewlass of Tiki Cottage and as printed in the West Somerset Free Press, March 15th 1947 (33) TIMBERSCOMBE TITHE MAP 1843 (34) as recalled in 2019 by Marion (nee Huxtable) and Roger Fewlass (35) 1911 England Census and England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007 (36) 1901 England Census and 1911 England Census (37) as recalled in 2021, in conversations with Alan Hines, by Ernie Munson, an evacuee at Timberscombe during World War II who lived at Knowle Farm and who would see Eva Jane making daily postal deliveries (38) as recalled, at the site of Rose Cottage and Bamboo Cottage, in 2021 by David Pershouse (39) England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007
Storage Location
St. Petrock's History Group Archive
Storage Date
2021
Storage Notes
St. Petrock's History Group PHOTOGRAPHS
Item Reference
SP-202
Technique
original photograph
copy
copy
Citation
Alfred Vowles /
Tom Sperling, “The Timberscombe Post Office, Eva Huxtable's Motor Spirit Service Station and the Origins of Rose and Bamboo Cottages, by Alfred Vowles, c. 1921,” St. Petrock's History Group, accessed May 2, 2024, https://stpetrockshistorygroup.omeka.net/items/show/3473.
Comments