The Cottage, Walton

Apologies for the length of time between my previous post and this one. I was working hard to finish my manuscript for Pen and Sword and didn't have the energy or brain power to cope with that and a new blogpost. There will be a book hitting the shelves in 2024!

Along with the book I have also had a little dilemma about what to write. I desperately want to share my information about the true age of Peterborough Museum building, but don't want to annoy the people connected to it. I deliberately withheld it whilst there was a blue plaque exhibition at the museum, but feel like the post could still be received as being provocative or troublesome, so it will sit a while longer. If I can find clear evidence of the building there before 1816 (beyond what I already have) then I will immediately post something!

Anyone used to discussing Peterborough's history will be familiar with the sentence 'well there used to be a [insert name of interesting/beautiful/historically unique building] but that was demolished in the [usually 60s or 70s]'. This is then followed by annoyance and anguish at the loss of something that would be valued now. However this destruction is still happening and the remaining history and fragments of beauty are being chipped from the map of the city. Even if a building has listed status it is only the very outside that is usually scheduled to remain intact. The very soul of the building can be pulled out and sterilised to make it a suitable modern home or workplace when so many internal features are as valuable as the exterior (see images for Priestgate House and Walton House). 

What has stuck in my mind recently is the proposed destruction of yet another historic building in Peterborough, this time a house in Walton that was known as 'The Cottage'. The house is situated on the corner of Lincoln Road and Mounsteven Avenue and is around 200 years old, but not listed. It has been identified as a building of historic importance to the city, however, and, along with its beautiful garden, has been a beloved building for people who could peer over the wall to glimpse back in time for a moment. Walton is an area that used to have a big manor house and some beautiful stone farm houses, old inns, and even a little Victorian train station, but all that's left is one listed building 'Walton House' and 'The Cottage'. 

It is a beautiful but neglected property and I'm under no illusion that it needs a lot of work done to it, but it is completely unique both to Peterborough and the country. The Rightmove listing of the property is still available (see below) and you can view all of the quirky little details that make the building an absolute gem. From the strange curved stone and slate extension on the downstairs bedroom (which in my mind is a perfect office), to the bay window and shutters in the sitting room crying out for a window seat, to the mismatched architecture and misaligned extensions. There's also a large wooden hallway with a the most beautiful sinewy curved handrail discoloured over decades of use (or from a few sliding bottoms!). Beauty might be in the eye of the beholder, but I am confident that with the right support and some TLC it would make a really interesting family home. 

Images and floor plans of the building on the Rightmove site let us understand a little of the history of the building. Originally, it looks like it would have been quite a modest three-bedroomed stone house, possibly the one that was up for let in 1838. It was described as having 'one parlour, one kitchen, three or four bed-rooms, with every convenience for a small family.' (1) The initial building has had plenty of extensions and improvements, some built in local yellow Flettons and others a dusky pink. The range and style of windows on the building are a mix of sash and casement, some with bars and some without, which reminds me of the south side of St Firmin's church in Thurlby (see earlier post). They are completely mismatched, yet there is a charm to them, and it wouldn't be impossible to install new windows that talk to each other and the building.

There's also a sizeable greenhouse (I suspect that's already been levelled along with the garden and orchard) and there are stairs on the plans suggesting a cellar. There's also a boot room (trust me, that's a wasted space in Walton), a snug, a store room, and a cloakroom for actual cloaks! The kitchen is definitely a bit small and a strange shape, so a bit of internal remodelling with some of the other redundant rooms would make it a better home. But this is my point - it's still got the bones to be a good home. 

If the developers are stopped from demolishing the house then there is still a large garden that could partitioned. Two semi-detached houses could be built on the annexed land to continue the line of the existing properties on Lincoln Road. They could even be set back from the others with two off street parking spaces provided. This means the cottage could be saved and the developers would still earn money from the building of a couple of houses, which would also suit the existing housing stock and be appropriate for the location. 

We should be actively protecting what little remains of Peterborough's history and heritage, and that includes the quirky buildings and the awkward ones. The angry responses to the demolition of the building show that people do care and they do value the building and gardens. And in response to the argument that we need more houses, an application has gone in to build some apartments on a nearby green, so the need is being met elsewhere. For once, it's time to let a bit of history remain in a city that's haemorrhaging its past.

Update: since sharing this blogpost the council have rejected the developer's application to demolish the building. However, this is because they had only asked for prior approval and they would need to submit full planning permission to be allowed to destroy the building. This story is definitely not over!

(1) Stamford Mercury, 9 March 1838, p.3.

Map reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland

https://search.savills.com/property-detail/gb0400l144366

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/128195936#/?channel=RES_BUY

https://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/news/politics/council/lets-have-some-old-peterborough-left-plans-to-demolish-19th-century-building-criticised-by-residents-4139563

Was There a Deerpark in Westwood?

One of the things I love to do is to read old maps. In fact, if you ask me something related to a street in the centre of Peterborough the image I'm mentally walking through is of a Victorian map of the city - fun, yes, but not always helpful.

Old maps offer a view into the past that we don't get from more personal or legal accounts. They show us how features related to each other in the countryside, where paths and roads existed that do not now and how some modern features follow routes and lines that are centuries old (Frank Perkins Parkway I'm looking at you!).

The 1824-36 Cassini map of Peterborough takes a rather broad swipe at the district and does not have the beloved detail of later maps, but what it does allow us to do is to put Peterborough into context in the landscape. Peterborough appears small, which it was; it was an unremarkable market town on the fen edge with a rural rather than urban feel to it. In comparison, Whittlesea, only a few miles southeast, takes up a similar area to Peterborough on its almost fish-shaped island (check the map and see if you agree). The only building obvious to the untrained eye is, unsurprisingly, the cathedral, with other iconic buildings like the museum, Guildhall and St John's merged into rectangles or identified as inky boxes.

The eye quickly tires of Peterborough in such a large landscape and, thanks to the centring of the map, usually wanders west along the Nene. Thorpe Hall and its grounds take up a significant area, but this pales into comparison with its near neighbour Milton Hall and park, which could have successfully consumed Peterborough twice and still had space for Thorpe Park.

What you might notice about the outer edges of the Milton landscape is that it is irregular. Many old features in the landscape seem irregular, wobbly, or illogical and incongruous against modern straight roads (or indeed Roman roads), particularly when observed against the straight lines of (relatively) modern fenland fields. This irregularity makes the Westwood Farm landscape stand out further.

Westwood Farm is located directly east of Milton Park and north of Thorpe Hall on the map and is very easy to spot due to its almost hexagonal boundary shape. The hexagonal boundary is a solid wall of trees that, with an additional fence and/or bank, would have created a significant barrier around the land. There are four points of entry/exit from the land, with three of them linking directly to the farm. Thick boundary walls of trees were commonly associated with deer parks in the past and it's possible to identify the remains of Fotheringhay's tree boundary to the southwest on the same map to directly compare it with a known feature. So was Westwood Farm once a deer park?

One clue that this might once have been a deer park is the inner rectilinear shape within the boundary. The round-cornered rectangle identifies a ditch that would have ring-fenced the farm and any personal gardens or crops that the residents grew. This would have been necessary if the park land was indeed a deer park, because you wouldn't want to wake up to discover your entire cabbage crop has been eaten by your four-legged crop, or to discover them nibbling your best sheets when you hung them out to dry! The deer, or other animals, would have roamed the space between the tree boundary and the ditch, which sounds like a lovely life.

But let us just compare a few features. Firstly, the grounds of Westwood Farm are larger than Thorpe Hall and as large as the city of Peterborough, so this is a very significant space. Secondly, the boundary shape has quite neat and angular edges, suggesting that it could be more modern than the medieval deer parks of old, although the strange kink in the south-western side suggests features that have perhaps been lost over time. Thirdly, with Milton Park sitting so close, why would Westwood Farm have such a large deer park? Was the land owned by a competing landowner or rising nobility who wanted to prove his status by the building of an enormous deer park?

In order to create a medieval deerpark a landowner would need to gain a licence. Torpel Manor near Helpston had a licence for a deer park, as did Peterborough Abbey, Fotheringhay and Collyweston. Nearby King's Cliffe deer park was associated with a royal hunting lodge and Rockingham with the expansive forests used for royal hunting. The most famous deer park locally is Burghley because it still has a healthy deer herd, but we should not forget Milton deer park, also of Tudor origin and also with a present deer herd. In short, most, if not all of the deer parks locally had a royal or religious connection. So did Westwood have any connections?

Records in the National Archives show that Bishop Francis Dee lived at or owned Westwood in the 1630s and a item from the cloister was discovered in the farm's well, likely to have been placed there following the dissolution of Peterborough Abbey. Dee's wife Elizabeth (later Orme) spent many years seemingly fighting with the abbey over his will, including Westwood Farm.

One final observation can be made with the Cassini Map by comparing it with Bryant's Map of the County of Northamptonshire Surveyed 1824-26. This identifies the same features but does so in a different form. Milton Park's tree boundary is far greater than the Cassini map alludes to, covering the majority of the eastern side of the park - a small but interesting feature. What is very clear on Bryant's Map is that the parkland of Thorpe and Milton is marked with shading and Westwood is not; it is farmland. The clearest message are the words 'Westwood Plantation' to the west of the farm, a sure sign that the trees have been planted as a crop themselves, a crop that encircles the farm and the herd of animals within. This is also repeated across the county at Easton Lodge too, where a tightly rectangular tree bank borders the house there.

Westwood Farm was not a long-lost deer park, but it has had an interesting history, and does look very impressive on 200-year-old maps. Should you want to view Bryant's Map, contact Peterborough Archives and request a look at the map. The image below is from the Cassini map.