Wheatley - Village Archive

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Talk summary given by Robert Avery in February 2009.

Archive Notes:

Summary of Robert Avery's talk about 'Growing up on Ladder Hill' complete with two maps which show the development of the houses on this and reference to the Avery sawmill. The three houses to the west of Ladder Hill and just before Windmill Lane are, today, numbers 42, 44 and 46. Dennis who owned Hill Farm in 1910 lived at number 42.

1950s or 1960s drawing shows the railway station, Avery timber yard, and houses standing from this earlier time, these shown in blue with house names and name of occupier. The house occupied by Clark was the station master's house, later demolished and now Nos 25, 27 and 29 Ladder Hill.

2009 drawing shows the houses in 2009, those in blue were standing previously (with occupiers according to the 1939 Kelly Directory) being Green Hedges (20), Nos 42-46, Elpis (now Hill House), Edgehill (1939, Albert Avery), Windmills, Windy Ridge (1939, James Avery, since re-named as High Ridge) Longside (1939, Leonard Avery), Six Acres, and Coombe House. Also in 1939, William Avery lived at The Lodge, and Henry Avery at The Orchard, both in Park Hill - see record 2073 for Kelly Directory ownerships. Houses in red are those more recently added.

Robert Avery told a wonderful story of the three Miss Briggs who lived in Coombe House at the top of Ladder Hill. They would telephone London stores like Harrods and Fortnum and Mason, to order delicacies for their lunch: asparagus, strawberries and foie gras, for example, and ask to have them put on the train at Paddington to be dropped off at Wheatley. It was the lad-porter’s job to take them up the hill and deliver them to the Misses Briggs in time for lunch! The date of this is not recorded but it may well have been the mod 1920s - they were still living here in 1939.

2018 Google Earth extract shows the development as at that date.

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