The Old House

  • The Old House
  • 2018. The Old House
  • 2018. The Old House
  • 2019. The Old House
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The Cooper family had a brick kiln by 1742 and there is reference to Cooper’s bricks in 1793. The Enclosure Award map of 1813 shows the holding which they were awarded. The Old House was built in the late 18th century for this family who also owned the quarry on the other side of the lane. They used the Kimmeridge clay from their own property to make bricks, but later, the brick business was transferred to Littleworth, where the clay was more suitable. He bricks were used in several Wheatley houses and cottages.

Listing details state 'House. Late C18; rear possibly mid C18. Limestone rubble and ashlar quoins with brick front; old plain-tile roof and brick stacks. Central-passage plan with rear and subsidiary wings. 2 storeys. Symmetrical 3-window front of main range is in Flemish bond with flared headers, and has 3-light Gothick windows flanking the central door and the 2-light window above it. All have small panes and stone flat arches. Moulded ovolo stone eaves cornice below hipped roof. Irregular rat-trap bond brick and tiled range to left with further Gothick windows. Gable
wall of rubble rear wing has a tall window over a central bay. Further rubble brick and tiled range to left is linked to subsidiary wing'.

Extract from the 1910 valuation survey map, when the house and garden was owned and occupied by Miss Hinksman, show that there were no outbuildings or kilns in the grounds, but part of the grounds were described as the old brickyard. But the 3 acres of the lime kilns and quarry was still owned by the Coopers. presumably the latter was land closer to Westfield Road, with the quarry further towards Park Hill. Emily Cooper, presumably the widow, was living at Rock House (436) renting this from John Rose. Between 1917 and 1919, the house was briefly owned by Mrs Leslie Milne, who later (1925) acquired The Manor. The 1921 census shows the occupier as Henry Walter Houle and his wife Mabel Mary Houle, daughter Mabel Winnie Houle and two servants.

Miss Dale, who was a Justice of the Peace (JP), bought the house in the 1920s. In August 1922 the Catholics of Wheatley met to celebrate Mass in The Old House, Kiln Lane, where Miss Dale (still living here in 1939) made a room available for them. and she allowed the annexe to be used as a chapel for the local Roman Catholic Congregation, until the Second World War when a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes was opened in the new military hospital at Holton Park. Since then Wheatley has had a centre for Mass, but it was not until 1964 that a permanent church was sited in Crown Road.

Early in the 1960s the house was used by the Born Family. Mr Born was the Bailiff for the Shotover estate. The wall bounding the Shotover Estate had a door in it.

Then the property was bought by Lt.Col. John Ashton, and his wife, Joan, who was a very keen gardener, and he created the lake. In the 1980s it was owned by the Minty Family: Norman and Daphne with their three sons: Christopher, Jeffrey and Richard. They remained living at the separate stone building, now 11 Kiln Lane, for some time, selling off the major part of the property.

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