Information - History

Chiseldon House was part of a vast estate as can be seen by the sales catalogue of 1901, which shows when the land was split up and sold off in lots. The owner at that time, being Mr Edward Nicolson Browne. However, when I was a child, the 'Big' House, as we used to call it was owned by a Mr & Mrs Tunnicliffe. It was said Mr Tunnicliffe had, in fact, bought the house as a wedding present for his wife. They employed a gardener, Mr Bert Hinder, who worked very hard keeping the grounds in an immaculate condition.

There was also a housekeeper/maid. Miss Waud, who they seemed to inherit with the house. It seems there was a condition, that whoever bought the house, let Miss Waud have a home there for her lifetime.

The grounds immediately surrounding the house were extremely large.

A lawn at the front also served as a mini golf course and sometimes, in the summer, the village fete would be held in the grounds.

A thick copse, ran from the entrance, along New Road and down Mays Lane. Over the years, a great many trees have been cut down or lost.

Previously, New Road had followed a line that can still be seen running alongside the bank of the house facing down Mays Lane. Looking up Mays Lane, woodland at the top on the left, was cut back dramatically, to widen the road, slightly reduce the steepish incline and take away the sharp comer. Quite a number of trees and shrubs were taken down to make way for the roadworks, that particular spot being very thickly wooded.

A fence made of strands of wire fixed to wooden posts, surrounded the property. However, such was the thickness of the wood, you were still unable to see the house from the road, even in winter when the trees had lost their leaves. The old Coach House, where they kept carriages and later the motor car, is still there, although it can no longer be seen from the driveway. During the war years, the Coach House became the Headquarters of the local Auxiliary Fire Service.

Chiseldon was very proud of it's Fire Service, consisting of all local men who volunteered for the job, until such times as they were called up for further services. Most of the men were on duty each night, during the 1939-1945 war, whether sirens went or not. One night they were called upon to go to Weston-Super-Mare and were gone for about a week, sitting outside in chairs with everything ready, in case of bombs and fires. It was very worrying for their families, who, of course didn't know where they had gone. Miss Waud did all the secretarial work for them.

Before Mr. Nicolson Browne owned the house, there is a story that it was at one time owned by a Mr Philip Buckerfield, who lost it through gambling. It is said that sometime afterwards, he was returning home late at night, when he was set upon by footpads. His horse returned home without him. He was found robbed and badly injured and did not survive the attack.

As children, we were told that an underground passage led from the big house to a Church. It was thought that this was a small private Church somewhere in the grounds. Certainly, when Dr. & Mrs Borrelli bought the house in 1964 and later had builders in, several large underground rooms were found, some near the house, others further away from the house. They were discovered by accident, when one of the builder's trucks fell into a hole, after the ground had given way.

Later on more rooms were discovered, when some buildings were put up on the land. At one time there had been a Malt House on the site, so it is possible that these rooms could have been used for drying the hops, or storing ale, or maybe something else...?

Near and around Chiseldon House were many cottages, all belonging to the estate. Some were estate workers' cottages, others were rented by farm workers. There were two rows of cottages in the Canney for many years. But when the development of Canney Close came about, sadly most of them were knocked down. A row of four were left, because they had been altered and made into one large house, which is still there now and is called Canney Cottage. This house or part of the house was at one time thought to have been a dairy, which was said, by all account, to have sold the best cream in the parish!