Category: Corsley: Gleanings

K.H. Rogers, in Wiltshire And Somerset Woollen Mills, published by the Pasold Research Fund Ltd., in 1976, noted:

Corsley: Stirford
A dye-house and land in Corsley was let on lives to William Down, dyer, in 1733. He appears to have been succeeded by a son, John, who lived until 1789. John’s son, William, died without issue in 1778. He was probably occupying the dye-house, by then, for shortly afterwards it was advertised to let together with a fulling mill. No taker was found, and the business was carried on by William’s two sisters, one of whom remained single while the other married John Carpenter. Carpenter is described on his monument in Corsley Church as an eminent dyer, and his sister-in-law, Ann Down, ‘carried on an extensive and lucrative business as a wool and cloth dyer, and acquired great reputation for accuracy in matching the most difficult colours’. The business still remained in the family; the next owner was Henry Austin Fussell, husband of Hester Ann, daughter of John Carpenter. He died in 1845, when his widow and son carried on the business for a few years.

In 1853, the house and dye-house were put up for sale and valued by Francis Atwood of Salisbury. The remarkably well-built modern mansion house he rated worth £2,500, and the dye-house worth only the materials, except to no one in the trade. Adjoining land brought the value up  to £5,300.

‘With reference to its contiguity to the domain of Longleat’ Atwood continued, ‘and considering that it is almost the only property in the neighbourhood not belonging to the noble owner of that princely estate, and bearing in mind also the great annoyance which an adverse owner might occasion, whether as a sportsman seeking to decoy his neighbour’s game, or as a manufacturer ready to turn to account the water power and other facilities which the place affords for carrying on an extensive trade, it would be difficult to over-estimate the value or name the consideration the proprietor of the adjoining woods and lands might not be willing to pay in order to make this tempting little estate his own, and be empowered to deal with it and its occupants after his pleasure . . . ‘ 

Arguments like these could not be resisted, and the leasehold was bought into hand and the dye-house demolished in 1854.

WRO, 845, lease books and valuation;
BC, 2.4.1778;
DG, 1.11.1821.

K.H. Rogers, in Wiltshire And Somerset Woollen Mills, published by the Pasold Research Fund Ltd., in 1976, noted:

Corsley: Bissford
In 1746, James Cockell, a dyer, took a lease from Lord Weymouth of a house and land at Bissford. It was almost certainly a part of it that stood ‘a convenient and well accustomed dyehouse, with three furnaces, two vats, and fire stove’ which was advertised for sale in the same year. When the lease was renewed in 1779, it was to James’s sons, John and James Cockell of Chapmanslade, clothiers. They and a third brother, Nicholas, were all described as superfine clothiers in the 1790s. They were still in business in 1810, when wool was stolen from workshops they occupied at Chapmanslade, but later they ‘declined business’ according to Richard Harris. The lease of the Bissford dye-house fell in in 1829 on the deaths of John and Nicholas, and the renewal to another party in 1832 shows that the buildings had been converted into a dwelling house.

WRO, 845, lease books;
SJ, 18.8.1746, 2.7.1810;
BJ , 28.7.1746.

From ‘A History Of The County Of Wiltshire: Volume 8, Warminster, Westbury and Whorwellsdown Hundreds.’ Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1965.

The manor of WHITBOURNE TEMPLE, which was held in the later Middle Ages by the Hospital of St. John at Wilton, must have formerly belonged to the Knights Templar of Templecombe (Som.). At the Dissolution the Knights Hospitaller of Templecombe, who succeeded to the Templar property there in 1309, (fn.100) were receiving a rent of 6s. 8d. from their Whitbourne property (fn.101), which was paid by the master of the hospital. (fn.102) It is not known when the Templars acquired Whitbourne; they do not seem to have had it in 1185, but members of the Husee family were then mentioned as benefactors, and may have given part of their fee of Little Corsley after that time. (fn.103) Nor is it known when the Templars alienated their land to the hospital in return for the rent of 6s. 8d. The hospital is first known to have held land in Whitbourne in 1270, (fn.104) and enjoyed the estate until the 16th century. (FN.105) Although St. John’s survived the dissolution of chantries and hospitals, (FN.106) part of Whitbourne Temple was for some reason regarded as confiscated land, and several tenements in it were granted to Sir John Thynne in 1548. (fn.107) Thynne obtained a release from the master of the hospital, (fn.108) but does not seem to have regarded his title as good. When the hospital leased the Whitbourne property to John Middlecott for 99 years in 1571, Thynne obtained the whole of it by various assignments, (fn.109) and his descendants seem to have enjoyed it as leaseholders until 1636. In that year Giles Thornburgh, the new master, attempted to take control of the property and brought a chancery suit against Sir Thomas Thynne. (fn.110) This was apparently unsuccessful for the Thynnes continued to hold the whole manor by lease until the 19th century. (fn.111)

Footnotes:
101. Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i. 202; Cal. Pat. 1557-8, 317. 
102. Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), ii. 100. 
103. B. A. Lees (ed.) Records of the Templars in England (Brit. Acad.), 53, 200. 
104. V.C.H. Wilts. iii. 366; see also C.P. 40/181 (1277). 
105. Hoare, Mod. Wilts. Branch and Dole, 128-9. 
106. V.C.H. Wilts. iii. 366.
107. Cal. Pat. 1548-9, 52. 
108. Longleat MS. 6987. 
109. Ibid. 6832, 6988. 
110. Ibid. 7013. 
111. Ibid. Title Deeds, Schedule I; Endowed Char. Wilts. (1908), p. 849.

The chapter on Corsley in A History Of The County Of Wiltshire, Volume 8, Warminster, Westbury And Whorwellsdown Hundreds, originally published by Victoria County History, 1965, mentions that:

Corsley House stands on its own just north of the Frome-Warminster road. It was begun in 1814 and is an elegantly-designed building showing the Greek influence of the period. The stone ashlar front is of two stories and five bays, with a segmentally-arched Doric porch. The south end of the front range is bowed, and the house has pilasters decorated with incised line ornament. This also appears on the gate piers, and there are contemporary iron railings.

– Information included in a historical study of Corsley by resident Christine Watts, a pupil of Form IVa, Frome Grammar School, during the school’s autumn term 1955:

There is a milestone at the Three Lanes, between Corsley Heath and Lane End, and another at Sturford.

– Information included in a historical study of Corsley by resident Christine Watts, a pupil of Form IVa, Frome Grammar School, during the school’s autumn term 1955:

Hamn’s House at the top of Whitbourne Hill [Corsley] used to be a toll house.

– Information included in a historical study of Corsley by resident Christine Watts, a pupil of Form IVa, Frome Grammar School, during the school’s autumn term 1955:

The Royal Oak [Corsley] was built in 1749, and used to brew its own beer.