55 VALE ROAD
Also named Engadine. Originally number 28, but between 1901 and 1905 the street was renumbered so that instead of the north side of Vale Road being numbered numerically from 1, odd numbers were used as now. This account is partly based on deeds kindly lent by the current owners, which are summarised in italics.
A 99 year leasehold for the lot with its house called Engadine was handed over by the Eversfield family in 1895 for 4 guineas a year.
16 Oct 1895. Mrs Isabella Eversfield of Denne Park, Horsham, conveyed a lease to Edward Gutsell of a plot with a newly erected dwellinghouse in Vale Road for 99 years from 25 December 1894 at £4 4s ground rent. A simple plan shows what is now 53 “leased to Edward Gutsell” and what is now 57 “agreed to be leased to Edward Gutsell”. 59 and beyond labelled “Eversfield estate”. Plot marked as 26 feet wide, 110 feet 6 inches long. In handwriting on the deed given as no. 28, Engadine.
The house was apparently not finished in that the plot had to be fitted with “out-buildings, sewers and drains”. A fire insurance policy was also required. Gutsell was presumably the builder, and would have been in charge of the building site from the 25 December 1894 date mentioned in the deed, although newspaper mentions show that he was mainly a contractor building sewers and so on.
However, a purchase price was presumably also involved, but is not mentioned. The only mention of a price other than the annual four guineas is the right, within five years, to buy the “fee simple” for £126.
Two days later Edward Gutsell borrowed £300 at 2% interest, secured on the leasehold. The fact that this deed is included in the deeds strongly suggests he needed the cash for buying or improving the property. Gutsell’s widow Fanny was living at Cobden Villa, no. 2 Vale Road, when she died on the 17 April 1925, aged 77. Her husband is said to have died twenty years before in the Hastings and St Leonards Observer, 25 April 1925’s obituary and funeral notice.
18 Oct 1895. Edward Gutsell of St Leonards on Sea, builder, mortgager, and James Woodhams of Havelock Road, Hastings, auctioneer, and Herbert Hunter of Queens Road, Hastings, coach builder, the mortgagees. Refers to the 16 Oct 1895 lease. Mortgagees to lend to the mortgager £300. The sum to be repaid with interest of £6 per annum on the 28 March [1896].
He appears to have failed to pay it back at the agreed date and so the lenders, Woodhams and Hunter, owned the lease and sold it on in 1900 at auction for £455.
The newspapers (Bexhill Observer and the Hastings and St Leonards Observer, both 21 July 1900; the latter, 28 July, says it was sold for £455] contain a very detailed description of the house. The newspapers also mention that a Miss Green was the actual occupant at an annual rent of £35.
In the April 1901 census we see for the first time details of the occupants:
Engadine: Ellen M. Green, head, single, 38, living on own means, born Worcestershire, Bromsgrove
Emily F. Burgess, boarder, single, 42, living on own means, b Buckinghamshire, Steeple Cleydon
Grace J. Edwards, servant, single, 17, general servant domestic, b Sussex, St Leonards
So Miss Green was subletting a room or two to Burgess, as well as having a servant.
Ellen Mary Green was the eldest of ten children of William Green, nail manufacturer, who left £27309 on his death in 1887. In the 1891 census she was a trained nurse living at the Leicestershire General Infirmary. In the 1911 census she was living with the same boarder, Emily Frances Burges, at 100 Woodside, Wimbledon, in the 1911 census. She died 1948, Hastings. Her boarder, Emily Frances, was daughter of Richard, a clergyman and died 27 Apr 1916, 77 Oxford Avenue, Wimbledon.
The successful bidder for the leasehold at the 1900 auction was Hannah Hartley, the wife of George, who was living next door at Friedens Thal/ Friedensthal, no. 57. The deed shows that John Franklin Felton of Chesterton, Vale Road [no. 47], was also involved for some reason and earned a commission of £2.
25 Aug 1900. Assignment by James Woodhams of Havelock Road, Hastings, auctioneer and valuer, and Herbert Hunter of Queens Road, Hastings, coachbuilder, the vendors, first part, to John Franklin Felton of Chesterton, Vale Road, Silverhill, second part, and Hannah Hartley, the wife of George Hartley, of Friedens Thal [Friedensthal], Vale road, gentleman, the purchaser, third part. £455 to be paid to the vendors, £2 to Felton.
In 1909 the freehold for both no. 55 and no. 57 was purchased by Hannah Hartley for £252 from the heirs of the Eversfields.
7 Aug 1909. Conveyance of the freehold by Edward Maximilian Eversfield of Denne Park, Horsham, Esq. and Henry Beauclerk Bethune of 86 Thomas Street, Portsmouth, a retired Major, HM Army, to Hannah Hartley, wife of George Hartley, of Friedens Thal, no. 57 Vale Road, gentleman, of the properties of 55 and 57 Vale Road for £252. Charles Gilbert Eversfield of Denne Park had by a will dated 15 March 1880 appointed his wife Isabella sole executrix. He had a sister, Ann Isabella Mary Bethune, whose 2nd son but eldest surviving son was Edward Maximilian Bethune. Refers to building leases to Frederick William Pigott and Henry Vaughan. The properties are known as Engadine and Friedens Thal, respectively no. 55 and 57, and occupied respectively by Stephen Highmore Elvey and Hannah Hartley. A memorandum adds that by an indenture dated 16 Apr 1913, between Hannah Hartley and Louisa Kekewich, no. 57 was conveyed to the latter. Land Registry HT 10587.
Hartley let out no. 55 and in the April 1911 census, the most recent available to see, we have at no. 55, which is described as a seven room house:
Stephen Highmore Elvey, 43, married 6 years, bank clerk, born Middlesex, Teddington
Annie Margaret Elvey, 32, wife, born Middlesex, Bow
Olive Elvey, 16, daughter, apprentice millinery, born Surrey, Kingston
Stephen Highmore Elvey, of Long View, Caldbec Hill, Battle, died 21 Nov 1941.
In 1913 no. 57’s freehold was sold by Hannah Hartley to Louisa Kekewich. It would make sense that no. 55 was sold at the same time, but this deed appears to be missing. It appears to have been sold to Charles Edgar Kiefer-Bennett, as in 1921 Charles Edgar Kiefer-Bennett, of Eversley, Eversley Road, sold the freehold of no. 55 for £950 to James Robert Cheesman, of Rosary, Bath Road, Banbury, Oxfordshire, gentleman.
1 March 1921. Conveyance by Charles Edgar Kiefer-Bennett, of Eversley, Eversley Road, to James Robert Cheesman, of Rosary, Bath Road, Banbury, Oxfordshire, gentleman, of the freehold property of Engadine, no. 55 Vale Road, for £950.
Kiefer-Bennett was of Eversley when he died 15 Aug 1925 at the Buchanan Hospital.
Cheesman was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1856. He was a widowed post office official, having married Ellen Sherrard in Kent in 1874; she died 1908. In the 1930 electoral register he lived at no. 55 with his housekeeper, Miss Smith.
The September 1939 Register [for rationing purposes] shows at no. 55:
James R. Cheesman, widower, born 9 July 1856, Post Office postmaster retired
Emma A. Smith, single, born 30 Nov 1873, housekeeper
He died at no. 55 on the 12 Jan 1942.
The Hastings and St Leonards Observer on the 24 January 1942 has a brief account of Cheesman, saying he served 40 years in the Post Office. He was a freemason and a churchwarden of St Matthew’s church. The funeral was held there, with Etheridge nephews and nieces attending, and also his faithful housekeeper Miss Smith. The will was proven by another post office official named Vaughan, presumably a friend.
Following Cheesman’s death, Vaughan, in winding up the estate, sold the freehold on to a Robertsbridge farmer, William Henry Ford, for £725.
29 Sept 1942. Conveyance by Edward James Vaughan of 64 Florida Road, Thornton Heath, Surrey, retired Post Office official, to William Henry Ford, of “Hackswood”, Robertsbridge, Sussex, farmer, of the property of Engadine, 55 Vale Road. Price, £725.
The 1948 Kelly’s Directory lists Mrs Irene Mary French as the occupant of no. 55. Your deeds include a letter addressed to Mrs I. French enclosing the deeds, dated 14 Nov 1946, and also a Land Registry document dated 24 September 1945 showing that Mary Irene French (not Irene Mary) had purchased it. One of your documents from the Land Registry says that she is the wife of Peter Henry French and that the cost was £1500.
I find a Peter Henry French marrying in Hastings in 1945, but to Mary G. Moon. Why did the wife and not the husband do the purchasing ? A mystery. Perhaps she was divorced or separated from him but if they only married in 1945… I found a Peter Henry French dying in 2004, Hastings, who was born 20 Feb 1920.
I can only add scattered facts after that. For example, in the 1973 Kelly’s Directory, F.W. Dallimer is shown as the occupant of no. 55.
I find intriguing an Abbey National document dated 10 May 1978 which mentions enquiries before contract in 1957 of French and Dallimer, both surnames we knew were connected with the house. It also mentions the death of E.M. Dallimer in 1965 and the probate of the will of F.W. Dallimer in 1976.
This would be Ethel Maud Dallimer, who was aged 68 when she died at no. 55 on 18 July 1965 (you have the death certificate) and Frederick William Dallimer, who was born 9 February 1891, St Pancras, Middlesex, and died at no. 55 on 2 September 1975. He had married Ethel Mary Moule in Willesden, Middlesex, in 1914. He served in the Royal Fusiliers in World War I, a bus conductor when he joined up, 7 September 1914. In the 1939 Register they were living in Harrow, Middlesex and he was a bus depot inspector (for London Transport, says his wife’s death certificate).