Lectures

6th March 2019: Some Houses in Church Street

After the AGM of the Wye Historical Society had concluded the packed room listened to the Society’s President, the Revd John Makey, speak about ‘Some Houses in Church Street.’ Revd Makey started with the 1746 plan of Wye which shows the main thoroughfares of the village and certain buildings, such as the Bailiff’s House (prison) on The Green, which are still standing. At this time The Green was still unenclosed by houses. By 1870 the market, which was once held in Church Street, had moved to Ashford. An 1880 photo shows The King’s Head, Clarabut’s the Draper’s shop and the Star Brewery. Another photo taken in 1903 shows a fair outside ‘Zeald’s House’, a large building dating from the 1700s. ‘Corner Croft’ on the left corner by the church was previously known as ‘The Statuary’ as it had ornate statutes. Revd Makey remarked that the house dates from the early 1500s as the roof contains crown post pillars. What was once The Bull public house became a butcher’s shop owned by a Mr Maxted. This later became Wakelins and is still a butcher’s today. The King’s Head pub was a coaching inn and contained a ballroom, and the Post Office was in the buildings behind. The pub was badly damaged in the 1889 fire which also destroyed Clarabut’s and the Star Brewery, where the fire started. The fire was so fierce it cracked windows in the houses opposite. The King’s Head suffered further damage in World War I when a plane crashed into the roof; also a chimney stack fell in the Great Storm of 1987. Aerial shots showed the area after the fire, still empty in the 1920s and in the 1970s when Taylor’s garage had the site, making use of an aircraft hangar from the World War I airfield.

Number 4 Church Street was an undertaker’s and hatters from 1740; in the early 1900s it was owned by William Lamberton who installed the first public telephone in Wye. Number 10 Church Street was Back’s General Stores in the Victorian era; later Budgens Grocers and, in 1988, Bentley Computers. It has now been converted to a house. Mummery’s shop and Post Office was on the corner of Church Street and The Green in 1920 but following a fire in 1947 the Post Office moved next door, later moving again to its current purpose-built location. On the other corner into The Green was for many years the Wye Hill Café where the Misses Kiln made homemade cakes. It is now the ‘Golden Wye’ Chinese Restaurant. Towards the top of the street, Church Gate Stores was taken over by Geering’s Stationers and extended. It is now Wye News.

The final photograph of the evening showed the 1977 Silver Jubilee street party. There were numerous questions and comments from the audience, several of whom live in Church Street. Observations included that most houses in the street have cellars and in many cases these pre-date the current houses. As well as the pump outside the Methodists, some houses have two wells.

Ellie Morris