The Chestnuts 1600s - 1882

The Chestnuts 1600s - 1882

Introduction

Walk down Church Street in St Ives towards All Saints Parish Church. On the left, 1960s housing replaced the 1849 vicarage and garden. On the right, most 18th-century buildings remain intact.

The Chestnuts, 7 Church Street, is Grade II listed and one of the town’s oldest buildings. Behind its later façade is a house dating to the early 1600s, with changes made in the late 1600s, 1700s, and 1800s. This historic house has ties to both nobility and education. Read on to learn more.

The Chestnuts, 7 Church Street, St Ives.

First alterations

The layout, roof structure (side purlin, no ridge piece) and internal features suggest an original early 1600s L-shaped building. Parts of the house are 400 years old.

Major alterations occurred in the late 1600s, as shown below. The two ground floor rooms were reduced to create a hall, with the existing tiles, panel doors, and hinges dating from this period. The current staircase was added, along with an upstairs sitting room. The occupants from this time remain unknown.

Changes to The Chestnuts late 1600s.

Late 1600s staircase.

Early 1600s panelling on late 1600s door.

Earliest records

In 1797, the house sale included a dovecote, visible at the back of the garden on the 1808 Enclosure Map. John Skeeles mentioned it as one of three ancient Dove Cotes. The 1728 Pettis map doesn’t show it, though Pettis did miss things sometimes. Still, the dovecote is notable. Manorial rolls mention: 

A messuage or tenement in St Ives called the Green End with the Dovecote and Garden ... to which Sir Thomas Hatton and Dame Harriott, his wife, were admitted tenants at Court on 14 April 1784 on the will of Ann Askham.

The trail to that entry starts with Dingley Askham a native of St Ives and an attorney. Or a low born attorney, according to his client, Thomas Cotton, Squire of Conington. Dingley became infamous after eloping in 1729 with Frances Cotton, marrying her at St Ives. She was the only daughter and heiress of Thomas Cotton. Enraged by the marriage, Thomas died in a drunken fury. Frances inherited his estate, including The Chestnuts. Or rather, Dingley Askham inherited as her husband.

Conington Hall, Cambridgeshire. Grade II listed, c1730.

Using his new wealth, Dingley built Conington Hall, a grand house of four stories, with stables, gardens, fish ponds, greenhouses, and a 120-acre farm. One imagines Thomas Cotton’s ghost fuming at how his money was spent.

A memorial plaque in the south aisle of St Ives Parish Church mentions Dingley and Frances. After Dingley’s death in 1781, their daughter Ann Askham inherited the estates, including The Chestnuts. She died three years later. The property passed to her brother-in-law, Sir Thomas Hatton, with several other local estates.

Landed gentry

The first Baron of Longstanton, a descendant of King Edward III and Member of Parliament, was appointed in 1641. His 1685 epitaph at Longstanton describes him as a companion and servant to both King James I and King Charles I.

The title passed through the male line to Sir Thomas Hatton, the 8th Baron. His wife was Harriott Askham, sister of Ann Askham. Sir Thomas and Lady Harriott had 2 sons and 6 daughters.

Sir Thomas Hatton, 8th Baronet of Longstanton, with Lady Hatton, c1752.

When Sir Thomas died in 1787, their eldest son, John, inherited the title and estates. Sir John Hatton soon faced legal trouble. In 1796, a Mr. Mortlock claimed control of the Hatton estates, presenting a deed signed in Boulogne in 1787, just days after Sir Thomas’s death, transferring Sir John’s rights in trust. The motive remains unclear since no payment was recorded. Despite the deed, Sir John retained control of all but one estate.

Sir John Hatton (52) died in 1811, and his younger brother, Thomas Dingley Hatton, became the 10th and final Baron of Longstanton. He held the title for just over a year. In 1812, returning from Cambridge in a two-horse chaise, a broken rein caused the horses to bolt and the carriage overturned. Sir Thomas (42) suffered a fatal skull fracture and died at home. The title passed only through the male line. Sir Thomas never married, and despite having six sisters, no heir could succeed him. The title expired on his death.

More alterations

Although Thomas Dingley Hatton's name appears on the earliest deeds for The Chestnuts, it's unlikely he stayed there for long, having grander residences. Instead, the house was probably leased as part of the Hatton family's St Ives estate.

In April 1797, Sir Thomas, as trustee with solicitor Thomas Ryder, sold The Chestnuts to Thomas Hunt of St Neots. Thomas remodelled the building. Many of the changes were to the exterior, evident today. The ground floor front gained bay windows in the Venetian style. He refaced the building with a 9 inch brick wall, creating the parapet guttering jutting out from the tiled roof, a common feature in St Ives for this period.

Changes to The Chestnuts late 1700s.

Contrasts in Church Street

Thomas Hunt's changes made The Chestnuts a more elegant building, and much of Church Street was similarly stylish. On the same side stood several 18th-century buildings, most of which still exist. Opposite was the old vicarage with its spacious garden.

All the more striking, then, was the fact that directly across from The Chestnuts lay one of St Ives’ poorest areas. In 1930, John Skeeles recalled Poor Folk's Square and Poor Folk's Lane, a strip barely twenty yards wide, as follows.

The present generation would not believe the number of human habitations and occupants that were crowded on the small space between the Lane and the Vicarage garden wall.

Pettis Map, 1728. Poor Folk's Square & Poor Folk's Lane outlined in red.
The Chestnuts is outlined in green.

In 1844, under the headline Fatal Outrage at St Ives, a newspaper article offered a vivid account of life in Poor Folk’s Lane. Martha Asplin, one of the central figures in the drama, admitted to keeping a house of ill repute.

Part of Poor Folk’s Square was cleared before 1841. The corner opposite what was later the Aviator pub became a burial ground for victims of the 1825 typhus and 1835 cholera epidemics. By 1851, the remainder was cleared to allow the Parish Church cemetery to extend to its present boundary beside Ramsey Road. Poor Folk’s Lane became Church Lane by 1871, and within a decade, the remaining hovels were removed.

Owner occupier

After Hunt's death in 1821, the house passed to his nephew, also Thomas Hunt, from a long line of St Ives plumbers and glaziers. His sister, widow Sarah Cook, was a tenant and opened a girls’ school at The Chestnuts in 1823.

In 1841, Thomas Hunt (54) became the first recorded owner-occupier, living Behind the church with his mother, Sarah Hunt (82), and sister, Sarah Cook (50). All three were of independent means, with their household including servant Mary Smith (18). The girls' school had seemingly closed.

By 1851, Richard Price, curate of St Ives Parish Church, lodged with Thomas and Sarah Cook. It appears there wasn't enough space for him in the roomy vicarage straight across the road. Or the vicar, his wife and son preferred their privacy.

The vicarage of St Ives Parish Church, c1883.

In 1861, Thomas Rusby, another curate, was the lodger. Thomas Hunt (74) was retired, while Sarah Cook (72) was listed as Proprietor of House and Shareholder. Thomas Hunt died in 1867, and ownership passed to Sarah Cook.

Upon Sarah’s death in 1871, The Chestnuts was sold to Thomas Payne, a retired grocer and philanthropist from Swavesey. He rented the house out as an investment, and at some point, Charles Dashwood Goldie, vicar from 1866, acquired the lease.

Charles Dashwood Goldie

With eight daughters, a son, a governess, and five servants, it’s unlikely Rev. Goldie and his wife lived at The Chestnuts. It more likely housed his curate.

Born in Paris and educated at St John's College, Cambridge, Charles Goldie stirred controversy at St Ives Parish Church. From the 1850s, the Church of England’s Bells and Smells movement began adopting Catholic-style practices. Even small changes, like rearranging furniture, alarmed the congregation.

St Ives was especially unreceptive to such reforms. Oliver Cromwell, a staunch Puritan and opponent of ritualism, had lived in St Ives and signed the death warrant of King Charles I, in part due to the King's Catholic sympathies. Cromwell’s influence lingered; St Ives erected a public statue of him in 1901. Even in 1920, there were protests over the War Memorial simply because it was a cross.

Unveiling of Cromwell's statue in St Ives, 1901.

Posters summoned locals to a stormy vestry meeting, likely led by churchwarden Read Adams, who attacked the vicar. Previous reforms had already triggered complaints to the Bishop. Church attendance dropped, and in 1867, the Hunts Protestant Association formed to counter perceived Papist efforts.

In 1869, Goldie worsened matters by trying to levy a two-penny church rate to repair the church, despite a new law making such rates voluntary. Adams mobilised opposition with handbills. Where 40 might usually attend a vestry meeting, 400 came. Only two supported the tax.

Goldie died of consumption (tuberculosis) in 1886, aged 60. Described as tireless and courteous, he eventually earned the respect of many who had once opposed him.

To read more instalments about this house, click The Chestnuts. To view stories of other interesting houses and their residents in St Ives in the style of David Olusoga's BBC television programme, click A House Through Time. To access more topics on the social history of St Ives, its resident and the surrounding area, click St Ives 100 Years Ago.