Laburnum Terrace

Owners of No. 20 Gloucester Road

John Hodges was the first owner of this house.

The Williams family
By 1865 the house had been conveyed to John Williams, the husband of Emma, John Hodges' daughter.  This is confirmed by an indenture in the deeds of No. 8 Gloucester Road which has a map showing the ownership of property in the terrace in 1865.  John Williams is shown as the owner of No. 20.  It appears that John Hodges provided for his children before his death by transferring Nos. 12, 14, 20 and 22 to John & Emma Williams.

The house stayed in the Williams family until 1983.  Following the death of John & Emma Williams, both in 1897, their estate was passed to their son, John Hodges Williams.  John was already a successful businessman.  The Thornbury Directory 1897 lists him as a 'silk mercer, linen draper, family mourning and funerals furnished, and collector of income tax'.  It shows him as operating from Victoria House and Bon Marche in the High Street.  In 1902, the words '& house furnisher, The Stores, and glass & earthen ware, The Beehive' were added to his list of interests.  In 1902 John Hodges Williams was the Mayor of Thornbury.

In due course, the house was transferred to Henry William Williams, son of John Hodges Williams.  We have not found out when Henry William Williams became the owner but we have some indication as we found the records of the Pitcher family business held in the museum.  These include two invoices.  One shows that in 1934 the Pitchers did some work for John Hodges Williams at the Beard’s house (which we know to be number 20).  It was described as “a 10 gallon furnace pan which costs 9s 4d plus labour 2s 6d (1 ½ hours work).”  There was also an invoice dated the 31st July 1934 which says “G Beard’s providing and fixing new galvanised boiler pan as agreed £1.5.0”.  This was charged to Mr H W Williams.  This implies that the property changed hands about this time.

Henry W. Williams had run a grocer and tea dealer's shop at 'The Golden Key', Thornbury and eventually became the owner of much of the 'Williams' property in Thornbury including the properties in Gloucester Road.  Henry moved away from Thornbury although he kept his interest in the properties here.  He and his wife moved to Southgate in Middlesex.

When he died on the 21st December 1960, the house became part of the estate administered by his widow, Ada Williams, who was living in Southgate and her nephew, John Merrick Williams, who was living in Westbury Park, Bristol.  The estate included 64 High Street, 1a Silver Street, The old malt house in St Mary’s Street and the premises which was then Thornbury Motors, 4 The Plain and 12 Gloucester Road.

On 21st June 1975, Ada Williams passed her trusteeship to Frances Williams, who appeared to be the wife of John Merrick Williams.  John Merrick & Frances Theresa Williams were living at 14 Beaufort Road, Clifton in 1983 when the house was eventually sold.


The Walker family
On the 19th August 1983, after the death of the tenant, Mrs Beard, the property was then bought by Philip Walker and Carol James.

Philip and Carol were a young Thornbury couple who moved into number 20 immediately following their marriage.  Philip had lived in North Road and drove a heavy lorry from Tytherington Quarry.  Carol was a midwife and had previously lived in Hillcrest.  They had to do a lot of work to do to modernise the house which had been neglected for many years.  In 1984 they had a major extension to the house involving the demolition of the single storey kitchen and bathroom and replaced it with a two-storey building.  Philip and Carol had two children whilst living here before moving to a larger house in Hillcrest.

The McGonagel family
On 24th November 1992, Philip and Carol sold their house to Andrew and Catherine McGonegal, who had been living in Lavender Close in Thornbury.  Andy came from Yorkshire and was a civil engineer who worked on several major local projects, including the Second Severn Crossing, the Avon Bridge and the new water treatment plant at Purton.  Cathy was a GP who worked at the local health centre.

Cathy and Andy had three young children, Tom, who was the quiet one of the family, Jamie who was rather more assertive and Ellie who was quiet but determined.

Andy made a huge construction at the bottom of the garden of railway sleepers and concrete for the children to play on.  It included a shed for Andy and slides for the children and even an underground cellar with cut-off plastic drain pipes to hold wine bottles.  Some of the older neighbours watched with baited breathe as little Ellie who could only just walk, followed her brothers when they climbed.  It was never quite finished but was indestructible - like the children.   It remained until 2003 when new owners arranged for its removal.  Parts of it are still there underground, waiting to puzzle future archaeologists.

The McGonegals moved to Saffron Waldon in 1996 because Andy was tired of being away from home or commuting to London.  He was now working on the construction of the new Treasury Building opposite the Houses of Parliament.

The Curtis family
The house was bought by Neil and Sarah Curtis.  Neil was another civil engineer and Sarah was a personnel officer.  They had one baby, Max, whilst living in the house.  They sold the house in December 2002 and made their home in Castle Street.

The Days
The new owners are Raymond and Barbara Day.  They moved to Thornbury in 2002 from Clifton.  They had originally come from London, having moved to live in Somerset for some years before moving to Clifton.


Click here for more information on the families who occupied the property as TENANTS

This page was last updated: 23/03/2007