Laburnum Terrace

No. 8 Gloucester Road, Thornbury

The 1840 Tithe Map shows that there was a workshop and yard on the land now occupied by number 8.  The workshop and yard were owned and used by John Hodges, the builder who was living just down the road and building the properties which would form Laburnum Terrace.  To the rear of the workshops was a garden also owned and used by John Hodges.

We have no precise knowledge as to when No. 8 was built.  The earliest date in the Schedule of Deeds for the house is a conveyance between John Hodges and his son, George Hodges dated 18th August 1865.  There is some doubt about this date as the only conveyance included with the deeds was actually dated 14th August 1865 and this document clearly refers only to the transfer of the two properties in Gloucester Road now known as numbers 16 and 18.

Certainly the Census taken in 1861 suggests that the house was not built before that time.  It was built by the time of the 1871 Census so we have to assume that the house was built between 1861 and 1871.

John Hodges was a builder who had built the other houses in the terrace.  He was born in 1786 so by the 1860’s he would have been in his mid 70’s. It is likely therefore that number 8 was built by George Hodges, John’s son.  Prior to John’s death in 1877, he divided his properties between his two surviving children, George and Emma.  His other son, James, had died in 1866.  Numbers 8, 10, 16 and 18 were conveyed to George Hodges, the others were conveyed to John Williams, the husband of his daughter, Emma.

Our earliest reference to this house being called '8 Gloucester Road' is the 1954 electoral register.  Prior to that there were references to it being '1 Laburnum Terrace', the earliest being in the accounts of John Hodges (the son of George Hodges) showing some building work being done on the house in September 1886.

Click on the following links  to see more details of the owners of No. 8 and the families who occupied the property as tenants

This page was last updated: 04/06/2011