The property that is now Threeways House at 56 Castle Street in Thornbury has many aspects that are most unusual.
Click here to read about the owners of the property
The original house seems to have been very small indeed, perhaps only two or three rooms. This older part of the house seems to equate roughly to the stone part of the house in the photograph above. We do not know the age of the original small house but it appears to have been there when the property was sold to John Powell, in a document dated 1777.
We believe that it is likely that John’s elder son John Powell junior who erected a much larger building which was attached to the original house. This is the pink part of the house that is shown in the photograph.
The entrance to this later house was once in the centre of the building and would have faced directly onto the junction with Kington Lane, which gives the property its name of Threeways. The house at first did not appear to have a name and then became Threeways and is now Threeways House. For the sake of clarity we have referred to it as Threeways.
The map on the right is the Tithe Map that was drawn up about 1840. Threeways is plot number 22 towards the bottom of this map. The map shows that the house had already been extended and was a series of buildings and out buildings (shown in grey on plot number 22). The main part of the house actually juts onto the neighbouring plot number 15 and so into the garden of what is now Fairfield House, then owned by Lady Catherine Robinson. The house follows the extreme boundary of plot 22 and so forms part of the wall with the garden ground and orchard behind, then owned by Joseph Parslow.
Some of this unusual boundary can still be seen today at the rear of Threeways House. Even today the garden wall meets the house at the junction of the original house and the one that was built in the early nineteenth century by John Powell. This newer part of the house is still jutting into the grounds of Fairfield House. We understand from the owners that there is an agreement not to put windows into the parts of the building that overlook Fairfield.
We do not know the precise reason for this but we assume it dates from the time in the 18th Century when plot number 14 (later Fairfield House), plot number 22 (later Threeways), plot number 23 (now Wellbourne) and plot number 25 (The Chantry) were all owned by the same person, Edward Mathew.
At the time of the 1840 Tith
e Map it can be also seen that the property on plot 22 (later Threeways) had no garden at its rear. This remained the situation until 1925. In that year an indenture of 29th November the trustees of William Grove Salmon who had lived at The Chantry transferred the ownership of Robinsons field (plot number 21) to the heirs of Henry Hume Lloyd who at that time owned both Threeways and Fairfield House. Part of Robinsons field must have been incorporated into the grounds of Threeways during the tenancy of Grace Commeline. Grace was a tenant at Threeways and the sister of Alice Lloyd. Thus when the rest of Robinsons field was sold with Fairfield House to Captain and Mrs Sears in 1936 a section nearest to Threeways was not included in the sale.
Another interesting feature of Threeways is the cistern in its front garden to collect rainwater. Water was always a problem in Thornbury as there were so few natural streams or wells for the residents of the town. Cisterns were a common solution to this difficulty and were excellent for providing water for washing and other uses but not for drinking. Click here to read more about cisterns
We believe that before Wellbourne Cottage was built on what became plot 23 it had probably been part of a larger plot that incorporated plots 22 and 23. Wellbourne seems to have had a well with fresh water. The Tithe Apportionment of 1840 showed that John Powell owned both plots 22 and 23 and so at that time access to the well would not have been a problem. However in 1845 when Threeways was sold to Thomas Powell this became an issue as he would have required access to fresh water and would have no right to use the well on the neighbouring property (owned in 1845 by John Powell).
The indenture of May 5th 1845 ensured that the new owner Thomas Powell could still have drinking water. The document allowed ‘full and free liberty for the said Thomas Powell his heirs appointees and assigns tenants and occupiers for the time being …… to draw take and carry away water from the well in and upon the adjoining premises in the occupation of the said John Powell party hereto’. Thomas was to pay a price for this concession ‘one moiety of the reasonable costs and charges of keeping the said well with the windlass bucket chains ropes and other the apparatus connected therewith in proper repair’.