South View, (including Little Boydens)
SOUTH VIEW
On the east side of Forge Square is South View which was built about 1890 – completed early 1891 – as it is shown occupied in the 1891 census and also from dates of architect’s drawings. South View was originally built as a convalescent home when it was known as Cottage Home.
It was designed by Ernest George & Peto. The 1881 census shows that there had been a convalescent home in Leigh earlier, but there is no indication of one in 1871. However, the location of this earlier convalescent home in the 1881 census is not clear, but was probably in the heart of the village using an existing property. Both the 1881 convalescent home and South View were initially called ‘Cottage Home’ and were for the employees of the Morley family’s business. But South View was not used as such for very long. The 1891 census lists a matron and inmates, but the 1901 and 1911 censuses give ‘Cottage Home’ as unoccupied. The property has been known as South View since at least 1913 (Kelly’s Directory) by which time it had become a private home rented from the Estate. In 1913, it was occupied by Hubert Russell until his death in 1943. Like most of the Hall Place estate properties it passed into private hands in the 1950s.
As mentioned, Ernest George and Peto were the architects: the house is in Tudor style, with tall chimneys and an irregular form. It has a high pitched tiled roof with tall red brick chimneys. There are decorative half timbered walls with roughcast filling. There is a red brick plinth which rises to the ground floor cills. To the road, it is narrow and of 1 storey and attic, 1 window under wide overhanging gable with carved beams. There is a similar and taller gable, with double overhang, on the right return. There are carved bargeboards and visible beam ends to the overhangs. There are 4 and 5 light wood mullioned windows, some in square bays. On left return, there are first floor oriel bays and a recessed entrance.
The area which runs along the main road east of South View now forms part of the garden at South View. However, it was land once held by the Leigh Vestry and where three Vestry cottages used to stand. It was originally part of Hall Place, but had been given to the Church for the use of the poor by William Saxby of Ramhurst (prior to that they had been held by a Richard Brook until 1655 when he had passed the house and gardens to his daughters.) In 1665, Little Boydens was aliened to William Saxby, who in 1675 aliened it to Henry Saxby and some other gentlemen (including Richard Goodhugh, John Martin, John Wicking, Edward Waller) to the ‘use of the poor of Leigh: premises is near churchyard’ – in the Manorial Records, there is a handwritten scribble stating Trust of Poor. From the Reports of the Charity Commissioners 1815-1839 (see Leigh Parochial Charities), it is stated that there is a deed dated 28 February 1675 by William Saxby and William Wood, which granted to trustees named therein a messuage at or near Leigh Green, in the parish of Leigh, in trust to permit the churchwardens and overseers of the said parish to receive the rents and profits and thereout weekly to provide three twopenny loaves of bread, and to disposes of the same to three poor inhabitants of the said parish . . . It continues: the property consists of five tenements with gardens, adjoining the churchyard, two of which are supposed to have been built at the expense of the parish. According to Lawrence Biddle (Leigh in Kent 1550-1900 p. 133), these cottages were pulled down in the middle of the nineteenth century and replaced by three attached cottages. These three cottages would eventually form part of Leigh United Charities when it was formed in the late 19th century.
A print on page 134 of Lawrence Biddle’s book shows these cottages with the east end of the church in the background. However, by the middle of the 19th century they were in poor condition and were pulled down and replaced by three attached cottages. In the 1872 Drainage Report they are occupied by a Mr Pearson, a Mr Peerless and a Mr Fowler. The Report describes them as “Block of Parish Houses – well guttered, downpipes delivering into water butts. Three sinks, all connected. One common privy for the three houses. One well in front, constant soakage from the high ground of Churchyard behind. The privy has recently been laid dry and a pipe to carry off slops etc added and connected with main drainage”. When Leigh United Charities was formed in the late 19th century, these cottages came under its wings. In 1913, the 3 Vestry Cottages formed part of a straight exchange of land and cottages between Leigh United Charities and Samuel Hope Morley of Hall Place with two cottages owned by Hall Place (Cherry Tree cottages) on the other side of the Green. As part of the exchange, Lord Hollanden agreed to build an additional cottage – Chestnuts. Following the exchange, Lord Hollanden pulled them down to make a garden at the entrance of the village, now part of South View’s garden. Cherry Tree Cottages are still part of the Leigh United Charities Trust to this day, although Chestnuts is now privately owned. (see Deed of Exchange dated 1st August 1913)
In the front garden at South View at Forge Square, there is a stone slab by the hedge which probably covers up an old fountain which supplied water to the village. Water was pumped into four reservoirs in the village and one of these reservoirs, behind the Stone House, supplied the four fountains in the village, one of which was in Forge Square (see article The Engineers Department at Hall Place).
When originally built, Forge Square and South View were all thatched; however, the thatch was subsequently replaced by tiles after 1920.
The initial drawings by Ernest George and Peto of Forge Square are dated May 1886, although the cottages were unlikely to have been built until slightly later as the pastel picture of Forge Row by Edith Hine (nee Heath – who married in October 1887) would have been done in about 1887/88. Likewise, it is clear from these drawings that the design of Forge Square changed by the time of construction. Plans for a convalescent home were finalized in 1890 and the floor plan for Forge Square itself altered and reduced to accommodate this new house. See Forge Square.
Over time, the houses of Forge Square have been sold by the Hall Place Estate into private hands. South View passed into private hands in 1954.
Copies of the architect’s (Ernest George & Peto) plans of South View are stored on CD (Disk 10 – in archives).
The website https://victorianweb.org/art/architecture also is a source for the architects, Ernest George & Peto. However, although it has information on The Square, currently there is nothing on South View or Forge Square.
Joyce Field (Feb 2015)
