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A Walk Around Heigham Grove By Jill Prestt |
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| It was
a glorious afternoon as some thirty of us strolled to the bottom of Heigham
Grove where Alayne Fenner started her historical tour. St. Giles' Gate was demolished in 1792 and in 1826 the prison was erected where St. John's Cathedral now stands. By the 1840s people were being advised to take advantage of the clean, fresh and healthy air in the vicinity, so, presumably, the surrounding lime kilns were no longer working. Alayne started with The Elms, of Georgian aspect, supposedly once a manor house, built within large and beautiful gardens which have largely been built over since the last war. The house is now divided into five dissimilar dwellings of which the main part and the northern addition face west whilst the other three face east towards Chester Place. We next turned to the west side of the road where once stood The Grove, built c.1831 for Joseph Gray , who owned further plots in Heigham Grove . Gray also owned The Elms which was occupied at one time by his son-in-law Henry Trevor and by Henry's stepson J.J. Page. The Grove was a substantial, but apparently dark, gloomy and cold house standing in a two-acre garden, but it was demolished in the 1930s and the whole site was used immediately for the red brick flats you now see. Beside The Grove, to the west, once stood Grove House, built by 1831. This was a yet more substantial and prestigious house which was approached from Earlham Road by a drive which wound up and across the steep hill behind The Dell. This was bombed and has also been replaced by flats. Behind these flats to the south is the house now called St. Ouens, originally of the 1830s but with the date 1852 on a chimney. Its garden and coach house run to the west of a terrace of eight single-fronted cottages, plus a double-fronted one at the southern end. These are unusual in that they face west onto the alley dividing their gardens from St. Ouens, and their back yards are on Heigham Grove. They were built in 1840 and were considered suitable for 'respectable' people-perhaps with those serving the new prison in mind. We then came to 'Storey's Buildings', a group of four houses built round the top of the cul-de-sac, (numbers 10 - 4). They were built by William Storey on land he had bought from Joseph Gray by 1832 ; first nos. 10 and 11 (which was Storey's own residence) and then nos. 13 and 14 across the road. These latter, completed by 1840, were mirror images of each other, but all of them have been added to in different ways. The road itself had been made by 1830 and at the top, between nos. 11 and 13 was a fifth house, no. 12, a stucco villa which had been built c.1825 and subsequently acquired by Storey. Interestingly, the garden of this house was once a third of its present size, the rest being woodland. The origin of the name Grove perhaps? A wall marking the line of the boundary between the 'Leg of Mutton' eight acres of Heigham Grove and the lands of Mr. Humfrey shown on a map of 1746 still separates the eight acres from properties on Mill Hill Road, which was constructed in the 1860s. By now the sun was fading and we returned to Alayne and George's house where we were able to pore over the plentiful supply of maps, plans and photos whilst enjoying tea and coffee dispensed by George, and a mouth-watering selection of cakes provided by Rosemary Forrest. And so ended a fascinating afternoon beautifully presented and organised by Alayne and all those concerned. Thank you.
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