First occupied: 1890 and known as "Ardcote"; from 1893 "Chudleigh" and at sometime "Pedmore" (1902) but reverted to "Chudleigh" in 1982.
Planning applications:
Two semi-detached villas, King Henrys Road, Lewes for Benjamin Stevens, [Old Town, Eastbourne, builder]
DL/A/25/54 · [5 Dec 1888] · East Sussex Record Office
endorsed: resolved that the plans be not approved as they do not comply with the requirements of the by-laws with reference to the thickness of walls
14 & 16 King Henrys Road, Lewes for Benjamin Stevens, Eastbourne, builder by Alfred A Oakden, 43 High Street, Lewes, architect and surveyor
DL/A/25/63 · 4 Dec 1889 · East Sussex Record Office
Owners & Occupiers:
Thomas Chatfield had purchased part of plot 199 King Henry's Road (with his mortgagees John Olliver Vallance, & Walter Sidney Livesay) in 1888.
From the Lewes History Bulletin no.88, November 2017
Like his father and grandfather, Edward Chatfield [timber merchant] played a prominent part in the public affairs of the town, serving as a trustee of town properties, as a headborough in the year following his marriage, as a parish officer for St Anne’s parish and as high constable in 1863 and again in 1866. The 30 May 1865 Sussex Advertiser reports that Edward Chatfield, timber merchant, had with his accustomed liberality held his annual festival, presumably for his employees, at the Crown Inn.
The Chatfield’s business was continued by his eldest son Colonel Thomas Chatfield (1845-1899). Colonel Chatfield’s title derived from his having been the first Captain commanding the Lewes battery of the Sussex Artillery Volunteers, from which role he was promoted to become the commander of the whole county regiment. In the 1881 census he and his family lived at 118 High Street, St Anne’s, but he later moved to a new house at 7 King Henry’s Road, for which he had plans drawn up by a London architect shortly after his father’s death. He was elected one of the first councillors of the new Lewes borough in 1881, and immediately promoted to the rank of alderman, a role from which he retired in 1885. He moved to Montpelier Road, Brighton, before his death there in 1899, aged 53.
1890-1893
Owner / developer: Thomas Chatfield sold the house to James Robert Maconachie for £890.00.
1891 Census:
James Robert Maconachie & family. JRM aged (41) - Bengal Civil Service: Deputy Comissioner serving in the Punjab, on furlough; his wife Sarah (45) and three sons George (16), Charles (11) & Richard (5); the eldest & youngest boys were born in India, Charles was born in Kent. There was one general servant, Emma Kemsley (21) from Eastbourne.
Will: James Robert Maconachie of 6 Brackley Road, Beckenham, Kent died 20.10.1922. [Letters of] Administration to Sarah Dorothy Maconachie widow. Effects £1,222 19s 2d
Will: Sarah Dorothy Maconachie of 14 Hope Park, Bromley, Kent, widow died 26.11.1929. Probate to Sir Patrick Fagan KCIE. Effects £2,743 4s 0d
1893: James Robert Maconachie sold Chudleigh to Thomas Reader White on 24.06.1893 for £1,000.
1893-1920
Owner:Thomas Reader White: gentleman, Councillor & sometime Mayor of Lewes (1888-1889) of Landport Cottage, and after his death in 1917, his widow Mrs Fanny White.
Will: Thomas Reader White of Lewes d.05.01.1917. Probate to Fanny White widow & Ernest George Duplock bank cashier. Effects £7,513 0s 10d
Occupiers:
1901 Census: Mr Hubert J[ames] Hillman & family. HJH aged 29, Solicitor, Secretary of Gas Company, and Executive; his wife Florence M Hillman (nee Green) (23) and baby daughter Barbara (6 months) and three servants; a housemaid, Mabel L Cosham (25) from Lewes; a cook, Florence A M Griffin (19) from Burgess Hill, and a nurse, Lily Jenner (19) from Barcombe. Mr Hillman and family moved first to "Pedmore" 6 De Warrenne Road (1911 Census) and later to 30 The Avenue.
Hubert James Hillman [1871-1939] Florence M Hillman [1878-1961]
Will: Hubert James Hillman of 30 The Avenue, Lewes, died 10.12.1939 at "Westholme", Pedmore, Stourbridge, Worcestershire. Probate to [his sons] Rex Anthony Edward Hillman & John Michael Hillman solicitors. Effects £15,977 6s 0d
Will: Florence Maud Hillman of The White Cottage, 30 The Avenue, Lewes, died 01.06.1961. Probate to Rex Anthony Edward Hillman & John Michael Hillman solicitors. Effects £13,133 2s 4d
nb Pedmore was a village, but is now a residential suburb of Stourbridge in Worcestershire.
1911 Census:
1910-1918 June - Mrs F[rances] E[lizabeth] Hillman (65) nee Broad, widow of Edward Hillman [1828-1899] the solicitor & father of Hubert Hillman; her daughter-in-law Helen Elizabeth Hillman (47) [b.1864] and one servant, Caroline Elizabeth Stephens (28) a cook general, from Lewes.
Auckland Hillman (second son of Edward Hillman) married Helen Elizabeth Petty in 1890.
Mrs Hillman signed a lease for Chudleigh with Mr White on 10.09.1913. The lease contains a very detailed inventory of the house, but alas, it is now almost unreadable, dueto water damage sustained in the Lewes floods of 2000, when the deeds of this house were still deposited with Wynne Baxter solicitors. However a copy has now been made (by Christopher Whittick, former senior archivist at The Keep) and this appears on a separate page - see below.
Will: Frances Elizabeth Hillman of "Chudleigh" King Henry's Road, Lewes, widow died 18.02.1918. Probate to [her son] Hubert James Hillman solicitor & John George Coles solicitor's clerk. Effects £11,518 resworn £11,768
Electoral Roll & Kelly's Directory: 1918 June-December - Mrs M R Rodger
1918 December - Miss Elizabeth Lucy Gabell Smith RA took on the lease.
1921 Census: [as owner] Elizabeth Lucy Gabell Smith (60) [her occupation as a Royal Academician and painter is not recorded here]; a visitor: Winifred Emeline Storer (26); two servants: Elizabeth Parker (60) a cook, from East Chiltington and Irene Grace Wady (15) general domestic servant from Lewes.
1920-1934
Owner: Elizabeth Lucy Gabell Smith purchased the house from Thomas Reader White's widow for £1,000 on 25.06.1920. ELGS remained there until her death in 1934. At various times she had a companion: 1930 Elizabeth Parker; 1933 Elizabeth McLelland.
Will: Elizabeth Lucy Gabell Smith of "Chudleigh" King Henry's Road, Lewes, spinster died 15.05.1934. Probate to Frank Colbourne Ridley solicitor & Alice Anne Dendy (wife of Albert Dendy). Effects £7,433 7s 7d
1934-1962
Owner: Mrs Alice A Dendy (a cousin of ELGS, who inherited the property).
Occupiers:
1935-1949 Mr Alfred & Mrs F E Cottman & family
1949-1962 Mr Reginald H Yarrow & Mrs G F Yarrow & family, who then purchased no.14 from Mrs Dendy in 1962.
1962-1975:
1962: Application was made & approved for the construction of a garage.
Owner: Mr & Mrs R H Yarrow & family (3 sons: Richard, Christopher & Tim (David). Reginald Yarrow was three times Mayor of Lewes. [1969-1970]
1975-1982: Mr & Mrs Spaven & family
The present owners have lived here since 1982.
