Bellevue House West Cross by Wendy Cope
Photo: Bellevue House which once stood on the north western corner of Higher West Cross Lane and Woodland Avenue. Photo: Alan Thomas.
Bell Vue House (or Bellevue House) West Cross. Photo: Alan Thomas
Bellevue House, (or Belle Vue House) West Cross, is labelled, upper left, on this map: Oystermouth 1921, copyright OS
Bellevue House (or Belle Vue House) is shown on the corner of Higher West Cross Lane and Woodland Avenue. Map: Oystermouth 1921, copyright OS
This house was possibly built about 1860 on land leased from the Duke of Beaufort. In 1865 it was owned and lived in by 28 year old John Ivor Evans and his wife Henrietta. He was an accountant with an interest in property.
His business address in Swansea was Bellevue Chambers and Bellevue Street Swansea may have been the birthplace of his first two children, Anne, and John Ivor, but his next daughter, Mary, was born at Bellevue House in October 1866, to be followed by another daughter just a year later, who died. Evan was born in 1870 and then another daughter and son in 1872 and 1874.
John Ivor Evans had ambitions to be involved in the running of the town of Swansea. Early in 1869 he became secretary of the newly formed 6th Union Terminating Benefit Building Society and later that year stood for election to the Corporation of Swansea in Upper Ward. The following year he stood for election to the Swansea School Board and the year after that was nominated to sit on the Board of Guardians, although he did not get there until 1872.
In his role as a Guardian, of The Gower Union Workhouse, he hosted the Christmas treat for the workhouse children at Bellevue House in January 1875.
As a leaseholder of the Duke of Beaufort he also had duties in Oystermouth handed down by the Leet Court. He was also a leading member of the Oystermouth Castle Lodge of the Oddfellows and was involved in the setting up of the Oystermouth Local Board of Health.
The first mention of the house is in June 1865 when John Ivor Evans and Edward Thomas were in dispute over an assault. In November 1870, another case of assault on E. Moses, pawn broker, was dismissed, while in a County Court case in May 1870 he was involved in a family squabble over the terms of his father’s will. This was finally settled in 1978 when he was ordered to pay off the mortgage on 66 Oxford Street and hand it over to his sister.
By the spring of 1876 John Ivor Evans had decided to return to live in Swansea and advertised Bellevue House with its large garden, croquet lawn and orchard to let or lease. He relocated to Ivor Villa, one of a pair of houses he owned on the corner of St. Helen’s Road and Henrietta Street. That autumn he was elected Mayor of Swansea for the year 1876/1877.
To let on lease or otherwise
BELLE VUE HOUSE, WEST CROSS
A delightfully situated family residence commanding a charming view of Oystermouth Castle, the Mumbles, Swansea bay and the whole scenery uninterrupted to Nash Point. It is also within easy distance of Bracelet, Langland and Caswell bays. This house is substantially and well built, has a large garden and orchard planted with choice and well selected fruit trees, together with croquet lawn, the whole forming a unique retreat suited to the requirements of town gentlemen, being within a short distance by rail of Swansea. For cards to view apply to John Ivor Evans, Bellevue Chambers.
The Cambrian. 12 May 1876.
Belle Vue House (or Bellvue House). Photo: Alan Thomas.
A procession leaving Belle Vue House (a temporary church and curate’s house) to bless the site of the new Church in Fairwood Road, 13 Novemebr 1955.
With a growing population on the new West Cross estate, it was hoped to establish a place of worship there. Plans were drawn up for a new building but until that would be ready Bellevue House was to be used as a temporary church and curate’s house for the Rev. D. G. G. Davies. The first service was held on Christmas Day 1955, but the Sunday School had been meeting there before that and a ladies group was also organised.
It took a year for Bellevue House to find new owners. They were Thomas Robert William Mason, a ship owner, and his wife Amelia, who moved from Swansea with their three children, adding another daughter Millie to their family about 1879. By 1891 their 18 year old son William Graves was acting as his father’s clerk and by 1901 was working with him as a ship broker. Thomas died in 1904 aged 63 and his wife Amelia died at Bellevue House in January 1915 aged 74. William and his younger unmarried sister Winona stayed on at Bellevue, but he had to renew the lease from the Duke of Beaufort at the end of 1919, taking a new lease for the next 60 years at a rental of £45 per annum. When William Graves Mason died at Bellevue in November 1936 the lease passed to Winona who continued to live there until her death in March 1951. Her executors surrendered the lease back to the Duke of Beaufort in 1953, the house being in a rather dilapidated condition. Later that year the house was sold with its freehold to the Church in Wales.
With a growing population on the new West Cross estate, it was hoped to establish a place of worship there. Plans were drawn up for a new building but until that would be ready Bellevue House was to be used as a temporary church and curate’s house for the Rev. D. G. G. Davies. The first service was held on Christmas Day 1955, but the Sunday School had been meeting there before that and a ladies group was also organised.
“The living room of Bellevue House has an American organ in one corner and an altar at the East end. There are 3 rows of tip-up seats, a small electric fire and bare floorboards. 150 children come to this old house for Sunday School every week and when the church has 30 worshipers it is full to capacity.”
The Mumbles and Gower Weekly News. 27 April 1956
The new church, Holy Cross.
The new church, Holy Cross, was soon built and was dedicated on the 29th October 1956.
The church authorities sold the house in January 1958 and it was bought by Albert Stanley Thomas (see further research below) and became the home of the Thomas family for 35 years.
In 1958 and 1959 four garden plots facing Woodland Avenue were sold for the erection of new houses and likewise the topmost part of the garden fronting West Cross Lane. About 1992 Bellevue house was sold for redevelopment and it was demolished in 1993.
A new doctors’ surgery and chemist’s shop was built on the upper part of the site, replacing the surgery and chemist at the shops at the top of West Cross Lane. Some years later a new large house was built on the lower part of the site.
Belle Vue House
Further research by Alan Thomas
Further research by Alan Thomas
Stan Thomas was a world wide renowned amateur radio enthusiast. What appealed to him about Belle Vue House was the amount of land available for his vast radio antennae. But how to afford it was the question. His friend Stuart Eynon advised him to bid for it and then to sell off four plots bordering Woodland Avenue and one bordering West Cross Lane to fund the purchase. Stan’s bid was successful and he arrived home trembling like a leaf hoping he had done the right thing.
The garden was completely overgrown. After clearing the two feet wide steps leading to the front door a magnificent eight feet wide set of steps were revealed. Similar discoveries were made in the garden. A tennis court and an orchard and some exotic plants.
When Stan died in 1988 the house was too big for his wife Gladys to live in alone so she was moved to a bungalow in Rushwind Close.
The new owners were Stan’s son Alan and his wife Ann. It was too dilapidated for them to live in so they decided to develop the site. A local architect was appointed but due to some financial problems he was not able to complete the project.
At that time Doctors had funds and were encouraged to find new premises for their practices Doctors D Putt-Hughes, W M Giltinen, H B Lewis and Francesca Newman made an offer that was acceptable to both parties and that is how West Cross Surgery was formed on December 10th 1992.
Aerial view of Bell Vue House, on Higher West Cross Lane. Photo: Alan Thomas.
The Conveyance Document for Bell Vue House .
Between 'The Most Noble Henry Hugh Arthur Fitzroy 10th Duke of Beaufort K.G. , G. C. V. O. and The Representative Body of The Church In Wales (along with further Memoranda).
Photo: Alan Thomas.
Bellevue House (or Belle Vue House) once stood on the north western corner of Higher West Cross Lane and Woodland Avenue.