Newton Villa in the 19 th century by Wendy Cope

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NEWTON VILLA

in the 19^th century

In April 1819 Thomas Gordon of Llwynybwch in Llanrhidian granted a lease to William Hammerton, the minister of Paraclete, for the field at Newton known as Kilhay or Killay for sixty years at a ground rate of five guineas a year, with permission to build a house. This field stretched through from New Well Lane to Slade Road but did not include the ground above the drangway where the Newton Inn now stands.

William Hammerton did build his house and he called it Newton Villa. In August 1824 he was advertising in the Cambrian that it was to be sold or let by private contract. The advertisement gives a detailed description of the house which is “substantially built and replete with every convenience; containing a beer and wine cellar; on the ground floor a drawing and dining room, kitchen, scullery, pantry, larder and bakehouse; first floor, four bedrooms, servants’ sleeping room and store closet. The rooms are all fitted up with closets below and above. A stable for three horses, gig house, cart shed, cow house, large pig sty and other conveniences: one large room over the whole of the gig house, stable and cow house. A well stocked and productive garden, with a thriving young orchard and a well of excellent water. The house, which has a veranda in front, commands beautiful and picturesque views, Swansea Bay, the village of Oystermouth, woody scenery of Margam, etc. Distant from Swansea five miles. Part of the furniture, which is good and neat, to be taken at valuation if required. For particulars apply to the Rev. William Hammerton, Newton Villa.” The house is still with us although its name has been changed, but the outbuildings which stood beside the lane we now call Slade Road were burned down in the 1970s.

In the summer of 1825 the house was advertised again and must then have found a long term tenant for it did not reappear in the Cambrian until the summer of 1832. A year later it was for sale or to let once more. This time the house was sold. The lease was transferred to Rev. Fleming Gough of Ynyscedwyn House in Breconshire for £650. He found a new tenant, Nathaniel Worsley.

The Worsley family had been in the area for a few years. They had been living in a house at Caswell where two of his daughters started a boarding school for six young ladies in 1830 charging 20 guineas a year. They moved it to Norton the following year. Mr Worsley advertised the house at Caswell to let in the summer of 1834 together with the cottage at Norton where his daughters had lived. The school had most likely not been successful.

1836 saw the onset of a series of family tragedies for the Worsley family. Nathaniel’s wife died in March, he died at Newton Villa in July aged 70 and a week later his son Frederick died at Liverpool aged only 24. In September Nathaniel’s brother died, followed in February 1837 by the death of Mrs Worsley’s brother. Nathaniel’s fourth daughter, Julia, died in May and another of his brothers died a year later. However, two daughters remained at Newton Villa and were on the look-out for husbands. In September 1838 Emily married a Mr Crisp of Hounslow and the following month Maria married Rev. Thomas Seavill, William Hammerton’s successor as minister of Paraclete. They probably moved to the Manse in Summerland Lane, bequeathed by William Hammerton to Paraclete. While the Worsleys were in residence, the Rev. Fleming Gough died and seemingly bequeathed Newton Villa to his daughters.

The summer of 1840 saw the house to let again, for a year or a longer term, and prospective tenants were told to apply to D. J. Davis, solicitor. The house description now included the fact that it was a five minute walk to Caswell and Langland Bays. A little optimistic perhaps! In 1845 the advertisement was repeated but this time the house was unfurnished and applications had to be made to the editor of the Cambrian. The advertisement appeared again in 1847 and 1848 and at this point we learn the name of another tenant, due to the announcement on 13^th September 1850 of the birth of a son to C. B. Mansfield at Newton Villa followed by the death on 6^th October of Susanna his wife at the age of 36. Another announcement four months later is of the death of that baby. Charles Basil Mansfield had married Susanna Staniforth, daughter of William Staniforth of Rose Hill, Mumbles, as his second wife in 1846 and she had already borne him a son and heir in 1848. He was a solicitor by profession but was also Town Clerk of Swansea. In 1852 he was part of the jury at the Oystermouth Leet Court, the ancient manor court of the Duke of Beaufort. However in October 1853 the Cambrian newspaper reported that he was seriously ill at Bristol where his daughter by his first wife had just made him a grandfather. He recovered from his affliction as he continued to be Town Clerk for many more years, but he moved away from Newton. His furniture and effects were auctioned in March 1855. Richer people often auctioned their household goods when they moved as the transportation of a houseful of furniture was impractical with just horse and cart.

In August 1855 Harriet Williams, widow, who was a daughter of Fleming Gough, sold her half share of Newton Villa for £120 to Susan Gough, spinster, who was her sister. Susan now decided to make some alterations to the house and had plans drawn up in 1857, with a new hall, repositioning of the kitchen entrance, a new drainage channel from the house, the removal of a WC from beside the coal store and the erection of two WCs in a wooden construction in the garden.

Alterations completed, a Colonel Clark became the tenant, but he decided to move away in the summer of 1860 and his furniture was auctioned in September. Colonel Clark was involved in the organisation of the Glamorgan Rifle Volunteers. That December, Susan Gough signed an agreement with Anne Strick, widow, to rent Newton Villa for a term of seven years at £30 a year. This was extended for another seven years in 1867.

Susan Gough died in 1868 and in her will which she had drawn up in 1861, she left her ‘cottage’ called Newton Villa to her sister Mrs Harriet Jones Williams for life, with it then passing to her brother R. D. Gough for the remainder of the lease. Anne Strick was still paying rent for Newton Villa in 1879 when the Gough family’s lease came to an end. In 1872 Richard Gordon, the owner of the land, wrote to Anne reminding her that as she was responsible for keeping the house in good repair he would have the condition of the house surveyed before the end of the lease. Anne appears to have sub-let the house at times after 1874. She advertised Newton Villa to let in the spring of 1875 with the instruction to “Apply on the premises.” Having found a tenant for the summer she advertised again in June that the house would be to let on 29^th September. Anne was still living there at the beginning of 1878 when she paid her rent but was probably already planning her move as Newton Villa was again to let with instructions to apply on the premises in March. She was already settled at Yniswern, a house further down Newton Road, opposite Underhill Park, by January 1879, three months before the expiry of the lease on Newton Villa and its reversion to the ownership of the Gordon family.

NEWTON VILLA

AND MRS MAINWARING

Sometime during 1878 or 1879, Captain Alfred Robert Mainwaring of the Royal Artillery and his wife Charlotte moved into Newton Villa. He was also adjutant of the Royal Glamorgan Militia Artillery. His wife gave birth to their first child, a daughter, Marie Gwendolin, on 16^th November 1879, but unfortunately her husband died suddenly the next day aged 34, due to the rupture of a blood vessel. Newton Villa remained the home of Mrs Mainwaring and her daughter for at least twenty years. She became very involved with church life and with Newton School in those years.

She is often mentioned in the school Log Book as visiting the school and among the visiting ladies she was the only one to have been married. In early December 1881 she heard the children sing and answer questions and to encourage regular attendance and attentiveness invited twenty of the most attentive girls to take tea at her house just before Christmas and we are informed that they quite enjoyed themselves. She repeated this Christmas treat on many occasions. In 1883 it was the boys and girls of the upper standards who were invited to tea and they enjoyed various amusements during the evening. In 1887 the tea was held in the schoolroom and tea was followed by a magic lantern show. In later years tea is back at her house. She also continued to offer rewards and prizes for regular attendance such as in April 1892 when Beatrice Lewis and Richard Higgs claimed the prizes and at the same time she examined the children on their scripture studies. During the 1890s she sent baskets of apples to be shared among the children, the apples presumably from her own garden, and in 1887 she bought a new clock for the school. At various times she took the girls for their needlework or knitting classes when their usual helper was away and in November 1898, when asked if she could send some plain needlework she sent some garments to be made up by the girls which were to be sent out to East Africa for the children in the Mission Schools. These garments were completed by the end of January and returned to her.

Mrs Mainwaring was a great admirer of Francis Ridley Havergal and would have known her during the months that Frances was living on Caswell Road, as among other things both were visitors to Newton School. An article in the Cambrian on 16^th October 1896 says

“Many visitors have expressed their surprise that no memorial to Miss Havergal has been erected at Newton, but thanks to the thoughtfulness, energy and tact of Mrs Mainwaring, Newton Villa, cause for such surprise will not be allowed to exist much longer. Mrs Mainwaring is a devoted and ardent supporter of the Church, a kindly and genial worker in the cause of humanity and Christianity, and a warm admirer of Frances Ridley Havergal. As far back as 1890 it occurred to her that it would be a fitting tribute to the memory of Miss Havergal were a memorial church erected at Newton. With characteristic feminine promptitude, she set to work. Obviously, very trying and serious difficulties were encountered; but these were gradually surmounted. Mrs Mainwaring is conscious, as many others are, of the fact that Oystermouth lacks Church accommodation, as may be seen from the following circular she circulated among various friends some months ago.

The growing village of Newton, with a population of about 400, mostly poor, in the Parish of Oystermouth and close to the favourite watering place called the Mumbles, has a Church school, a Dissenting Chapel, several shops, a post office, two public houses, a village library, a Band of Hope, but no church. As far back as 1890 the Bishop of the Diocese wrote expressing approval of the scheme for a church. The Vicar of Oystermouth also wrote to the same effect. Since 1890 houses have been springing up all round Newton, and the need of a church is greater than ever. For the last fifty years the Dissenting Chapel has been allowed to remain as the only building specially set apart for worship at Newton. The only Church of England service for the village is held on Sunday afternoons in the schoolroom. The population of Oystermouth now numbers nearly 6,000 and is rapidly growing. There is only one church (supposed by some to have been built before the Norman Conquest). The endowment of the living is only £80 a year and there is no vicarage. The scheme of erecting a second church for the Parish of Oystermouth at Langland Bay does not lessen the necessity of providing a church for Newton, which is distant nearly three-quarters of a mile from Langland Bay and one mile from Oystermouth Church. It is intended to erect a church capable of holding 300 persons. With the full approval of the Vicar and Churchwardens of Oystermouth, this greatly needed church work has been undertaken by Mrs Mainwaring, of Newton Villa, who will be happy to receive donations, payable to the ‘Newton Church Building Fund’ at the Glamorganshire Bank, Swansea.”

After the mention of a number of people who have promised to subscribe, including Mrs Mainwaring herself, who gave £20, the article continues

“Mr J. E. Stevens, solicitor, has very generously given a most excellent site for the church. It is situated on the Caswell side of Newton, on the Caswell Road, and commands a grand and uninterrupted view of the whole of the Bristol Channel. Sir Arthur Blomfield, the eminent ecclesiastical architect has been communicated with and it is very probable he will be entrusted with the work of preparing the plans etc. It is confidently anticipated that no difficulty will be experienced in securing the right amount. Generous support is expected from America”

As those who have read the recently published church history will know, there were changes to those expectations and fund raising proved more difficult. A list of subscribers to the fund appeared regularly in the Cambrian until March 1897 and the audited account appeared in July 1900, by which time the fund had reached just £176 0s 6d including £4 1s 5½d profit from a jumble sale at Newton. At this time the new Vicar of Oystermouth, Harold Williams, revived the campaign for a new church with great vigour and funds swelled dramatically.

Mrs Mainwaring also became involved with the large bazaars that were popular with the Church for raising funds. In July 1896 she manned the toy stall at a Japanese bazaar at the castle to raise money to pay off the debt on repairs to the National Schools at Southend and Newton and in October that year she and her daughter had a candy stall at the Swansea Church Bazaar at the Albert Hall where for 6d. they gave lessons in candy making. In April 1901 they were in charge of the book stall at another Oystermouth Church bazaar to pay for more school improvements and to boost the New Church Fund. No doubt there were many more similar occasions.

In November 1902 the Oystermouth Parish Magazine contained a paragraph expressing the sorrow of Newton folk that Mrs and Miss Mainwaring were leaving Newton and suggesting that the cause of the move was Miss Mainwaring’s health. The villagers presented Mrs Mainwaring with a cut glass, silver mounted scent bottle and Miss Mainwaring was given a silver mounted blotting case by the Newton Sunday School Teachers, while both ladies had gifts from the Mothers’ meeting.

The 1911 census reveals that Newton Villa was tenanted by Llewelyn Jenkins, then 58, who was Superintendant Registrar and clerk to the Guardians, a native of Merthyr Tydfil. With him were his wife Frances Annie, 49, to whom he had been married for 24 years, and his two children, Elizabeth Gladys, a student aged 20 and Jessie Kate, 18, a scholar. As with Mrs Mainwaring previously the house also housed a general servant. Llewellyn Jenkins was still in residence in 1925 but Frances was not mentioned on the electoral register, instead Winifred Jenkins is listed..

By 1946 the name of the house had been changed to The Old House and it was the home of Clifford and Cicely Taylor. In 1972 Vida and Joanna Gething were living there. They were still there in 1978. The 1982 electoral roll shows that Patricia Ann Richardson was living there, while in 1995 the house was occupied by David and Eileen Clement and their family, who were still there in 2001.