The Manor House, Newton by Wendy Cope

THE MANOR HOUSE, NEWTON

A newspaper cutting from December 1990, when the house was for sale, said that the Manor House was built for Rev. Secretan Jones about 1861, but this date is probably wrong.  David Secretan Jones did not become vicar of Oystermouth until 1867, and was living in Mumbles until 1881.  In October 1880 the following notice was placed in the Cambrian newspaper. 

 “TO BE LET from 25th March next, CHURCH PARK VILLA, Mumbles, with the stable  and coach house.  Now in the occupation of the Rev. Secretan Jones.  Apply to Mrs George, Church Park Cottage, Mumbles.”

The following spring when the 1881 census was taken, Secretan Jones was still at Church Park but was probably preparing to move to the Manor House.  1861 could easily be a misprint for 1881.

David Secretan Jones was born in Bishopston in 1834, where his father, the rector of the parish, amassed a substantial estate over his long life.  When he died in 1891 this estate was put up for auction, including six lots in Oystermouth parish, one of which was the Manor House, Newton.  This suggests that the father had the house built for his son and it is likely that David Secretan Jones bought it from the estate.  The well known story is that the house was built for the forthcoming marriage of David, but the marriage never took place.

The 1990 estate agent’s description of the house says that it was built “in the style of a French chateau.  Etched into one of the panes of glass in one of the kitchen windows is the name Annie.  Was this the name of the bride to be or was it the name of a loved one left at home in France by one of the French tradesmen who were brought over to build the Manor House?   The mystery remains.  Behind the wallpaper (but still carefully preserved) on each chimney breast in every room cartoons dating back to Edwardian times can be found.  All the doors, skirting boards, banisters and windows in this lovely home are of solid oak.  All the metal window furniture has been imported from France.  The very slates on the Manor House roof were imported from Belgium, hence the attractive and unusual colour.” 

The house was built with three reception rooms and five bedrooms, plenty of space for a bachelor and his servant.  In 1881 his living in servant was Ann Meyrick from Pennard, and in 1891 Margaret Givelin fom Bishopston, in 1901 she was replaced by Annie Givelin, possibly a relative of Margaret, and in 1911 Anne Jane Hixson of Newton was his cook/housekeeper.

When the house was sold in 1892 it stood in an acre and a half of land but by 1990 that had been reduced to a quarter of an acre, the rest had been sold for building.

In December 1898 David Secretan Jones retired as vicar of Oystermouth, to be replaced by his nominee, Rev. Harold Williams, but the house belonged to him and he continued to live there and the locals continued to call it the vicarage.  The 1990 estate agent’s leaflet suggests that he took up weather recording as a hobby after his retirement.  He certainly witnessed the building of St. Peter’s in Newton and was present for its consecration.  He lived to be 87, dying in the early months of 1922.

In 1923 the electoral register lists James H. and Mary Ann Jones at the Manor House and they were still there in 1925.

The 1990 estate agent mentioned that the house was extended in the 1930s with the addition of a half landing off the main staircase which gave access to the new bathroom and with beautiful stained glass windows on the landing and in the bathroom.

By 1939 Ernest Thomas Husbands, a commercial traveller, and his wife Mary Louise Husbands were living in the Manor House and they sold it in June 1949 to Cyril Donald  Jordan for £4,200.  Mr Jordan was managing director of Signode until 1971 and then chairman until his retirement in 1972.

At that time the house was red and cream and had green shutters beside the windows and a plan shows that the garden included a long thin strip of land on which 7A Crestacre Close now stands, as well as the present garden.  The garden was in a sad state when he bought the house but Mr Jordan was a keen gardener and over the next ten years or so he reshaped it.  Flowers grew under the wall at the front and the long thin strip of garden contained fruit cages, a greenhouse and an orchard.  The garden also had a tennis court on which David and his brother liked to play cricket to the dismay of their father.  On one occasion the pigs from the field in Whitestone Lane got into the garden and all the family were called to shoo them off the tennis court.

Mr Jordan also kept birds and built an aviary on the back of the garage which is now roofless and derelict.  He kept a variety of foreign birds, quails and budgerigars, which he bred and would give away to good homes.  The 1978 electoral register showed that the Jordan family were still there.  They occupied the house until at least 1982.

In the 1970s the council put forward plans to widen Highpool Lane by taking land from the garden and bringing the road close to the house.  Mr Jordan and others protested that it would undermine the house.  The borough surveyor, Bill Rogers heard an appeal and the widening of the road was dropped.

By 1984 the house had changed hands as Albert Charles Davie was listed on the electoral roll for that year.  He presumably was the seller in 1990 when the Manor House was for sale with estate agents Peter Alan.  The new residents were the Clement family.

In recent years the Manor House had been looking increasingly sad, but it has now been repaired and repainted on the outside and looks bright and cheerful.