No 3 St. Monica's Priory
After Thomas Rowland bought the property in 1927 and divided it up into five cottages, he and his wife moved from Crawford Road, Spetisbury, where they had been living, into No.3, which was the largest cottage. They remained together there for 15 years until Thomas died in 1942. His widow, Beatrice, then stayed at No.3 for another 11 years until she died in 1953. She left most of her property to her husband’s nephew, Arthur George Rowland, but he sold it in February 1954 to Ernest Musselwhite who moved into No.3 and continued to let the other cottages to tenants.
Ernest Musselwhite and his wife Edith lived at No.3 for 6 years and then in August 1959 sold the whole property to John Albert Hanks who moved into No.3 with his wife Doreen and continued to let the other cottages. After 8 years at No.3 John and Doreen Hanks bought Jubilee Cottage and moved in there: they sold No.3 as a separate property on October 9th 1968 to James Henry Searle, a retired bank manager, and his wife, Irene Louie Searle, of Pinner, Middlesex for £6500. It is believed that it was at this time that the garden of No.3 became L-shaped at the bottom. The new owners wanted a longer river frontage and since the Hanks owned Nos.4 and 5 as well, they simply took the garden from these cottages and added it to No.3. Irene Searle died in 1976 aged 68 but her widower James continued to live at No.3 for about another seven years.
In 1983 Percy W Towler and his wife Penny bought No.3 from the Searles. Percy and Penny came from Kent where Percy had been Chief Superintendent of Kent Constabulary. In Spetisbury Percy was a various times Clerk to the Parish Council and a Church Warden. He also administered the farm office for Clive Tory at South Farm and rang the bells at Spetisbury and Blandford churches. Percy died on December 6th 2014 aged 91 years and Penny later moved into a Care Home in Blandford.
The house was sold to Dale and Mary Armitage on 17th July 2015 for £340,000.
