No 5 St. Monica's Priory
The only known tenants of No.5 were the White family, Frank and Elizabeth and their sons, Harold, born in 1912 and Charlie, born in 1914. Between 1929 and 1952 Frank and Elizabeth White were on the electoral register at this address. By 1959 their son, Harold Frank White, was renting the cottage (when he was paying 5/6 a week rent) and in 1998 he was still living at No.5 as a protected tenant under the Rent Act.
Mrs White used to clean for the headmaster’s household. She was “always dressed in black clothes of no shape, with no difference summer or winter, which reached her ankles and she floated down the road as she walked between our houses, usually near the centre of the road and carrying a basket… she was a dab hand at skinning a rabbit and plucking a chicken, she taught us how to do this which was very helpful in the war… she was glad to relate that she was born Miss White and so did not have to change her name when she married” (Francis B White married Elizabeth White in 1912 at Wimborne). Mrs White did not believe in going to bed and she always slept (and died) in a chair.
On November 1st 1972, John Hanks and his wife Doreen of St. Martin’s Private Hotel, Whitecliff Mill Street, Blandford bought No.5 St. Monica’s Priory and all the rights of way leading to the property from Blandford Investment Company (their own company) for £1000.
The plan above shows No.5 with its garden and the rights of way in 1972.
By 1998, John Hanks had died but his wife Doreen still owned No.5 St. Monica’s Priory and the rights of way (the last remaining rented cottage.)
When Harold White died in 2000 aged 87, No.5 was finally sold. On November 16th 2000, Mervyn Royston Stephens and Caroline Stephens bought No 5 St Monica’s Priory for £117,000. After 5 years, Mervyn and Caroline moved to Wimborne with their young family and on December 12th 2005, Samuel Timothy Butler and Joanna Louise Butler bought No 5 St Monica’s Priory for £207,500.
Plan annexed to conveyance 1st November 1972