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From 1927 when Tom Rowland converted St. Monica’s into separate cottages until 1968, Priory Cottage was two separate dwellings which were let out to tenants by the owner. Only a few of the names of the tenants are known. From 1931 to 1936 No.1 was let to Mr & Mrs Barnes and their children for 6/- a week. Ralph and Lilian Theodora Barmes both appear on the electoral register between 1932 and 1936 living at No. 1 The Priory. Ralph Barnes was the foreman at the Spetisbury cress beds. Their third child Monica was born there in 1933. In 1936 the Barnes family moved to West End, Spetisbury.
The plan above shows the building now known as No.1 St. Monica’s Priory (or Priory Cottage) with its garden and garage (marked in red). All the property outlined in green was still owned by Blandford Investment Company. Red Walls has not yet been built.
Frank and Joyce Gillman lived at Priory Cottage for the next 15 years. On June 10th 1983 they sold it toJames Ward Cumming and his wife Aleyne Belmarye Cumming of Ditchling, East Sussex for £55,000. The Gillmans moved back to Cornwall where Frank died six years later in 1989 aged 76.
James and Aleyne Cumming only lived at Priory Cottage for three years. On July 15th 1986, they sold it toBrian Frederick Bradley from Berkhamstead, Herts for £87,500 (with a mortgage from NatWest Bank.) The Cummings moved to Devon where James died in 1999 aged 84.
Brian Bradley and his wife, Sheila Helen Bradley remained at Priory Cottage for 16 years. Brian worked as an independent financial advisor and Sheila as a housemistress in a girls’ school. In 2002 they moved to Sixpenny Handley and on April 23rd 2002 sold the house to Anthony William Stead and Susan Rosemary Stead for £266,000.
Monica Barnes in the garden at No.1 about 1935
In 1939 Charles Read was living at No.1 and between approximately 1940 and 1942 Mrs Phorrington rented it. Betwen 1945 and1959 it was let to the Park family at 7/- a week. Bessie Park was a widow, her husband James having died; for a few years her son Frederick lived with her but when he married in 1950 he moved out and she lived on there alone.
Between 1932 and 1934 Henry and Lavinia Hole were living in No. 2 The Priory where they remained until they moved to New Buildings, Spetisbury. In 1935 Mrs Trevett and her family moved in. Kate Trevett was a widow with two sons, Eric John born in 1918 and Walter born in 1924. When Eric John married Lilian Maguire in 1942, he brought his wife to live at No.2 as well. When Walter married Joan Chivers in 1948 they moved to the Village Hall flat for a couple of years and then moved to Slopers Mead in 1951. In 1959 Kate Trevett was paying 6/- per week rent for No.2. Mrs Trevett was the village nurse and laying out person in the 1950s and 1960s. She also took in washing which she did in huge coppers (left behind by the nuns?) and washed the surplices, etc for the church choir. “The washing was taken weekly on a Sunday to Mrs Trevett and fetched back on Thursday. It was one of our jobs as children to carry the wicker washing basket... a large oval with a handle at each end convenient for two of us to share the weight … and on occasions in swinging it over our heads we lost momentum and all the washing fell out, to our huge embarrassment.” Mrs Trevett's husband, Jack, had been secretary of the village sports club.
By 1968 Nos.1 and 2 St. Monica’s Priory had become a single house and on February 1st 1968, Blandford Investment Company sold it to Frank Norman Gillman and his wife, Joyce House Gillman of Fowey, Cornwall for £6500 (with a mortgage from Martins Bank.)
Plan annexed to conveyance 1st February 1968
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