stars lane house
staRS lane house
Stars Lane
Details of Stars
Lane House are
somewhat scant
and I know of no
photographs or
other
illustrations.
It was one of
very few
dwellings in
Stars Lane on
Watt's map of
1806. At this
time Stars Lane
reached all the
way down to
Dodham Brook and
Stars Lane House
was shown as
isolated amongst
orchards about
halfway between
South Street and
Dodham Brook.
Watts noted that
the owner was Mr
H Collins.
The 1871 Terrier of Yeovil refers to Stars Lane House as “All that Messuage of dwelling house and garden and orchard thereunto belonging, commonly called or known as Stars Lane House and Orchard situate lying and being in the Parish of Yeovil aforesaid, and containing together 1a.3r.36p. (that is; one acre, three rods and thirty six perches) or thereabout, and numbered 475 on the said Tithe Map, bounded on or towards the North East by a public highway called Stars Lane, on or towards the South by a Leather Dressing Yard, Outbuildings, Plot of Ground, Cottages and gardens, belonging to Robert Phelps; and on or towards the West by Cottages, and Premises belonging to William Fooks; which said premises were purchased by the Corporation in the year 1870, of the Devises under the Will of Henry Collins, deceased.”
The
1846 Tithe
Apportionment
noted that the
owner was
Ann
Collins and the
occupier was
John Hawkins.
I have a
document in my
collection,
dated 1875, in
which
Samuel
Cridland leased
from Yeovil
Corporation the
property known
as Stars Lane
House and a
large area of
land off Stars
Lane -
essentially what
is now the whole
of Stars Lane
car park. In the
lease the
description of
the property is
almost
word-for-word
identical to
that of the
Terrier quoted
above. The plan
from the lease
is reproduced
below and it is
clear that Stars
Lane was planned
to be widened
which meant the
demolition of
Stars Lane
House. The
'proposed road'
on the map was
to become
Summerhouse
Terrace and
pretty much all
of the Stars
Lane House
orchard and
garden was about
to be built on
by creating
Talbot Street
and Summerhouse
Terrace and,
ultimately to
become Stars
Lane car park.
As a side-note,
Samuel Cridland
was born in 1835
in Bradford
Abbas, Dorset.
He was a Master
Mason and in
1881 was living
at 16 South
Street with his
Oxford-born
wife, Susan née
Rowland. Also
living with them
were sons Ned
and Herbert,
both masons,
dressmaker
daughter Kate,
Lucy and
youngest son,
William, both
scholars.
William Cridland
was later to
become the
landlord of the
George Inn
in the 1890's.
map
E Watts'
second map of
Yeovil of 1806
showing Starrs
Lane. Stars Lane
House is noted
as belonging to
Mr H Collins.
1877 map in
my collection
showing Stars
Lane House and
its gardens
coloured pink.