© Written by Richard Smith - 25th Nov 2024
Shirley House - Nov 2024
©Picture:- Richard Smith
Links To: West Walks Postcards: West Walks House:
The Dorset History Centre has no information about the origins of Shirley House in West Walks, Dorchester. I suspect it was built around 1850 - it does not feature in the 1841 census, but is listed as Shirley House in 1851, the only named house there at that time. But why was it called Shirley House - my theory which I cannot prove ? There is no builder called SHIRLEY, nor other important person of that name, listed in trade directories from 1830 to 1855 in Dorchester. Robert WILLIAMS of Bridehead, Little Bredy was a large land owner in Dorchester at that time. His nephew, banker and magistrate, Herbert WILLIAMS ( 1808 - 1878 ) was living with his family at Stinsford House just outside Dorchester in the 1841 and 1851 census listings. Living at Stinsford Rectory from about 1839 to 1871 was Rev’d Arthur G. SHIRLEY ( 1810 - 1891 ), Vicar of Stinsford with whom Herbert would have been closely associated. Arthur’s mother was Phyllis BYAM ( 1763 - 1836 ) of Wollaston House in Dorchester, who was well connected to both the WILLIAMS family of Bridehead and the FRAMPTONs, Lords of the Manor of Frampton. So was it named for some reason after that SHIRLEY family of Stinsford ? In the 1851 census the House was occupied by John Petty ALDRIDGE L.R.C.P., ( 1812 - 1884 ), his wife Emma, three sons John aged 8, Reginald 5 and George 4, a Governess and three servants. John had married Emma DEVENISH ( 1808 - 1875 ) at Bradford Peverell church on 9th July 1835 - Link to much more about the ALDRIDGE family. Trade directories for 1844 and 1849 show John was living in High West Street, hence my guess about Shirley House being new in 1850/51. In the 1861 census John and Emma were living in Shirley House with one medical assistant and three servants, which was repeated in the 1871 census with the addition of a visitor Anna ALDRIDGE aged 37. John was also elected Mayor of Dorchester in 1864, 1865 and again in 1877. John’s wife Emma died in 1875, and in late 1876 he married to Selina COOPER a native of Chaldon in Devon and widow of the late A.L.COOPER Esq of Whitcombe. They were married there by the Rev William BARNES on 5th Dec 1876. John and Selina were still living at Shirley House at the time of the 1881 census, but appeared to be sharing the big house with members of the DAMEN family, who were corn merchants in the town. Emma Rhoda DAMEN, a widow aged 67, her son John a widower aged 41 and both of their families, along with a widow Mary GANE aged 77 and various servants. John Petty ALDRIDGE died at Shirley House in May 1884, and Selina moved away to Tolpuddle to live with her son in law from her first marriage. Neither of the next two occupants of Shirley House stayed there very long. In the 1891 census the house was occupied by Reginald Douglas THORNTON J.P. who was born in India in 1853 and was a Banker, along with his wife Emily Eleanor Palmer BRYMER whom he had married at Puddletown on 15th September 1881, their daughter also Emily aged 8, plus four servants. By 1895, the Thorntons had moved to Culliford House in Icen Way, and in 1901 Shirley House was occupied by Richard TREMAIN. Richard was a retired Captain in the Royal Artillery, born at Ladock, Cornwall in 1860. He had married Gertrude Agatha LISSAN ( 1864 - 1940 ) at Hanover Square, London on 26th January 1882, and they had a daughter Quira aged 8 at Shirley House, plus four servants. By 1911 though, the family had moved away to Folkestone in Kent. There is no one listed in Kelly’s 1907 trade directory under Shirley House. In the 1911 census, a Charlotte AUSTEN is listed at “ Pendomer “ West Walks, but this is No. 4. No one was listed under Shirley House, but a Lillian Mary Gordon, born Wiltshire 1865 was living on Private Means with one female servant, at Shirley Cottage, West Walks. The census form says that house only has five main rooms. Shirley Cottage is first named in the 1851 census occupied by Richard Boon, a grocer’s assistant and his wife Christian, but I suspect that the Cottage was a property demolished sometime after 1911, next door to Shirley House. Herbert Jennings TILL, a solicitor born at Chertsey, Surrey in 1860, was recorded in Electoral Registers and Kelly’s trade directory living briefly at Shirley House in 1914 and 1915. He had married Annie COOMBS, a widow from Fordington, at St Pancras, London on 15th June 1901, and in 1911/12 was living at 21 Cornwall Road. By 1918 though, they had left Shirley House and were living at Avenue House in South Walks Road. The Electoral Register for 1919 and, in Kelly’s trade directory for 1920, has a Mrs Goode ( Ester M. Goode 1853 - 1929 ) living at Shirley Cottage, whilst the Electoral Register for 1919 lists no one living at Shirley House. Kelly’s in 1927 and 1931 list a Bertie Lush GERRISH living at Shirley House. He was a bank manager born at Salisbury, Wiltshire in 1864, and living at Sherborne in 1914 - 1921, but I do not know the date he arrived in Dorchester. By 1939 he was living at 28 Greenhill, Weymouth, listed as a retired bank manager. After Bertie GERRISH moved out, the next occupier at Shirley Lodge in 1935 was retired Major Theodore William STALLYBRASS M.D., D.P.H., Barrister at Law. He was born at Taff Wells, Glamorgan, Wales in June 1887 and, after qualifying as a doctor, joined the Royal Army Medical Corps, serving with distinction in the Sudan and Egypt. On 31st July 1921 at Kensington and Chelsea he married Ellen Cecilia DUNN. He left the R.A.M.C. and trained as a barrister, before working for two years in Vancouver, Canada. In 1927 he accepted a post as Assistant Medical Officer with Dorset County Council, upgraded to Chief Medical Officer for Health for the County in 1934 - a post he held through the Second World War, until he retired in 1946. He lived at Shirley House from 1935 (Kelly’s) and medical registers show he was there in 1943, and presumably until 1946 when he retired, but I do not know when he left the House. He died at Brockenhurst, Hampshire in 1974. I have no information then until the Electoral Register for 2003 - 2008 which has Christopher Rail O’Neill PEARSON living at No. 5 West Walks ( Shirley House ). He was a solicitor born at Lambeth, Surrey in May 1947, and a search at Companies House suggests he was living there from January 1994, ( maybe earlier ? ), but by 2010 it seems that he had moved away to Sturminster Newton. Richard Smith - orchidgrower@btinternet.com 25. 11. 2024 |