A piece of Beech Road which will soon be gone

The Home of Daniel Sharpe in 2013

It is a place with plenty of history but I fear won’t be with us for much longer.

It is 131 Beech Road and I have written about it in the past.

Once it was home to Daniel Sharp who lived here from certainly 1841 and maybe earlier.

He was a wine merchant and may have moved into the property with his new wife after their marriage in 1833.

Sadly she died in 1846 leaving him a widow until his own death in 1861.

Although that is not the full picture because in 1852 he married his servant Ann Bailey who was much younger than him.

The house circa 1985-87

The marriage seemed not to be successful for nine years later she is no longer with him and in his will made shortly before he died having left her nothing he adds a codicil and awards her a small sum of money.  It is a story I will return to.

The house has had a varied set of occupants since then gaining the jutty out bit at the end of the 19th century, and now after a second fire which destroyed part of the roof it sits neglected.

A planning application last year has come to nothing and I suspect this fine example of what may be only one of two remaining town houses built in the 1830s will soon disappear.

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson, 2013 and Tony Walker, 1985-87