Deeds of a shop, bake-house and two houses at Staplecross in Ewhurst

On 21 August 1804 Samuel Baker of Prawles in Ewhurst, yeoman, granted a lease of part of a house and garden at Staplecross, lately occupied by James Fisher, to the occupier James Eldridge of Staplecross in Ewhurst, wheelwright, for 15 years from 25 March 1804 at £10; the tenant covenanted to repair the glass windows (7/1).

By 1838 James Eldridge of Staplecross, shopkkeeper, had become the owner of a house in three dwellings, shop, stable, lodge and gardens at Staplecross, occupied by himself, Francis Daw and Thomas Henley; it is unclear whether the part of the house leased to him in 1804 was included. On 27 and 28 February 1838 he sold this property to Benjamin Tompsett of Mayfield, shopkeeper, and his trustee Horace Martin of Battle, gent, for £750, of which £400 was raised by mortgage to the vendor (7/2-5).

On 28 May 1845 Benjamin Tompsett of Ewhurst, draper and grocer, granted a lease to Thomas Barrow Newington of Hawkhurst in Kent, draper and grocer, for seven years from 24 June 1845 at £45; the property was described as a messuage, stable and wood-lodge, with two cottages, a shoemaker's shop and garden nearby, occupied by Thomas Henley, Jesse Eldridge and James Goodsall; the lease contained a provision for the valuation of the stock of the draper and grocer's business to be carried on by Newington.

On 26 August 1845 this and other property was mortgaged for £700 by James Eldridge of Ewhurst, gent, Benjamin Tompsett, William Chrismas and Robert Haffenden, farmers, to William Hadley of Leigh Sinton in Worcestershire, gent, and Robert Young of Battle, gent (7/8).

On 26 January 1848 Tompsett, whose signature was witnessed by Edward Langdale, the rector of East Hoathly, assigned the lease to Horatio Hyland of Beckley, draper (7/6).

The house and shop were auctioned at Battle on 27 June 1848 and sold for £450 to James Eldridge; the particulars state that a draper and grocer's business had been carried on at the premises for nearly a century (7/7). The conveyance, in which Thomsett was joined by the mortgagees (William Hadley now of Birmingham), to whom the consideration was paid, was executed on 1 August 1848 (7/8).

James Eldridge died on 23 March 1860, and his will of 4 September 1857, appointing Spencer Davis Weller his trustee, was proved on 18 September 1860. Eldridge left the property, then occupied by [blank] Atkins, Henry Goodsell and Solomon Kemp, to his daughter Cordelia, the wife of James Farrance of Ewhurst, gent, on Weller's death. On 6 July 1866 Mrs Farrance conveyed the property to Sidney Martin of Westfield, gent, in trust for her husband (7/9-10), and Spencer Davis Weller died at Ewhurst on 3 November 1870 (7/15).

James Farrance died on 1 November 1879. By his will of 1 March 1875, proved on 15 December 1879, he left the three houses at Staplecross, occupied by Frederick Crouch, Thomas Eldridge and Harriet and Ann Henley, spinster, to Stephen Hilder of Ewhurst, farmer, and Charles Gilbert of Ewhurst, grocer and draper, in trust for his wife Cordelia for life with remainder to the children of his sister Elizabeth Garner, deceased: Clarence Edward Garner (born 12 August 1851), Sarah Ann Garner (born 23 March 1838) and Emily Farrance (born 6 April 1845), wife of John Veness. He also bequeathed a house in two dwellings in Ellenwhorne Lane, Ewhurst, occupied by Nelson Cramp and Thomas Padgham, to Stephen Hilder, the husband of his niece Frances Susannah, absolutely. A codicil of 29 April 1878, written after the death of his wife Cordelia, substituted his nephew Clarence Edward Garner as an executor in place of Charles Gilbert (7/11).

When the succession duty account was submitted on 23 September 1880, the houses, in four dwellings, were occupied by [blank] Eldridge, widow, Gilbert Richardson, Richard Tappenden and the Misses Henley at rents amounting to £33 0s 4d (7/12).

On 21 October 1880 Clarence Edward Garner of Ham Street in Kent, grocer and draper, sold his third share in the property to his sister Sarah Ann Garner of Tunbridge Wells in Kent, spinster, for £200 (7/13). On 11 March 1881 she and her sister Emily Farrance Veness, wife of John Veness of Tunbridge Wells, grocer, mortgaged the property, consisting of four messuages and shops and three other messuages in the course of erection, for £400 at 5% to Rebecca Amelia Beeching of Tunbridge Wells, widow, and her trustee Richard Widen Cronk of Tunbridge Wells, gent (7/14-15).

On 3 January 1888 James and Edward Baily of Battle, gents, owners of the Staplecross Inn, agreed that the tenants of James Veness of Tunbridge Wells and Thomas Daws of Ewhurst, who had shared the cost of digging a well on land belonging to the inn, should have the right of using the well (7/16).

On 27 November 1890 the mortgage was assigned to Rebecca Amelia Beeching of Manora, St Leonards, widow, and Harold Anthony Beeching of St Leonards, gent (7/17). On 28 April 1892 Miss Garner mortgaged the equity of redemption of her two-thirds share of the seven houses to William Laurence of Maidstone in Kent, wholesale grocer, to secure her debt to him of £180. On 30 November 1892 E W Hilder, grocer and draper at Staplecross, wrote a report on the houses to F Laurence at Maidstone. He valued the property at £800 to £1000, and added that the block of four old buildings, and the drainage, was in a bad state of repair (7/18).

On 16 May 1895 Miss Garner and her sister and brother-in-law conveyed the property to William Laurence for £215, subject to the mortgage for £400 to Rebecca Amelia Beeching and Harold Anthony Beeching.

William Laurence died on 4 June 1899 and on 17 September 1901 the Beechings, both of Bank House, Tunbridge Wells, reconveyed the property to his trustees - Sarah Laurence of Gardenhurst, Bexley, Kent, widow, Frederick Laurence and Frank Gerald Laurence of Maidstone in Kent, provision merchants, Percy Laurence of Gardenhurst, Bexley, cement manufacturer, and Stephen Henham King of Maidstone, solicitor - who had proved his will of 14 October 1897 on 8 August 1899 (7/19-21). Laurence's trustees sold the property in 1905 or 1906 (7/22).

By 28 March 1928 the property, described in detail in an insurance policy, belonged to Wallace Leonard Gregory of Sedlescombe, motor engineer. It consisted of a shop and house occupied by Mt Treherne, baker and confectioner, and a neighbouring house and bakehouse occupied by Mr Aylwin. On 14 November 1929 the policy was endorsed in favour of Heny Edward Curd of Main Street, Staplecross, tobacconist and confectioner (7/23-25).