Records relating to Heathfield

James Watt bought the house and land at Heathfield in Handsworth with fixtures and furniture in June 1789 from Samuel Blythe, for £900. Among the bundle of drawings relating to Heathfield, there is a wrapper addressed to James Watt (Birmingham) from --------- (London), 18 April, 1787 on which the docket reads 'Mr Wyatt's first plans of house'. Wyatt is, however, not mentioned at all in the accounts for the alterations to Blythe's house, and there is only one letter from Wyatt, in 1793, about the value of the lands Watt was proposing to purchase. (It may be incidental, but Josiah Wedgwood sent Watt plans by Wyatt for his own house on 29 May, 1799, for Watt's observations and advice on the heating system. [MS 3219/4/41/39 ] ). Alterations to the house at Heathfield were carried out by Charles Glover, plasterer, painter and builder, of Snow Hill, Birmingham.
The property included a kitchen garden, orchards, a farm, a pond, and tree plantations. On 5 December 1790, Watt wrote to his friend Joseph Black that he had moved to a new house about two months before, 'which is pleasant & commodious, but has cost me much more money than I think I had a right to lay out in that way.' [MS 3219/4/127/36]. In 1793 - 1794, Watt considered the purchase of further tenanted lands, common lands and buildings, from George Birch [see notebook in MS 3219/4/229]. In 1802 Watt had a new cow house and barn built and wrote specifications for those and directions for work on the farm lands. In 1805 a verandah was being added and alterations made to the chimney pieces in the library and bedrooms, as a letter from John Tuffen (The Rookery) to Watt (Glasgow), 9 November 1805 shows: 'I must now.......talk of Heathfield. I often go over there & always find faithful John busily employed. The Varanda [sic] if it may be so called has been once or twice painted over but its last colour is not yet laid on. Its roof appears to be sloping & far too high for the purpose of shelter, if however it should not be approved by you & Mrs Watt it may be very easily alterd [sic] or removed. All the other painting both in the house & about the grounds is finished. The Stonemason has compleated [sic] your Library Chimney piece and set the grate, all which looks very well, the paper hanger has also finished his work. The Chimney pieces in the bed rooms are likewise finished but nothing is yet done to the Breakfast room; I have again spoken to the mason about the stonework for the flooring of the Varanda [sic], but he tells me it will be some time before it can be ready to lay down. The man continues digging up the ground behind the offices & seems to do his work very well.......'. [MS 3219/4/47/48]
After Watt's death in 1819 the house was occupied by Ann Watt until her death in 1832. Elizabeth Stockdale Wilkinson, James Watt jr.'s ward and later his executor, also lived at Heathfield, as did Agnes Gibson and her family. In the early 20th century the house was rented by George Tangye. [See Richard Tangye, One and All, pp. 188-189].
In 1924, when Heathfield was about to be demolished, the estate having been sold for development, Major J. M. Gibson Watt presented the contents of Watt's garret workshop to the Science Museum, London where an exact reconstruction was made, including the original door and frame, window sash and frame, floorboards, tools and machinery. [See Ben Russell, James Watt: making the world anew, 2014].
The deeds of the Heathfield estate, a later addition to the Papers of James Watt and Family, are listed in [Finding No.] MS 3219/9/3.

The Heathfield records were previously in Muirhead III.

The records relating to Heathfield have been arranged as follows:
Papers concerning the purchase of Heathfield.
Papers and accounts concerning building work.
Plans and architectural drawings.
Inventory.