History of Queens Road

QUEENS ROAD HISTORY SECTION Numbers 22 - 30 

The land on which these and neighbouring properties were built originally was part of the Wivenhoe House Estate.  The original house was a handsome white brick mansion built in 1831 by William Brummell, Brother of Beau Brummell, who shared his house with his elegant wife, Anne (whose father was a governor of Bombay), their two children, and seven servants.  The house was later demolished and the property sold to Thomas Harvey who divided it up into building plots.    

Thomas Harvey was born in Wivenhoe in 1803 and began life as a joiner and carpenter.  In 1832 he took over the Wivenhoe Shipyard when Philip Sainty retired, and in a very few years built a reputation for building fast and sound ships.  He built fast schooners for fruit and the perishable goods trade, bulkier brigs for general trade, and he also continued to expand Sainty’s yacht-building traditions.  His business thrived and his son, John, carried on the tradition by designing yachts and racing cutters.  In 1865 Thomas Harvey retired from the shipyard, which he transferred to his son.  He bought land extensively and speculated in building houses on it.  He was an ardent follower of the Swedish mystic Swedenborg and sometimes told his family of his visions of paradise.  He was said to be law-abiding, puritanical and monogamous. This particular plot was bought circa 1862 when the first conveyance notice of 7 October is sited between John Bawtree, George Henry Errington, John Bawtree the younger and Jeremiah Haddock (1) and Thomas Harvey (2) John Eade (3) and Edward Williams (4).  Over the next four years the plot changes hands a number of timeswith mortgages of indentures between John Eade and William Alfred Neck (1) and George William Dennis (2);  William Alfred Neck and George William Dennis (1) and John Eade (2) John Barr (3) and John Bawtree (4);  John Barr and Timothy Gall and Daniel Bacon (1); and Timothy Gall and David Bacon (1) and John Wright  of the other part; Joseph Brabook Daniell Maria Frost and Herbert Cant (1) and John Barr (2) and John Bawtree (3). It is thought that the houses themselves were actually built circa 1864 but the first actual reference to  the five freehold messuages or tenements was made on 24 March 1886 with reference to them being sited in the New Road there called Queens Road. The indentures at this time were made between John Barr of Essex (mariner) and William Willis of Clacton-on-Sea (piermaster) and the five terraced houses were sold as a single package for £525.  The houses are also referred to in later documents as Numbers 1-5 Portofino Cottages.  From 1892 the houses began to sold as separate packages; two to one buyer and three to another, often to people with maritime connections and the Wivenhoe Board School was also erected to the rear of the properties in the late nineteenth century. In 1904 the properties began to be sold singly and reference is made to the passageway that runs under the first floor of No 3 (now 26 Queens Road) stating that is subject to the right of way of Nos 1-5 subject to their paying a proportion of the expense of keeping the passageway in good repair and they also (to the West) have the right to use water from the tap!  In the twentieth century number three (26) was occupied by a number of well known Wivenhoe characters including: Henrietta Chamberlain and her daughter Etta, who married Frederick Dan, father of the well-known potter, John Dan;  John married Pam Dan (also a well-known local artist) and they lived here for a time in the sixties with their young family; when Etta (who still owned the house) died, the property was sold to Stella Mahon, mother in law of the local artist, Michael Heard, and his son, Samuel Heard.  In 1981 the house was bought by the present owner for £19,000. *An official search carried out on the purchase of no 24 Queens Road in 1999 by Colchester Borough Council Planning Department noted Part 3B – Other Planning Changes:  This property is within an area designated as a Conservation Area (re-designated 23 March 1987)