Victorian History
THE LATE VICTORIAN ERA: THE GROWTH OF HOUSING AND PUBS
Queens Road really came into being in the Victorian era, most of the buildings being erected in the 1860s. Prior to the 1850s Wivenhoe was still largely confined to its old core, centred on Anchor Hill, viz the bottom end of the High Street below the Greyhound, West Street, East Street, Quay Street, Rose Lane, Bethany Street, the west end of Brook Street, and the Quay and the shipyards upstream and downstream of the Quay. There were also a few houses on the east side of the High Street as far as the National School (the present Library site). Development on the west side of the High Street was impossible because of the presence of Wivenhoe Hall, which presented a long brick wall to that side of the street.
There was a period of major development in Wivenhoe around 1859 - 1868. The population increased from 1,838 in the 1861 census to 2,124 in 1871, no doubt in part inspired by the coming of the railway (opened in 1863), but most of the new housing erected in the 1860s was actually small terraced cottages for the workforce of the increasingly successful shipyards. During this time new developments were established in Alma Street, the north-west side of Anglesea Road, the south side of Paget Road, Park Road (including Denton’s Terrace and Colne Terrace) and Queens Road. Park Road was socially mixed having both two terraces of cottages but also larger detached houses such as ‘Colne Villa’ (now Wrawby House), while Queens Road was entirely terraced cottages. In both Park Road and Queens Road several ‘gaps’ were left which were not built on until the postwar years. The new Board School behind Queens Road was built in 1891 and Phillip Road was built along the north side of the railway as the access route to the school.
This period in history was also exemplified by the growth of public houses or ‘beer houses’ and Wivenhoe was no exception to this rule. From the 1770s to the 1830s there were at different times 7, 8, or 9 active licensed establishments; the Greyhound being added to these in 1817. The development of this building is not readily decipherable but the southern part (lounge bar, plus function room above) could well be new built in the 1810s. By the 1830s the whole building existed as now. Interestingly, the back rooms of the Greyhound are structurally part of an earlier row of cottages (the remainder of which is now no 64 High Street and No 2 Queens Road,) subsumed into the pub, with the old fireplaces still in situ: these are registered in Colchester Borough Council’s Planning Department’s List of Buildings of Special Architectural and Historical Interest.
As Wivenhoe prospered in the mid-Victorian years, beer houses also began to flourish and the Old Shipwrights, now number 7-9 Queens Road was built in the 1860s. By 1870 there were no less than 21 licensed establishments in Wivenhoe. In the 1871 Census of Wivenhoe it is clear that many of the licensees had maritime connections: At the Greyhound lived Abraham Ham, Smack Owner and Publican with his daughter, Sarah. The family living at the Old Shipwrights at the time were William J Hindwood, 62, Ships Carpenter with his wife Elizabeth and Mary Brown who was a Master Mariner’s wife, with her son and daughter. It is thought that this house may have been purpose-built for a pub as it is larger that the other 1860s houses in Queens Road. At a later date the name was changed from the Old Shipwrights to the Anglesea Arms, taken from Henry William Paget (1768 – 1854), Marquis of Anglesey and commander of the British cavalry at the Battle of Waterloo, who had a yacht built by Philip Sainty in Wivenhoe.
The temperance movement and the anti-pub campaign of the magistrates after 1900 hit in Wivenhoe as elsewhere, and there was also a drop in population. Pubs, which had once been seen as meeting places for members of the middle-classes became more commonly viewed as drinking places for the working classes and were often seen as dens of iniquity. Eight Wivenhoe pubs closed between 1900 and 1911 and the Anglesea Arms followed in 1922, being sold at auction for £250. Number 9 Queens Road became known as Anglesey Arms Cottage.
These edited extracts and summaries are taken by kind permission of Peter Kay from his two publications: ‘Wivenhoe a Hundred Years Ago’ which also contains a copy of an excellent Ordnance Survey map of Wivenhoe in 1896, and ‘Wivenhoe Pubs’, which contains a copy of the ‘First Edition’ of the Ordnance Survey (25 inches to the mile) map surveyed in 1873 and published in 1876. ‘Wivenhoe Pubs’ is now out of print, but there is a copy in the library, or a photocopy can be obtained from the author. ‘Wivenhoe a Hundred Years Ago’ is available from the local Wivenhoe Bookshop Price £2.20 (ISBN 1 899890 37 8).
