Dovers House
Dovers House is on the south side of the High St, with the Lanterns on the east and Saxton House to the west. It was built on an original burgage plot with a malt house to the rear, which some early documents mention.
The property is described in Pevsner as: “Early Georgian of great beauty and refinement. Two storeys, 2+1+2 bays, the keystones of the upper windows fielded into the cornice; ramped parapet, chamfered quoins of alternate length. The garden elevations have attractive Venetian windows and most of the rooms have contemporary cornices and panelled dados.”
The front interior rooms show no visible signs of timber frame construction and there is a fine Georgian stair banister. The rooms at the rear seem to have been converted from an earlier construction.
The earliest occupant we find, in 1697, was the father of a baker William Reade, and in 1739 Ann Reade, a widow, was living here. She seems to have died before 1770. What happened in the house between 1770 and the earliest deed for Dover’s House, a will of Charles Tidmarsh dated 2nd September 1819, is as yet unknown.
Owners
1819-1896 – The Tidmarsh Family Find out more about the Tidmarsh family
1896–1921 – The Hands Family Find out more about Henry Joseph Hands
1921–1926 – Miss Agnes Smith of Rhine House, Stratford–upon-Avon bought Dovers House, which still encompassed the ‘former Malt House, bakehouse, barns, stables, pig styes, yards and garden outbuildings’. Nothing is yet known of Miss Smith.
1926–1942 – Paul Woodroffe, (1875-1954) a successful illustrator and stained glass artist, living in Westington, bought Dovers House in 1926 as an investment. He left his mark – a stained glass roundel of Little Miss Muffet.
Occupiers
1819-1896 – Tidmarsh/Izod family
1901 census – Edward Rimell, a 53 year-old rate collector from Weston-Sub-Edge with his wife Ann age 51 and 14-year-old niece, Gladys Dunn.
1906-1930 – Frederick Landseer Griggs (1876-1938) had a long tenancy, during which the name ‘Dover’s House’ was first used. Dover’s “dear old hill” was a special place for Griggs, a place where he walked and thought and where he proposed to his wife.
Griggs married Nina Blanche Muir on 9th Jan 1922 and 3 of their 5 children were born here – John Ceolfid 1922, Marjery 1923 and Millicent 1926. Find out more about F L Griggs