This week I would like to look at the south side of Worting Road – what was known as the Downsland Estate.
In 1898 at the age of 71, John Charles Pittman Curtis built a house for himself, his wife Harriett, and daughters. He called his house ‘Downsland’.
At the same time, he acquired land which extended from the south side of Worting Road to the Winchester Road, including the site of the present cemetery.
Prior to the late 18th century enclosures, this had been part of Salisbury Field and then fell into the ownership of Winton College (this is Winchester public school) and, as with the other side of Worting Road, Lord Limington (Farleigh Estate).
READ MORE: Brookvale history – dating back to 1659
Curtis was a farmer, born near Yateley but had farmed at Monk Sherborne.
He married Harriett Downs in 1871 at which time he was farming 620 acres.
Ten years later, they were living in West End Villas in Winchester Road – older residents may remember them as West Mount – in later years turned into flats with a fine Monkey Puzzle tree in front. The flats are long gone, but the tree is still there.
Downsland was named for John Curtis’s wife Harriett Downs. Some of the former buildings of the house remain, but the house itself was demolished.
Moving westwards along Worting Road, we come to Downsland Parade – an unexpected delight.
To quote from the council’s own appraisal for the Brookvale conservation area: “Downsland Parade is an intact Art Deco styled small parade of shops with flats above”.
In 2009, the council carried out work to refurbish with emphasis on the style of font for the shop names.
Basingstoke Heritage Society frequently comments on planning violations which included alterations without consent to one of the units in this interesting parade.
To the west is a road referred to on house deeds as Occupation Road and included as such in a drawing on the deeds of the first house which was built in Downsland Road.
This name seemed very mysterious, but Google provide this explanation: [A road] ‘with private rights for those with an interest in adjacent land’.
On the death of J C P Curtis, his beneficiaries began the sale of the estate and in 1909 land was sold for the Worting Road cemetery.
The old cemetery in South View was by then entirely filled up.
At this time, butcher George Lansley was asked to quit the land he rented, presumably for livestock.
Older residents will remember this butcher’s shop on the corner of Victoria Street (now New Road) and Winchester Street south side.
In 1912 we see the continuation of the break-up of the estate with a conveyance between J C P Curtis’s children – Henry Downs Curtis, George Aubrey Curtis and daughters Kate, Florence and Edith. George Aubrey Curtis was killed in World War 1 serving with the 15th Btn., Hampshire Regiment on 9 August, 1917.
His death is recorded on the Menin Gate in Ypres.
Henry Downs Curtis became a land agent and had moved to Torquay.
By 1919, Florence and Edith were living in Bournemouth in a house they had named ‘Chineham’ but appear to have retained ownership of Downsland which had a succession of occupiers, including the Dowager Lady Rycroft, who was the widow of the Member of Parliament, Sir Nelson Rycroft.
They had formerly lived in Kempshott House. This was in 1925.
SEE ALSO: Five great places to go for a Spring walk in Hampshire
The house deeds for Downsland Road include some interesting names as parties to agreements on the land.
As with the north side of Worting Road, we find clothes manufacturer John Mares selling the land in 1912 and by 1939 names include Percival Henry Simon, who was managing director of the Basingstoke Steam Laundry, which was in Basing Road.
The laundry used the water of the Loddon.
The Simon family who owned it had a small private swimming pool there.
In 1937 the first plot in Downsland Road is sold to Arthur Henry Goddard, whose house was built at the end of the road furthest from busy Worting Road.
I believe he called the house ‘Hillfield’. This year also marks the beginning of development in Downsland – I wonder what the residents of the Victorian villas opposite in Worting Road thought about all this development on what had been farmland.
As today, life in Basingstoke is about constant development.
The Downs family is of interest too – Harriett’s father had been mayor and before May & Co took over the brewery in Chapel Street, it had belonged to a William Downes, possibly an ancestor. More research is needed on it.
It seems likely that Harriett Downs brought her own land to the marriage with Curtis as the 1871 documents describe her at age 25 a ‘landowner’.
Any readers with more information, do contact us through our website. www.bas-herit-soc.org
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