High Street

This extract of the 1794 map shows what is now the main road through the village, or Town tithing,  which is called The High Street. It has been referred to as ‘The Street’ or ‘Chewton Street’. Bathway is on the left of the map, West End is at the top, The Folly is clearly seen at the bottom and Lower Street is on the right. Chew Hill and Kings Hill are just of the map to the right.The blue spot shows whatever may have been standing on the site of the Old Vicarage.  This site now contains the school, Homedene and Tudor Cottage.

The green line indicates whatever was standing on the site of The Waldegrave Arms and the row of cottages that form a terrace with the Old Post Office and the shop. The old Waldegrave Arms can be seen on the far right of this map.

The yellow line marks a row of cottages that used run along the side of the footpath that runs past the school to the church. These may have been ‘Chewton Street’ that is referred to in some records.

The building in the field marked 655 is now called Manor House but it was a farm for many years. The Red spot show the site of Chewton House which was owned by the Kingsmills at the time the map was drawn. The lodge to Chewton House and the Priory Lodge are still occupied and may have been where some people who were recorded as residing in ‘the Street’  actually lived.

There are two buildings shown in the 1794 map past Manor Farm. One of which was standing within living memory as this picture shows. This house was called Rock Cottage and is approximately where the footbridge now crossed the road. The map shows another building on the far left in a field  marked 686 which also has bene demolished as have several that were on the road leading to Bathway. The copy of this post card was supplied by Ken Church.