Westerfield House
Taken from Seavington News January 2007
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
Maybe the reprint of Mrs. Arnos’s May 1988 Seavingtons’ News article will spark a resurgence of interest in Seavington history. Let’s see!
I don’t know the year my house on the junction of Water St. & Church Lane, Seavington St. Mary, was built, nor its original name, but it must have been fairly new when Earl Poulett, Lord of the Manor of Seavington, leased it & 3 cottages to Simeon Rendell on 6 May 1844 on a 99 year lease at an annual rent of 2/6d ( 12.5p).
On 10 November 188\, Earl Poulett leased the property, now Parsonage House, & 3 cottages to the Revd. Joseph Phelps Billing. Rector of Seavington St. Michael, and Anna Maria his wife, again for 99 years at the same 2/6d annual rent. But Lord P. reserved all agricultural, forestry & shooting rights. This implies that the tenancy then included vastly more land than the present walled garden.
The St. Michael’s Church List of Incumbents shows that Revd. Billing became Rector of St. Michael’s on 20 April 1861, and held St. Michael’s & St. Mary’s in plurality from 3 August 1871. He died in office on 4 November 1911, 6 months after celebrating his ‘Golden Jubilee’ as Rector. His widow lived on in the house until 23 March 1916, when the Lord Poulett of the day sold it and 2 cottages to Samuel Robert Jacobs of Manor Farm, Seavington St. Mary. Mr. Jacobs bought out 86 year old Anna Maria’s leasehold for £30.
The Rector may indeed have lived in all three houses named in Mrs Amos’ article during the first 20 years of his incumbency. but for the last 30 he lived here! But why should he have given up the fine, large rectory in Upton Lane, a property wholly appropriate to his standing in the village, in favour of something much smaller? Moreover, where did the Rectors live after Lord Poulett sold Parsonage House in 1916?
After Mr. Jacobs died in 1946 his Executors sold Allenby House to Capt. James Vincent Lean, the first of 5 owners between 1947 and 1985 who kept the name, well known to many older residents. Jim & Norma Burrell changed the name to Westerfield House when they bought it in 1985; and Wendy & I kept the name when we bought it in 1995.
So, in its 160-odd year history, this place has progressed from Name Unknown, to Parsonage House, to Allenby House, to Westerfield House - which it will remain during our time.
Written by David Eliot