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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Devon => Topic started by: AsH62 on Friday 05 July 19 14:09 BST (UK)
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Hi. I am trying to find out that age of the houses in White Street in Topsham. I have looked at old maps but they just tell me that the house was there in the 1890s which I had assumed to be the case.
I have heard stories of it being the red light district of the harbour but not of any dates.
Amy advice on where to look for records would be great.
Thanks
Alison
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Try Topsham Museum, they have a wealth of information and images of many household deeds.
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Great, thank you I will
Alison
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If it is of any interest the Exeter Flying Post - Thursday 12 March 1818 has a death notice for a Mrs. Bell wife of Doctor Bell of White Street Topsham.
St
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Thank you, that’s starting to give me an idea of the age
Alison
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Hi
If you use Google Maps streetview function, travel up it from the Fore St end.
There are 2 buildings which have architectual features which may give pointers.
Near 33 there is a house on the right, set back with a courtyard in front of it (Stone construction with brick facings and lintels to the windows), a bit further up on the left hand side there is a row of brick built cottages with red brick stretchers interspersed with blue brick headers.
The rest of the street has all been covered in stucco type rendering which has probably covered up a lot of dating evidence.
It was very common to have dated plaques on some terraced rows but I haven't found one there.
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Thank you, I've just had a look and it's fantastic. I'm not sure if it will answer any of my questions but it is a whole new way of researching!
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White Street was the rough area of Topsham. My mother was always warned not to play there, and she remembers the stories of fishermen's wives fighting on the doorsteps. We then found out that her own mother (my grandmother) had been born in Walnut Cottage, White Street!
The Street appears in the Topsham Censuses going back to 1841.
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Walnut Cottage is no.25 White Street (still called Walnut Cottage). Some of the houses will date back to the 17th Century.
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Thank you IJDisney
I wondered if it's place so near to the docks would have made it a tougher sort of place.
My dad was born in Glasgow and it wasn't until he was in his fifties that his mum told us that he was born in the Gorbals ie slums. When we looked shocked (not because it was the Gorbals, just because he had failed to mention that interesting fact) she said - '... it was the good bit of the Gorbals...'. As dad said 'there were no good bits of the Gorbals back then'
All towns have interesting stories and I am having fun finding out about Topsham.
Alison
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Some of the houses in White Street are listed.
The Historic England website dates 9 of them ...
https://historicengland.org.uk/sitesearch?searchType=Site&search=Topsham%20white%20street&page=&filterOption=filterValue&facetValues=&pageId=38601&searchResultsPerPage=20
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Thank you IJDisney
I wondered if it's place so near to the docks would have made it a tougher sort of place.
It wasn't just White Street. According to a newspaper report of September 1851, the Magistrates at Exeter commented that Topsham was a place "where riotous conduct, drunkenness, and squabbles frequently took place,"
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Hi
The 1890 oldmap shows some interesting features. A Gas Works a couple of doors up from that cottage with the courtyard which i mentioned earlier, a number of Pumps (this seems to be most likely of the different uses of "P" which OS list.
A railway siding down to the Wharf, this was still being worked 3 days a week up until 1957.
https://www.old-maps.co.uk/#/Map/296618/87922/12/100687
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... riotous conduct..' and a gas works - this will be so much fun to research. Thank you for the info on the listed buildings as well, this street seems to contain a bit of everything. Topsham is a lovely and successful town now but I remember it from my student days when is wasn't a great place to be, it's amazing what a few decades can do to a town.
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This side by side shows the old map with the present aerial view
https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=18&lat=50.6824&lon=-3.4636&layers=168&right=BingHyb
Stan
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British Listed Buildigs has 27-29, White Street as a Grade II Listed Building in Topsham,probably late C17.
https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101224303-27-29-white-street-exeter#.XSHRbuj0nIU
Google Street View https://goo.gl/maps/TdCwNWnGoBGqMHdy9
Stan
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That side by side map thing is brilliant!
Thanks again for all of this
Alison
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Hi IJ Disney. It's been a while since I posted my question about White Street but in those months I have now moved to White Street and am now very happily living in Topsham.
I have recently been asked to help a researcher who is doing some work about White Street including looking for any information either hard copy or oral history about the street. Your messages on this forum came to mind and I wondered if you had any information about your grandmother's life here. The plan is to create a complete history of the street and as many of it's inhabitants as possible in conjunction with the museum.
It's always worth asking!
Alison
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Oh Alison I do envy you living in Topsham! My paternal ancestors lived there, I've visited the town a couple of times and absolutely loved it. The first time I went there I felt an affinity with the place, as if it was home. My ancestors didn't live in White Street, but not far from there, I don't know if it was a dodgy area!
Re White Street, if you look at the National Archives catalogue the two oldest records they have listed referring to the street are insurance records, one dating back to 1788 and the other to 1790. Both records are at the London Metropolitan Archives. Let's see if this link works!
http://www.rootschat.com/links/01ov4/
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The link is great, thank you. I’m amassing any information that I can so that I can help the resident researcher. She has collected a lot of oral history which is amazing but a lot of it definitely confirms the chequered reputation of the street through history. It makes it brilliant to research but probably wasn’t so good to live in.
I feel very lucky to live here, it’s beautiful and very friendly.
Thanks again for the link
Alison
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Hi. This period of isolation has given me the chance to look again at a mystery that I had to put on the back burner for a while.
I live in White Street in Topsham and am researching the street which is right in the middle of the town with the bottom nearly at the quay. White Street used to have a bad reputation being so close to the docks and was largely lived in by the families of the fishermen and mariners.
At the bottom of the street next to the Quay master's house there is a wiggle in the already tiny road that means a lot of cars and larger vehicles can't get through. It is possible that the 'wiggle' was where two of the houses joined over the road to form an arch or gateway a long time ago. There is a building called Abbey Hall/Building which held dances, a basic library for the residents and then became the White Ensign Club. Next to it are three cottages built in 1894 called Abbey Buildings.
With all of the information available I have still failed to find any reference to any real Abbey or why the buildings were given this name, I can't find any reference to Topsham having an Abbey. The lovely Abbey Hall/Building is also a mystery and i am trying to find out who built it, when and why.
Isolation has given me the time to look into this but of course not the ability to access the archives so I was wondering if anyone can shed any light on this.
Any help would be great, it would be good to use this enforced time at home to crack this one.
Thanks
Alison
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Previous thread.
Pauline
Moderator Comment: Thanks Pauline, topics now merged together.
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Hmmm not sure which thread to reply to - I will ask mods to merge the two.
Have a look at British Newspaper Archive [also available on Findmypast] which has several newspaper articles - which may mention owners' /occupiers' names - such as :
Moderator Comment: Copyright image removed. Copyright Policy (https://www.rootschat.com/forum/copyright.php)
ADDED: Humble apologies, Josey.
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I don't know the area at all but I can see that St James' Priory was just 3 miles away and that site was subsequently occupied by a house called "The Old Abbey". Maybe that's where the abbey references come from.
Here's a map link to the "kink" https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=19&lat=50.68170&lon=-3.46482&layers=168&right=BingHyb
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Fantastic, both the map and the lead, I'm off to look into St James Priory.
Thanks
Alison