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PAGE 35 THE CLEEVELEY STORY, - PART-3In Parts 1 and 2, we traced the history of this family of yeomen and craftsmen from the 16th century down to Thomas Cleevely, carpenter, who lived in Church Street, in part of a house which stood where the slope goes up to the Library. We now follow the descendants of his younger son, another Thomas several of them are still with us, illustrating the remarkable continuity of Charlton families. Many of Thomas Cleevely's descendants have, like him, been connected with building, others have been gardeners. /24/ THOMAS - son of Thomas and Sarah, carpenter
The house in Church End Street had been settled in 1723 on
Thomas, the younger surviving son of Thomas and Sarah, but he could not
inherit till his mother's death and she had remarried. Sarah Billings
lived till 1767; she was buried PAGE 36 on 6 September in that year. This may be why Thomas did not marry till 4 April 1763 when he was 44, and then it was a ‘shot-gun’ marriage to a girl Ann Lea, already a connection by the marriages of his sister Elizabeth and his niece Sarah. In 1749, Thomas had been able to buy up the other half of his Church Street messuage, the part which had been occupied by Mary Collins. He paid John Collins of Cheltenham yeoman and his wife £17 for it (D109/1). At that time, Thomas was not married - the Collins' part of the property was let to Thomas Bastin (who later married Betty Cleevely), and the Bastins continued as tenants when Thomas did marry and start a family. Some time in the 1770s, Thomas was able to acquire a much better freehold house, and moved across Church Street to Ivy Cottage. He was there by 1778, though it was not till 16 October 1789 that he actually sold the whole of the old messuage to Thomas Bastin for £30.00. Behind the parish land on the north side of Church Street was a strip of Ashley Freehold land. At the Frigmary Lane (School Road) end of the strip a timberframed thatched house had been built in the 16th century. People who knew it when it had been divided into two dwellings remember its beautiful oak floorboards and sound construction and regret that it was pulled down about 20 years ago. This was the house Thomas Cleevely had acquired.. On 30 January 1778, Thomas Cleevely of Charlton Kings carpenter "being in indifferent health" made his will (Cheltenham Corporation's title deeds to Thorntonville and Ivy Cottage). He left his freehold messuage and garden to his sister Elizabeth Lea widow, who was to raise £12 for his eldest son William and another £12 for his second son John. Subject to this, all the real and personal estate was to go to the youngest son James and his heirs (Charlton people still had a feeling that the family home ought to go to the youngest son). At the time of the will, none of the sons were of age, and Thomas clearly had no faith in his wife's ability to cope. However, he recovered from his illness and did not die for another 20 years. He was fit enough to take over the parish garden when his brother died in 1783, and was not himself buried till 9 March 1798. His eldest son William, baptised in 1763, is probably the William Cleevely buried 1 July 1790. /25/ JOHN - second son of Thomas and Ann, a gardener
When John Cleevely widower married for a third time in 1820, he was 55 years of age and his bride not yet 21, since Ann Hicks spinster required the consent of friends. At the baptism of their daughter Mary Ann, the father is described as "servant"; but according to himself he was a gardener (like other Cleevelys of this period). He made his will on 27 November 1827, when his child was only 5, and so, while leaving all his real estate to his wife, he appointed her and also his friend William Thornton (the builder) executors and trustees for the girl. John lived another 10 years; he was buried on 16 December 1837 aged 77; but still Mary Ann was no more than a teenager. Mary Ann Cleevely married John Hicks (perhaps a relative on her mother's side) on 3 December 1845. PAGE 37 /26/ JAMES - 4th son of Thomas and Ann, a gardener
James inherited Ivy Cottage and a long strip of ground in the Lye field on the north side of the charity land. About 1817, he agreed to let the charity trustees have part of it in exchange for a piece of their land on the south of his house; but though the exchange took place, no conveyance was made. The position was not regularised till 1836, by which time a poor-house or workhouse had been built in Church Street, partly on land which had been James Cleevely's (now site of nursery school). The almshouses (recently replaced by Cooper's Court) had been built on the half acre of parish garden which earlier Cleevelys had rented. By the time James came to make his will on 20 July 1827, he was calling himself yeoman. He left his freehold house to his wife Mary for life; after her death it was to be divided between his daughter Sarah and his surviving son Thomas. James died in 1828, his widow not till 1818, so Thomas the son was not in actual possession of his inheritance when on 23 January 1836 he formally conveyed to the charity trustees the workhouse site and received instead the ground between Ivy Cottage and Church Street, a plot measuring 124 ft E-W and 19 ft N-S, with Frigmary Lane (School Road) at the east end of it. (Diagram of ground) /27/ SARAH - only daughter of James and Mary
Sarah and Thomas could not divide their inheritance till the death of their moth Mary. She was buried 15 June 1848, and the deed of partition is dated 3 July 1849. Under it, Sarah received the middle portion, including the old house. PAGE 38 (Diagram of ground plots) Sarah's son, John Cleevely Smith was a carpenter, like his Cleevely forebears. He had only one child, his daughter Mary Fanny, and when he made his will on 8 November 1905, he made her sole executrix. This will was proved in January 1906. When he made it, John was living in Church Street, presumably in Ivy Cottage. Sometime before, Sarah and her son had sold off the ground in front of the house, and a new brick dwelling (formerly called Milverton, now The Roses) had been erected there c.1890; for about 10 years this building was Charlton's police station and the cell at the back (afterwards a bathroom) can still be seen. When the police station was moved, the house belonged to the Hellings - when Edmund (or Joe) Cleevely married Edith Hellings, in 1913, they lived there . /28/ THOMAS - 2nd and surviving son of James and Mary, a baker
Thomas's portion of the Cleevely property in Church Street consisted of land on the east and west of Sarah's section, with the house standing on the eastern plot. So the new Cleevely home, Thorntonville, had already been built by 1848. The name suggests that William Thornton was the builder; we have seen that John /36/ was a friend of Thornton's, appointing him trustee for his child; and one of Thomas's sons was christened John Thornton; yet there does not appear to have been a marriage link between the families. Thorntonville PAGE 39 was number 299, g.e.r. (gross estimated rent?) £5.10s.0d, in the 1858 Rate book. So far as we know, Thomas was the first Cleevely to be a baker. We have no clue to the locality of his bakehouse and shop, if he worked independently; it is always possible that he worked for some larger concern. /29/ WILLIAM - 4th son of Thomas and Susannah, a plumber and builder
William Cleevely, plumber and builder, has left his mark on the village. He was responsible for building the National Schools (later the Infants and Girls) with the School House between them, in Mill Lane (School Road) in 1872; and the Baptist Church in Church Street in 1875-6. (A photograph of the schools as built by William Cleevely
in l872. Photograph lent by Fred Thomas of Ontario. He built numbers 1-5 of Brevel Terrace on land bought from Brevels Hay. In 1873 he bought a piece of land by Grange Walk, by the footpath which then ran from Church Street to ‘The Endeavour’, and on this he built 7 cottages known at first as Brickfine Cottages; the two by Grange Walk were afterwards called 1 and 2 Somerset Place and stood on the vacant grass plot east of the present Library. All these were demolished with the redevelopment of Church Piece (Corporation title deeds). PAGE 40 William's wife was Emma Bowen, daughter of William Bowen, gardener; they were married at St. Mary's on 22 March 1860. Their 13 children were not baptised there, however, for William and his wife had become strong supporters of the Baptist church. One child, John, died as a baby in 1875. (A photograph of the) CLEEVELY family group taken December 1883, read left to right -
William Cleevely the builder died intestate on 24 February 1886 and was buried on 2 March 1886 in the churchyard without rites, as requested by his widow. /30/ WILLIAM - eldest son of William and Emma, a builder
William took over his .father's business in 1886. His first act was to sell the Grange Walk land and cottages to John Reuben Mills, baker, for £450. The plot was an odd shape - it measured 62 ft on the south, 73 ft on the north, 124 ft 6 ins on the east and 118 ft on the west. Originally the cottages had had a right of way into Church Street by a 4 ft path across land of William Henry Hall and Ann Buckle, but William Cleevely senior had abandoned this when the Chapel Schools were built. William the younger continued work on the Brevel Terrace houses, and had finished numbers 6 and 7 before his early death that PAGE 41 December. He was only 21, and unmarried. His will dated 26 October 1886, proved by his mother Emma Cleevely, left his personal estate (valued at £61.18s.0d) to her and his real estate to his brothers Albert and Edmund on trust to manage it for their mother's benefit till her death and then to divide it among the surviving brothers and sisters. So Brevel Terrace, was completed in 1887 with the building or numbers 8 and 9 by Emma Cleevely. (Information from title deeds of the late Mrs. Gillian Kennedy, when living at 8 Brevel Terrace). The next photograph (at foot of page 41) shows the family outside Thorntonville c.1895. The roof of Ivy Cottage (thatch, covered with corrugated iron sheets) can just be seen behind the collection or chimney pots and cowls. At the table are Emma Cleevely and Bessie, with Bertha behind Bessie, and Albert behind his mother. On the left, seated on the roller, is Henry Holman who married Alice Cleevely on 12 June 1889, when she was 23 - he holds their son Victor Herman Cleevely Holman on his knee. Vic Holman, who died in 1980 aged 85, did many sketches of Charlton scenes - including one of Thorntonville - he liked to tell how his mother, as a girl went gleaning on the Lyefield when it was all cornfields. Ernie Cleevely stands behind the Holmans. On the right in the photograph, Edmund (always referred to as Joe) holds his bicycle and Edith stands beside him. (Photograph here) PAGE 42 contains only four photographs -
PAGE 43 Two photographs - Kate Hick (nee Cleevely) and Ernest Cleevely I've been told by Mrs. and Miss Hick that Thorntonville had a big living room and if you took up the carpet there was a well in the middle of the floor under the dining table! Upstairs there were 3 bedrooms and above them two big attics, one for the boys and one for the girls. In that house no work was ever done on a Sunday – the house was cleaned from top to bottom every Saturday and a special Sunday rug or carpet put down. All Sunday meals were cold, and there was always cold blancmange and prunes for sweet! No books were allowed to be read on that day. Emma Cleevely claimed a local vote in respect of Thorntonville in 1895; her son Edmund (Joe) was then living with her. The family tombstone in the churchyard gives her date of death as 2 February 1922 when she was 81. I am very grateful to members of the family who have lent these photographs and helped with information PAGE 44 Photographs of Albert Cleevely and a (his?) gravestone /31/ ALBERT - 2nd son of William and Emma, builder and decorator
Albert carried on the family business and many people in Charlton will still remember him well, as I do. He married in 1889, and among other gifts was presented with a lovely embossed silver cream jug by Admiral Leech, for whom he had worked. At first the Cleevelys lived in Millbrook Terrace. Then on 15 January 1890 he paid £300 for a piece of Ashley copyhold land (1 acre 31 perches) which had been part of Hawthorne's (King's House). There was a 17th century cottage by the way in, which was allowed to remain; west of it Albert Cleevely built a new house, Hawthorn Villa, (G.R.O. D 109/5 and title deeds for King's House seen through the kindness of Mr. and Mrs. Chester). PAGE 45 Map diagram and Photo of Hawthorn Villa c.1903 Among much other work, the Cleevelys built Cleethorpe Villas in Lyefield Road, some houses in Leckhampton, the 1910 extensions to Glynrosa; and after the war, the bungalows in Lyefield Road East and School Lane. In 1932 they were responsible for the foundations and walls (up to the damp course) of the Brotherhood Hall. PAGE 46 /32/ ERIC JEFFREY - 2nd son of Albert and Sarah, builder
Eric Cleevely worked with his father and carried on the firm after Albert's retirement. The ancient cottage by Hawthorne Villa (Nobby Hall's cottage) was eventually pulled down by Eric Cleevely. He says it was genuine half-timbering with withy and mud infilling, the timbers mortised-and-tenoned, dowelled and marked. It stood on a stone base of varying depths, anything from one foot to 2 foot, and had stone floors. Consequently it was damp. It was just a one-up, one-down, with lean-to back kitchen and outhouses. When it was demolished, they put a rope on the timbers and it took six men to pull the front down after the roof was off! The base timbers proved to be oak, very hard; the rest possibly ash. /33/ EDMUND (JOE) - 3rd son of William and Emma, a joiner
The Hellings had lived at Milverton (The Roses) and so Joe Cleevely and his wife lived there and the Cleevely firm built a wood and glass lean-to store for their equipment against the east wall of the house. About 1922, Miss Bertha and Miss Edith Cleevely opened a useful little draper's shop there and ran it for some 15-20 years. After they gave up, the shop became a barber and hairdresser's. Then it was demolished. At the same time Ivy Cottage, Thorntonville and the 4 Russell cottages in School Road were all demolished, School Road widened slightly, and new houses built. It is not possible in the space available to mention all descendants of William Cleevely, or of his brothers and sisters, even those who appear on the necessarily incomplete pedigree. I must, however, make special mention of HORACE WILLIAM CLEEVELY, great grandson of Thomas /28/ and Susannah, who (in succession to Walter Fry) was Verger at St. Mary's for 37 years, 1923-1960. Photograph of gravestone - ELSIE ELIZABETH CLEEVELY and HORACE CLEEVELY. Author M. Paget PAGE 47 (Family Tree CHART) |
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