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Explore Bradford on Avon:

Beasor Street and St Margaret’s Hill

St Margaret’s Street, Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire

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Beasor Street (also written as Besoar and even Bazaar) is the old name for the stretch of what is now St Margaret’s Street between the almshouses and Junction Road and called after a family called Beasor. It was changed when the name St Margaret’s Street became diverted from what is now called Frome Road in the late 19th century. St Margaret’s Street now goes on past the railway bridge to the start of  Trowbridge Road at Junction Road.

The three houses, numbers 20-22, above, have all been shops, although 22’s shop window was removed in 2001. 20 was Mrs Hurst’s sweetshop in the 1950s, 21 was St Margaret’s Street Stores grocer and later a hairdresser, 22 was Pearce’s, also a grocer.

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The big chapel that is now the United Reform Church was formerly Morgan’s Hill Independent Chapel. The large square hall is mostly plain, but relieved by the outline of a roundel and pediment; it is topped by a pyramidal roof. To the left is a wing that holds the Sunday School. Three 17th century houses that stood along the road in front were demolished in the 1960s, along with others in the area.

Morgan’s Hill is now called St Margaret’s Hill and leads up to the area that was known as Frenchgrass; frenchgrass is an alternative name for sainfoin, Onobrychis viciifolia, a leguminous plant that was grown for improving soil by fixing nitrogen in its roots.
At the top of the hill no 34 is a five-bay, three-storey house under three hipped roofs.

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Morgan Lodge is a typical late 17th century house, except for the baroque centre and some unusual stone roundels. A carved stone in the round central gable gives the date 1696 and initials WBA of William Alderwick; beneath that are the remains of a sundial. It luckily escaped the destruction of old houses in this area in the 1960s.

St Margaret’s Place is a narrow alley, once known as Bush’s Alley,  leading from Besoar Street and, since 1847, facing the railway cutting and the mouth of the railway tunnel. There is a mixture of late 17th century and early 18th century houses.