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Woolley House

Woolley, Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire

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At Woolley Green stands a castellated gothic arch, but there is no grand mansion at the end of the drive inside, only former stables and coach house that have been converted to homes.

The gate was the entrance to Woolley House, an eighteenth century house that was demolished long ago.

The house belonged to Thomas Johnson (1718-1790), who came from an important family in Lacock. His father, Rev James Johnson (1674-1740), was  the sixth son and ninth child of George Johnson (1626-1683) of Bowden Park, Lacock, who was MP for Devizes and the Solicitor to the Treasury of King Charles II. James had become Rector of Long Melford in Suffolk and his eight children were born there. Thomas was the youngest and the last surviving son, after Richard and Cuthbert died young and both Matthew and James died from falling from horses; the latter was a Doctor of Divinity, the Chaplain to King George II, then Bishop of Gloucester in 1752 and Bishop of Worcester in 1759. Unfortunately his career and life were cut short on 28th November 1774, when he fell from his horse in Stall Street, Bath.

It may be that James the Bishop owned or built Woolley House, but he mentioned nothing in Bradford in his will. He left his younger and only surviving brother, Thomas (1718-1790), who was perhaps already living there, just £100 and a £100 yearly pension, but acquitted him of any debts that he owed him, which might have included loans for the land and for building the house.

Thomas Johnson married, in 1741 at Winsley, Ann Baber (1722/3-1802), daughter of Samuel Baber, the owner of the New Bear Inn, Silver Street, Bradford and was a Justice of the Peace for Bradford. On his death in 1790 his wife inherited all his property, but then went to live in Walcot, Bath and sold Woolley House, which from 1793 became the home of John Jones jr. He was the son of John Jones sr of Frankleigh House and was a clothier and banker who was responsible for building the big six-storey woollen cloth factory at Staverton Mill in about 1800. He was shot and wounded in his face while riding home to Woolley from Staverton in 1808 -an anti-machinery protest, but the culprit was not caught. He also reported to the Government that a hayrick on his land had been attacked by arsonists. The mill went bankrupt in November 1812 and he died soon afterwards. A son, Captain John Jones (the third) was listed as the owner in 1820 and Thomas Tugwell (c1769-1833) lived there until his death, having married John Jones II’s sister Mary.

In the Tithe Apportionment of 1841 it was described as “Dwelling House, lawn, garden & plantation” under the representatives of [the late] John Jones, Esq. and occupied by Cornelius Lewis (as tenant -a Bradford grazier and butcher). In 1848 it was called Woolley Hall Farm and it might have then been bought by Captain Palairet and become the farmhouse of his Woolley Grange estate -the Tithe Map showed only two fields of pasture and an orchard attached to the house. A triangular piece of land to the south had been sold by Jones and was to be developed as the present Crown Court group of houses.

Sometime after 1864 the house disappeared and had certainly gone by the time the Ordnance Survey mapped the area in 1885. It was probably demolished by a subsequent owner of Woolley Grange, Samuel Beaven or Buddle Atkinson, leaving just the service buildings and the arch that remain today.