Chasing Chiswell Chronicles

Omigawd, what an incredibly fruitful day!! After breakfast, I walked west along High Street to see if I could recognize any building names from my research travels. I did see a few, but I'll have to wait til I get home to verify.
I came to the intersection with Chew Lane, the road that leads to Westend Cottages, that great great great grandfather John Atheal owned. The 1841 census found Charles living here with his parents, John Atheal and Sarah, and young cousin Elizabeth. I had a date to meet the church warden at Stowey at 2:30 this afternoon, which would leave me with enough time to walk back to the inn, jump in the rental car and drive down for a visit.
I had found these cottages on an 1840ish ordinance map. However, current maps showed it in the same place, but it was labeled Chew House, and there was another smaller building behind it. I knew that the smaller one was an AirB&B rental, and I had tried contacting the owner but didn't get a response. So I thought, what the heck!
I went back for the car and drove south, finding the laneway or driveway (was this private property?) easily. I drove in and headed towards the first building, and as I got closer, there was a man standing near a driving mower in dusty old clothes, and I assumed he was the gardener. He watched me approach warily, so I started getting my 'lost' story in mind. I lowered the window and called out something like "Hello. My name is Beverley, and I think my ancestors used to own this property a long time ago. The name was Chiswell."
Immediately, recognition dawned in his eyes, and I told him some more of the details. He told me that he was aware that Chiswell's did own it once upon a time and told me to go park over there and I'll show you around!!
His name is Clive, and he took me inside to meet his wife, Margaret. I showed them the descendancy chart I had put together, and he told me that when they bought the property in 1977 from a fellow named Albert Weaver, the original Westend Cottage building was in derelict condition. He said that one of the documents he received was a copy of a Chiswell will!!
Clive ended up restoring the building, adding rooms on the west side, and renamed it Chew House. Another mystery solved. He showed me around the house and said that he had converted it from 4 attached cottages to a single home. He carefully pointed out the original rooms of each cottage, which consisted of a single large room on the Main floor with a large fireplace that would have served as kitchen and living room, and the second floor that was a smaller footprint which would have been where they slept.
Then he climbed up into the Attic to retrieve a framed tribute to the upgrades he made that included a photo of the original building in its dilapidated state. In the meantime, he sent Margaret down to the safe to find the purchase documents from all those years ago. They weren't able to find the will, but he was happy for me to take pictures of the sale documents with Weaver.
In all, I was there for probably 45 minutes. I think they were as happy as me for this encounter. I'm so glad I made the trip there!
This has been another rather long post, so I'll share details of my trip to Stowey in my post tomorrow.
Fun fact: In the retail environment, eggs are not kept in refrigerated conditions!Read more