Cedars Cottage

16 Church Street, Epsom

These premises were originally part of The Cedars, the neighbouring property at 14 Church Street described elsewhere on this website. The Cottage is listed Grade II:–

“CHURCH STREET (West Side) No 16 (Cedars Cottage) TQ 2160 30/21. Late C17 – early C18. Two storeys, red brick, six modern sashes and one small casement to left. Ground floor with C19 cemented bay etc. Brick eaves, hipped old tile roof.”

Cedars Cottage, 16 Church Street, Epsom c1990
Image Source Bourne Hall Museum

Misses Rebecca and Rose Anna Eisdell had become tenants in The Cedars by 1851, and established a school there. The Eisdells were daughters of the Rev Thomas Eisdell, the ‘dissenting minister at Andover’. In 1856, Rose Anna Eisdell married William Woodward, a widowed Manchester merchant, at the Independent Chapel on Church Street. Edward Moulton Barrett, owner of The Cedars, died during 1857 and Charles John Moulton-Barrett, his eldest surviving son, inherited real properties in Jamaica with the English estate being split between the five other living unmarried children. In 1864, Charles John Moulton-Barrett is recorded as having sold The Cedars to William Woodward, Rose Anna Eisdell’s husband [SHC reference 2702/1/3] for the Woodward/Eisdells to become owner-occupiers.

For the Census in 1871, Cedars Cottage was listed listed separately from The Cedars; enumerating Mary Eisdell and Isabella Eisdell, the half-sister and sister of Rebecca and Rose Anna. William Woodward died in 1870 followed by Rebecca Eisdell, on 21 April 1875, then the relict Rose Anna Woodward and Isabella during 1876. Mary remained at Cedars Cottage until her death, 13 March 1880, at the age of 92: probate of her Will subsequently being granted to William Struan Robertson, Artist, of 147 King Henry’s Road, St John’s Wood, one of her Executors.

William Struan Robertson had married Eliza Shorrock Woodward, the grand-daughter of William Woodward from his first marriage, in 1869. On William Woodward’s death, 18 February 1870, probate of his Will with two codicils was granted to a son William Woodward, junior, and relict, Rose Anna. It remains a matter of speculation that, after the death of Rose Anna Woodward, nee Eisdell, The Cedars and Cedars Cottage descended through Eliza (orphaned daughter of Richard Woodward), as a beneficiary of William Woodward to her spouse as a married woman. Whatever the exact circumstances, The Cedars estate came into W S Roberton’s possession for him to lease out the premises.

The tenant of Cedars Cottage in 1881 was Maria Martha Baker, a widow whose late husband Henry Sherston Baker, Barrister-at-Law and late Governor of Her Majesty’s Castle at Portland, had died in Bath on 26 April 1875, with her son Capt. John Chicheley Sherston Baker of 5th Middlesex Militia (later Major in HM Submarine Miners). She moved back to Bath, surviving until 9 March 1897.

Later occupiers of Cedars Cottage included Mrs Drake during 1887 and Mrs Bishop, 1890, before, in the 1901 census, the widowed Emily Saunders. By 1903 Stuart Lesley Bathurst of 2 New Square, Lincolns Inn, London, Barrister at Law had taken the tenancy and resided in Cedars Cottage until 1908. The property did not appear in the Street Directory for 1909.

The census of 1911 shows the next tenants of Cedars Cottage were Ernest Bright, a Principal Clerk at HM Office of Works and his wife Louisa with, Louisa’s sister Amy Watkins-Pitchford. The Brights remained at Cedars Cottage at least until 1927.

Following W S Robertson’s death, 15 January 1907, at the end of WWI both The Cedars and Cedars Cottage came to be sold by his executors, to a solicitor Walter James Payne of Portland House , 73 Basinghall Street, EC2, and his wife Ethel Maud Payne (née Monckton) who had married in 1912. The Paynes lived in The Cedars acquired 1918 whilst, from purchase in the following year, Cedars Cottage continued to be let to tenants.

After the Brights, occupants of 16 Church Street included Alexander & Doreen Nisbet(t) (1934); and George & Doris Sealy (1935, 1937). By 1939 the Cottage was occupied by William Neville Cumming and Margaret Jean Cumming who went on to purchase the property in 1953.

Mr Cumming appears to have sold on Cedars Cottage in 1953 before he died after illness at 7 St Mary’s Mansions, St Mary’s Terrace, London WC. The purchaser of his Epsom property seems to have been Geoffrey Fraser Aronson who deposited deeds at Surrey History Centre in March 1982 (SHC Reference 2702). The latter was a founder and Chairman of Epsom Protection Society – article in Who was Who – died 15 March 1998, resident at 4 The Oaks, Downs Avenue, Epsom.

Brian Bouchard 2021.