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Brewer's grand mansion

Take a walk along London Road in Newark and you cannot fail to be impressed by the number of grand houses which line the route.

In the area from Beaumond Cross to Sherwood Avenue there is Belvedere (formerly the home of local clothing manufacturer William Mumby and now the Conservative Club), The Firs (once home to ironmonger John Howitt, now the Chamber of Commerce), No. 32 (best known as the home of William Becher Tidd-Pratt, now Newark Hospice) and Shalom Lodge (formerly the home of Oliver Quibell and now part of Newark High School).

A little further towards Balderton, tucked away beside Newark Cemetary, is one of the earliest of these great Victorian mansions, The Elms on Elm Avenue.

This truly grand house is now somewhat obscured from the road by a modern house built in front, but with a little imagination it is still possible to conjure up what it must have been like when a fine carriage drive swept up to the imposing front door.

Since the late Seventies the house has been in multiple occupancy, although when it was first built in 1864, The Elms - with its eight bedrooms and separate breakfast, dining and drawing rooms - was home to just one man, Joseph Richardson.

Joseph Richardson is best remembered as a partner in Newark's largest brewing firm, Warwicks and Richardsons, whose sizable brewery on Northgate is currently up for redevelopment. Although he rose to become one of Newark's wealthiest citizens, Joseph Richardson's origins were humble enough.

He was born on June 8, 1825, and began his working life as an assistant at Gilstrap's Hotel on Kirkgate (now St. Mark's property agency).

From there he moved into the employ of one of Newark's first successful large-scale maltsters, John Isaac Marfleet of Millgate. Richardson proved himself so adept at the business that he was ultimately admitted as a partner in the firm.

Following Marfleet's death, he assumed control of the business and greatly extended it, becoming the first to open up a trade for Newark malt on the London market.

While still continuing with Marfleet's malting business, he entered the allied trade of brewing, becoming a partner (and ultimately senior partner) in the firm of Richardson Earp and Slater who from 1857 to 1889 operated the Trent Brewery on Millgate.

It was during this time - in 1863, when the Trent Brewery was at its height - that Richardson began the construction of his new mansion on London Road.

Costing between £5,000 and £6,000 The Elms was a considerable luxury and immediately joined the ranks of the town's most highly rated properties.

In 1902 the Newark Rate Book identified only four houses in the town as mansions - the Friary and Chauntry houses on Appletongate, Northgate House on Northgate, and The Elms on London Road.

In 1885 Earp and Slater retired from the Trent Brewery and the partnership was dissolved. Richardson, however, resolved to continue the business and formulated plans for a new brewery on Northgate.

In 1889, however, the business was acquired by Richard Warwicks' brewery and Joseph Richardson became a director of the firm which was re-styled Warwicks and Richardsons Ltd. Joseph Richardson died on October 18, 1894 aged 69 having attended his last board meeting at Warwicks' only a few days before.

In May 1895 The Elms was put up for sale with a public auction being held at the Ram Hotel (now the Old Market) on Castlegate.

The house, which had cost more than £5,000 to build, was sold off for a mere £1,800, the purchaser being William Doubleday, a linen draper and former mayor.

"Some people," noted the auctioneer, "might object to (the house) on account of its proximity to the cemetery, but in the ordinary course we shall all have to go there, and I cannot see the slightest disadvantage in the site."

Perhaps Doubleday agreed with the popular view, for after purchasing the house he appears to have lived there for only a couple of years.

By 1897 The Elms is listed as being in the occupation of a Captain Reginald Brittan who remained there until 1902 when Doubleday sold The Elms to Alfred James Bishop, recently retired head of the Newark malting firm of Messrs. Bishop and Sons.

Bishop intended that he and his wife would enjoy a long and happy retirement at The Elms, but sadly his expectations were cut short. Only three years later, in November 1905, he died at the early age of 58.

With no children from the marriage, Bishop's wife, Mary, continued to live in the house alone (save for domestic staff) until her own death in 1917 when the contents were again put up for auction.

This sale, conducted by C. J. Ridge, lasted three days, with the 891 sale lots including everything from 10 grandfather clocks, a library of around 1,100 volumes, a one horse brougham and landau to two wire meat covers and two milk basins.

In the garden the sale included assorted fowls and pigeons, tools and plants and a fine example of a Boulton and Paul revolving summer house.

The story of The Elms in the years after the sale of 1917 has proved difficult to determine. It is not until the early Thirties that the occupancy of the house is once again made clear.

The house is said to have been divided in two in about 1932 with the rear portion being turned into an entirely separate residence.

The following year, the main front portion - that which we still refer to as The Elms - was sold to a Mr W. Willock Seymour who is listed in local trade directories as a dealer in pianofortes.

At about the same time much of the three acres of ground was sold off for housing and Elm Avenue itself, which for years had been known as Sparrow Lane, acquired its present name.

In 1956 Willock Seymour sold The Elms to Reginald T. Millhouse who had just retired as superintendant of police in Newark.

Mr Millhouse continued to live at The Elms until 1970 when, after about a year lying empty, it was bought by its present owners under whom it continues to provide much needed accommodation for many young professionals newly arrived in the town.

Despite being a house of considerable architectural interest, there would appear to be no known photographs of The Elms taken during its early years.

If any Advertiser readers have any such pictures I would be very pleased to hear from them.

ABOVE: The Elms on Elm Avenue, Newark. Built in 1864 by Joseph Richardson, a prominent local brewer, the house has subsequently been owned by some of Newark's most important and influential citizens.

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