This group of buildings originally consisted of three early 18th century houses of which only the central house (divided into nos.16 and 17) now retains its original form (particularly no.16). By the beginning of the 19th century the two end houses, Nelson House (nos.15) and house on the corner of Mill Lane (no.18), had already been acquired by wealthier tenants who rebuilt them - presumably about the time of the Battle of Trafalgar in 1804. Both houses had garden railings (removed during WWII), unlike the central pair that still has a simple wall. Nelson House was a particularly fine dwelling which, from the late 1830s until the end of WWI, was occupied by the Bence family who ran the malthouses in Twerton. The house next to Mill Lane would also have presented a fine elevation before the present shop extension was built over the western half the garden. This did not occur until after 1840, probably in the 1860s when the premises were taken over by a James Hayter for a bakery and grocer’s shop. The original garden wall, gate pillars and railings still remained in front of the shop until WWII, when the metal canopy over the shop window also disappeared. In the early 1930s, when the shop changed to a newsagents, the eastern part of the house, with the remaining half of the garden, became a separate dwelling, no.18, with the newsagents being renumbered 18a.

The eastern end of the High Street in the early 1900s. Nelson House is on the left, followed by Providence Buildings. On the right is the baker’s shop at the entrance to Waterloo Buildings, in front of the ‘Templar Restaurant’. Note the old garden wall projecting out onto the street, far right.

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