Twerton History Society

Two small buildings, presumably cottages, which stood on this site in the 18th century were replaced in the late 1820s by a block of three houses built in Gothic style. This development was undertaken jointly by Rev.Wm.Baily Whitehead (rector of Twerton between 1815 and 1825) and the mill owner, Chas.Wilkins. The garden on the east side, which was hidden behind a high wall with a pointed arch door, was initially detached and incorporated into the garden of the adjoining Rectory (Clyde House, below), but was returned in about 1850. The grounds behind the houses, described as ‘pasture and orchard used as a [cloth] drying ground’, originally led down to the river bank, but were cut off by the railway. The occupation of these houses by cloth workers until the 1880s, combined with the notion that weavers were introduced into Twerton from the Continent, led to them later being called the  ‘Dutch Cottages’. In 1958 they were demolished and replaced by the present row of houses known initially as Nos.1-6 Clyde Terrace.

The front of Whitehead’s Buildings, showing the pitching of the pavement. The entrance to Little Hill was at the end of the garden wall on the extreme left. In the distance is the roof-line of Clyde House.

View from the church tower along the roof of the nave showing, in the foreground, the Full Moon (left) and Oriel Cottages (right). Beyond is the roof-line of Little Hill (behind the Full Moon), Whitehead’s Buildings (centre) and Clyde House (right). In the distance is the railway and upper mill.