Long Description:Aspley House dates to 1695 and is a perfect specimen for this era
according to Pevsner. It has seven bays and two storeys and is made
of chequer-brick.
The left extension was by Sir Reginald Blomfield but was
demolished and the surviving garden side visible from the
co-ordinates dates to 1750. The garden is walled and has openings
where the full aspect can be seen from the footpath.
The County Council website describes this house in more detail:
("http://www.bedfordshire.gov.uk/CommunityAndLiving/ArchivesAndRecordOffice/CommunityArchives/AspleyGuise/AspleyHouse.aspx"
target="_blank">visit link)
'Aspley House is by far the largest dwelling in the village. It
was Grade II* listed by the Department of Environment in 1952 (the
star meaning the building is of particular importance). The
Department’s architect considered it a “small country house” and
noted that it was built about 1690 for William Norcliffe on the
site of an earlier structure and was reworked in the 1740s.
In 1996 a scientific examination of the bricks of the original
building concluded that the clay was so similar to that naturally
occurring around the pond in the grounds that it was probable that
it was excavated from here and made into bricks on site. This
report is included in CRT130Asp3 as is a brief history of the house
and its owners by former Bedfordshire County Archivist Chris
Pickford.
William Norcliffe came, originally, from Malton in North
Yorkshire and gained property in Aspley Guise as a result of
marrying widow Frances Snagge about the time Aspley House was
built. She was the daughter of William Jole, Rector of Aspley from
1655 to 1660, when he was displaced, being considered to have
intruded illegally. He was then Vicar of Sarratt [Hertfordshire]
from 1661 until his death in 1702. Norcliffe died between 1717 and
1720, leaving the house to his eldest son William, who died around
the same time, his younger brother Marmaduke also dying in 1720.
Thomas Norcliffe, another son of William the elder inherited the
house and he had a suite of red walnut chairs made for the house
(this did not leave the house until sold in 1985).
By 1747 Thomas Norcliffe had moved to Bedford where he died in
1762. The house seems to have been sold at some point to a James
Reynolds of Clerkenwell who sold it in 1749 to Walter Scott, a
merchant of Madras [X364/78]. He moved to the property on 3 Jun
1749, by which time substantial alterations had been made. Scott
himself concentrated on developing the grounds, buying cottages
behind the house and pulling them down, for example, in the year
that he bought the house.
Scott died in 1776, aged 75, and was buried in Aspley Guise, the
house passing to his brother Robert, of Blackheath [Kent]. His son
Robert moved to Aspley House soon after inheriting it from his
father. He put the property up for sale in 1785, the following
advertisement appearing in the Northampton Mercury:
To be SOLD, A FREEHOLD ESTATE, situated as ASPLEY, in the County
of Bedford: Consisting of a good House of five Rooms on a floor,
with all necessary and convenient Offices, excellent Pleasure and
Kitchen Gardens walled in; together with 27 acres of very good
Land, well wooded, and lying very prettily about the House. The
Whole forming a very agreeable Residence for a moderate sized
Family. Aspley is a healthy and pleasant Village, two miles distant
from Woburn, six from Ampthill, eight from Leighton and one mile
from the great Northampton Road. For particulars, enquire of
Mr.Thornton, at Woburn; Mr.Randall, at the Bell, at Aspley; or
Messrs. Palmer and Searle, Attornies, Philpot Lane, London.
Rev.Edward Hervey of Hulcote, a retired clergyman, bought the
house at the end of 1786, agreeing to pay Scott £800 per annum for
life and £250 per annum to his widow for her life as the price for
the property. The house was to remain in the possession of Harvey’s
descendants for just over 150 years until 1939. On Hervey’s death
in 1796 the house passed to his son-in-law Rev.Edward Orlebar
Smith, rector of Hulcote & Salford since 1790. He died in 1819
and the house was occupied by his widow Charlotte until her death,
aged 92, in 1844 at which time it passed to their son
Lt.Col.Charles Hervey Smith, who died in 1857.
Smith's eldest son, Captain Charles Hervey Smith owned Aspley
House until his death in 1869, although he did not live in the
house for any length of time, leasing it to Charles L.Grimshawe of
Northamptonshire for five years in 1862. Smith moved back into the
house for the last two years of his life and, on his death his
heir, Rev.Villiers Shallot Chernocke Smith, Vicar of Husborne
Crawley and formerly a fine batsman with the All England XI, re-let
the house to Grimshawe.
In their tenure the Grimshawes set out to be the social hub of
the village, numerous events taking place at the house including
flower shows and fetes; in 1876, however, Grimshawe moved to
Goldington House. Meanwhile, on the death of V.S.C.Smith in 1871
the house passed to his sister Maria Dale Smith. When the
Grimshawes left she let the house to William Selby Lowndes until
1884, previously of Shenley [Buckinghamshire]. The Lowndes family
followed in the Grimshawes' footsteps hosting such events as tennis
parties and balls.
Maria Dale Smith died in 1887 at Salford Manor. She had let the
house to Charles Morden Smith, then the Misses Anne Marie Carter
Smith and Elizabeth Harriet Carter Smith from 1884. Both women were
born in Kentish Town [Middlesex], the first was described in the
1891 census as an authoress. It was whilst they were altering the
panelling in the drawing room in 1884 that they found a stone
describing alterations to the house in 1711.
In 1891 both ladies moved to The Hoo in the village when
Lt.Col.Charles Villiers Somerville Downes took up residence, moving
from The Avenue. He had been born at Aspley House in 1846 when
rented by his father Rev.Richard Downes. Downes had a new wing
added to the house, designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield in 1902; it
was demolished later in the century. Further work was carried out
in 1910. He died at Aspley House in 1909, aged 62. His widow,
Catherine Elizabeth Anne continued to life at the house until her
death in 1938. Hers was not an easy widowhood as she lost her two
sons in action within just over a month of one another in 1914.
From 1927 she let the house to her daughter's family and only
visited three times a year.
In 1927 this part of Bedfordshire was valued under the terms of
the Rating Valuation Act 1925; every piece of land and property was
inspected to determine the rates to be paid on it. The valuer noted
that it stood in 2.222 acres, that the owner was Mrs.Downes and the
occupier H.C.Acheson. He also noted the following layout: a hall
measuring 19.5ft by 16ft ("slabbed floor"), a study 18ft by 15ft, a
gents' cloak room with a basin, a pantry ("dark") and 7 steps to a
kitchen 22.5ft by 16.5ft ("v. old type") and a scullery ("poor");
then up 4 steps to the servants' hall ("small Billiard Room over"),
then a dining room measuring 22.5ft by 19ft with an oak floor, a
drawing room 27ft by 18ft and a morning room 23ft by 13.5ft.
Upstairs were a dressing room ("panelled") and bedroom measuring
18.75ft by 18,5ft, another dressing room and a bedroom 18ft by
15.5ft with another bedroom 19ft by 13ft; then came a store room
and 2 wcs. Next came another dressing room and a bedroom measuring
24.5ft by 16ft, a bathroom with a basin ("poor") and two bedrooms
measuring 12.5ft by 11ft and 18ft by 16ft respectively; next came
another dressing room ("now B[at]h[room]"). In the roof were 3
maids' rooms and 2 box rooms. Outside were a stable for four
horses, a double coach house, a timber shed, a heated glasshouse
9ft by 19ft, a timber potting shed, a large heated glasshouse 10ft
by 71ft, two grass tennis courts and garden. The house had gas
lighting and mains water and drainage. Overall he pointed out that
there was only one bathroom, no heating and no electric light and
it was "very old ?built by Christopher Wren" the latter referring
to the local story for which there is absolutely no evidence.
The house was sold by auction in March 1939 and was used for a
while during World War Two as a school until reverting to use as a
private home by 1951.'