Avebury House 1906 - 2001

The house was built in 1906 by John Eggington, on land bought from the Board of Charity Commissioners. He previously lived in the centre of Goring at xxx house. At that time the house lay in open countryside as in figure 2. He lived there until 1919. There have only been 5 owners since then:

1919 Herbert Puxley, who died in 1937
1938 Jean and Margaret Anderson
1947 Frank Whitfield. He ran Avebury Research Labs, and sold off the Ferne Close land.
1966 Desmond and Barbara Payne. They developed the Coachhouse.
1970 Colin and Margaret Windsor. The built the garage, and later sold the Coachhouse.

Fig 2: A view from Larden Chase showing the house amid fields from Bell's Pocket Guide to the Chilterns 1932

Relatives from all the previous owners came to visit us. One of the Puxleys drew this plan of the garden in 1947 showing the detail of the gardens then.

Fig 3: The garden as remembered in 1947 by one of the Puxleys

When the house was built, it was designed with servants in mind. There are 4 main bedrooms accessible from the main landing, and 3 more upper bedrooms accessible by a back stairs. Some of the upper bedrooms studiously avoid a view over the lawn. They lie behind the left and right gables of the West frontage shown in figure 1. The back stairs continues to the kitchen area where there is, besides the kitchen, a butler's pantry, a scullery, a large cold storeroom and an outside toilet.

There is a clear demarcation of style between the West and South Wings, facing the lawn, and the East and North Wings, facing the coach house yard and road. The West and South elevations contains the lounge, dining room, study, landing and all main bedrooms. The East and North elevations contain the kitchen, bathroom, airing cupboard, servant's landing and some of the servant's bedrooms. Figure 3 shows the demarcation points on the first two floors. On the left is the door from the main hall into the kitchen area. On the right, the door from the main landing into the servant's landing. Many points of style change at these points. The dark oak doors of the main hall change to plain. The panelled doors with brass finger guards of the upper landing change to plain.

Fig 4 The Ordnance Survey map of 1960 showing Avebury in fields

2. Development history of Avebury House

The Ordnance Survey map around 1960 in figure 3 shows that the open spaces around the house survived until this period. The nearest developments were along the Wallingford Road and along Milldown Road. However around 1962 the land to the North of the house around Lycroft Close was sold and developed, as was the land around Lockstile Way to the South and Lockstile Mead to the West. In 1965 Frank Whitfield sold off much of Avebury garden to make the estate of Ferne Close. The development was sensitively done from the point of view of Avebury House, and no other house overlooks the main West elevation of the house. The house and grounds were well used at that time. Avebury Research Laboratories occupied the top floor of the house, the greenhouse and a three outbuildings in the area where the garage was to be built. In 1966 when the Paynes bought the house, they sold to Mr and Mrs Jefferies the part of the front garden, which was to become part of 22, Milldown Road. At the same time the Coachhouse was developed and turned into a dwelling within the grounds of Avebury House. Around 1976, the out-houses which had been part of Avebury Research Laboratories were demolished and a new garage was built. Nothing more in the way of development took place until 2000 when the Coachhouse and garage were sold off together.

Fig 5. The neighbouring properties around Avebury

Avebury enjoys a lovely garden shaded by two mature trees, a copper beech and a fir, both with preservation orders. It is set mostly to lawn, with a sloping rockery along the West frontage. It takes a great deal of gardening upkeep! According to the Paynes, who lived in the house from 1966, there had always a full-time gardener employed before then! The house, at present with the coachhouse sold, stands in some 1558m² and has a frontage of about 41m. If one takes the 10 houses opposite in Milldown Avenue and the 7 adjacent properties on the same side, as shown in figure 4, the average plot area is some 445m² and the average frontage is some 15.1m. The plots in Ferne Close are appreciably smaller. Avebury house area or "footprint" is some 160m², compared to an average of around 86m2 for the surrounding houses. Thus while having around twice the area, it enjoys 3 times the plot size.

Fig 6: A plan of the garden, with a suggested division

Fig 7: The oak staircase in Avebury hall

Fig 8:The house plan at present (not strictly to scale)