the Bradley history…and a century in one family
The Bradley was built around1845 when tree-lined Bayshill Road was just being developed with exclusive villa’s on one side and elegant town houses on the other.
In 1850 the house was bought by the Reverend Charles Bradley for his retirement years; as many clergy did in Cheltenham then and still do today. He lived here with 12 of his 21 children and his second wife Emma Linton. His first wife died after giving birth to his first 11 children.
A lot of his children went on to do quite well including :-
During recent renovations to room four we discovered, after stripping years of paint from a mantelpiece, the signature J.Bradley scratched into the top, we have recently discovered this was John Bradley. Educated here in Cheltenham he then gained a scholarship at New College Oxford, however after only a few weeks of starting there he drowned in the Thames when the boat he was on capsized.
The Reverend Charles Bradley died here in 1871 at the age of 82. He had quite an accomplished career and published numerous books on the sermons he wrote. Some of them are still in use today. A copy of one of his books can be found here in our library.
After Bradley’s death the house was bought by a Mrs Fanny Shaphard. She lived here with her daughter, several lodgers and three maids until it was sold in 1912 to Great Aunt Madge. She was an eccentric lady of means. In 1928 she drove her Baby Austin car through France, Germany then over the Alps into Italy on her own Grand Tour! We have several photo’s of her on her adventures in her car in our hallway.
Madge undertook a major renovation when she bought the house. At that time it still had gas lighting and only two toilets for the entire house. Work included replacing six fire places, these can be found in the larger rooms of the house in the art nouveau style. The fire places to the rear of the house are still the original Georgian ones, all were still in use until the 1950′s.
She had electricity installed to the house for the first time, though mainly just for lighting. Other works included baths installed all with there own gas boilers called geezers, very noisy by all accounts!
She bought the house not to live in but as a refuge for widows returning from the colonies of the empire, the once elegant wives of high society , left almost penniless by the inheritance law at that time, forced to return back to the UK. We have many photo’s of these first ladies in the house, they all had pets and from the writings Of Madges Diaries, it seemed a happy household with lots of poetry writing, painting and of course much time spent with their lapdogs!
This way of life carried on through the two world wars until the 1950′s when a very young slicked back Uncle Martin inherited the house and that included a very elderly house keeper Called Mrs Bannister who even in her late eighties rode a bike to work. She eventually asked Martin at the age of 90 if she could retire!
Over the next fifty years little changed in the house apart from the installation of gas fires and a good covering of wood chip wallpaper on every wall and every ceiling!
In 1999 for the third time in one century the house undertook the beginning of its third major renovation, this was to include hot running water for the first time! Central heating for the first time. The removal of all the original lead plumbing. The complete removal of the original 1912 wiring system, the restoration of 15 sash windows and the stripping of acres of wood chip wallpaper.
Due to the small amount of work done to the house over the 100 years, it remains one the most important complete historical regency houses in Cheltenham, it boasts a collection of antiques collected over 3 generations. It opened its doors as a two bedroom Bed and Breakfast in March 2011, it now has five guest bedrooms and work is under way to open three further rooms to cope with demand.