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Emma Darwin1959 Royal Commission on Historical Monuments Survey of Cambridge: the original early 19th cent. building forms about two-third of the present house block; 1813 is cut in the cellar brick work; 1814 us on the rainwater-heads. The SE third was added in the mid 19th cent…… both the NE and NW fronts to the original building are symmetrical; in the middle of the second is a large semicircular bay the full height of the house flanked by reset rainwater-heads with the initial W.C., probably for William Custance and 1814.
On the Cambridge University web site it states:
William Custance was a builder, land agent, surveyor and enclosure commissioner who by 1801 was living in Chesterton and was employed by many Cambridge colleges to compile maps and provide surveys and valuations of them.
His map [of the city in 1798] gives a very clear picture of Cambridge just before the major changes that were to take place in the early part of the nineteenth century. Although the outline of the city had changed little, further intensification of building can be seen – especially in the centre of the town where virtually all open land has now been built on.
The Grove, Huntingdon Road
1882:
The Grove was bought by Mrs Charles Darwin after her husband’s death so that she could live part of the year in Cambridge near her sons. She was to spend every winter here for thirteen years until she died at the family home at Down in October 1896, aged 88. She liked the house and wrote that ‘the Grove garden was the very place for an old person, such nooks and corners for shelter and seats.’ ‘It had old walls and spreading wych-elms which gave it charm and individuality’, added her daughter Henrietta. (A House By The River p.44)
………..
1891:
Thomas E Pries, 38, distiller, b Norfolk
Drusilla, 42, b Norfolk
Eliza F E, 13, b Norfolk
Thomas Charles, 6, b Norfolk
William D, 4, b Cambridge
Harry I Cunningham, 15, lodger, errand boy, b Kent
1891:
William Bourne, 54, b Bucks
Eliza S, 40, b Suffolk
Arthur, 3, b Cambridge
Treal [?], 2, b Cambridge
Maud J, 1, b Cambridge
1891:
Emma Darwin, widow, 82, b Staffs [Emma’s granddaughter, Gwen Raverat writes in Period Piece about her grandmother and the house p.192]
Elizabeth, 44, b Kent
Harriet E Litchfield, 47, b Kent
Richard B, son in law, 59, barrister in Gov. Office, b Herefordshire
Hannah Bromwich, 53, servant, b Warwicks
Joanne Matheson, 33, servant, b Scotland
Harriett Irvine, 33, servant, b Hants
Elizabeth Catholmer, 25, b Cambridge
…………
1901:
Charles Armstrong, 46, managing director, b Hunts
Beatrice, 38, b Devon
Beryl, 8, b Cambridge
Murial, 5 mos, b Cambridge
Ann Wright, 59, housekeeper, b Derbyshire
Annie Arthur, 27, housemaid, b Burton on Trent
Maude Tissington, 38, nurse, b Derbyshire
Beatrice Charter, 18, housemaid, b Cambridge
Hannah Reynolds, 20, cook, b Cambridge
The Grove (Lodge):
Edward Reeman, 41, coachman, b Suffolk
Eliza, 41, b Cambs
Edmund, 15, barman, b Quy
Edith, 11, b Quy
Arthur, 8, b Quy
Emily, 6, b Quy
The Grove (Gardener’s Cottage):
William Bourne, 68, gardener, b Berks
Eliza, 48, b Suffolk
Arthur, 13, b Cambridge
Cecil, 12, b Cambridge
Beatrice, 9, b Cambridge
………..
1911:
Charles Armstrong, director of public companies breweries
Beatrice
Christopher, 23, brewing pupil
Beryl
Muriel
Maud Tissington, nurse
Annie Arthur, parlourmaid
Agnes Minn, 24, cook, b Cambs
Grace Goodchild, 22, housemaid, b Middlesex
Edith Neave, 19, kitchenmaid, b London
Alice Grinsted, visitor, 48, dressmaker, b Sussex
Grove Lodge:
Edward Reeman, coachman
Eliza
Arthur, fitter and smith
Emily Mary, nurse
………
1913:
Charles Armstrong
A Bowler, gardener
E Reeman, The Lodge
…………..
In A House By the River by M E Keynes pub 1976, she writes: The freehold of what remain of the Grove estate now belongs jointly to Fitzwilliam College and New Hall; it will eventually be divided between them. The house, where Mrs Winifred Armstrong lives as a life-tenant, will go to Fitzwilliam, whilst the land to the south-east of the house will go to New Hall, which already owns the land on the north-east side of the drive to the Grove and Grove Lodge, where their gardener lives, beside Huntingdon Road.
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