Riversdale, Grantchester

History of Riversdale

1853

Widnall family move into the Old Vicarage from the Nursery House.

Page Widnall decided to rename the property Vine Cottage with a much reduced garden. On the former nursery garden he built a new 5 bedroomed house called Riversdale yielding £50 a year in rent.

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1866 Smith family arrive in Grantchester. William Greene had married Charlotte Smith in 1854.

See chapter on ‘The Greenes‘ in Widnall, by Christine Jennings, 2003.

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1871 Riversdale

William Greene, 46, law student, b Bury St Edmunds Suffolk

Charlotte, 36, b Brigg Lincs

Florence, 15, b Middlesex

William G, 14, b Essex

Alice M, 13, b Essex

Mary C, 10, b Essex [Charlotte Mary, known as Polly]

Charles H, 6, b Oxon

Edward, 4, b Oxon

Fred W, 3, b Grantchester

Benjamin, 1, b Grantchester

Helen C, 6 mos, b Grantchester

Martha Hammond, 28, servant, b Norfolk

Alice M Mary Whiting, 21, servant, b St Ives

Sarah Green, 30, servant, b Oxon

William Green died in 1881 in St Kitts where the family plantation was situated. He had been born in 1824 in Bury St Edmunds, son of Benjamin Greene, founder of the Green King brewery.

In 1861 the Greene family is at Takeley in Essex. Charlotte Greene, aged 29 is listed as married and head of family, a farmer of 170 acres employing 7 men and 3 boys. Charlotte Mary is 6 months old.

In 1891 some of the Greene family were living at the Old Vicarage

For detailed description of Riversdale and the Greene family see Mary Greene’s autobiography, The Joy of Remembering.

See also information about Benjamin Greene who founded the Greene King brewery.

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1881 Riversdale

Arabella Cowland, unmarried, 66, annuitant of private means, b Devon

Alma Dickerson, servant, 25, cook, b Abington

Harriet, servant, 19, housemaid, b Beds

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1900

Dr and Mrs Assheton