Groundwell Timeline

1066 The site appears in Domesday Book, worth 70 shillings. Records show many different spellings of the name, such as Grundewylle, Groundweil and Groudewelle. “Weille” means “spring”.

1242 Home to the Crusader Walter de Dunstanville whose fief included “Churi-bluntesdon” (Blunsdon St Andrew Church).

1339 Johannes de Grundwell was Rector at St Andrew’s Church.

1342 Held by Walter Groundwell and worth 6s.8d annually, according to the Partition Roll.

1362 Mentioned in the Inquisition post mortem as late belonging to Jamsede Grundewell.

1360s Manor was occupied by the Lovel family of “Blunsdon Gay”.

1367 Manor was in the hands of Richard Gosye.

1392 Owned by Thomas Whyteman.

1442 Thomas Wyke, son and heir of John Groundwell.

1523 Passed to John Gifford and William Kembyll and passed on through the Kembyll family.

1800s The Wayte family lived there. Simon Wayte is remembered on the inside of the Parish Church door at Rodbourne Cheney. In 1805 his wife, Catherine Wayte, built a Charity School at Haydon Wick for the education of 20 poor children. The new primary school in Abbey Meads is named after her.

1816 Passed to Harriet Wayte, wife of the Rev Thomas Goddard-Villett of Swindon, who owned Eastcott Manor, on which New Town Swindon was built. It was occupied by Richard Edmonds and the Edmonds family appear to have rented it throughout the 19th Century. It was rented from the Rolleston family by them in 1885.

1899 William Lush in residence.

1901 The Rev STC Chatto took up residence.

1911 The farm was owned by Evan J Hoddinott, who may have been responsible for building two brick silos - some of the earliest examples of their type - but rumour has it they didn’t manage to convert hay into silage very successfully, and were given the nickname “haylos” locally.

1931 The manor and farm were owned by the Bradleys but rented by Charlie Wilkins, a well known local horse and cattle dealer. His brother, Noel, farmed the land. Rumour has it that Noel used to ride his horse up the big staircase and dismount on the landing. Charlie and his wife Florence had five children.

1939 Norman Willis Painter took over.

1960s The Hills, a family of developers, buy the farm.

1974 Thamesdown Borough Council compulsory purchase Groundwell House and let it to the Groundwell farmers for craft activities such as pottery and candle-making.

Brian Archer recalls:

“My father worked on the farm just after the war, under Charlie Wilkins who rented the farm from the Bradleys. Charlie Wilkins appears to have been quite a local character – apparently Swindon market wouldn’t start without him.

“There was a two-tier lawn in front of the house. There were beautiful orchards and a lovely walled garden with greengages on the wall. My memories are of very country ones – horses, orchards, fields down to where Penhill starts today.

“Charlie Wilkins left in 1939 when Norman Painter took over. The Painters had two children, Sue and June. They lived mostly in the billiard room, although they slept in the main house. The farm was rented out to the Forsythes who had three daughters who used to entertain the American servicemen there. Dad said they used to throw sheets down the big staircase and slide down!

“There was a cellar and there was a rumour that there was a tunnel to the Abbey from the house but Dad never found it.

“Mrs Painter had multiple sclerosis and my father acted almost as a chauffeur for her. Dad lived there until he was in his seventies when the Painters left in 1974/75 and the house was taken over by the council.”

Owen Collier recalls:

“My great grandmother Minnie Collier used to work at Groundwell Manor from 1930 to 1948. Minnie was born in 1865 therefore quite elderly by the time she went to Groundwell. The Wilkins were very good employers. Minnie was a real country woman, very good at picking wild mushrooms, or roasting a hare with all the trimmings.

“I can remember Mr Painter because I worked at Blunsdon garage and Mr Painter used to roll up in a huge top of the range Jaguar and fill it up with petrol which would be a huge amount of petrol at the time. He was a very smart man with a trilby.

“I never went inside the house. The bridleway between the house and the church is still there but has been closed off due to an enforcement order – it comes out in Abbey Meads.”

Pat Marzetti recalls:

“I was born in Groundwell Manor in 1931, the third of five children: Winifred (now 79), Jim (died age 27), myself (now 75), Margaret (died three years ago), and Charles (died aged 20). My parents were Charlie and Florence Wilkins.

“My father was a horse/cattle dealer. He and my uncle, Noel, had farmed their mother’s farm in Purton until Charlie rented Groundwell in the 20s, from the Bradleys. He had his business and Noel – who also lived there for a while – managed the farm. Dad was a real character – a big man of 19 stone!

“It was Uncle Noel, not Dad as some people believe, who rode his horse along the hall and up the stairs, dismounting on the landing. I didn’t see this but my mother told me about it.

“My maternal grandmother also lived there for a while and helped mother with sewing etc. My mother was also helped by the some of the wives of the farm workers who lived in the three cottages. I remember Minnie and Mr Archer, and his wife.

“My older sister, Winifred, remembers the cellar flooding and a very large fire place with a date above it, and a large stairway. An attached brick extension was our nursery. We all knew the legend of the secret tunnel but never found one.

“My mother was keen on tennis – there were tennis courts on the second tier of the gardens – and I was ball girl. I remember the lovely gardens, and the summer house which was large and where we spent a lot of our time.

“I remember walking with my brothers and sisters through a small copse at one side of the manor to get ice creams from the ice cream man on his bicycle; we used to hear him ringing his bell.

“The 30s were the depression years and I think my parents had to work very hard to keep such a large house, which was probably the reason they moved to Wroughton in 1939 and the Painters took over.”