House History

Sunnymead comprises two acres of land situated in an area of south Herefordshire known as the Golden Valley. This wholly unspoilt tract of land runs from the Welsh town of Hay-on-Wye in the north down to the county town of Monmouth in the south. Sunnymead is about halfway down this valley and also approximately halfway between the cathedral city of Hereford and the Welsh market town of Abergavenny. The house is about 1.5 miles from the border.

The nearest village is the ancient settlement of Ewyas Harold, approximately one mile away. The village can trace its history back to pre-William the Conqueror times when the area was ruled by a succession of Saxon kings.

The name of the property can be spelt in several ways:

	Sunnymede as it appears on the Ordnance Survey maps.
	Sunnymeade as it appears on the government's Land Register.
	Sunnymead as it appears on the Royal Mail address database.

We sensibly adopted the Royal Mail's version as this is by far the spelling with the greatest circulation. It is still somewhat unnerving ordering goods and arranging delivery to an address without a house number or street name. The system obviously works as nothing has gone missing.....yet!

There are two major landowners in this part of the county so it is a fair bet that way back in history one of them owned the land which Sunnymead stands on. The Kentchurch Estate is owned by the Scudamore family, famous for their racehorse breeding and training. You may have heard of Peter Scudamore, a champion jockey now turned TV presenter. The Whitfield Estate is the seat of the Clive dynasty and I'm sure you've heard of their famous ancestor, "Clive of India". When we sifted through our Deeds sure enough, way back in the 1700's, our land was owned by the Clive family.

Our house was built in the mid 1920's. It is of 2-storey, 3-bedroomed detached construction with solid walls and originally had a Welsh slate roof but this was replaced with the ubiquitous Redland concrete tiles in the 1970's. The water supply is from our own borehole which has been sunk 135ft down into the bedrock. The drawn water which we jokingly refer to as 'Sunnymead Spring' would be classified as hard due to its calcium content but ,in our opinion, is far superior to the treated supply available in the village. Drainage is to a septic tank which requires pumping out about every 10 years providing the bacterial action is maintained. The property has mains electricity and also benefits from an annual income due to a wayleave agreement with Central Networks for the siting of one of their electricity poles. Central heating and cooking is by L.P.G. whilst additional or alternative heat is supplied by woodburner. Ignoring the costs of acquisition and installation of the woodburner, I like to think of every log I manage to scrounge up as free heat. There is something uniquely satisfying in being able to elevate the living room temperature to 35 deg. C when it is -7 deg. C outside.

Back in the last century some of the Sunnymead land which borders the road was worked as a private quarry. Examples of the stone has been used to edge one side of the entrance to the front drive. The quarry legacy goes a long way to explain evidence of a rear access to the property which we uncovered after a week of intensive ground clearance. By selective infill a previous owner had fashioned a gently rising gradient to provide access to the rear garden, perhaps to service the septic tank.

© TUF E. NUF Productions 2005