Image Ref : VAR06 0062.tif

Coldharbour, Bridgetown, 1940s

Sid Chalk (in Naval uniform), Lily Screech and her daughter, Tryphena, are shown outside 3 Coldharbour during WW2. The 1939 Register England and Wales records the Screech household living at 4 Coldharbour: John George, Lilian E. and a child. At 3 Coldharbour, are Eric S. and Rose Edith Knott, also with a child (probably John Knott). Sid Chalk is not recorded at Coldharbour, so was probably a visitor. In 1949, 3 Coldharbour and most of the other properties in Bridgetown were put up for auction ‘on instructions from His Grace the Duke of Somerset’. The catalogue shows the Knott family still at 3 Coldharbour, renting it on a yearly tenancy of £5.15s. 0d and paying rates of £5 a year. The catalogue also describes 2 Coldharbour [sic] and indicates that the other cottages were ‘of similar construction’. This therefore suggests that each cottage had: ‘2 Bedrooms. Living Room-Kitchen with Range. Scullery with Sink. Exterior WC. Large Walled Garden with Pig House. Main [sic] Water, Gas and Drainage. Electricity Available’. English Heritage (now Historic England) listed Coldharbour (Nos. 2 – 10) as Grade II on 16 March 1978, describing it as a ‘Terrace of mid C19 cottages stepped up hill in 3 ranges’ (List Entry: 1168801). Lent for scanning by Mrs Chadwick