CUCKOO LANE

Oakfield Terrace. On the evidence of maps built between 1835-46; a block of 3 'Regency' villas facing North East and formerly with a carriage sweep all around. Scored and painted stucco in a generally Georgian tradition, with deep wooden eaves and low pitched roof. Of the 7 bays, the centre 3 break slightly forward with a wide open-pediment/gable defining the centre villa. The first floor windows retain their original 12-pane sashes. Large bays with recessed quadrant corners and a Classical type of cornice were added to both end villas (after 1818) -and canted bays to the ground floor windows of the centre house, leaving the original centre Front Door with rectangular moulded surround with rosettes in the top corners - the Front Doors of the end villas are in the return elevations, of similar design and on the South the rosettes remain. The layout of the glazing bars in the lower windows and doors would appear to indicate a later alteration, but this variety of layout occurs in Holland Place, Edge Hill of pre-1835 (? original), in Milner Square, London 1841-3, and in the north end of St George's Hall, Liverpool 1841-56. In 1848 the three villas were owned by George Bennion who was born c.1784 at Farndon, Cheshire; by 1825 he seems to have been of 'Fox & Bennion' Coach Builders, 7 Berry Street and living in Upper Parliament Street, by 1832 he had moved his shop to 12 Berry Street, in 1851 he was living at one of the Oakfield Terrace villas - and we find in the other two Emma Bennett (a widow) and Elkanah Healey with his wife and 5 young children. The Coachbuilding firm, became 'Bennion and Healey' and, though George Bennion died c.1864, the firm carried this name into the 1890s.

Smithy Cottage. Shown on 1835 map (earliest information available), typical of early C19 small stone house of vernacular kind. In 1848 this building and the four cottages almost adjoining on Rose Brow were owned by John Ashcroft and occupied by James Blundell & others. Not long after this it seems that the group (?) came into the ownership of Andrew Barclay Walker who built 'The Cobblers Shop' and (?) rehabilitated this cottage with a new eaves course, ? new roof, and porch.

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