There is much to say about the area surrounding what would come to be the Merry Oak Estate while it was part of the 'land-grab' of the 18th century, but in essence the contemporary records held in the City Archives show that David Lance was one of a number of landowners and interested parties who made their case to have large areas of common land to the east of the Itchen included in an Enclosures Act. (Dates and details to follow here).
Among those areas of common land was that part now known as Freemantle Common, then known as Bitterne Common. The proposal put before the Enclosure Commissioners was that this common land could be 'improved' to the benefit of all. What they had in mind, however, was mostly to their own benefit, as Enclosure deprived local farmers and tenants of the ancient right to graze their animals on the common land. And it was not without its problems, even when the Act was granted, because then David Lance came into conflict with one of his fellow beneficiaries of the Act, a wealthy London woman by the name of Lady Rumbold.
The link with Jane Austen is found in her books when she represents with characteristic acerbity the 'fashion' for enclosure and improvement. The connection here is that Jane Austen certainly passed through the landscape of which Bitterne Common was a feature as she travelled up from Itchen Ferry and along the Ridgeway to visit David Lance's wife at Chessell.
The Age of Improvement and Land Transactions
At the end of the 18th century the incumbent Bishop of Winchester, Bishop Brownlow North, entered into an agreement to lease a piece of land to the Honourable Mrs Agneta Yorke, of Sidney Farm, for the lives of her 3 children, at a yearly rent of 6 shillings and 2 pence (6/2d). The land is described named as ‘Ground at Bitterne’, but the extent of the land suggests it is outside the old estate boundaries and closer to the area that would be Merry Oak.
The record, dated 22nd June 1789 details ‘2 acres of land “by estimation” abutting to the north and east upon [a] certain Road or Lane leading from the village of Itchen Ferry upon and over a certain common called Botley Common to the south upon a certain close or piece of meadow ground now or late in the occupation of the Reverend Mr Speed and to the west upon a certain messuage or garden … situate in Bitterne’ (Southampton City Records MS 134593 No. 20). The description suggests the exact line of the modern Sholing Road/Merry Oak Road.
Five years later, on 22nd July 1794, Mrs Yorke leased out the same piece of land to Lady Jane Joanna Rumbold, a widow of Harley Street in London. This time the rent was 5 shillings (5/-), but only for one year.
The extent of the Bishop of Winchester’s lands on the east side of the River Itchen are detailed in an Act for the inclosing of Lands in St Mary Extra and South Stoneham in the Country of Southampton [20th May 1812].
Section XXV of the charter makes special provision for a parcel of land to be left unenclosed:
The eighteenth-century movement towards enclosing and ‘improving’ land was an assault on the ancient medieval modes of agriculture requiring an Act of Parliament (https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/towncountry/landscape/overview/enclosingland/) .
This Act enabling the enclosing of the land which included Merry Oak describes the extent of the area, shows that it was still in the possession of the Bishop of Winchester, and reveals the motivation for enclosure.
The Act specifies lands named as
‘a certain Common or Waste called Bitterne Common … a Certain other Common or Waste, called Weston Common … and a certain other Common or Waste, called Weston Marsh … and also other commonable Lands: And whereas the Honourable and Right Reverend Brownlow, Lord Bishop of Winchester in Right of his See of Winchester, and as Lord of the Manor of Bitterne … is entitled to certain rights in the Soil of the several Commons and Wastes … by this Act directed to be divided, allotted, and inclosed …’ (SC/1/9/17)
The purpose of the division and enclosing of these common and waste places belonging to the bishop is also explained:
‘whereas the said Commons, Wastes, and Commonable lands, in their present uncultivated State, afford very little Profit or Advantage to the several Persons interested therein, but the same are capable of considerable Improvement; and it would be very advantageous to the said several persons, and to all other Persons interested therein, and of great public Utility, if the same were divided and inclosed, and specific Shares allotted to the several proprietors thereof…’
The list of Persons interested in this division of the undeveloped lands include Joanna Rumbold, and David Lance, best known for creating the first Northam Bridge and the toll road leading east from it.
His name also appears in Jane Austen’s Letters as the husband of one of her Southampton acquaintances. In 1807 Jane remarked that she had visited the Lances at their house in Chessel. She provides an evocative description when she tells her sister Cassandra:
‘They live about a mile and a quarter from Southampton, to the right of the new road to Portsmouth, and I believe their house is one of those to be seen almost anywhere among the woods on the other side of the Itchen. It is a handsome building, stands high, and in a very beautiful situation.’ (Deirdre Le Faye, Jane Austen’s Letters, Oxford UP 2011, Letter 49.)
Her opinion of this northern end of the wooded ridge that shelters the Merry Oak valley could be extended southwards as far as Peartree Green.
The wider area was more generously praised by William Cobbett (1763-1835), who wrote:
Both sides of this water have rising lands divided into hill and dale, and very beautifully clothed with trees, the woods and lawns and fields being most advantageously intermixed. It is very curious that, at the back of each of these tracts of land, there are extensive heaths, on this side as well as on the New Forest side…. the views from this place are the most beautiful that can be imagined….
The woods here are chiefly of oak; the ground consists of a series of hill and dale, as you go long-wise from one end of the estate to the other. Down almost every little valley that divides these hills or hillocks there is more or less of water, making the underwood, in those parts, very thick and dark to go through; and these form the most delightful contrast with the fields and lawns…. and to those that delight in water-scenes, this is certainly the very prettiest place that I ever saw in my life. (William Cobbet, Rural Rides, London: Dent, 1912) https://archive.org/details/ruralrides02cobb/page/186/mode/2up
The approval of discerning visitors leaves no doubt about the attraction for the wealthy of building along the finely wooded ridge, with the little stream in its sheltered valley, making for such a picturesque setting. However, as Cobbett reveals, the little river valleys like that of the Merry Oak stream were tangled and even less hospitable than the higher ground.
A year after Jane’s visit in December 1808, she and her friends chose to cross the river from Southampton by way of the Itchen Ferry and to return to the town by way of the new Northam Bridge, (Le Faye, Letters, Letter 62). On the journey from the ferry, she would have passed the lake in the depression close to where Merrivale Road and the Peartree pub now stand, and travelled along the Ridgeway within sight of the little valley already known as Merry Oak. Her conversation with Mrs Lance would almost certainly have included mention of David Lance’s plans for the development of the land in which he was interested – a topic Jane would refer to in her books.
A contemporary response to the issue of enclosure and consequent ‘improvement’ is recorded in Jane’s novels Sense and Sensibility, and Mansfield Park.
In Sense and Sensibility, Eleanor Dashwood visits her old home, inherited by her brother, where he complains pretentiously of the expense of his new developments:
The inclosure of Norland Common, now carrying on, is a most serious drain. And then I have made a little purchase within this half year’ East Kingham Farm … where old Gibson used to live. The land was so very desirable for me in every respect, so immediately adjoining my own property, that I felt it my duty to buy it (Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility, Penguin, 1995, p. 190).
The less pretentious and more practical view is balanced between Eleanor’s young sister who rhapsodises: ‘Look at those hills! Did you ever see their equals? To the left is Barton Park, amongst those woods and plantations….’. Their friend Edward replies pragmatically: ‘It is a beautiful country … but those bottoms must be dirty in winter’ (Austen, Sense and Sensibility, p. 77.)
Mansfield Park takes the observation of the latest fashion for ‘improvement’ into the discussion of the estates themselves as characters debate the latest trends in landscaping, topics that were undoubtedly discussed by the Lances, Lady Rumbold, Thomas Lewin, and the other new residents whose lands had once been the farms and commons along the ridge east of the Itchen.
Jane was clearly aware of the controversy caused by the loss of common land, and it may have been her acquaintance with David Lance’s wife that gave her insight into the debate, but her feelings may have been more personal if she witnessed the land clearance and construction work going on along the Ridgeway and among the pleasant trees of the land leased by David Lance from Lady Rumbold that was adjacent to the newly developed Merry Oak estate, carved out of Bitterne Common.
Part of the land taken for development under the Enclosures Act included an old farmhouse belonging to the Bryer family. Their farm land was divided between a son of the family, Thomas Lewin, and Lady Rumbold, who sold some of it on to David Lance. Their names all appear on the 1802 map of the area, and this shows Merry Oak for the first time.
But in connection with the Bryer family, another name that might be associated with the same area in the late 18th century is that of Napoleon. Gerald Mornington has traced the putative visit of the ‘little Corsican’ to the Bryer family living in the area of Peartree Green late in 1783, when he was hoping in his youth to study at the Royal Naval Academy in Portsmouth. As Mornington admits, the story requires further research, and many records are inaccessible or lost, nevertheless, if Napoleone Buona Parte did visit the Bryer family at their home near Peartree Green, he may also have strolled along the Ridgeway in sight of the Merry Oak valley, contemplating his move to Portsmouth.
Map by John Dodswell, 1802.
As Garth Groombridge has pointed out, the names of a number of those engaged in the land transactions surrounding Merry Oak were investing wealth accrued from colonialisation and slavery, and J.B. Harley draws attention to the importance of maps to the ‘implementing land rights in the shift to capitalism’, arguing that ‘local maps are a product of … the transition from feudalism to capitalism (‘Maps, Knowledge and Power’, 1988, p. 285).
It is possible, then, that until the parcelling out of the Bishop of Winchester’s lands required boundaries to be set, limits to be set on their extent, and their enclosure by their new owners, there was no need to name Merry Oak and thereby distinguish it from other parts of Bitterne Common, such as Sydney Farm, and the surrounding areas of Chessel, Ridgeway and Peartree.
Part of the attraction of the area was that, according to Gerald Mornington, ‘there was no through road of any consequence …. The Ridgeway took little wheeled traffic … but it serves many of the gentlemen’s residences strung along the eastern border of the parish [of St Mary Extra], each with its outdoor staff attending to … their portion of the Ridgeway’ (Southampton’s Marquis and other Mariners, Dorset Publishing Co. 1984, p. 20) This description also refers to the ‘hedges and fences when the common lands were enclosed.’
The 1815 Map shows the layout of the great House and its surrounding estate, complete with a tree named as the Merry Oak which stands close to the north western edge of the estate, apparently close to the modern junction of Poplar Road and Blackthorn Road. The road from Itchen Ferry to Botley is clearly marked as the estate boundary to the south and east. Land lying on the other side of this road, that would later be Merry Oak Lane before becoming Merry Oak Road, is again recorded as having been in the possession of the Bishop of Winchester according to this 1815 map. Whether local tradition underpins this name, and the name was then given to a particular oak tree on the estate, is open to conjecture. As Cobbett wrote, the whole area was notable for its oak woods.
By 29th April 1816, Lady Rumbold’s address was given as ‘Sydney, near Southampton’ when she leased to ‘David Lance of Chessel’ lands described as ‘one plot or parcel of land on the south part of Bitterne Common in the parish of St Mary Extra … bounded on the north east by the road running from Chessel to Merry Oak on the south east.’
Lady Rumbold’s Sydney Farm can be seen in relation to this parcel of land on the Dodswell map, and restrictions were placed on this negotiation which set a southern limit according to ‘An Act for inclosing lands in Saint Mary Extra and South Stoneham’ which directed that an area was to be left ‘unenclosed’.
In The Country Houses of Southampton, Jessica Vale describes the changing ownership of the Merry Oak estate from 1800 onwards, and setting it in relation to: surrounding properties:
…the Ede family owned … Merry Oak. This was built about 1800 and occupied by Hugh P. Keane; from him it passed to George Ede, James’ brother. Sidney Farm or House … stood at the junction of Peartree Avenue and Freemantle Common Road. It cannot have been an impressive building as it received no glowing appraisals from the guide books, but its inhabitants were mentioned and so must have been reasonably wealthy. Chessel House was built for David Lance in 1796, in Georgian style and apparently on a very similar plan to Portswood House…. In about 1820 the property was acquired by Lord Ashtown, who was famous for his futile attempts to convert the Irish to Protestantism (Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society. 39, 1983, 171-190), p. 175.
Garth Groombridge has expanded on this, commenting that
‘A long squabble among the Ede family over ownership of the estate ensued, which was taken to the High Court of Chancery, but eventually resolved privately in 1859. In the meantime, Merry Oak was let to John Hopton Forbes, who may have bought the estate when it was sold by the Edes in 1859 as he continued to live there until the early 1870s. Merry Oak was then acquired by George Errington, whose widow survived there until 1920. At some time during the 1920s Merry Oak was demolished to make way for houses, and the estate development was completed by the early 1930s.’
Neither of these recent commentaries notes that in John Dodswell’s Map of 1802 the Merry Oak estate and House are already named as belonging to Hugh P. Keane, with Lady Rumbold’s Sidney Farm to the south of it, and David Lance’s Chessel House to the north west, with the layout of local roads shown.
Cheryl Butler writes that it was in 1850 that ‘Keene [sic] sold [the] property to George Ede who built a new house on site, George … died relatively young and there is a memorial in Peartree church.’ (private correspondence).
Very little remains now of the any of the fine houses with their landscaped gardens, but the 1815 map of the Merry Oak estate shows how the land enclosed from Bitterne Common had been ‘improved’, not only with the building of a substantial house, but with a lawn, an orchard, and large gardens. All that can be seen on the ground today is part of the grand driveway that led from Merry Oak Lane (Merry Oak Road). This is the line of the modern Cypress Avenue. It is possible, however, that one or more of the major oaks on the estate are descendants of the original oaks, if they were not all removed in the 19th century to make way for more fashionable trees, such as the redwood that still stands on Freemantle Common, close to the original location of Lady Rumbold’s Sydney Farm.