1750 - Places around the Church

The area around the Holy Cross Church and the Wilcot Manor was the heart of Wilcot proper from before the Norman invasion and the Domesday book right up to the early 19th century, when the centre of gravity moved to what had been called ‘Wilcot Green’.

This was where the Vicarage was, along with Manor Farm.

An old cottage, with an inscription ‘1729’, was sometimes called 31 Wilcot in the 19th century, and ‘Manor Cottage’ in 1919. Here it was seen from the church tower many decades ago:

Opposite, there’s a cottage with an inscription dating it to 1746, which was called Wilcot Reading Room in 1901, and in the 1950s became the post office:

A cottage built in the late 17th century was called 32 Wilcot in 1901 and ‘Gardener’s Cottage’ in 1919:

In the late 18th century, Wilcot Lodge was built in this area. There were other cottages in the fields behind the vicarage and up the lane towards Wilcot Green, and some of the latter survive. This photo shows the view from the church tower before the 1960s, with the old Vicarage in the foreground, its stables behind, and Wilcot Lodge on the left.

Here are the stables (on the left), with the vicarage (on the right), as in about 1910:

The vicarage was replaced in the 1960s:

A few years later, the vicarage stables were converted into two private houses:

A new house, Walbrook House, was built in the 1960s opposite Wilcot Lodge.

This recent photo (below) shows the area as it is now. Wilcot Green is top centre, Wilcot Manor bottom left. The old Vicarage has been replaced with a 1960s building, its stables converted into private houses. The bottom right of the picture, which used to have a variety of buildings, farm and otherwise, is now empty fields. In the middle is a development of around 2005, in which the old dairy was converted into houses.