The timeless elegance of Caudle House

In 1969 word went round the town that the elegant stone house ‘Surbiton’ was coming onto the market. Two spinster ladies had lived in the house for a good number of years and on the death of the second sister, it came up for auction. There was much speculation as to who would be interested; a local doctor, a wealthy builder etc.

Julia and Roger Smith had a quick look over the empty property which was in a seriously dilapidated state; no maintenance had been done for years. The two ladies had lived in one room downstairs, the rest of the house left untouched.

The auctioneers stated that the reserve price was £4,000. On the evening of the auction, Roger was still working in his workshop when he received a call from Julia to say that the house was being sold without reserve. Was he going? It was a difficult time; Roger’s father was dying which meant he had much more responsibility in the family business so he said that he really would not have time to restore the house on top of everything else. Julia then said that a friend was at the door from the auction room and there were not many people there. Roger slipped on his raincoat and headed for the auction upstairs at the Bull.

When he got there the room was packed! The first two lots were parcels of building land at Maxey and these fetched £14,000 each. Only three or four people left the saleroom and it looked as though they were all there for the sale of the house.

The details were read out and the Auctioneer asked for an opening offer of £4,000 – silence. He repeated his request for bids starting at £4000. Nothing. Eventually someone opened the bidding at £2,000 and the bidding flew: £2,100, £2,200, £2,300 up to £2,900, and then stalled. Roger up to this point had said nothing but he then thought ‘He is going to sell this for £2,900’ – a bargain. Roger then put his hand up for £3,000 expecting the bidding to race away again but to his amazement the property was knocked down to him!

No arrangements had been made as to how to finance the purchase. Sharpe & Wade Solicitors were acting and as Roger was well known to them his £300 deposit was accepted the next day.

With no money left for building work, Roger set to himself in the evenings and his working day was from eight in the morning until eleven at night. The couple lived in a flat above the shop, Smiths Unique, in the seven years that it took him to bring the house, which was in some areas exposed to the elements having been ravaged by fire, into livable condition. The only worker employed on the site was a plasterer and Bert Flatters, the farrier who fashioned the railings acquired from a shop in Peterborough.

This classic town house, built around 1790, remains the epitome of Georgian elegance gracing the High Street in Market Deeping, its sign gently blowing in the wind. It has been a family home, a girls’ school, a restaurant and now superior bed and breakfast accommodation.

Approximately 50 years after it was built it was purchased in 1845 by solicitor Francis Brown and his wife, Mary (née Clarke). Francis and Mary had been married for only two years when they moved with their yearold-son, Francis, from Peterborough to Market Deeping. Francis senior had offices in Stamford and Peterborough and now set up another in the Market Place in Market Deeping. The couple raised their family in the house; Francis junior was joined by Arthur (b.1847), Clara and Susanna (b.1850), Maurice and Charles (b.1854) Vernon (b.1856), Edgar(b.1857) and Edith (b.1864). Mary had three servants to help her in the house and their aunt, Elizabeth Brown a Berlin wool dealer, would visit. As the family grew, a governess and a nurse were added to the staff.

Along with his profession as a solicitor, Francis was also agent for The Pelican and The Lincolnshire Fire Office Insurance companies, a Director of Market Deeping Gas Works, and owned five cottages close to the Works. A well-respected member of the community, in 1853 he was a Steward at the Ball and Card Assembly at the White Horse Inn. Tickets were £3 and sixpence for ladies and £3 and five shillings for gentlemen, and dancing started at 8.00pm. In 1866 he contributed to the New Wesleyan Chapel to be built in Market Deeping (now the Coronation Hall). The following year the family moved to Westgate, Peterborough, Francis junior and Maurice having qualified as solicitors. Mary, exhausted by childbirth, died in 1868 aged just 48.

What happened next remains a mystery. Francis left Peterborough in July 1878 in good health to visit his son Arthur who had settled in Nebraska. On arriving in New York he wrote to friends complaining that he had been unable to sleep for the whole voyage. On 10th July he wrote from Nebraska complaining of the heat and mentioned his intention of going to Omaha to consult a physician so that he might be restored to sufficient health to embark on his homeward journey. On the 15th July, son Maurice received a letter announcing his father’s death. Immediately he telegraphed the chief magistrate of Omaha who could find no trace of the death. His affairs had been left in order, £1,600 had been taken with him and that is the last that has been heard of Francis Brown senior.

The house was rented out to a succession of tenants until in 1879, widowed Mary Flack and her daughters Mary and Elizabeth bought the property having rented it for several months. They announced that they were to open a boarding school for girls and by 1880 they had 18 pupils with domestic arrangements under the management of

Mrs Flack. English, French, Music, Singing, Drawing and Painting were taught in the large airy house with plenty of space for outdoor recreation. In the evenings entertainment was put on to raise money for the Temperance Society and the Waifs and Strays Society.

Mrs Flack died in 1900 and the two Misses Flack employed Grace Camplin as a French governess and Susan Hawkins as a cook/domestic servant. Pupil numbers had dwindled to nine. Just seven years later Mary junior passed away and Elizabeth advertised for a companion teacher. Miss Medcalf was chosen but the arrangement lasted only a year and the school closed. Elizabeth moved to smaller premises in Welland Place.

In 1908 the house was put up for sale as a residence with a coachman’s house, stabling, large gardens including part of the river bank. The property extended from the High Street to Godsey Lane. Inside was an inner hall, two reception rooms, a large room overlooking the lawn, a good kitchen larder, wine and beer cellars, scullery and store rooms. The first floor boasted ten bed and dressing rooms, a soft water tank and water closet. Three more bedrooms were found on the upper floor.

In October that year the household effects were sold including five feather beds, nine double and single iron bedsteads, six dressing tables, two pianos, an oak umbrella and hat stand, two lawnmowers, a ladies cricket set, tennis net and poles and several office and school desks.

The purchasers of the house were retired auctioneer Stephen and his wife Elizabeth Cannon (née Holdstock). Elizabeth was fined twice for allowing her livestock to stray onto the highway; in June 1911 (a donkey) and in 1918 (pigs). After the death of Stephen in 1919, widow Catherine Stanger and her daughters, Mary and Ann moved from Balcony House in the Market Place into the property.

Catherine had been married to the millwright

James Sanger who died in 1897, and was the daughter of William Alderman who had been a confectioner in premises where the old police station now stands on the corner of the Market Place. She worked hard for Dr Barnardo’s Homes for Waifs and Strays, although for the last ten years of her life she had been confined to her bed. She retained all her faculties and died peacefully aged 90. She left treasury bonds, war stock and money to be shared between her four daughters, though the house was left to Mary and Ann.

The girls invested their money in three new houses in Church Street, Market Deeping, a paddock and, at auction in 1936, a double-fronted house at 42 Church, St Deeping St James. In 1942 Mary died and left the house and her savings certificates to her sister Ann with £500 each invested for her nephew; Cecil Claydon and nieces Marianne Claydon and Katherine Fisher. In 1969 Ann died in Stamford hospital leaving her affects and money to her favourite charities.

The house was auctioned and this is where Roger Smith got his bargain. He and Julia lived in the house until they sold their business, the local department store Smiths Unique, and moved to Spain. The Boardmans bought the house at the end of the 80s and opened it as what quickly became a highly acclaimed restaurant, Chris Boardman taking care of front of house while wife Sue did the cooking. The house itself was renamed Caudle House after a book, ‘Mrs Caudle’s Curtain Lectures’, a collection of articles from Punch by Douglas Jerrold and a favourite of Chris Boardman’s father.

In 2015 Hazel and Pete Dulieu opened the house as boutique bed and breakfast accommodation. The inside has been beautifully designed by an interior designer, matched by the delicious breakfasts and high standard of service, as witnessed in the reviews left by satisfied clients.

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