HISTORY FROM PARISHIONERS

Duthil
This has been reproduced from an article in the Parish e-newsletter
by Christine & Keith Padmore 2007

In September 2007 Duthil, our house, was100 years old.

Built in 1907 as part of Sir Henry Bell’s Mynthurst Estate, Duthil was built for the District Nurse Miss Shrimpton.  The existing pine cupboards on the landing upstairs are said to have housed all the laundry that she would need for patients and clinics.  The late Nobby Watson*, on meeting me for the first time, informed me that “your garden is full of tonsils”.  “What!”  “Yes, Nurse Shrimpton used to take tonsils out and throw them into the garden”!  Which may explain my reluctance to weed the garden!

In the Auction particulars of 1931, Duthil is described as an “Attractive Detached Modern Cottage” and sold for the princely sum of £850 to Mr Watts, the Head Gardener at Mynthurst.  During the war Mr Watts let rooms to Mr and Mrs Rice who later went on to buy the house and ran a Post Office from it.

With the help of Caryl Braine I tracked down the original name of the house which was Leigh Villa and I was told by Mr Rice that the name was then changed to Duthil, a beautiful spot in Scotland where a previous tenant had spent a happy honeymoon.  We did consider changing the name because, strangely, we always felt that Duthil did not quite fit the house.  Maybe we should turn it back to Leigh Villa or perhaps the Old Post Office?

Many people have happy memories of collecting pensions and child allowances from this house, we’d love to hear of any other anecdotes or even photos.

*Nobby Watson died in 2007 aged "85, coming up 86".
 

 

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