Church Hill Cottage - Millditch
Church Hill Cottage - Millditch


The house was built around 1855 under the direction of Charles Palairet, a local vicar, as a home for the Parish Clerk, James Holloway. The site was (and is) very steep, and huge amounts of soil and chalk must have been moved without machinery to make a level base for the building.

In 1928 the house and surrounding land were bought by Philip Smith who established a bee farm and plant nursery, taking advantage of the sunny south facing site and greensand soil. The business prospered, and soon large brick terraces were constructed on which a series of glasshouses was built, extending to the east of the house and all along the present driveway. Flowers, fruit and vegetables were grown for sale in local shops but also further afield. In 1936 an orchard was planted below the current garden containing both eating and cooking apples for the market.

By the 1980s the nursery business had closed and when the site came up for sale it was bought by Marjorie Reeves, who had grown up in Bratton and whose family once ran the local ironworks and agricultural machinery producers. Dr Reeves was a well-known Oxford historian and conservationist, and in an act of great generosity she donated the land to Bratton Parish Council on behalf of the people of Bratton. Allotments were created on the bases of the old greenhouses and the orchard was named Reeves Orchard in her honour.

In 2000 the tenants at the cottage, former nursery manager Bert Cook and his wife Joan, who had lived at Church Hill since 1947, moved on, and in a further act of generosity Dr Reeves made it possible for the current owners to buy the house, which by this time needed extensive repairs and renovations.
Since 2002 a new garden has been created, which has included further terracing using both bricks and sleepers, building a flight of steps, digging of two ponds (by hand as the garden is not easily accessible for machinery) and the planting of a wide range of trees, perennials and old roses.


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Bratton History Association.

The Bratton History Association aims to provide all those curious about local history with an opportunity to meet, exchange ideas, and discover more about the history of Bratton and Wiltshire. Activities include monthly meetings, talks by professional historians, visits to places of interest to historians, and our own local history project.

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