Number 15 Lower Road
Number 15 Lower Road


For a small house, No. 15 has a complicated history. In 2014 the owner commissioned an Historic Buildings Study of the house from the Wiltshire Buildings Record at the History Centre at Chippenham. The results caused some surprise: parts of it were older than the date, 1795, inscribed on the stone plaque on the front wall suggested; it had once comprised two dwellings and, at some stage, part of it had been chopped off! These findings encouraged research. It was found that a Benjamin Emm (1735-1803) bought in 1793 a piece of land called “Wagons” in Lower Road and there was already a dwelling on it occupied by a widow lady. Did he put up the plaque when he moved in, on her death in 1795? (The initials on the plaque are those of Benjamin Emm and his wife Grace.) That the building contained two dwellings was confirmed by Benjamin’s Will, of 1803, where he leaves separate “tenements” to his two sons. From then on the two parts have differing histories.
Benjamin’s grandson, James, added two adjoining cottages in the mid-1800s to the eastern end - now numbers 13 and 11. The western end was bought at the beginning of the 20th century by a speculative builder. Presumably negotiations took place with “next door” which was still in the hands of the extended Emm family. To get space for the “recently erected, semi-detached” residence which he built and sold around 1911 a slice was removed from the western end of the building and No. 15 took the form it maintains today. No. 17 stands as witness to the situation.

Historic England listing

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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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