1977 - Cotfield, Church Road
It was owned, and probably built for, Thomas Wright Bosworth from around 1830. It was probably also the same builder as Holly House in Church Road, which has an almost identical façade. Bosworth was previously of Highgate House (where the family are recorded to have occupied from 1757 when Robert Bosworth was there). Thomas Bosworth is shown in the censuses of 1871 and 1881 at Cotfield, so lived there until then or later. There is no occupier shown in the 1891 census, so the purchase by Mr. Featherstone was after this. He dismantled the farm buildings, and added a stone block of rooms to the west of the house, converting this portion into the front accessed by an entrance drive from Church Road. It carries a date-stone of 1897. He had five unmarried daughters, who lived in the house from the early 1900s until the 1930s.
Subsequent owners for a short while were Mr Catt and Miss Corner, before Neville Bostock (Bostock Shoes, later Lotus Shoes) bought in the late 1930s and lived there until 1963 (he died 7 November 1962, was unmarried and lived with a man servant). The house was then owned by the Strangs until 1977, then for a short while by some Americans before being bought by the Myersons, who lived there until the mid 1990s. Dr and Mrs Rees then acquired it, before selling to the present owners in 2001.
The 1688 date stone on the outbuildings does not refer to the house, but has the same trefoil as Stone House, so may be the same stonemason. The date possibly relates to an original house, possibly farmhouse (later gentrified with farm moving to No 13?).
Image Reference: 0678
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