Chandlers is a Grade II listed house which has been rebuilt and altered over the centuries. Originally thatched, its reconstruction conceals much of the original full cruck house probably dating back to the late 1300s. The quality of the roof shows that the builder was a man of some means, perhaps a wealthy yeoman. A few parts of the original mid-17th century frame can be seen exposed on the front wall.

John Stagg is the first recorded tenant in the early 1600s when the house was a smallholding with strips of arable land in common fields and sufficient pasture for forty sheep. In 1799 in an effort to improve the efficiency of Savernake estate, some farms in the village were enlarged at the expense of the smallholders. The house was divided into two cottages, nos 46 and 47, and its land added to the farm next door which was then called Little House.

By 1827 when Edward Collins had taken over Little House, Job Chandler, his wife Fanny and five children became tenants at no 46. William Wait married Jane nee Chandler, a relation of Job, and the couple moved into no 47. Then began a succession of Chandlers occupying the two cottages. 

In 1915, the last recorded member of the family, Louisa, was farming three acres of land and leasing no 47 directly from the estate. When two years later Louisa died, her grandson Walter Pearce the village wheelwright and coffin maker, moved in.

On the death of his father, Harry Hearn Collins took over the lease of Little House including no 46. His son Leo lived in the farmhouse and acted as trainer to a number of race horses with training gallops behind the Clump. One of his horses, Spinning Solly, is said to have won a minor classic, but no fortunes were ever made in that enterprise.

One village lad earned pennies by helping Mr Collins – he must be on the hill by 7.00 a.m., open the gates to let the horses through on to the downs, wait until they were exercised, close the gates and return back home in time for school. One day he asked his father where was the safest place to store his hard- earned bounty and was told to put it in the bank. The next morning, the lad took a trowel, buried his treasure in the grassy bank opposite his cottage and it is probably still there today.

With the sale of Savernake estate in 1929, Harry Collins borrowed £733 6s 8d to buy the farm land together with Little House and no 46, and Walter Pearce bought no 47 for £270. 

It appears that Harry Collins overstretched himself as by 1931 he was bankrupt and the property returned to Savernake estate. The farm buildings became occupied by the Tedworth Hunt for several years until 1935 when the site including no 46 and Little House was bought by Eric Byron. The next owner, Agnes Parr, changed its name to the White House and after selling both properties to Sir Henry Bashford in 1946, moved to a converted barn behind the house.

A year afterwards, Sir Henry sold the farm site to Mr H Kadwill for conversion into a dwelling house, later called Easton Barns. Mr Kadwill then went on to build three residences on adjacent land – the Hermitage, Fair View and Greenacre – together with a private road allowing access.

In 1958 Walter Pearce died and his widow Elizabeth sold no 47 to Baroness Van Haeften, then resident of the Old Rectory. Three years later, after the death of Sir Henry, she also acquired no 46 and knocked the two cottages into one house called Chandlers, adding a driveway access from the main street. Some years afterwards, the roof was tiled following a fire which destroyed the thatch.

CHANDLERS

Chandlers with wedding group

Louisa Chandler

Nos 46 & 47 before conversion