THE STORY OF SPRING GROVE HOUSE
Published in the Middlesex Chronicle on 3rd April
1959
...... At a time when a new Spring Grove Grammar
School on the Great West Road at Lampton is nearing completion it is
appropriate to publish this article on the history of the old building,
prepared under the auspices of the Heston & Isleworth Schools Local
History Society. The research was done and the article was written in 1957 by
Mavis Bennett, then in the Lower VIth at Spring Grove Grammar School,
assisted by Peter Morris and David Taylor of the Lower VIth.
...... The present building
containing Spring Grove Grammar School was built in 1886 by a Mr Andrew
Pears, the great grandson of the originator of the famous soap-manufacturing
firm, whose firm is still situated in Isleworth, not far from the school.
This building is, however, not the first to stand on this site, but in fact
the third to do so.
...... The earliest reference to
the name Spring Grove is to be found in the mention of a house, belonging to
a certain Sir John offley, who lived from 1586 - 1647 and was Member of
Parliament for Stafford from 1625 - 1626. This pleasant estate of trees and
natural springs, inhabited by the Offley family for approximately a hundred
years, is reputed to have stood upon Smallberry Green, which was then a
common of around 41 acres.
...... In 1754 this property was
bought by Elisha Biscoe Esquire, who also had a house and property at
Norwood, to which part of the county his family belonged. Elisha Biscoe
followed a very similar career to his father, Joseph Biscoe, who before his
death in 1750 had been Deputy Chirographer to the Court of Common Pleas (this
office was finally abolished in 1833). Elisha Biscoe's father and his wife,
Elizabeth, were both buried at Norwood Church, Mrs Biscoe dying 19 years
after her husband.
...... Elisha Biscoe pulled down
the then existing Spring Grove House and built another; and since the London
Road, or the Great Western Road, as it was called, had become a turnpike and
heavy traffic was beginning to use it, he erected a brick wall upon the southside
to protect the estate.
...... Most of the owners of
Spring Grove House have shown an interest in local public affairs and Elisha
Biscoe was no exception; it is recorded that he built and endowed a school at
Norwood for the education of thirty-four boys and six girls, residing in the parishes
of Heston and Hayes and in the chapelry of Norwood. When he died in 1776 he
also endowed a pension of £10 per annum on the retired schoolmaster and his
wife, to be paid in quarterly payments, free of tax "for their
subsistence by the owner of my Mansion House called Spring Grove"; no
claim or payment, however, was ever made.
...... Upon his death he left a
widow, Frances Biscoe, and was succeeded by his son, also named Elisha
Biscoe.
Sir Joseph
Banks
......
Sir Joseph
Banks, an eminent naturalist, President of the Royal Society in 1778 and one
of the foremost scientists of his time, "leased in 1779 and subsequently
purchased Spring Grove, a house with extensive grounds at Smallberry Green,
in the parish of Heston, Middlesex." By an indenture, dated July 30th,
1791, Elisha Biscoe (Junior) demised to Sir Joseph Banks:-
...... "All that capital
Messuage or Tenement called Spring Grove House, situate and being at
Smallberry Green in the county of Middlesex with the Household Offices,
Barns, Stables, Outhouses, Yards, Gardens, Pleasure Grounds and Appurtenances
thereunto belonging and also those four several Closes of Meadow or pasture
land, containing by Estimation 14 acres; The Thirteen Acre Field containing
by Estimation 13 acres; the Pond Field, containing by Estimation 10 acres and
the Cold Bath Field (formerly Hangman's Close) containing by Estimation four
and a half (more or less) situate, lying and being adjacent to the said
Messuage or Tenement."
...... The Thirteen Acre Field and
Cold Bath Field appear to have lain side by side to the West of the building,
while the Pond Field lay to the South West of the building, between the
turnpike road , already mentioned, and the two former fields.
...... It is also stated in the
indenture that when the said Elisha Biscoe should be enabled to make out a
proper, good and sufficient Title to the Fee Simple and Inheritance....then
it should and might be lawful to and for the said Sir Joseph Banks, his
Executors and Administrators to become the purchaser thereof at or for the
Price or sum of £6,000. Thus in 1808 Sir Joseph Banks bought the property
freehold, after living there as a tenant since 1779, paying a rent of £200
yearly.
...... A painting of Spring Grove
House of approximately 1797, a brick and slate mansion, by an unknown artist,
is in the Viscount Wakefield Collection in the Guildhall. At around the same
time, in 1800, a survey of the estate was carried out by a certain D.Todd of
Hounslow.
...... During his stay of about
forty years at Spring Grove, which he used as his country house, Sir Joseph
Banks, one of the most eminent naturalists of his time, encouraged the growth
of science and pioneered some of the early experiments in Botany. He entertained
many guests in his beautiful home, often including royalty and distinguished
foreign scientists.
...... In 1770 Sir Joseph Banks
had accompanied Captain Cook on his great voyage of discovery to Australia, a
reminder of which is to be found in the border of rock formations around the
present school building. Perhaps it is thus fitting that some of his early
experiments were those with Merino sheep in 1785, which were to become a
source of wealth to the new colony; these sheep experiments by crossing a
native ewe with a Merino ram, imported from France, were said to have doubled
the value and quantity of wool which the sheep carried. In 1710 sheep are
reported to have weighed 28 pounds and by 1795 they had increased to 80
pounds; bullocks, with which Sir Joseph also experimented rose from 370
pounds to 800 pounds within the same period.
...... He also tried curing sheep
diseases; he attempted a mercurial cure for sheep scab , the results of which
were reported to the Royal Society of Arts, but although his method was a
cure at one dressing in every case, a large proportion of the sheep were killed
if it was used in wintertime. So he perfected the "tobacco-water"
process and showed it to be easier to use, safer and with sufficient
certainty of curing the disease.
...... He made many botanical
experiments in the extensive grounds at at Spring Grove, among them one for
getting rid of the Apple Tree Insect (Aphis Lanigera), which appeared in the
area in July 1793, by cutting away all dead and diseased bark and painting
the exposed areas with a mixture of sulphur and soft soap. And in 1791 he
planted the seeds of a water plant from Canada (the Zizania Aquatica) on a
pond at the House and so successfully introduced it that the whole pond was
covered by 1804.
...... Like Elisha Biscoe, Sir
Joseph Banks was interested in local affairs and in 1794 he carried out a
census of the houses and population in the Parish of Heston for the benefit
of Daniel Lyons, a local topographer, having the means, in consequence of his
residence at Smallberry Green in this parish, of procuring an accurate
account of its present population as they existed in the month of July 1794.
The Spring
......
During Sir
Joseph's possession, Spring Grove House became famous for the beauty of its
ground, which contained many rare and beautiful plants, spread over a large
area of pleasure gardens. Here Banks himself describes the miniature Lake and
grounds: "the spring rises in a small grove within the precincts of
Spring Grove, no doubt the origin of its name: this spring is carried by
leaden pipes into the house, to which it affords an ample supply...... to
this constant supply of fresh water, though it is very small, the great
luxuriance with which water plants of all kinds suitable to this climate,
succeed in the pond, is no doubt attributed...... In the middle of the basin
(in the pleasure gardens) a small Island has been formed, by supporting a box
of oak upon posts driven into the bottom; in the centre of this pond, the
waste water is suffered to flow in the form of a spring, which rising into a
large shell of the Chana Gigas, perforated for the purpose, imitates very
well a natural spring and gives in hot weather the appearance of freshness
and coolness, very pleasant to those who walk in the gardens".
...... The grounds are also
recorded to have held a tea plant, an American cranberry, which Sir Joseph
helped to introduce, beautiful Magnolias and a splendid specimen of a
Clanbrassiliana, another specimen of which is to be found in Kew Gardens.
There were fine grafted Spanish chestnut trees sent by Sir William Watson
from Devonshire and planted at Spring Grove in around 1783. Besides several
extensive kitchen gardens, peacheries and a gooseberry garden, there was also
a conservatory with a vine - "the finest and best grapes cultivated in
this country called Vest's Saint Peter's Grape" - which is said to have
been first planted at Spring Grove in the year 1816 by Mr. Isaac Aldacre,
gardener to the Emperor of Russia, who was no doubt one of Sir Joseph's
scientific guests.
...... There were also strawberry
beds at Spring Grove which occupied 5,645 square feet, even when the
divisions between the beds had been deducted from the total area. It may also
be noticed that it was on these beds that Sir Joseph renewed the old
practice, which had then almost died out, of placing straw under the fruit to
keep it clean and diminish the amount of evaporation from the earth, thus
reducing the amount of watering which had to be performed.
...... Perhaps the crowning glory
to 'Spring Grove's reputation at that time was that it gave its title to an
apple, the "Spring Grove Codlin", which was first produced by Mr.
Thomas Andrew Knight (1759 - 1838) and was extensively cultivated at Spring
Grove. The apple was popular, until it was later superseded by newer
varieties, since it was "ready for use in July, a season when London
geese are probably better than at any other, but when the old English
accompaniment of apple sauce was not possible to be obtained till Mr. Knight
furnished this apple".
...... Sir Joseph Banks died on
June 18th, 1820, and was buried in Heston Churchyard. Even after his death,
however, Spring Grove did not pass immediately from the horticultural
limelight, for it is recorded that Dame Dorothea Banks sent the fruit of the
Russian Globe Apple, produced from a plant received from St. Petersburg and
cultivated at Spring Grove, to the Horticultural Society in 1821.
...... Sir Joseph's widow
continued to live at Spring Grove until her death in 1828, when she left the
property to her nephew, Sir Edward Knatchbull, who in his turn sold the
property to a Mrs Anne Fish in January 1830.
Continued
