24 Willersey Road

Present-day address: Stanhope House, 24 Willersey Road, Badsey

A detached house with name and date plaque built on the west side of Willersey Road in 1900 for George and Kate Bell. George was a prominent pigeon-breeder and had a pigeon coop in the back garden. It has been suggested that the house name of Stanhope had some connection with pigeons. A Yorkshireman, Herbert Stanhope, who spent most of his life in Stroud, developed a great family of racing pigeons, so this may have been the connection. The house has more decorative features than some of the other red-brick houses built a little earlier; with fancier brickwork (Cotswold stone interleaved with the red brick) and the ornate lettering with the house name in an arch over the front door.

Photographer: Peter Stewart, May 2008