Thomas Evans Rees and his lease from the Bush Estate

As I mentioned at the end of the last posting, Thomas Rees Evans was a shipwright, which meant he was very skilled in the use and working of wood, so when he took on the lease of one of the first building plots on the eastern extension of North Street, he had access to the materials, the connections and skills to undertake his own home build.

The lease (number 247 in the estate rental book), was dated 8th August 1864 and was to run from Lady Day 1864, for 60 years, expiring on Lady Day 1924. Lady Day was one of the rental quarter days and was also known as the feast of the Annunciation. It is the 25 March.

The plot that he had leased was one of the first sites let on an extension to North Street. It was on the south side of the road, immediately east of the point where the road kinked slightly towards the north. The plot was 30 feet wide (east to west) and 120 feet long (north to south). The tenant had to build a house on the north end of the plot, facing the road, to a plan provided by the lessor (the Bush Estate). The annual rent was to be £1/10/-, payable quarterly.

The cottage had to be built to a single storey, four room design, with the front door only slightly recessed from the pavement.

Fig.1

There was a gap between No. 30 and the house next west on the south side of the street, No. 28. This was to provide space for a road - to be known as Water Street - that would have linked North Street to Albany Street, to the south. 

In Fig.1, the gap between No. 28 and No. 30 was intended to be this road. This land was later divided between the two properties and, as if giving a nod to the origins of the vacant plots, a public footpath was established on the land between, running down to Albany Terrace.

Thomas Evans Rees built his house according to the Bush Estate's recommended plan. This was four roughly equal, squarish rooms, with a corridor or passage running from the front door, through the single-storey cottage, to the door leading to the long garden with its stone built privy at the bottom. An approximate plan of the house is shown in Fig. 2

Fig. 2

During the same year, 1864, Thomas's neighbours were George Cundi, a rigger, who was granted a similar lease for No. 28, to the west of Water Street and to the east of Thomas,  Robert Chittock, a messenger in the dockyard, had a lease for No. 32.

The house at No. 30 benefited from a high standard of workmanship and this is likely to have been the work of Thomas and his work colleagues. Much of the timber within the house came from the dockyard and good use was made of it!

The lease that Thomas had taken on was very specific in what the landlord required of the tenant.

• The lease was for a term of sixty years and at the end of this period, the tenant would be responsible for leaving the premise in good repair.
• A house, to a specific design and of good quality had to be built on the plot within six months of the lease being signed. The landlord's agent would check that the building was built to a good standard.
• If the lessee wished to alter or add to the buildings on the plot, then he first had to seek the approval, in writing, of the agent.
• Once every three years the lessee had to paint, in oil paint,  and with two coats, all the exterior woodwork and metal work to a good standard and at his own cost.
• Likewise, every seven years, internal walls etc had to be painted (with two coats of oil paint) or papered, to a good standard.
• The agent would check on the condition and maintenance of the house by visiting the premises twice each year. The agent could ask for works to be carried out to rectify any deficiencies in maintenance at the lessee's expense.
• The landlord or his workers had a right of access over the property to make repairs to a neighbouring property.
• Any soil or gravel dug up at the premises had to be removed to a location of the landlord's choice.
• The tenant had to make sure that the property was insured against fire each year.
• The lessee was not allowed to engage in any noisy or disturbing activity on the premises.
• The lessee could not assign the tenancy within five years of the end of the term of the tenancy. Any assignment that was made prior to this had to be documented to the landlord within three months of the assignment.

Many of the above conditions were standard terms but nowadays some seem rather heavy-handed, particularly those relating to the building of the house on the plot leased.

When a lessee assigned a tenancy to another person this meant that he  passed the property to the ownership of the new person under the same terms as agreed when the tenancy was first taken out. This meant that the tenancy could be "sold" on to another party or left as part of the lessees estate in a will, provided that the terms of the tenancy were met and that the landlord received all documentation showing what had occurred. This information was then written into the landlord's book of leases.

Thomas built his house, and in one of those rare serendipitous occasions a later buyer, peeling flaking paint from just inside the front door noticed a signature beneath what seemed to be old wallpaper paste. It seemed to be Thomas Evans Rees's signature. As was the custom among painters and decorators, he had signed the plastered wall before papering it. A tangible link to the man who first built the house in about 1864/5, over a century and a half ago.

Fig. 3 - Thomas's signature from the lease.

Fig. 4 - Signature on wall inside front door - with and without enhancement

In the next installment, I will reveal what became of Thomas and his family, but right now I must give thank the archivists at Pembrokeshire Archives who care for the wonderful Bush Estate documents and manuscripts. A true gem of a collection that has been little explored by the public.