Vine Lodge

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The Hewitt family at Vine lodge just after they'd bought it 1901

Stories and memories

Purchasing a 'gentleman's residence'

Wyn: "In the winter just after I was born, my parents decided to up their game and buy a ‘gentleman’s residence’ just outside Henley as a country retreat. Vine Lodge perched on Gravel Hill, a quiet residential area with fewer than a dozen other houses scattered along the steep Stoke Row to Shiplake Road. It was very much a ‘doer upper’ but it commanded good views and had a sizeable garden with plenty of room for us to run around in. I saw an advert in a summer issue of Country Life for Vine Lodge. It must have been around 1986. The house was on the market for £280,000. A ridiculous amount! Mother sold it with about 40 acres to John Carlisle in 1918 for £2,500. Sadly, the original house no longer exists – it was demolished and replaced with a sizeable modern commuter belt edifice of little character and aesthetic value but with an enormous price tag involving six zeros."

Fred noted in his diary:

Easter 1902 – We have been working at Vine Lodge for several weeks, getting it in order for our first family Easter celebration. Harrold and Ena came down to help. Eve and the children there for a month.

Wyn: "If Dad was coming down for the weekend, he would take the seven o’clock Cheltenham express from Paddington which had a slip carriage for Reading. This would arrive on the dot at 7.39, having done the 36 miles in 39 minutes including starting and slowing down over the last two miles. The train averaged 70mph in places and if I am correct, had an engine with one enormous driving wheel. From Reading to the cottage was something else! Five miles up hill in a pony cart. I think it usually took a good hour.

Lighting in the house was by candle and paraffin lamps. All our water was collected rainwater and was therefore pretty well restricted. Two inches was deemed a suitable bath! There were no village shops except the post office which seemed to have everything, at least in a small boy’s mind. The village carrier came once a week, taking orders for things to be brought from Reading the following week. The day of his arrival was the highlight of the week. Dad, being an extremely punctual and precise man insisted on all the clocks being on time and an old bloke used to bicycle out from Reading once a week just to wind them and put them right.

I can’t remember going to church, and I think I went not more than half a dozen times. It was about four miles away across fields. The bane of Dad’s life was a tin chapel that wasn’t far from the house on one side. What denomination it was I don’t know but on Sundays they started about 8 am and went on all the morning singing at the top of their voices and this went on more or less all day till 6 pm. The chapel being made of corrugated iron reverberated which made things worse. Dad offered to give them land - more than they had and to build a decent chapel - but they were just stubborn and bloody minded and refused to budge. The feud went on in permanence."

Childhood ailments

Fred was becoming more and more concerned about the city’s living conditions and the detrimental effects they were having on his children.

Dec 15 1905 – Poor Wyn was taken ill. He got a bad tonsilitis of a septic character on the right side. Then the left tonsil, then glands both sides enlarged. With this, Colman found some cardiac dilatation (fluid lasted till yesterday). The poor little chap has been in bed ever since. He got up a little today. He never had a very high temperature, but he has been very ‘throaty’ with practically no nasal breathing. Glands very big. St Clair Thomas has also seen him.

Feb 26 1906 – Wyn has just returned from Vine Lodge where he has been for a month. His glands have gone, he has little or no nasal obstruction, and St Clair Thomas who saw him this morning says there is no need for any operation for adenoids. There is slight adenoidal growth, but his drums are nearly normal and his chest a good one. The fluid has almost gone. I presented him with a wire-haired dachshund puppy as reward for his fortitude. He has named it Delo and is much taken with the little chap.

March 5 1907 – Wyn went into 29 Wimpole St (Loveday and ‘Lankey’s’) on Tuesday evening Feb 26th. At 8.30am on the following morning he was operated upon by St Clair Thomas who removed a large mass of adenoid growth from the pharynx and two largish tonsils. He was very good, counting up to ten whilst Gardner gave him the anaesthetic. As a reward for his good behaviour, I bought him a small cake.

It was a worrying time, what with all three children suffering from tonsilitis and heavy colds, Sybil catching diphtheria, as well as the upset and expense of medical procedures and medicines. In February 1907 the decision was made to move the family full time to Vine Lodge with the compromise on Eve’s part (she was not a countryside lover) being they build a new wing to accommodate her wishes for a bigger establishment.

Feb 17 1907 – We have decided to make Peppard our primary home; to educate Wyn there by the kind help of Miss Hilliard and Mr Morgan-Brown; to enlarge Vine Lodge; and to reduce our establishment at Queen Anne St. Wyn is never really well in London and is always catching fresh colds at his kindergarten where he seems to learn little more than drilling. Sybil and Evelyn are delighted at the change proposed.

Feb 5 1908 – The new wing at Vine Lodge is a great success. Eve and I go down every weekend.