longmeads house

In the late 1860s, the road from Writtle village to Ongar passed through an amorphous stretch of common land, about half a mile to the West, known as Great Oxney Green. In 1871, an 'award' was made for the enclosure of 'waste lands' of Writtle and the High Woods. Consequently, land on both sides of the Ongar Road and Victoria Road was parcelled out and the green itself was allocated partly to a 'pleasure ground' and to allotment plots - the situation that still exists today. To the South of the Ongar Road the pond known as The Gore was allotted as a public pond. To the right of this ran an accommodation road with the rights to its use being with the owners of the four neighbouring enclosures. One such owner was Robert Woodhouse who had bought the enclosure from Arthur Pryor of Hylands. Having bought other land in the vicinity, it was in the late 1870s or early 1880s that Robert Woodhouse had the house built there that he called 'Longmeads'

Robert Woodhouse is first heard of in the 1860s living at The Priory in Writtle. He appears a prominent figure in the village and nearby Chelmsford where he was a director of the bank (now Barclays) next to the Saracens Head Inn. He was churchwarden of Writtle's All Saints' Church and now lies in its churchyard.

In 1881, when Robert Woodhouse was 56 and his wife, Ellen, was 47, the Census records show that they had living with them their four daughters - Mary (24), Harriet (17), Elizabeth (11) and Dorothy (6) - the children's Swedish Governess Hedrig Af. Klecken and six live-in servants. These comprised the nurse, Sarah Ann Sleryold (37), cook, Sarah Ann Lich (28), housemaid, Elizabeth Johnson (25), under-housemaid, Alice Crozier (21), nursery maid, Eliza Joyce (16) and the 13-year-old scullery maid Ellen Britten. In addition the Woodhouse's would have employed a team of gardeners to look after the extensive grounds as well as stablehands and a coachman.

A contemporary print shows a North view of the house much as it is today although alterations were made to the South side just before the outbreak of World War I. A year before that war ended, on Christmas Day 1917 Robert Woodhouse died of a cerebral haemorrhage leaving at least one son and several daughters. One daughter, named Mary, was an amateur woodcarver and a still existing mantelpiece is believed to be her work. Another original - and novel - feature that remains today is the weather vane, in the form of a flying heron, set in the ceiling of what is now the main hall. It was originally connected to the vane on the roof and, turning with it, indicated to those inside the house which way the wind was blowing outside.

Following the death of Robert Woodhouse, his family continued to reside at Longmeads for another thirteen years. Keen riders and hunters, some older residents today can recall the family's hunt parties and Percy Lowe remembers how members of the Woodhouse family would ride to his father's smithy in St. John's Green (now the "Hair Spa") to have their horses shod. The son of their then coachman named French remembered acting as ball boy at the frequent tennis parties held by the Woodhouses with other leading Writtle families such as the Usbornes, the Hilliards and Roffeys.

It was in 1930 that the Woodhouse family sold the Longmeads Estate, then just under 30 acres, to Mrs. F.A.Seabrook of Grays who, for the next 20 years, lived there with her son M.F.G.Seabrook, a local magistrate. Though he did not take an active part in the village life, he was apparently approachable and well liked. It was during his tenure that the Longmeads grounds were at their best. Together with his chauffeur he built a brick wall fronting Lodge Road, setting into it a coin to record the date. He added many ornamental features to the garden, including a pond with a bridge and a swimming pool. During World War II Mr. Seabrook was the local Home Guard commander, drilling his troops on the house's forecourt and holding training sessions in its garage. A keen supporter of the British Legion, after the war, he would open Longmeads grounds for their fetes and, following one of these, a donkey that had been used for rides and had been kept there overnight, having strayed to the garden swimming pool, fell in and was found the following morning drowned.

Robert Seabrook died in 1950, shortly after his mother's death, and, with most of the land to the South going to housing (the present Longmeads Estate), the house itself and several remaining acres were acquired by the Essex County Council for use as a hostel for female students at Writtle's Institute of agriculture. Accommodation was provided for 21 girls, with bedrooms on the first floor and staff quarters above and, while the old dining room was retained as such, the lounge and drawing room were converted into a study - the "Swot Room". During this period the gardens slowly deteriorated and, during building work in 1964, the swimming pool's water supply was cut off and never restored. It was also during this period that the garden's summer house was destroyed by fire. It was in 1969, when the Agricultural Institute gave up the hostel, that Essex Council leased the house and grounds to the village's newly formed Writtle Community Association to be used as its Community Centre - the purpose for which it continues to serve us today.

In the nearly 40 years of it being the village's Community Centre, while more land fronting the house has gone to housing, there have been a series of internal adaptions and some external additions to make Longmeads House more able to accommodate the wide variety of educational and special interest groups, private functions and social events which are such an integral part of the life of the village.