Bells Road (Soft Road), Belchamp Walter
Bell's Road, Belchamp Walter, runs West from the Crossroads and duck pond. As it leaves the Village it becomes Soft Road and ends at Puttock's End.
The houses in Bells Road, Belchamp Walter just North of the pond are a row of rather attactive flint cottages. These houses were built in the 19th Century probably for Thomas Ruggles . There is another similarly built dwelling on Gestingthorpe Road, the North Croft Cottages, that has an inscription: J.M.S.R. on its facade.
Bells Road is also the location of what was known as Cottage Row and the position of a Workhouse. The Workhouse was probably located just North of the Duck Pond. Further along Bells Road you will find the former Eight Bells pub, the Old Town House and Waits Farm.
The flint cottages on the North side of Bells Road, facing the Duck Pond, are referred to as "Waver Cottages" and by indiviual names: Fern Lodge, Rutland Cottage, Shephards Cottage, Brent Cottage, Flint Cottage, North Waver Cottage and Pond Cottage.
The date of construction of these flint cottages is likely to have been the mid 19th Century but as records were not kept it is a specuation and dates can only be determined from references in other documents relating to their occupants.
The early residents were likely to have been farm workers employed by the Raymonds or their farm managers (Stunt, Firmin, Prigg etc.).
The Post office Directory of 1878 doesn't mention anyone in the Waver Cottages but George Washington Brownlow, who died in 1876, lived in Fern Lodge probably as a tenant of John Mayne St. Clere Raymond who had commissioned him to paint the pulpit and altar in St. Mary's church.
The Post Office Directory - 1878
As farm workers the residents were not likely to have received any mail, however, George Washington Brownlow,
was a literary man but died two years before the Directory was printed.
If he had correpondence it was likely to have been c/o the Raymond family.
The pulpit in St. Mary's was painted in 1866 and George's earliest documented painting from Fern Lodge was
'A Claddagh Fisherman's Fireside', 1865. George was resident in Chelsea, London in 1861 and 1871 - may or maynot have
been a resident at that time. Fern Lodge is a small dwelling and possibly just his studio and he split his time
between Belchamp Walter and London.
He did play a part in the construction of the new Village School, built and opened in 1872, being
on the School Management Committee.
Samuel Phillip's Speech - Belchamp Walter School - 29 July 1972 - see also page on North Road
I have a PDF scan of this speech (link below for the original copy).
Other houses that can be seen on Bells Road are The Old Town House and Waits Farm house. Waits is not listed but does feature in the 1891 census and there are former residents that are buried in the churchyard at St. Mary's Belchamp Walter.
Puttock End and Otten Road
The road leading West out of the village past Waits farm is shown on many maps as Soft Road. This terminates at Puttock End, a.k.a. Pump Corner (presumably as this was a location of a water pump and/or well). The junctions of the road towards Gestingthorpe and the second on the road to Belchamp Otten are on Otten Road, Belchamp Walter.
The junction of the road to Little Yeldham and North End is in Puttock End.
There are a number of dewllings on Otten Road
Otten Road is shown on Google Maps at a different location, which is also used by Highways when you report pot-holes.
