Although of one build, 10 and 11 High Street, Marlborough seem always to have been intended as two separate residences, with shops on the ground floor. Built on the site of a former White Hart Inn, on the south-east side of Marlborough’s broad High Street, they retained a central arch to allow a carriage to pass through, just as coaches must once have done in the days of the old White Hart; one house through the arch is still called ‘The Old Coach House’.

The listed building description suggests an ‘Early C19’ date, but digging into the history has turned up an exact date.

©Marlborough in old photographs collected by Michael Gray and Francis James. Alan Sutton publishing, 1982

A map of 1843 shows no building on this site at that date, and those in what was then referred to as ‘White Hart Yard’, behind the site, then owned by Ann Russell, appeared from the Land Tax to have largely fallen into disuse. In 1847, the entire site, including the yard, was acquired by Charles Roff, a builder then living at The Green. In 1853, his holdings in White Hart Yard were described as including an empty cheese warehouse, stables, a gighouse (a horse-drawn carriage house), shops and lofts. By 1854 he had transformed them into twelve cottages in what later became known as ‘Alma Place’.

Map of the parishes of Marlborough St Mary, and St Peter and Paul, dated 1843

(WSHC ref: 2027/2/1/925L)

There are a few houses in other parts of the county bearing the name ‘Alma House’, celebrating the Franco-British victory at the Battle of the Alma river, on Sept. 20^th 1854, the first major battle of the Crimean War. An Alma Street still exists in Trowbridge, and an Alma Cottage in Seend and also in Colerne. More controversially, Princess Diana was fatally injured in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris, named after the same battle.  Charles Roff appears to have built the present 10 and 11 High Street after completing his development of White Hart Yard, and to have initially called it ‘Alma House’. (Today this name applies to the house immediately behind it, which may originally have been known as Alma Cottage).

In the 1861 census, Charles Roff, aged 67, was living at ‘Alma House, with his wife Jane and daughter Hannah, describing himself as a ‘Retired Builder and Proprietor of Houses’.

By 1871, Charles had died and the house was occupied by James Morrison, a rope manufacturer, who had married Hannah Roff. With them were their two sons, Charles and James, and Hannah’s mother.

House numbering was introduced in Marlborough in about 1874, and in the 1881 census the houses had been allotted the numbers 11 and 12 High Street. By this time, number 12 was occupied by the Chivers family, living above their watchmaker’s and jeweller’s shop. By 1891, the houses had been renumbered as 10 and 11, with Charles Morrison, son of James, living at number 10, with his family, James himself having moved to Ardle Bank in Kingsbury Street. The Chivers family continued to run their business at number 11 well into the 20^th century.

Margaret Parrott & Dorothy Treasure

Wiltshire Buildings Record