“42” Church Street~~ 
History of House(s)
The house has very little "history". The deeds, as of many of Broseley's older houses, disappeared (?burnt) when solicitors and banks moved away around 50 years ago.
BUT: It would appear that the basic present house was built to replace some of the typical Tudor / Stuart cottages in the second half of the 18th century. There are many old foundations underneath the lawn etc, but no systematic excavation has been undertaken. Certainly it appears that there was significant mining taking place within 200 metres or so of here by 1600: and mining needs miners who need housing!
A lot of Broseley was rebuilt in the same 1750-
It would appear that the house was originally two upstairs and two downstairs rooms with a kitchen above arched cellar behind. A further story to both kitchen was added to both kitchen and main house very shortly thereafter (It could even be before the house was completed).
Just after the turn of the century a new wing was built to house master bedrooms and a new kitchen and dining room. The cellar was expanded and the old kitchen became the servants day room. (There are suggestions that there was also a new cellar under the new kitchen: but this has not been established). The reason for suggesting this dating was that the owner in the early 1970s, Maurice Chidley, who made this kitchen and dining room into one drawing room, said that on stripping down the walls to redecorate the old lining paper was newspapers reporting Nelson's victory at Trafalgar)
Later on in the century (more regular bricks suggest this dating) a small coach house
with stable was added, with rooms above for the stable lad and a hay store. A privy
seems to have been added as a lean-
In the 1930s the house was still in full use with at least 2 maids (a friend remembers visiting her Aunt who was "in service" and living in one of the attic rooms). The owner then was Mrs Charlton, a member of the Potts family who dominated Broseley at those times. A Miss Dingwall then bought it, but with the passage of time it would appear that unfortunately drink got the better of her, so that when she died in the late 1960s the house was in poor state and the garden badly overgrown. Trees were growing in the drive.
Maurice and Mary Chidley then bought the house (for £3,500) and did a lot of work
on it. The outbuildings behind the back door were knocked down and the rubble put
into the cellar, which was then capped. (The soak-
They sold the house in 1975 to Frank & Sheena Selkirk for £18,000.
Frank & Sheena did various "major" things: they emptied the cellar and by using a
submersible pump kept it from flooding. They re-
25 years later (after a memorable “Millennium” party being held there] and after
the three sons had reached maturity the decision was mad that it was about time to
move to a smaller location. It was put on the market (see the leaflet* pages 1,
2, 3, 4) but as no early sale resulted it was decided to “divide and rule”. This
required various planning decisions -
Frank & Sheena moved briefly to Benthall and then to Spain. Their sons also have left the area.
[* larger versions are on lanefoxbig1 /2 /3 /4.jpg -