THE MOUNT Owners and Occupiers (continued):

1935-1952
Alfred Christopher Standish Bennett bought The Mount, moving in from his previous residence in Grassendale Park.

3 and 5 WOOLTON MOUNT - semi-detached pair, built c.1850 ?

Of this semi detached pair only No. 3, Ashtor, survives; No. 5, its mirror image, was demolished since the last war and the site has been absorbed into the garden of No. 3. We attribute this demolition to the somewhat impractical planning arrangement whereby access to the front door of No. 5 had to be through the garden and past the front windows of No. 3, an essentially awkward arrangement. Access to the back doors was segregated, though at the cost of a very small yard for No. 3. The pair survived in this tandem form for more than a century.

When we prepared Woolton Park Walk last year we had no photograph of Longworth (built 1858-9), but thanks to a friend of our Vice Chairman we now have illustrations of this house. In the light of this new information we can now see elements in common with Ashtor of c.1850, in spite of alterations with Summer Hill c.1868 and with another pair of houses we will visit later today, Nos. 8 & 10 Acrefield Road of 1835-40.

In the context of last year's walk down Woolton Park where many of the houses showed markedly High Victorian features, Longworth stands out as being much more conservative in design than the rest.

From this we offer the following explanation:- that the design of .this series, developing from the late Georgian 8 and 10 Acrefield Road, through Longworth with ground floor sash windows running down to floor level, to Summer Hill which, though retaining a fairly low pitched roof and sash windows upstairs, had tall stone framed and mullioned casements, as well as a bay, on the ground floor, is recognisable as a series developing over some 30 years. It represents the style adopted by James Gore when building houses he intended to retain as investments and to be rented.

With all this in mind, looking now at Ashtor (and re-erecting No. 5 in imagination) we see a pair of houses of a more complex form than a simple rectangle & with east facing front windows to take advantage of the view; but built of brick with stone quoins, fairly low pitched roof and traditional sash windows, an unadventurous design.

continued . . .