117 High Street, Beechcroft
John Roadley
The first mention we have seen of Beechcroft was in the Cambridge Independent Press dated 16 July 1881:
To be let, furnished, a cottage residence about four miles from Cambridge; 9 rooms, good garden back and front; stable & coach house. Also for sale a pony carriage & set of harness. Apply to Mrs Tillyard, Beechcroft, Harston.
It is not clear whether there were previous owners of the property or Mrs Tillyard had it built. Her husband died in 1868 leaving £14,000 which is just over £2 million today so finance was unlikely to have been a problem! In 1876 she was living in Fitzwilliam Street, Cambridge. In the 1881 census she was a widow, age 53, living at Beechcroft with her daughters Fanny M age 21, Annie R, age 17 and Patience age 16. She is recorded in Kelly’s Directory as living in Beechcroft in 1888 so the 1881 letting may not have happened.
By 1888 the property was occupied by Sarah Durbin, widow of the Harston vicar Rev Baldwin and her daughters Elizabeth and Adeline and 3 servants. Rev Durbin died in 1888 and the family would have had to vacate the Vicarage for the new vicar. Sarah died in 1891 and Elizabeth and 2 servants continued living in the cottage until her death in 1919. At some point between 1888 and 1896, Henry Hurrell must have acquired the cottage as the 1933 sales documents refer to the sale of the cottage from Hurrell to Elizabeth Durbin on 1 April 1896. During the Durbins occupation of the cottage, it was renamed Walton Cottage. There is no documented reason for this but the Durbins only son William died in 1866 age 15 at Walton House, St Leonards-on-Sea – this could have been in memory of him. For more on the Durbins click here Frederic Jeanes Durbin vicar 1848 -1888
Probate records show that the solicitor handling Elizabeth’s affairs was William Fisher who by April 1921 is the owner of the cottage although Kelly’s Directory for 1922 gives Capt Harold Albert Whistler, RAF, as the occupant. He was a fighter pilot in WW1 recording many ‘kills’ and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and the Distinguished Flying Cross with 2 bars. Capt Whistler’s son Claude Albert was baptised in Harston in 1922 but no other mention of the Whistlers in Harston has been found so it appears to have been a short stay for the family.
In addition to Mr Fisher, George and Hilda May Tuppen are recorded in Walton Cottage in the 1932-33 Electoral Register; They had 3 children – Doreen, Peter & Mary. Doreen attended Harston school from May 1931 to August 1933. Hilda May died in Addenbrookes on 22 January 1933 and is buried in the Button End cemetery. The family moved back to the south coast.
William Fisher died on 7 April 1933 and was buried in the Button End cemetery. In November 1933, his executors sold the cottage to Herbert Charles Stevens of 19 South Street Cambridge for £1000. The estate agents leaflet describes the cottage as having:
entrance hall, back hall, cloak room, drawing room, dining room, morning room, kitchen, china pantry, scullery, cool larder, 5 bedrooms, bathroom, WC and housemaid’s cupboard. The outbuildings include garage with inspection pit, coal & coke house, potting shed, garden room, acetylene gas plant house, pump house, artesian well (200ft deep), lean-to greenhouse, poultry shed & enclosure. The gardens in front are laid out with lawn and rose beds with a fine specimen copper beech tree and the tradesmen’s entrance is screened by a a yew hedge. In the rear is a lawn and kitchen garden with fruit trees.
On 25 October 1935, Mr Stevens sold the cottage for £1150. He is described as a dairyman and his address is still given as 19 South Street, so possibly this was a buy-to-rent. The purchaser was Frank Samuel Herbert Kendon of Cleavers, 93 Cross Path, Radlett, Herts who was Assistant Secretary to The Cambridge University Press. Both the mortgage and conveyance documents refer to the cottage as being formerly known as Walton Cottage but now known as Beechcroft.
Mrs Kendon started a private school at the cottage. Former pupils of the school remember walking past the big beech tree then past house and yew trees to the two school rooms in the back garden. These classrooms which were to the right behind the house seemed modern at the time – not sheds or converted barns. For more on the Kendons click here Celia Kendon
Mr Kendon died in 1959 and the property passed to his widow Elizabeth Cecilia Phyllis Kendon. On 29 September 1960 she sold the property for £5400 to Anthony John Hast Durham and Daphne Noelle Durham of The Elms, Pinley, Warks. The Durhams sold Beechcroft for £10400 on 11 August 1966 to Dr Maurice William Sellars, a physician and surgeon of 2 Billinge Avenue, Blackburn, Lancs. This is the first time the property has given the address 117 High Street. Mr Sellars died on 10 May 1970 and the cottage passed to his widow Phoebe Ella Sellars who sold it on 28 November 1975 for £27000 to Prof Michael Donald Inglis Chisholm and Edith Gretchen Emma Chisholm of 22 Blenheim Road, Bristol. Michael Chisholm (1931-2024) was an economic and human geographer and was Professor of Geography at the University of Cambridge from 1976 until his retirement in 1996. He wrote several books on the rural economy and human geography and served for many years as an advisor to the UK government.[2]
On 19 April 1982 the Chisholms sold the cottage to John Philip Cowan and Anne Josephine Cowan for £75000. On 21 March 2006 they sold it to Quad Partners, property developers, for £588000. In 2007, Quad Partners were granted planning permission to demolish the garage, outbuildings and yew hedge to create an access to the rear of the property to build a 4-bedroom house.
On 30 April 2010, the house was purchased by Tony & Becki Mason. A window shutter business is run from there.
Sadly, the famous beech tree which had probably stood for longer than the cottage was suffered from decay and dieback and in February 2026, planning permission was given to fell the copper birch tree on condition that a tree which will have a large crown at maturity will be planted in a similar location.
Also in February 2026, planning permission was given for a single storey rear and side extension
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