The Victorian Property Developer Mary Bremner always thought that the Burghley estate was the major landlord and landowner in Stamford but John Daffurn introduces her to another major player @theoldbuilding
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OHN DAFFURN SPENT his career in pharmaceutical management but has always had a big interest in history, particularly genealogy. So when he retired in 2010 he decided to do some genealogical research into unclaimed estates and managed to claim a substantial £200,000 estate for two heirs; not that they were particularly grateful, but that’s another story. ‘It’s the solving the puzzle that fascinates me,’ says ohn, not the writing.’ But the writing had to be done as it was too good a story not to put into words. ‘I’m an analyst by nature. I love the problem solving and researching side, following leads and cracking the pu le.’ In 2015 ohn published his first book, Seeking ohn Campbell’ selling it on Amazon and in Walkers Bookshop. But ohn’s enquiring mind did not stop there. ‘We lived in Rock Terrace and had decided it was time to downsize. And it got me thinking about who had lived in our house, and then the whole of the terrace before. And that was it, I was off researching again delving into the tenants in all ten houses in the terrace.’ And the result of this is
his next book ‘Stamford Tenants.’ Rock Terrace on Scotgate in Stamford was built in 1841 by Richard Newcomb. He’s an interesting character and well known in the town as the proprietor of The Stamford Mercury. As a previous incumbent of Rock House in Scotgate I had always thought that he’d built that first and then built ock Terrace for his staff. But ohn disabused that notion very quickly. @prettylittlestamford
‘He bought various plots of land in Scotgate on the Great North Road and had a big bust up with ord Burghley over one plot which ended up in court. Richard Newcomb subsequently lost the case but was awarded the land at a peppercorn rent and they never got on after that. It didn’t help that they were polar opposites politically as well, Newcomb being a liberal and ord Burghley a conservative. They seemed to spend their time vying for prestige. Newcomb was even mayor for a year in 1847.’ But let’s go back even earlier as we need to find out how ichard ewcomb managed to be able to afford to buy land speculatively, as this is what he was doing, as a property developer of his time. His father was a wealthy printer in Uppingham and he, or his ancestors, is believed to have started the Mercury. Richard Newcomb moved to Stamford in his 20s and eventually took on the ownership. The Stamford Mercury became the largest provincial newspaper and is alleged to be the oldest in the country. His father built it up and Richard Newcomb carried it on. With this wealth he started buying property in Stamford and ended up
36 November 2020 / theactivemag.com
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