Old, and Some New, Photographs of Woodbridge & Melton
Marston House, is a splendid Georgian red-brick building. This imposing town house has fine plain tile roof with hipped dormers, Victorian large pane sashes and a pleasing central first floor window with lozenge patterned glazing bars. The ground floor windows have external shutters and the imposing 6 panel entrance has a notable timber door-case with a Corinthian entablature and fluted Doric pilasters. It is the most elegant door case in the town.
From 1836 to 1854 Marston House was the office of the lawyer Thomas Churchyard and his two partners. One of the partners left in 1841 and Churchyard then took over Marston House thereby giving himself an office and family home under the same roof. He received several substantial inheritances for relative and enabled him to spend time on his overwhelming passion to paint outdoor creating small oil and watercolour sketches of familiar scenes around Melton and Woodbridge. He became a master of capturing the exact time of day or the effects of changing weather. He gave some of the paintings and sketches to friends but most were stored.
Phot386
Marston House abuts Gordon House, a less impressive Georgian residence. The left hand side of Gordon House and its drive way can be seen in the photograph on the left.
Beyond Gordon House there was No. 10 Cumberland St.. A two storey red brick building which was the home and workshop of F Masters, a mason who made headstones and funerary monuments. A large adjoining courtyard was used to display his products. Marston moved his business to Quayside in the 1990s. Later a red brick extension and a drive way were built on the courtyard. The extended building is in the centre of the photograph on the right. The adjoining house, No. 12 Cumberland St., was an Indian Tandoori Restaurant in 1985. It is now an elegant house.
For many years No. 20 Cumberland St. was a Public House. In 1827 it was called the Volunteer but, by 1840 the name changed to the Wellington. The photograph on the right shows the building in 1914. The Public House had closed by 1925.
The building subsequently became partly residential and partly commercial. For a time the later was used by a yacht broker and it is currently occupied by the Bear Ink Tattoo Parlour.
No.22 Cumberland St. was a bake office in 1840 and it was still be used by a baker in 1937. It is now a private residence.
No 18 Cumberland St. was being used by the book binder Charles Fox in 1914 but by 1925 it reverted to being a private residence.
