Brackley House is on the far left hand side of this old photograph, as marked, the bay windows before the Rous Road turning just past it on the left (see below or click image for source and acknowledgements etc., ref. Image 1).
Brackley House, now simply 46 Rous Road, is an old Victorian House on the southern corner of Rous Road with Old Station Road (previously known as Upper Station Road) – see image on the right and it’s marked on a map on the page about Rous Villa as well. It was built some time after 1884, and on the 1891 census Frederic Webb (who was a Jockey/groom) and his family lived there.
However, in 1894 the Newmarket medic John Hansby Maund gave Brackley House as his address, which was the year after he came to Newmarket to practise. He can be seen living there with his family on the 1901 census too. John Maund had taken on the practice of John Wright in 1893, after the latter’s death. Dr Wright’s practice had been in Rous Villa (also in Rous Road) and interestingly, in the Medical Registers, Dr Maund gave Rous Villa as his address from 1894 until 1901, then Brackley House from 1902. However, the 1901 census for Rous Villa shows Dr Wright’s widow still living there. So it seems that from 1894 until 1901 Dr Maund lived in Brackley House, possibly using Rous Villa as his surgery, with Dr Wright’s widow still living there, then from 1902 presumably he used Brackley House as his home and surgery until he moved to Grosvenor House, which was some time between 1906 and 1908. However, as early as 1896 he gave Brackley House as his address in the Commercial Section of a local trade directory, so he might have practised from Rous Villa for only a short time, to emphasise his continuity with Dr Wright (a privilege he would have paid for), so perhaps worked from Brackley House for over a decade, and certainly lived there that long.
On the 1911 census Brackley House was occupied by a photographer’s manager named Frank Griggs, and his wife, who appear to have been running a dressmaker’s business from the house.
Old plaques on the corner of Brackley House in 2019, possibly residual from when it was used as a surgery and where there would have been brass plaques attached? (see below or click image for source and acknowledgements etc., ref. Image 2).
However, from 1913 Brackley House was again occupied by a medic, this time the newly married Gilbert Gray. From about 1909/10 he had been working with his father and living at Lushington House, the home and practice of the medical Gray family, but from 1913, after his marriage in 1912, Gilbert gave Brackley House as his address. Likewise, from 1915/16 his brother Norman Gray joined the family practice of ‘Gray and Sons’ based at Lushington House, but after his marriage in 1915 gave his address as Brackley House, from 1916. Given its apparent earlier use as a surgery it seems possible/likely that Gilbert and Norman used Brackley House as a branch surgery of the Grays’ practice. Interestingly there still remains on the outside wall of Brackley House two wooden plaques, which look like they could once have been the base for brass plaques, if so perhaps residual evidence of Gilbert and Norman having practised from there, rather than just using it as a house? (see image on the left).
Gilbert and his wife Rene never had children, but Norman had a daughter Catherine born at Brackley House in 1917. Sadly his wife Catherine died shortly afterwards. It seems likely that Gilbert and his wife Rene, together with Norman and his daughter Catherine continued living at Brackley House until the 1920s. In 1920 Norman reverted to listing Lushington House as his address in the Medical Directory, as did Gilbert in from 1922. However, this probably represents them changing to listing their main practice address rather than necessarily moving out. It will be interesting to see what the 1921 census shows when it’s released in 2021. From 1926 Gilbert and Norman listed Alton House as their address. This was built as a home for Norman Gray after he remarried in 1924 and as a surgery for the whole practice (after Clement Gray retired and other partners started to join). A trade directory in 1925 shows Gilbert living in a house called Grasmere in The Avenue, Norman in Alton House, Clement in Lushington House and the practice address as Alton House. A James Meacock was living in Brackley House in 1925.
So from some time in the early 1920s Brackley House ceased to have any medical connections as far as I’m aware, but like several other buildings in Newmarket it has been inhabited by medics / used as a surgery on more than one occasion, by medics from different practices (cf. Mentmore House, Cardigan Lodge, Kingston House, and Rous Villa and perhaps Cheveley House).
Image 1: From Peter Norman’s Collection (cropped – red annotations mine); image reproduced with kind permission of Peter Norman. [Note: we have not been able to access the back of this old postcard to ascertain the original publisher, but using the image here seems likely acceptable, especially given the card’s age. Please make contact using the details via the footer below if you know more, for example if further acknowledgements etc. are required.]
Image 2: Photograph taken in 2019, by the author of talkingdust.net.
Note: see comments regarding images and copyright © etc. on the Usage &c. page as well.
1885: Brackley House had not been built at the time of the 1885 map of Newmarket. Reference: Map of Newmarket. Southampton: Ordnance Survey; 1886 (surveyed 1884), sheet 42.6. [Note: see also an image of the town plan from this period on the page about the Rous Memorial Hospital, showing the absence of buildings in that area at this time.]
1891, 5th/6th April: Frederic E Webb a 38 year old Jockey/groom living at Brackley House with his wife and family. Reference: The National Archives, 1891 census.
1893, 17th April: ‘SERIOUS ACCIDENT TO A STABLE LAD.– On Monday morning last… the animal he was riding reared and threw him to the ground, the result being that one of his legs was broken. He was conveyed to the Rous Memorial Hospital, and was seen by several medical men, who arrived at the conclusion that there was no alternative but to amputate the injured part of the leg, the fracture being a very serious one. The operation was skilfully performed by Dr. Maunde [sic] (Dr. Wright’s successor), and the lad is now making satisfactory progress towards recovery.’ Reference: The Newmarket Journal. Saturday Apr 22 1893: 5. [Note: ‘Mr. J. H. Maund, surgeon, Newmarket’, also attended a patient who’d been accidentally hit by a train at Kennett on 20th April. Reference: The Bury Free Press. Saturday Apr 29 1893: 6.]
1894: ‘MAUND, J. H., Brackley House, Newmarket’ listed as a subscriber. Reference: West S, Walsham WJ. Saint Bartholomew’s Hospital Reports. London: Smith, Elder, & Co,; 1894 (Vol XXX), pg xxi.
1894: ‘MAUND, John Hansby… Rous Villa, Newmarket…’ Reference: The Medical Register. London: General Medical Council; 1894. [Note: this continued to be his address in the Medical Register until 1902, when it changed to Brackley House (see below).], [Note also, before this he was in London.]
1894: ‘MAUND, JOHN HANSBY, Newmarket, Cambs – M.R.C.S. Eng. and L.R.C.P. Lond. 1890; (St. Bart.); late Sen. House Surg. St. Bart. Hosp. Contrib. “Two Cases of Submaxillary Cellulitis,” Lancet, 1891.’ Reference: The Medical Directory. London: Churchill; 1894.
1896: ‘Maund John Hansby L.R.C.P.Lond. physician & surgeon, & certifying factory surgeon, Brackley house’ listed in Newmarket Commercial section of Kelly’s Directory, and ‘Maund John Hansby, Brackley house’ in the private residents section. Reference: Kelly’s directory of Cambridgeshire… London: Kelly & Co. Limited; 1896, pgs 137-145 Newmarket section. [Note: Fyson Ernest Last, Cheveley house, Grieves Jas. Percy, Clifton house, Gray Clement Frederick, Lushington house, Hutchinson Walter, High street, Mead George Borthwick and Mead George Owen, Mentmore house are listed separately.]
1901, 31st March / 1st April: John H Maund, born in Ty Mawr Clydach, Breconshire, aged 37, occupation only partly legible but includes his medical qualifications MRCS and LRCP, living at Brackley House, with his wife Clare, aged 35 (interestingly born in Trinidad, West Indies), together with two young children and various servants. Reference: The National Archives, 1901 census.
1901, 31st March / 1st April: Edith Wright, widow, aged 51, ‘Living on own means’, at Rous Villa, with her daughter and a servant. Reference: The National Archives, 1901 census.
1902: ‘MAUND, John Hansby… Brackley house, Newmarket, Cambs.’ Reference: The Medical Register. London: General Medical Council; 1894. [Note: this continued to be his address in the Medical Register until 1910, when it changed to Grosvenor House (see below).]
1906: ‘MAUND, J. H., Brackley House, Newmarket’ listed as a subscriber. Reference: Garrod AE, McAdam Eccles W. Saint Bartholomew’s Hospital Reports. London: Smith, Elder, & Co,; 1906 (Vol XLI), pg xxi.
1908: ‘Maund John Hansby L.R.C.P.Lond. M.R.C.S.Eng. phy-sician & surgeon, & certifying factory surgeon & medi-cal officer of health to the Urban District Council, Grosvenor house’ listed in the Newmarket commercial section of Kelly’s Directory, and ‘Maund John Hansby, Grosvenor ho’ in the private residents section. Reference: Kelly’s directory of the counties of Cambridge, Norfolk and Suffolk (with coloured maps.) 1908. London: Kelly’s Directories Ltd.; 1908, pgs 185-192 Newmarket section.[Note: Crompton Ernest (Kingston house), Fyson Ernest Last (Cheveley house), Gray Clement Frederick (Lushington house), and Woollett Sidney Winslow (Cardigan lodge) are listed separately.]
1909: ‘GRAY, Gilbert Clement… Lushington house, Newmarket…’ Reference: The Medical Register. London: General Medical Council; 1909.
1910: ‘GRAY, GILBERT CLEMENT, Lushington House, New-market (Nat.Tel.8)-M.R.C.S.,L.R.C.P.Lond.1908;(St. Bart.); Ho. Surg. Roy. Free Hosp.’. Reference: The Medical Directory. London: Churchill; 1910. [Note: He does not appear in the 1909 Directory. From 1913 he gave his address as Brackley House, then as Lushington House again from 1922, and Alton House from 1926. Likely he changed from giving his residential address to practice address in 1922.]
1910: ‘MAUND, John Hansby… Grosvenor house, Newmarket, Cambs.’ Reference: The Medical Register. London: General Medical Council; 1894.
1910: ‘MAUND, JOHN HANSBY, Grosvenor House, New-market, Cambs (Tel.14) -M.R.C.S.,L.R.C.P.Lond.1890; D.P.H.Cantab.1909; (St. Bart.); Surg. Rous Memor. Hosp.; M.O.H.Newmarket U.Dist.; Certif.Fact.Surg.; Mem.Camb.Med.Soc.; late Sen.Ho.Surg.St.Bart.Hosp. Contrib. “Two Cases of Submaxillary Cellulitis,” Lancet, 1891.’ Reference: The Medical Directory. London: Churchill; 1910. [Note: this was the first year that he gave a specific address in Newmarket in the Medical Directory, having mentioned just the town since 1894 – see above, but he first mentioned the telephone number 14 in 1907, which is perhaps when he moved to Grosvenor House?]
1911, 2nd/3rd April: Frank Thomas Griggs a 30 year old ‘Photographer’s Manager’ living at Brackley House with his wife a dressmaker and seemingly a whole household of dressmakers (five other dressmakers, a bookkeeper and a domestic servant). Reference: The National Archives, 1911 census. [Note: the Newmarket Shops website (see below) points out that Frank Griggs seems to have several connections with Newmarket medics. He left money in his will to Joe Davies, lived in Brackley house in between John Hansby Maund and the Grays, and his shop was Richard Faircloth’s old surgery. How much of this is strange coincidence is unclear.]
1911, 2nd/3rd April: Clement Frederick Gray born in Dalston, London, aged 64, ‘Medical Practitioner’, living in Lushington House, High Street, Newmarket, together with his wife Eleanor, two sons Gilbert Clement Gray ‘Medical Practitioner’ and Norman Gray ‘Medical Student’, and two servants. Reference: The National Archives, 1911 census. [Note: this reference has special significance for talkingdust.net. In the spring of 2013 all I knew about the medical history of Newmarket was that many years ago our practice had been ‘on The Terrace up the other end of the High Street’ and that several of the doctors had been called Gray, all from the same family. I knew none of their first names. An 83 year old patient ended our consultation with the interesting aside that she’d been a patient of the practice since she was born. Interested I asked who the doctor had been when she was a little girl and she replied ‘Dr Norman Gray’, emphasizing the Norman, for obvious reasons. Fascinated by this I sent a message out to all staff, wondering whether anyone knew of a longer-standing patient (subsequently we found several in their 90s). A few days later a receptionist showed me a copy of this 1911 census entry that she’d found. The obvious thing to do was to look further back in the same house – the digging had started and talkingdust.net is the result!], [Note also, see the page on the Grays for an image.]
1912, 24th August: Gilbert C Gray married Irene N Walker at Epping (3rd quarter 1912). Reference: Transcription of England and Wales marriages 1837-2005 (online database, not image), www.findmypast.co.uk (accessed 26th August 2017). [Note: subsequent correspondence with descendants of the Grays confirmed that this was on 24th August.]
1913: ‘GRAY, GILBERT CLEMENT, Brackley House, New-market, (Tel.69) – M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P. Lond. 1908; (St.Bart); late Ho. Surg. Roy. Free Hosp.’. Reference: The Medical Directory. London: Churchill; 1913.
1915: ‘GRAY, Norman, Lushington House, Newmarket – B.A. Camb. 1912; M.R.C.S,,[sic] L.R.C.P. Lond. 1914; (St. Bart.)[sic]’. Reference: The Medical Directory. London: Churchill; 1915. [Note: from 1916 (see below) Norman gave his address as Brackley House, like Gilbert (see 1910 reference above), with Clement, Gilbert and Norman all describing themselves as Gray and Sons. In 1920 Norman was back listing Lushington House (possibly changing to listing his practice address), until 1926, when Gilbert and Norman start listing Alton House (Gray and Hendley). It appears Clement might have retired in 1926, since he stops listing Gray and Sons or any other roles (the Rous Memorial Hospital but not the Newmarket Union having been mentioned in 1925). It’s not until 1928 that his entry actually mentions ‘retired’ though – see below.]
1915: Norman Gray married Catherine M Ogden at Eastbourne (1st quarter 1915). Reference: Transcription of England and Wales marriages 1837-2005 (online database, not image), www.findmypast.co.uk (accessed 26th August 2017).
1916: ‘GRAY, Norman, Brackley House, Newmarket (Gray & Sons; Tel.69) – B.A. (Nat.Sc.Trip.) Camb.1912 [Note: this changes from 1912 to 1910 in 1917]; M.A., M.B., B.C. 1915; M.R.C.S.,L.R.C.P.Lond. 1914; (Camb. & St. Bart); Surg. Cheveley Park Milit. Hosp.; late Ho. Surg. Roy. Free Hosp.’. Reference: The Medical Directory. London: Churchill; 1916.
1917, 7th February: Birth of Norman Gray’s daughter Catherine Phyllis Eleanor Gray. Reference: see 6th March baptism reference below.
1917, 3rd March: Death of Norman Gray’s wife reported in the paper. She had been seriously ill since the birth of their daughter. She died at Brackley House, and it was reported that, ‘her husband and relatives have had the keenest sympathy of everyone in the town, and each day the bulletins on the door of Brackley House were read by a host of inquirers… Mrs Gray was the wife of Dr. Norman Gray, who, during the last two or three years, has been associated in practice with his father, Dr. Clement F. Gray. There is probably no man in New-market who is held in such general affection and esteem as Dr. Gray, sen.; and his sons have already gained both the confidence and the high regard of a very large section of the townspeople.’ Reference: The Newmarket Journal. Saturday Mar 3 1917: 3.
1917, 6th March: Catharine Phyllis Eleanor Gray, daughter of Norman Gray (Medical Practitioner) and Catharine Mary, of Brackley House, Newmarket, baptised, All Saints’, Newmarket. Reference: FL609/4/16, All Saints – Newmarket Register of Baptisms 1914-1948, (Suffolk County Record Office, Bury St Edmunds). [Note: their names are spelt Catharine in this record, but seem to be Catherine elsewhere and she used the spelling Catherine throughout life.], [Note also, this reference indicates that she was born on 7th February.]
1921, 30th September: Conveyance of Godolphin House from Capt. E. F. E. Hammond to C. F. Gray. Reference: In collection RH114/013, (Cambridgeshire County Record Office [called Cambridgeshire Archives], Cambridge – subsequently relocated to Ely). [Note: I originally saw this collection at a solicitors’ office in London thanks to the Directors of the Lushington House Investment Company (see the page on Lushington House), and subsequently arranged for it to be deposited in the Cambridgeshire Archives where it now has this reference number.], [Note also, it appears that following this purchase the property was divided into three sections. The eastern part of the building remains as Godolphin House today (on the corner of The Avenue), the western part was sold to The Freemasons, whose Lodge is still there today (details of this transaction and a diagram of their section are in RH114/013), and the original garden of Godolphin House was added to the Lushington House property. Then the Grays built Alton House in part of this new extended garden of Lushington House.]
1924, 12th March: Plans for Alton House. A notice with the plans reveal that they were for Dr C. F. Gray, Lushington House, Newmarket, and described as ‘Home with surgeries etc. attached’. There are three sheets of diagrams/drawings, all labelled ‘House High Street Newmarket for Dr. Gray’. Upstairs contained the bedrooms and bathroom etc. Downstairs in the main house were four rooms (kitchen, drawing room, dining room and interestingly ‘waiting room’). A corridor past the waiting room led into the main surgery area, which consisted of another waiting room, a dispensary, two consulting rooms and a mysterious, surprisingly large, ‘electrical room’ (19 1/2 feet by 10 feet). Reference: EF506/6/1/19/666, (Suffolk County Record Office, Bury St Edmunds). [Note: see the page on Alton House Surgery for an image.]
1924, 28th May: Norman Gray married Bridget O’Farrell at Chelsea (2nd quarter 1924). Reference: Transcription of England and Wales marriages 1837-2005 (online database, not image), www.findmypast.co.uk (accessed 26th August 2017). [Note: subsequent correspondence with descendants of the Grays confirmed that this was on 28th May.]
1925: Under ‘Newmarket’… then ‘Private Residents’… ‘Gray Clement Frederick, Lushington house. T N 336 / Gray Gilbert Clement, Grasmere, The Avenue / Gray Norman, Alton house, High st / Hendley Harold James H., B.A. Alton house, High street. T N 8’… then under ‘Commercial’… ‘Gray Clement Frederick M.R.C.S.Eng., L.S.A. surgeon, & medical officer to the Newmarket & Moulton Joint Hospital Board, Lushington house, High st. T N 336 / Gray Gilbert Clement M.R.C.S.Eng., L.R.C.P.Lond. surgeon (firm, Grays & Hendley), Alton house, High street. T N 8 / Gray Norman M.A., M.D., B.Ch., M.R.C.S.Eng., L.R.C.P.Lond. surgeon (firm, Grays & Hendley, Alton house, High street. T N 8 / Grays & Hendley, surgeons, Alton house, High st. T N 8 / Hendley Harold James H., B.A., M.R.C.S.Eng., L.R.C.P.Lond surgeon (firm, Grays & Hendley), Alton house, High street. T N 8′. Reference: Kelly’s directory of the Counties of Cambridge, Norfolk, Suffolk & Essex (with coloured maps) 1925-6. London: Kelly’s Directories Ltd.; 1925, pg 201-210. [Note: Norman Gray lived at Alton House as his private residence as well as it being the surgery. It appears Harold Hendley perhaps lived there too, unless he was giving his work address in both parts of the directory?], [Note also, ‘Meacock James Robert D. Brackly [sic] house, Rous Road. T N 278’ appears in this edition too.]
Shops History Newmarket. http://www.newmarketshops.info/index.html. [Note: newmarketshops.info has been supplied with information regarding the medical history of Newmarket by the author of talkingdust.net since August 2013 (see footnotes on some of the pages). Both websites continue to be developed, and in this sense are mutually symbiotic.]
The Medical Directory. London: Churchill; 1891ff. [Note: this publication has been known by various titles over the years. Initially it just covered London, but from 1847 it had a wider remit, being variously known as the London and Provincial Medical Directory, The Medical Directories, The Medical Directory, etc., essentially the same work with minor variations and developments. It is usually referred to as The Medical Directory (as opposed to The Medical Register), so that is how it’s consistently referred to on talkingdust.net.]
The Medical Register. London: General Medical Council; 1891ff.
Note: For published material referenced on this website see the ‘Acknowledgements for resources of published material’ section on the ‘Usage &c.’ page. The sources used for original unpublished documents are noted after each individual reference. Any census records are referenced directly to The National Archives, since images of these are so ubiquitous on microfilm and as digital images that they almost function like published works. Census records are covered by the ‘Open Government Licence’ as should be other such public records (see the ‘Copyright and related issues’ section on the ‘Usage &c.’ page for which references constitute public records, and any other copyright issues more generally such as fair dealing/use etc.).