From Dustiness to Elegance - Thornhill
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Thornhill, north west
of Soho, was occupied until 1793 by John Scale, Matthew Boulton's
button trade partner. Boulton later bought it for his son Matthew
Robinson Boulton, who turned it down, as did his sister Ann, who
complained about the excessive dust and nearby pubs!
Right: Watercolour of Thornhill House
and grounds by John Phillp |
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Therefore in 1808 he leased the house to James Watt Jr, and it was
redecorated by George Bullock, a fashionable interior designer from
Liverpool, and A. Smallwood of Birmingham. Watt Jr planted an orchard,
a kitchen garden, and asparagus beds. In 1810 he ordered seeds of
over one hundred types of flower and hotbed plants.
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In 1818 Ann Boulton finally
moved in, and James Watt Jr moved to Aston Hall. Thornhill was now
far more attractive, but even so, in 1822 the drawing room was extensively
altered, to elegant designs by architects Rickman & Hutchinson
and Richard Bridgens.
Ann Boulton died there on the 13th of November 1829, and her beautiful
furnishings were auctioned in 1832. The house later became the Handsworth
Technical School, and it was demolished in 1900.
| Left: Sketches of doors
at Thornhill by John Phillp |
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| Above: Designs for Ann Boulton’s
Drawing Room at Thornhill House, by Richard Bridgens, 1822 |
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