A Tour of Onchan
Straight down the middle.

Hawthorn Villa

The building was purchased by Onchan Commissioners in 1922 for £2,000. At that time in addition to the house, stables and 2½ acre field to the rear, there was also a cottage cum shop close to the old smithy and a water trough feed by a stream which came down from a spring on Kaighen’s Birch Hill Farm.

The house had been built in 1853 for Mrs Elizabeth Chubb, widow of Commander George Chubb RN. Local folklore tells how, when the building was near completion, she stood on the chimneystack in protest of the stonecarter wishing to charge more for his work then he quoted. To the rear of the building were stables and coach house and in the garden a circular summer house with conical roof. It would appear Mrs Chubb out stretched her resources in building the house for in July 1854 she was imprisoned in Castle Rushen for debt, yet she owned this new house, an adjoining cottage and West Aust in Lezayre. She was released on bail so to speak by transferring the properties to John Moore, Coroner of Middle. Her debt was to Henry Cubbon a joiner from Douglas and Joseph Dobson a farmer of Onchan (possibly the stone carter).

On 3rd October 1854 her property was put up for sale by public auction in St Georges Hall, Douglas (later the Athol Street Courthouse). The mansion house, garden and premises called Hawthorn Villa together with the adjoining cottage was knocked down to Elizabeth Chubb and James Kewley of Castletown for £300. They were in fact the appointed guardians of Elizabeth’s children, George John Matthew Chubb who was studying medicine in Edinburgh, Elizabeth Hannah Chubb and James Frederick Chubb who went on to Greenwich Hospital Naval School and a career in the navy. This deal was financed by a mortgage from Mrs Charlotte Woods @ 5% taken out in November 1854. The mortgage was cleared by 19th January 1856 and many years later the house passed to her daughter who had become the wife of Samuel Shallcross Callow owner of the great Howstrake Estate.

When the commissioners bought the property they didn’t use it as an office or meeting place but instead let rooms in the large house for families to live in.

Next, the rear two rooms were amalgamated, again to the plans of W.T. Quayle architect of Douglas, and the work was carried out by A.M. Grimshaw. This was to provide a small meeting hall/lecture theatre for Onchan and a toilet block with separate entrance into the hall was provided at the side of the building behind the existing porch.

In 1950 the library moved into the back room and the front room was used by the Clerk and a general office. A board room was created on the first floor but the rest of the space was used for a caretaker and his family.

Over the years there have been further extensions to the building, firstly in the form of a single storey building which in 1977 was extended upwards to provide a new board room above the Surveyor’s department. The chimney stacks where Mrs Chubb stood were demolished, the building received a concrete tiled roof and a spar dash finish. The parapet was also removed and so the Georgian appearance of the building was lost. There have been a number of internal alterations since that time. Plans for further extensions in the future are now planned.

This the end of our tour, Straight Down the Middle. why not visit the second tour 'Round the Edges'