By Wantage historian Trevor Hancock.

THERE were three medieval manors in Wantage – Wantage Manor, Priorshold and Wantage Bryan.

Wantage Manor (present-day Belmont) was held by the Fitzwarin family, then by the Earls of Bath and finally by the Earl of Bradford.

Priorshold belonged to firstly the Abbey of Bec in France and then the Dean and Canons of Windsor.

Wantage Bryan acquired its name from the Bryan family: it was eventually acquired by the Stirling family, the last member of whom William Stirling built Stirlings House in Wallingford Street.

The Fitzwarin family died out in the 17th century and Wantage Manor was sold to a family called D’Oyley. In due course it was bought by a citizen of Wantage called Thomas Giles in 1763.

Thomas Giles built a new house on what is now Barwell called Belmont House. When he died he left Wantage Manor to his wife and then to Sarah Tarbutt 'my kinswoman who resides with me’. He also left £500 to Samuel Worthington ‘my faithful clerk’.

According to Kathleen Philip in her book Black Wantage, Samuel married Sarah Tarbutt and thus became Lord of the Manor.

When the Wilts and Berks Canal was built in the early 18th century, Samuel Worthington needed access to Belmont House across the canal. Therefore the Wilts and Berks Canal Company built what was to be the only stone bridge on the Wantage arm of the canal at Belmont.

The wedge of land between the Wharf and Denchworth Road was on the boundary of the garden of Belmont House. In 1812, it was known as Linden Gardens (the place where the lime trees grow) and an older name was Limboro (the lime grove).

When Samuel Worthington died, Belmont House was sold on November 21, 1812.

The house itself was eventually demolished. There is a description of it from the sales catalogue in Black Wantage by Kathleen Philip.

The plot of land we know now as Belmont was sold to Edward Tombs who used it, with his son Henry, as a nursery.

Part of the plot was an orchard which was originally owned by Mr John Brown. This was bought by the Tombs family in 1871. The path from the Wharf running up to Denchworth Road is called Tombs Lane.

The Belmont Nurseries were sold at auction by Henry Tombs in 1880 (I have yet to find out who to). There are two houses at the top of Tombs Lane, one has JW 1881 and the other JW 1884. There was also a row of houses in Denchworth Road near the entrance to Belmont called Belmont Terrace. These latter houses were demolished in the 1960s.

The two cottages at the top of Tombs Lane, according to Kathleen Philip, belonged to and were built by the Wilkins family. James Wilkins was a grocer in Wantage (his shop was where Corals Bookmakers is today) and Henry Tombs's brother-in-law.

James owned the two houses mentioned above (nos 24 and 25 by today's numbering of Belmont) and also nos 23-24. Tabitha Wilkins (James's sister) lived in the latter.

More research is needed to establish who bought the Belmont Nurseries in 1880. However the land was sold bit by bit as building plots and present day Belmont was established. Hollybank, for example, was built in the early 1880s for Mr W H Belcher.

One house at the bottom of Belmont that had just been completed in 1885 by Mr Haynes (a local builder) was purchased partly by public subscription as Wantage Hospital and opened on February 1, 1886. It remained in use until the new Wantage Cottage Hospital in Charlton Road opened in 1927. It is now known as Belmont House and is converted into apartments.