1 Selkirk Parade (now 71 Prestbury Road)

1848 – 1863: the Fletchers

The first recorded residents of 1 Selkirk Parade were two sisters, Sarah Ann and Mary Fletcher, who were Gloucestershire-born ladies of independent means. It appears as if they previously lived in Portland Parade. They lived in Selkirk Parade with one live-in servant.

The younger sister, Mary, died of tuberculosis in 1861, and Sarah Ann died of liver disease two years later.


1864 – 1865

The house was briefly occupied by a Mr Barratt (1864) and then by a Mr Smith (1865), presumably short-term tenants.


1867 – 1871: the Blizards

The house was occupied by Thomas and Hannah Blizard and their daughter Maria, a governess. They had previously lived at York Place on the Bath Road. Again, they had a live-in servant.

Thomas Blizard had been a builder and was involved with a number of building projects in Pittville (including Cyntaf House, Kenilworth House and Rothesay Mansion) and in other parts of Cheltenham. Seven building certificates were issued to him between 1830 and 1839 and in 1851 he employed five men in his business.

A year after moving into 1 Selkirk Parade he died of “exhaustion”, aged 78, and was buried in Trinity churchyard.

His wife Hannah died three years later, aged 77.  Immediately after her death the contents of the house were advertised for sale (Cheltenham Chronicle, 12 December 1871):


The house itself was advertised in the Cheltenham Chronicle for 12 March 1872. It was described as having three reception rooms and a water closet on the ground floor; four bedrooms on the first floor and “wing” (presumably the half-landing); and good basement offices including a kitchen, scullery and servants’ bedroom.


Maria Blizard moved to Otago Terrace in St Luke’s Road, where she died in 1877.

1872 – 1876

During this period the house appears to have been unoccupied, although possibly the occupants did not stay long enough to be listed in the directories.


1877 – 1902: the Talbots

For 25 years the house was then occupied by the Talbot family – Richard Talbot, his wife Sarah, and daughter Laura.

Richard Talbot was a coachman/groom. In 1861 the family had been living at Roden House (23 Pittville Lawn), where Richard, then in his thirties, was the groom to Lieutenant-Colonel George Schreiber, one of the last surviving officers to have fought at Waterloo.


By 1877 Richard was sufficiently well-off to have moved to his own residence at 1 Selkirk Parade.

The 1881 census shows that he had a live-in domestic servant of his own and the 1891 census shows that he was able to fund a comfortable retirement.

During the 1880s the Talbots appear to have had lodgers and/or to have been away from the house for an extended period. A succession of churchmen is shown as living at the address – Rev. R. T. Storrs, Rev R. H. Evered (accompanied by his sister) and Rev. W. G. Whittam. In March 1886, the Rev. Evered provided a testimonial for a local chiropodist.

Sarah Talbot died in 1901, aged 75, and their daughter Laura died the following year, aged 44, leaving Richard in the house on his own.


He died a few months later, on Christmas Eve 1902, at the age of 77, and his death was reported in the local press as an inquest was held.

The reports reveal that he was on good terms with the family at Selkirk House, who had given him a Christmas pudding, and that he had a cleaner called Mrs Butts.



1903 – 1905

The house appears to have been unoccupied during the years following Richard Talbot’s death. The contents were advertised for sale in November 1903 and the house itself in August 1904.




1906 – 1951 – the Lloyds

For the next 45 years the house was occupied by John Beadsmoore Lloyd and his wife Elizabeth.

John Lloyd was a lecturer at St Paul’s teacher training college (now Francis Close Hall).  He had previously been the headmaster at an elementary school and had been living at Sandford Terrace.

John Lloyd’s academic interests were extremely varied and ranged across the arts and sciences. He gained his first degree – a B.Sc. – in 1906, at the age of 40. In 1910 he obtained a second degree in English and French at Paris, and in 1912 he was awarded a doctorate from the University of Caen for a thesis on the history of feminism in England. Some years later in the 1920s he was awarded an honour of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques, a French order of knighthood awarded to teachers or professors for distinguished contributions to education or culture.


At various times the Lloyds appear to have had colleagues or students staying with them, and – as with the Talbots – they also appear to have been away for extended periods. The electoral registers for 1921, 1922 and 1924, for example, include Charles and Elizabeth Sawyer as occupants, and the name Edwin Gwilliam also appears several times.

John Lloyd was a keen chess player who set chess puzzles for the Cheltenham Chronicle. He was on the committee of the Cheltenham Rambling Club and held positions in numerous local societies, including:

• Honorary Secretary of the Cheltenham Natural Science Society
• Chairman of the Cheltenham branch of the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection
• President of the Cheltenham branch of the Industrial Christian Fellowship
• Honorary Treasurer of the North Parade Home for Girls in Winchcombe Street
• Treasurer of the Cheltenham Chess Club.

Elizabeth Lloyd died in 1940. The report of her funeral in the Gloucestershire Echo said that she was “well-known for the charitable interests with which she and her husband were associated.”  John Lloyd died in 1951, aged 85.