Gate House as it was in the 1920s, where William and Annie Buttery lived.
Retired banker Douglas Buttery is celebrating 100 years of his family’s link to a Shropshire landmark.
His grandparents, William and Annie Buttery, signed a lease for the toll gate house in Longdon on Tern in August 1908. They paid a yearly rent of just £4 and 10 shillings for the home, called the Gate House, until it was passed to their son William Buttery in 1948.
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Now his son Douglas is celebrating a century of his family’s association with the home.
The 65-year-old said: “The house is the old toll gate in Longdon on Tern. I think it was probably built in the 18th century.
“It was altered in 1908 when my grandparents leased it from the estate of Baron Barnard.
“They leased it from August 10, 1908. Since then my father’s lived in it and I’ve lived in it, so that’s three generations.”
He still has a copy of the conditions of the lease dating back to 1908, signed by his grandfather William Buttery.
He said his grandmother died in the 1920s but his grandfather continued to live in the house until his death in 1948.
Douglas’s father William then bought the property for “a few hundred pounds” and stayed there until he passed away in 1986.
Douglas still retains a copy of the “Conditions for letting a cottage & garden”.
It stated that the landlord “reserves the right for himself, his agents, servants and workmen to enter the premises at all times for all purposes”.
Despite spending many years living in London because of his work in banking, and also working for a time in Pakistan, Douglas has maintained the family home.
He moved back permanently to the property in 1996.
Douglas said: “I’m having a party for the people of the village and my cousins from the Buttery family to mark the 100 years on August 10.
“I’m rather pleased to celebrate the event. It’s something that happens less and less.
“I know one or two families in Longdon on Tern which have probably lived in the village longer, but they are not living in the same house, so it’s a record that I’m proud of.”
Douglas believes it was about 1870 when the building ceased to operate as a toll gate.
He said: “It’s a house that has been altered a lot.
“It’s much larger now. The front of the house is the old part of the house.
“Over the 100 years since my grandparents leased the house, only eight people have lived in it.
There were my grandparents with their three children, my father and his second wife, and me.”
By Lizzie Yates
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