Re-listing for historic Newbury building that is 70 years older than thought

Grade II-listed St Mary’s House, at 40 London Road, was initially registered with English Heritage as being built in the 1830s. However, research undertaken by Newbury Town Council Heritage Working Group suggested that it was more likely to have been built in the 1760s.
The English Heritage listing now reads: “House, later vicarage, now offices; the facade possibly of 1765-70 by John Chute of the Vyne; earlier fabric behind.”
The building became the vicarage of St Mary’s Church, Speenhamland, in 1919 when its name was changed to St Mary’s House from Ivy House. The church was later demolished in 1976.
The chairman of the Newbury Town Council Heritage Working Group, Anthony Pick, said: “This news justifies the considerable work put in by my colleagues Dr David Peacock and Fiona Walker in presenting and justifying the reassessment of this important building and its contribution to the historic Newbury scene.”
Dr Peacock, the author of The Story of Newbury (Countryside Books, 2011), and a member of the Heritage Working Group, said: “I hope that this 1760s house, probably by John Chute and John Hobcroft, will now receive the national appreciation it deserves.”