The Old Steppe House

The Old Steppe House is a fine bargate stone mid-18th century house that lies at the bottom of Brighton Road in Godalming. It was built in the 1760s and its construction is linked to the opening of the Godalming Navigation in 1763.

The plot on which it was built was a part of Taylor’s farm yard that lay between the Brighton Road and Catteshall Lane. The yard itself survives as SCATS shop. In about 1760 the owner of Taylor’s, John Yaldon, sold a couple of houses and a part of the yard to Joshua Keen. In 1763 Keen’s wife inherited the property and she had the Old Steppe House built on part of it. It was never her home. She chose to live in one of the two old houses and the Steppe House itself was rented out to a series of tenants.

It was a fortuitous time for Mrs Keen to inherit the property. The new navigation linked the town with both London and other parts of the country via the growing canal system. The land between the house and the river was developed as a wharf on meadow land sold by John Yaldon and it became a new centre of economic activity in the town.

Mrs Keen’s houses and land were on the periphery of this new industrial area and its development would have increased the value of her inheritance considerably. By 1773 she was still living in one of the houses on the site and gaining an income from the two other properties. Over the next few decades the house was lived in by a series of short-term tenants. Moreover, a part of her land was rented to a timber merchant. She was certainly well provided for in her old age.

During the 1840s the house was the home of a school run by a Miss Salmon. There were five boys boarding at the house in 1841 but it is probable that Miss Salmon accepted day pupils as well. Until the 1870 Education Act there was no system of universal education in this country. During the earlier part of the 19th century church schools were set up by voluntary subscription but provision was patchy. There was a demand for education, however, and small independent schools such as that run by Martha Salmon appeared to fill the gap.

By 1881 the house belonged to Charles Smith, a wheelwright and carriage builder. Smith had established his firm in Wharf Street in 1837 when he was 21-years-old. Smith and his wife lived in one half of the old house while his son, Charles, and his wife lived at the Old Steppe House. Charles and Susan were still living at “Step House” in 1891 (this incidentally is the earliest reference to the house name) with Susan’s mother, one of Charles’ cousins and one servant. They did not have any children and the lack of an heir may have been one reason that the firm eventually closed in the late 1920s.

After the departure of Charles Smith the house continued in residential use with various owners and occupiers until the 1970s since when it has been used as offices. The accountancy firm, Barnett Spooner, now occupies it.

taken from “A History of The Old Steppe House, Godalming, Surrey” by Philip Gorton -  www.house-history-research.co.uk