Belmont

House History

Belmont Map 1885

Notes

• Belmont was the end house in the row of Victorian investment mansions - Bridlemere, Glenwood and Fairlawn.
  
  

• Victor Haime
  

• Londoner Victor Haime (Jnr.), his wife Charlotte (nee Piercy Rathbone), five children (one of them also called Victor) and two servants were living in Belmont in 1891, when he was listed as a Commission Agent. Victor and Charlotte had married on 5th October 1878 in Brighton.
  
  In Kelly's 1888 Directory Victor Haime Jnr. is listed as a Greyhound Trainer living in Alma Place. His Father, Victor Haime Snr., another Greyhound Trainer and also Horse Trainer lived in Newmarket as well - in Kelly's 1879 he was in Black Bear Lane (Grafton Street) and in the 1891 census he'd moved to Gwynne House in Palace Street ... so around this time there were three Victor Haimes living in Newmarket! - Father, son and grandson ... at least the latter had two middle names (Archibald Merlin) to differentiate him from his predecessors.
  
  By the 1901 census Charlotte had separated from Victor Jnr. and moved out of the family home - she died in 1939 in Battersea.
  
  By 1911 (still shown as a Commission Agent) Victor Jnr. had moved to Sohamdene - No.102 Crockfords Road and was still there in the 1926 Street Directory - Sohamdene is now called Pigg House.
  
  Victor Haime Jnr. died in Newmarket in June 1930 at the age of 79.
  
  

• Frank Griggs
  

• Frank Thomas Griggs made his name in Newmarket mostly as a photographer of equestrian subjects. He was born in 1881 in Assington near Sudbury, Suffolk and before his photographic career he was a Grocer's Assistant.
  
  He married Emily Elizabeth Griffin in 1909 in Newmarket - in the 1911 census Emily was a Dressmaker and Frank was a Photographer's Manager - they were living with their family and staff at Brackley House, Rous Road. He must have moved out soon after as Dr. Gilbert Clement Gray and Dr. Norman Gray of the Gray's Medical Surgery - Lushington House were shown living in Brackley House in 1916.
  
  By 1925 he'd moved into Belmont where he stayed until he died on 20th May 1940. Although he lived here, by at least 1939 his shop and studios were in the house that used to stand next to Willoughby House, located where the Post Office is now - No.103 High Street - further details about his photography are shown on this page.
  
  
• 
  
  An interesting detail here is that one of the beneficiaries in his will is Dr. Joseph Davis - many will remember his surgery in Rous Villa, Rous Road. For some unknown reason Frank had quite a strong association with the medics in Newmarket.
  
  

• Frank Griggs c.1930s

• Building Changes
  

• Suffolk Record Office, Bury St Edmunds Branch
  Property Sales Catalogues
  HE 500
  Fairlawn, Belmont, High St., Newmarket HE 500/5/29 1888