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The Grange, High Street, Hanham is subject to a preservation order and is well maintained by its present owner Elbrow and Company a firm of local builders. Known by the same name is a small block of flats which faces the old building and makes an attractive comparison between old and new architecture.
The original Grange was built in 1480 by the Abbey of Keynsham and took its name from that source. In those days the whole of the land in the present postal district of Hanham, together with Hanham Court and Church was in the ownership of the Abbey at Keynsham but there is no record to whom it was granted at the time of the dissolution. It is recorded that in 1553 the Manor was granted to Roland Hayward and afterwards the Bassetts possessed it.
image above: 1900 view of the green fields of Hanham where Grange Avenue now stands in the distance can be seen the main Bristol to Bath road.
Then in 1638 Henry Creswick of Hanham Court became the owner. Ellacombe, in his History of Bitton, states that it was occupied for some time during the 16th Century by Edwin Stone. The Grange then possessed about 35 acres of land and in the reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603) it became the possession of Sir Richard Hart, Knight, in whose family it remained until 1753 when it was sold for 1,450 to a Mr Tounge upon whose death in 1764 it was purchased by the Bristol Brass and Copper Company.
image above: 1901 A rare side view of The Grange from what is now modern day Grange Avenue
When a subsidiary of 'this company was set up in Hanham under the Hanham Brass and Smelter Company in 1795 the Grange is recorded to have passed into the hand of the owner, James Emerson. The Hanham Brass and Smelter Company had their premises in what is now the Quarry near Hanham Coal Tip, an appropriate site because it was essential for a smelter to have an unlimited supply of coal for its operation and the nearer to the source of coal and the river the operations were performed the cheaper the end product proved to be, the river being required for transport and water supply.
image above: The Grange is the oldest builing in the area built 1644
It is then recorded that, in 1832 Samuel Whittuck, the Squire of Hanham Hall, bought the Estate and in 1840 the old Elizabethan Grange House was pulled down and a new one built which is the one in existence today. There are many interesting features of this house which are still in preservation including walnut panelled door and crevices.
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