The village of Acton was largely constructed as quarrymans cottages in the mid 1870’s. A haphazard assemblage of small stone cottages on unmade tracks, it largely has not changed much since that time.

West View House (WVH) was originally built as two dwellings on the site and has been subject to some later additions, but still retains much of the charm of the original buildings.  Inside, the original thick stone walls are visible in places and outside the original stone tiled roof is one of the house’s most attractive features and is typical of the village.

We know little about the more recent history of the house apart from the tale of the ‘Grudge Wall” which runs along the side of the garden and conservatory. 

We are told that WVH and the adjacent cottage were owned by two brothers who were constantly fighting. 

They both worked in the local quarries, and they had to be kept apart, even underground. The wall was built by the brother living at WVH to prevent the windows of the adjacent cottage from providing a view into his bedroom. We don’t know if this is exactly right, but there definitely are two large windows hidden behind the wall.  Two windows have been somewhat grudgingly given small openings in the grudge wall, hence our somewhat unusual layout.

Ruth and Andy were lucky enough to purchase WVH in 2022 from the family who had owned it for over 20 years.  We have lovingly updated it over the first year, and whilst we have more plans we are enjoying being able to share it with family and a small number of guests.