Place Name
The name Wenvoe is the Anglicised form of the Welsh name Gwenfô (thought to mean fair) that was first recorded in the 12thCentury. In this case it is named after a village abetween Barry and Cardiff in the Vale of Glamorgan. Builder Frederick Rowland Absalom who originally came from Cardiff used Welsh place-names for several of his roads. Absalom gave many working-class and lower-middle-class families their first step on the property ladder by lending them the deposit for a first mortgage and excepting smaller repayments. As a court case into the tax implications if the scheme later heard: “Mr Absalom purchased building land, mainly at Erith and Bexley Heath, developed it for building in the usual manner, and erected on it a large number of small dwelling houses. These houses were intended to be sold were in fact sold mainly to persons in receipt of weekly wages without sufficient capital to purchase a house outright. In consequence, Mr Absalom made arrangements under which the purchaser of a house could borrow on first mortgage from a building society a sum equal to between two-thirds and three-fourths of the purchase price. The money so borrowed was paid to Mr Absalom in satisfaction pro tanto of the purchase price; the difference between the purchase price and the amount raised on first mortgage being satisfied by a small payment in cash and as to the balance either by a second mortgage of the property purchased or a series of promissory notes. In each case the balance: of the purchase price was payable by instalments extending over periods varying from 4 to 22 years, but subject to a proviso that the whole of any outstanding balance of purchase money was to become payable immediately if default should be made in the payment of any instalment…. The total purchase price was £425. £40 was paid by the purchaser in cash, £320 was raised by first mortgage and paid to the vendor, while the remaining £65 was secured by second mortgage of the house to Mr Absalom. This last-mentioned sum was made payable by monthly instalments of 8s. 2d. extending over a long period of years, each instalment being made up partly of capital and partly of interest at 5 per cent, per annum. The aggregate of these instalments was naturally far larger than £65.” He retired in December 31, 1937.
