More on Street House or Prestwick House or The Badger

Solicitors' documents, deposited at the Northumberland Record Office in 1959, provide much of the information about the owners and occupiers of Street Houses during the 18th and 19th centuries, and also make it possible to attempt to fix the boundaries of the property after 1724.

By 1724 Jane Carr (nee Shafto) was the sole surviving member of Lawrence Shafto's family and, together with her second husband, Robert Carr, owned the west part of Prestwick. They had been married with a lycence in May 1692 in Bedlington ; in 1693 he was overseer of ye poor for Prestwick .

A family settlement of 1724 arranged for the estate to be divided equally between Robert Carr's two daughters, Mary, wife of John Coulter, and Dorothy Carr. Failing heirs from the Carr sisters, the inheritance would go to their four older half-sisters, daughters of Jane Carr and her first husband, William Fenwick. He had been vicar of Lesbury and Shilbottle and had died there in September 1688 .

A deed drawn up in 1733 deals specifically with the part of Prestwick West Farm known as Mengeys (or Mindseys) Close, the site of what was to be known later as Street House Farm. Described as a Messuage Tenement and Close with John Coulter as the tenant, the property was to be for his use during the lifetime of his parents-in-law. Since John Coulter was of the Town and county of Newcastle, he and his family may not have lived at Prestwick. The Coulters were married, in 1716, at St. John's, Newcastle, where their four sons and seven daughters were all baptised .

Jane Carr was buried at Ponteland 7 May 1736 and her husband the following February , leaving their two daughters tenants in common of Prestwick West Farm.

John Coulter, tobacconist and feltmaker , died in 1743. According to the Land Tax Returns for 1748, 1750 and 1753, Mrs Coulter was liable for the tax on a property in Prestwick, whether as owner or occupant is not clear.
In 1756 Mary Coulter of Newcastle and Shafto Coulter of the same place Merchant eldest son and Heir of the said Mary Coulter..had documents drawn up to destroy the entail (so that the possessor would be allowed to sell the property outright) on all that full undivided moiety or half part of Prestwick West Farm.

Mrs Coulter's will was proved in 1774. In 1779, Shafto Coulter and Robert Carr [cousins] were . . Tenants in common for life of Prestwick West Farm containing by Estimation 200 acres and wanted to divide the estate between them. Since the capital messuage [large house i.e. Prestwick Hall] and the greatest part of the other Houses and Buildings [had] fallen to the lot of the said Robt. Carr Shafto Coulter was to be awarded £122.10s. to be paid by ...Robt. Carr together with a further £2 in view of the greater value of wood piling in Robt. Carr's allotment. This £124. 10s. was to be extended and laid out by Shafto Coulter in making and erecting a new Dwellinghouse outhouses and other necessar,' Buildings upon the said Premises so awarded to him.

The new house was a well designed, U-shaped farmstead. Solidly built of stone, it had a meticulously balanced brick facade facing the road. The two-storied central portion was flanked by two single-storey wings, housing the kitchen and a large reception room. The rest of the farmstead included: good Stabling, Coach House, Dog Kennel, Dove-Cot, a Garden walled with bricks, with other Offices and Outhouses, besides all necessary Buildings for a Tenant.

The dove-cot was artistically positioned in the field opposite, so as to be visible from the main windows of the house.