Widcombe has seen many famous and noteworthy residents. Widcombe Manor was home not only to author Horace Vachell, but to inventor and entrepreneur Jeremy Fry, an intimate of Princess Margaret and her set who were regular visitors in the 1960s.
The Stothert and Pitt families – ‘crane-makers to the world’ – lived in Widcombe, as did Sir James Brook, the White Rajah of Sarawak, and George Carwardine, the inventor of the anglepoise lamp.
A plaque outside Widcombe Lodge in Church St attests to the residency of author Henry Fielding who wrote some or all of the novel ‘Tom Jones’ there – in which his character Squire Allworthy bears striking resemblance to Ralph Allen, his neighbour in Prior Park mansion.
The famous castrato Venanzio Rauzzini lived in Bath from 1777 until his death in 1810 and had a town house in the city and a summer residence at Perrymead Villa, Widcombe.
Stefan Zweig, writer and internationalist, lived for a time in Rosemount Lane and Arnold Ridley, author of ‘The Ghost Train’ and an actor best known as Private Godfrey in more than 80 episodes of ‘Dad’s Army’, lived in Widcombe and is buried in the Abbey Cemetary.
