turn sold it in 1947. Frank Wilson operated a knitting business from Hampton Villa, first from the old stone kitchen, and later from a small brick factory building constructed in the rear yard on the site of the former stables. The factory employed 52 female workers producing ladies knitwear. Initially trading as the Knitting Co, it was later renamed Wilson Baker knitting Co when control passed to Frank's brother Harold in partnership with others. As a family business the company prospered until a fire destroyed the factory in 1925. The company continued to trade on a reduced basis from Hampton Villa, as HS Wilson and Co, until being wound up around 1932. In April 1943 Frank Wilson gave the house to his son John Hector who sold it in May 1947. To this time the house had had only three owners in 100 years. Following Wilson's ownership, Hampton Villa was converted to flats until restoration in the later 1970s returned it to a private house, which it remains to this day. Description Villa Hampton Villa is an early Victorian house, two storied, surrounded on three sides by a wide sandstone verandah. The main entrance door is a double six panelled door flanked by two pairs of shuttered French doors with panelling and margin bars. There are a further two pairs of French doors on each side verandah. The verandah ceiling is lined with painted timber boards and supported by regularly placed concrete columns. There is an attic storey above, with seven dormer windows, two each to the north, south and west and one to the east. The roof is of corrugated iron, replacing an earlier terracotta tile roof, which itself had replaced the original roof. The ground floor interior consists of four main rooms paired either side of a wide central corridor, which is divided by internal double doors. Each room is approximately 6 metres X 6 metres with high 4 metre ceilings. The rooms all have original fireplaces, cedar skirting boards and six panelled cedar doors. Likewise internal staircases are also of cedar. To the rear are pantry, laundry and bathroom to one side and kitchen, a second bathroom and dressing room to the other. These are contained within two additional wings constructed in 1988. The first floor is made up of five bedrooms and a sitting room plus bathroom. The site has some archaeological potential in terms of