A company styled the Florida Hard wood Timber and Manufacturing-Company, limited, has been formed in London, England, with a capital of $1,000,000 to purchase, work and develop 15,000 acre® of hardwood timber land situated near Brooksville, Hernando Cos., Fla. It is intended to erect an extensive mill plant with a capacity of 30,000 feet lumber, 20,000 coiled hoops, 20,000 staves and 50,000 spokes, handles, etc., per day. The Board of Directors comprise five in England and three in Florida, the names of the latter being Mr. G. Chetwynd-Stapylton, President of the Leesburg and County State Bank ,D. Stringer, Brooksville and Mr. G. E. Pybus of Fruitland Park, the latter gentleman being the managing director. The Hon. W. S. Jennings, of Brooksville, is the solicitor to the company
and the London offices are at 16 Great Winchester St., E. C.
The timber on the land is very fine and consists of white and red oak, hickory, ash, elm, red bay, magnolia and gum. The land, (hammock) is very rich and good crops of tobacco, cane, corn, etc., are being raised on it, and will be open for sale as it is cleared up, it offers exceptional advantages as the whole will be in direct railway communication with the
railroad, the town council having granted the company a right of way for a street railway from their property to the depot. There are already several clearings of five to eighty acres, with orange groves and other improvements which are now open for settlement, and as the mill will give employment to a large number of hands, settlers on the lands belonging to the company will naturally have a preference.
The Florida Agriculturalist (DeLand), July 21, 1897
The Chetwynd Chronicles 
I’ve enjoyed reading your posts and am looking forward to reading your book. My husband and I own 30+ acres south of the church on Spring Lake Road and north of Zephyr Lake. Do you have any idea about what would have been on this property when it was Chetwynd? We have an old cabin on part of the property that we have no idea when it was built.
Granville Stapylton’s center of operations was on the southside of Zephyr Lake in Section 4. He owned all of the lots around the east half of the lake except for the acreage he sold to Augustus Bosanquet. That family retained that land until recent years including lots around the northside of the lake. Since the reason for establishing the colony was to grow citrus I would assume that was produced in that area. Some of the Englishmen lived in homes close to the compound. The town of Chetwynd was proposed for the Lake Ella area.
Thank you for answering. Our property is to the north and west of Zephyr Lake (across Poinsettia Ave.) and directly south of Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, west of the Bosanquet property and east of Spring Lake. I do believe most of our property was in orange groves at one time, except I’m not sure about the land directly south of the church. There are two small lakes on our property called Twin Lakes, and the building that I am interested in identifying is near the southern lake. The wood used to build it was hand cut, as all the wood widths are different and it is rough cut. I am not sure how to go about finding out when it was built or its purpose. It is still in great shape. Thanks again.