Where the Coltmans and Burleigh Hall Collide! Pt 1

Way back in 2023 I started a series of posts on this blog, about Burleigh Hall, and the people who lived there. I seem to have started at the end of the nineteenth century and into the early twentieth century, following on from a very brief mention of earlier inhabitants, way back in a post from October 2013, and directly following a guest post about Mary Tate. When I stopped posting about the hall, I did, however, promise you at least one more post, about more recent inhabitants! 

Also, way back in June 2023 I started a series of posts about members of the Coltman family. In those posts I concentrated mainly on just one or two family members, and deliberately didn’t go into much detail about Walter as I had (and still have) other plans for sharing that info. The links to all these earlier posts are listed below. 

So, in this post today, I’m going to try and bring the Burleigh House series of posts, and the Coltman family series of posts together, by sharing my research from 2023. And what better way to do this than to share with you the story of Howard Coltman? Here follows the first part of that story …

Howard Coltman’s parents were John Charles Coltman, and Fanny Kate Marshall had married in Loughborough in 1884. John was the son of Huram Coltman and his wife Eliza (née Lovett), Fanny Kate was the daughter of Thomas Whittle Marshall, a bank manager in Loughborough, and his wife Ann (née Baldwin) who had been born in Nottingham.

Howard Coltman was born on 19 September 1885 to John Charles Coltman and his wife Fanny Kate (née Marshall). I believe he was their first child, just as his father, John Charles was the first-born of Huram Coltman and his wife, Eliza.

In 1891, Howard’s grandfather, Huram Coltman, was living at no.135 Meadow Lane, in a house possibly named Lowlands. Huram’s eldest son, John, who was aged 34, an employer, being a steam engine and boiler maker, was at no.133 Meadow Lane, [1] with his wife Fanny Kate, aged 32. Also living at no.133, were John and Fanny Kate’s children, son Howard aged 5, son Charles E. aged 4, and son Claud M. aged 2, and a domestic servant, Annie E. Mitchell aged 14, from Hoton. John and all his family were born in Loughborough.

The family continued to live on Meadow Lane, and in 1901, when Howard was 15, the family included John Charles Coltman aged 43, a mechanical engineer employer, his wife, Fanny Kate, and children Howard (15), Charles E. (14), Claud M. (12) and Philip B. (7). Also living in properties on Meadow Lane were Howard’s uncles, Ernest, aged 33, a mechanical engineer employer, who housekeeper was Kate Mee, Kate Mee, and Charles W. Coltman aged 29, a steam engine fitter (worker), with Elizabeth his wife, and their daughter, Doris aged 1.

Howard had been attending the Loughborough Grammar School since 1896, and in September 1901 he was awarded the Year V prize for science. His interest in science would be later noted in The Loughburian, [2] on the occasion of his death, when it was reported that Howard was “… a pioneer … in the application of modern science to agriculture …”

Soon after leaving school, Howard Coltman spent 4 years at the Agricultural College in Holmes Chapel, Cheshire, where he obtained the National Diploma in Agriculture in 1905. [3]

In 1909 Howard married Chrissie Kendrick, the daughter of Mr and Mrs Kendrick of Lock House, Loughborough, at Loughborough’s Wood Gate Baptist Church, in a ceremony conducted by the Reverend W. H. Spinks. Chrissie was born in 1885 and had spent her early years living on Paget Street, before moving to the Lock House, where her father was the canal manager. It’s possible that she was in charge of the Loughborough branch of the Girl Scouts, who formed in 1911.

It was around the time of their marriage that Howard and Chrissie moved to Vale Farm, Charley, in the heart of the Charnwood Forest, where a near neighbour was Herbert Morris, who lived at Lubcloud [4] with his family. Twenty-year-old Ernest Asa Blyth, who was born in Leamington Spa, was an assistant to farmer Howard, Sarah Jane Upton from Markfield, aged 19, was the maid, and Thomas Bull, aged 52 and born in Aston Upon Trent, was the cowman.

I think it was after this, around 1914, that Howard took over the Model Farm in Nanpantan, which was about 100 acres, 60 of which was ploughland, upon the death of Mr J. F. Sarjeant. In order to support the ‘war effort’, in September 1915, Howard, along with other local people who did the same, placed some of his fields at the disposal of the 3 /5 Battalion of the Leicestershire Regiment for the purpose of undertaking their drills.

A 1916 trade directory lists Howard Coltman as being a farmer in the parish of Nanpantan: prior to the incorporation of the borough in 1888, Nanpantan had been part of the parish of Loughborough, but it was excluded in 1888, and became a separate civil parish. In 1917, Howard was elected to the Rural District Council representing Nanpantan, a vacancy which had come about by the death of the previous incumbent, Mr E. Broad. Howard also took on some women National Service Volunteers to work on his farm, and reported that after only three weeks undertaking the work, although initially they knew nothing about agriculture they were progressing really well. Also, in support of the Loughborough branch of the Red Cross, in 1918, Howard of Model Farm, along with a several other farmers gave a number of sheep, at the Victory Fair which was held in the cattle market.

On 12 February 1918, Howard and Chrissie welcomed the birth of their first child, a son whom they named John, who would go on to train as a lawyer. Meanwhile, work continued for Howard and in 1919 he was appointed as vice-chairman of the Loughborough rural district Council, while his wife, Chrissie was appointed to the Ladies Visiting Committee of the Loughborough Board of Guardians. 

By 1920, Howard Coltman was a JP, and living at Burleigh Hall, where he was occupied as a farmer, being an active member in the local branch of the Farmers’ Union. He came from a prominent local family, and was the representative for Nanpantan on the Loughborough Board of Guardians, and in 1920 was the Chairman of the Loughborough Rural District Council, and as a JP sat on the bench of magistrates for the Loughborough Petty Sessional Division.

The land at Burleigh amounted to about 200 acres, with about 80 acres being ploughland. A contemporary article [5] described Burleigh Hall as standing on the rising ground between Ashby and Forest roads, overlooking Loughborough, and with a charming view of the Charnwood Forest in the distance. The hall itself was very substantially built of brick and stone, with an interior that was furnished throughout in very finely panelled oak. The property had a water supply provided by the Loughborough Corporation, and also had a telephone.

The previous occupier at Burleigh Hall had been the Right Honourable Alan Pennington, until his death in 1913. After Alan’s death, his widow gave up Burleigh Hall, and auctioned off the good quality furniture (like the Chippendale, and the Queen Anne stuff), hunting and horse-riding equipment, coaches, and even greenhouse plants! During the First World War, the Hall was occupied for some of the time by the military, and some 55 acres of the land was broken up, and slag applied. As we read above, the farms connected with Howard (i.e. Burleigh and the Model Farm) were used to train land girls. Coltman was a member of the Local War Agricultural Committee.

When Howard Coltman took over Burleigh Hall, he adapted and changed many of the buildings, from being suitable for use by a country gentleman, such as Alan Pennington had been, to those more fitting for a modern farm. However, whether or not Coltman carried through with his idea of converting the pigeon cote into a corn mill or not, I am not sure.

Coltman was a very successful farmer, and in the summer of 1920, the yield of winter oats in a 10-acre field was about 10 quarters to the acre, despite this being the third successive white straw crop to be grown on the field since the land was broken up in the war, the previous crops being oats, followed by wheat. Coltman applied slag each time he broke up the fields, saying that he considered:

‘… that the turf, in rotting down, supplie[d] ample nitrogen and organic matter, and … the phosphates in the slag just give the necessary constituent for the corn to make the crop a success.’ [6]

Moreover, the crop was not attacked by wireworm, a potential destructor. A further field of 18 acres was used to grow potatoes, and another 25 acres was used to grow clover for hay. Coltman was also raising about 30 calves. It seems that some of his farming methods were new for the time, and quite experimental.

In a follow-up article appearing in the same newspaper the next week, it was reported that Coltman was also trying a crop that consisted of a mixture of hardy greens – giant rape, thousand-headed kale, and rape kale, specifically – in place of swedes, which would be food for the sheep – which included about 40 Oxford/Hampshire cross ewes - during the winter. 

Although Coltman had applied slag to some of his fields, which had been badly grazed for several years, the results were not as expected. So, lime was applied to these fields, and flattened into the ground by a steam roller, which seemed to improve the quality of the grasses grown there. Coltman seems to have kept a herd of cows for the past 10 years, presumably at the Model Farm, before Burleigh, and in 1919, he had the highest average yield per cow per year, and also the cow, Cockhorn, that gave the highest individual yield, and this put him at the top of the Nottingham Milk Recording Society tables, to whom another of his red shorthorn cows, Russell, was also well-known. The farm was also involved in the breeding of large, black pigs, but the breeding of horses had not been successful for Coltman, so he had decided to focus on growing corn. Poultry on the farm were predominantly of three well-known breeds; White Leghorns; White Wyandottes, and Buff Rocks, but some of the young were prone to be eaten by the local magpies.

It comes as no surprise to learn that Coltman, being an experimental farmer, used many innovative farming implements and machinery. One of these was an Albion potato planter, which was actually the first of its kind. Coltman’s two tractors were a Clayton and a Fordson, and he also made use of a hay and straw elevator.

When Coltman took over Burleigh, there was a large garden with glasshouses attached to the hall, so he used these to grow produce associated with a market garden, and was particularly pleased with his tomatoes. He also sold plants to allotment holders and keen gardeners.

On 26th April 1921, at the age of 35, Howard was initiated into the Howe and Charnwood Lodge of the Freemasons.

On the census of 1921, which was taken in June, Howard Coltman and his wife Chrissie were recorded as being at Burleigh Hall, where Howard was a farmer who employed farm workers. Their son, John, does not seem to appear to be with them on the night this census record was taken, and I have yet to locate him. However, three of Howard’s employees were listed on the same census return. They were, Howard’s own brother, Philip, who was aged 28, and the private gardener to Coltman; William Pryce-Jones, who was a 19-year-old farm pupil, and Florence Mal, a general domestic servant. Further employees were listed on a separate page, for Burleigh Farm Cottage - the Woodford family. Thomas Woodford was 55 and a general agricultural labourer on Coltman’s farm at Burleigh Hall, while his wife, Elizabeth, was aged 52, and sons Albert, aged 22, and John aged 19 were both also general agricultural labourers. The Woodford’s two youngest children, Jessie and Cecil were both at school.

The Tinkler family were simply listed as living in Nanpantan, but head of the family, John William Tinkler, aged 42, was a horseman employed by Coltman at Burleigh Hall. Tinkler’s wife, Emma aged 41, and their daughters Ada aged 18, and Isabel aged 15, were all undertaking home or domestic duties, although Isabel was working at Burleigh Hall. Son, John aged 13, and daughters Doris aged 10, and Edna aged 6 were attending school.

Living at Burleigh Lodge in 1921 were William Kearn and his family. William was a 51-year-old gardener at Burleigh Hall, his wife, Annie, was not working, but his daughter, Lilian, aged 19, was a shorthand typist, currently working as a waitress at the Empire Picture Co. (which is today the Odeon). There were two visitors included in the listing – Mabel Peet, aged 21 and a trained lace hand from Long Eaton, although she was also currently working as a waitress at the Empire Picture Co., and 4-year-old Ruby Anthony.

In 1921, living at Burleigh Farm was Thomas Mayo, aged 72, was listed as a farmer and retired provisions merchant living at Burleigh Farm, with housekeeper Harriett Riches, Clara Pitchell (?) the assistant housekeeper, and visitor Molly Fendick. Mayo had come to Loughborough in 1881 to run a grocery business in Market Place, and by 1921 he had actually been mayor of Loughborough no less than nine times! Incidentally, Howard’s own uncle, Walter William Coltman, had also been mayor of Loughborough, but only seven times, although he does hold the accolade of being the youngest mayor when he was first appointed in 1911!

Next week we will conclude the story of Howard Coltman and Burleigh Hall!

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Notes

[1] A trade directory for 1891 states that John Charles was living on Stanford Road: at the time it would have been difficult for non-residents to differentiate the far end of Meadow Lane from Stanford Road

[2] The Loughburian, Vol. LXIX No. 196, pp, 3 and 89

[3] Incidentally, the recuperative drink and nutritious food supplement, Bengers, was made in Holmes Chapel, and the manufacturer was later taken over by Fisons, who had plants and offices at both Loughborough and Holmes Chapel. The college, which had been created in 1895, was at Saltersford Hall, and comprised 100 acres of farm and gardens. [I shall be blogging a little about Bengers in a post later this year, in connection with some other research I’ve been doing, so please look out for that!]

[4] Remembered fondly by the author for its fantastic café in the mid-late 2010s!

[5] The ‘Leicester Daily Post’ 21 August 1920, pg 4

[6] ibid.

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Links to earlier posts about Burleigh Hall and members of the Coltman family

Rev Wm Henry Cooper (Oct 2023) https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2023/10/the-reverend-william-henry-cooper-of.html

Rt. Hon Alan Pennington pt 1 (Sept 2023) https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2023/09/the-right-honourable-alan-joseph.html

Rt Hon. Alan Pennington Pt 2 (Sept 2023) https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2023/09/the-right-hon-alan-joseph-pennington-of.html

Mary Tate - guest post from Dr Pamela Fisher (August 2023) https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2023/08/mary-tate.html

Baron Muncaster (August 2019) https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2019/08/burleigh-hall.html

Lost Houses (Oct 2013) https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2013/10/lost-houses-found.html

Ernest Coltman (July 2023) - https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2023/06/so-who-was-e-e-coltman.html

Coltman family (July 2023) - https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2023/07/coltman-family-boiler-makers-and.html

Ernest Coltman and some loose ends (July 2023) - https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2023/07/ernest-edwin-coltmans-loose-ends.html

Ernest and Ernest Huram Marsh (July 2023) - https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2023/07/ernest-edwin-coltman-and-ernest-huram.html

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2025). Where the Coltmans and Burleigh Hall Collide! Pt 1. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2025/02/where-coltmans-and-burleigh-hall.html [Accessed 16 February 2025]

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Where the Coltmans and Burleigh Hall Collide. Pt 2

In this week’s blog post, following on from last week, we continue the story of Howard Coltman as he settles into life at Burleigh Hall.

Circa 1958

Later in 1922, Howard Coltman is listed in a telephone directory as living at Burleigh Hall, and this information also appears in a 1925 directory, which also lists Thomas Mayo at Burleigh Farm. The telephone number for Burleigh Hall was Loughborough 591. By 1949, as Loughborough was growing quickly, and more telephones were being installed, this had changed to 2591.

In 1923, Howard hosted the MP, Brigadier General E. L. Spears, and his wife, who gave a talk to the Loughborough Women’s Liberal Association. And later in 1923, Howard was advocating that a ‘living wage’ be paid to people who worked on a short-term, or seasonal basis for the council, and that steps should be taken to provide housing for these workers. One of Howard’s own workers was paid 37s. a week. In the following year, Howard was elected as a joint honorary secretary of the Loughborough Liberals. Howard was present at a reunion of the Old Loughburians – old boys from the Loughborough Grammar School - in July 1924, when the group presented a roll of honour listing 400 past pupils who had served during the First World War.

November 1924 saw Howard appointed as Chair of the Loughborough Branch of the National Farmers’ Union, and presiding at the Farmers’ Union dinner the following year. Later that year, Howard was appointed as chair of the rural district council. Although predominantly a dairy farmer, Howard also kept sheep, but must have been disappointed by the price paid for some of his fleeces, in 1925, that were about 40 per cent below what was paid in the previous year. The highest price in 1925 was 17d. per fleece, which was paid for his 57 Oxford Hampshires, and cross-bred ewes, and 16 hogs.

By 1926 Howard’s cows had begun to produce Grade A milk [1], and in May he hosted a visit to his farm from sanitary inspectors who were undertaking a course at the Midland Agricultural and Dairy College. As if that weren’t enough, Howard also won 3rd prize for his sugar beet at the Loughborough Agricultural Show on Southfields Park.

In 1927 Howard was one of a number of people from both Loughborough and beyond who attended a meeting at Dishley Grange to discuss raising funds to erect a suitable memorial to Robert Bakewell, who had been a prominent local agriculturalist.

In the same year that Howard was president of the Leicestershire Farmers’ Union, he and his wife Chrissie had a daughter, Ann Theodora, who was born in December 1930. In September of the same year, Howard Coltman had allowed some of his land to be used to host the Loughborough Show, organised by the Loughborough Agricultural Association. Previous venues had been Southfield Park, and the Corinthian’s football ground, but the grounds of Burleigh Hall, being situated on the edge of the Charnwood Forest, were ideal. As if that wasn’t enough, also in 1930, Howard was Chairman of the Yorks, Leics. and Lancs. Grade A Milk Producers’ Associations and was appointed to a sub-committee. Meanwhile, two women from Radmoor Cottages were fined for stealing potatoes from Burleigh Farm.

In 1932, Howard was the chairman of the Milk Recording Society [2], and in June of that year he accompanied members of the Leicestershire and Rutland branch on their annual visit, which this year was to Cambridge. The group were able to visit the Animal Nutrition Research Station of the university, and a farm in Bottisham, before enjoying tea in Cambridge. By 1936, Howard was a governor of the Loughborough Grammar School, and later (1948) became its chairman.

Boundary changes had recently come into effect and Howard was elected as a representative of Northern Area Guardians Committee in 1935.

In 1936, Howard Coltman, prominent member of the Farmer’s Union, at Burleigh Farm 1936, was proposing to stand for election as an independent member to the town council, in the new Beaumont Ward, at a time when the population of Loughborough was around 30,000. However, I believe he was finally appointed as a Conservative candidate.

During 1937, Howard Coltman was regarded as a leading authority on milk production, and was concerned that the government was proposing to enforce milk quotas and import duties, via the Milk Board.

When the 1939 Register was taken, Howard, dairy farmer and ARP Warden, and Chrissie were living at Burleigh Hall, on Ashby Road. Also listed there were Ada B. Kendrick aged 78, who was Chrissie’s retired mother. Howard and Chrissie’s son, John Coltman, born 12 February 1918, is listed as an articled law clerk, who was working for A. G. Davies in Loughborough, and who had been taking exams of the Law Society during the past 5 or so years. Howard and Chrissie’s daughter, Anne Theodora Coltman born 5 December 1930, was also listed on the Register, and was a scholar, and would later marry a man surnamed Morris. Also listed at the Hall are John Woodford, a farm pupil, and Florence M. Neal, the domestic servant.

Next door to Burleigh hall, in the Gardeners Cottage, was Alfred W. Linton, the head market gardener, born 5 June 1896, and his wife, Annie born 1898, as well as a redacted person, and Bernard Linton, a scholar who was born in 1928. Next door to the Gardener’s Cottage is Burleigh Hill Cottage, which was lived in by poultry farmer (heavy worker) Frederick Richards, born in 1904, and his wife  Frances born in 1900, along with James W. Haughton, born 1916, herdsman (heavy worker), a redacted person, John (Tom) Barrett born 1903 who was the ploughman (heavy worker), and Olive Clarke born 1912 who was the dairymaid.

Listed as being next door to Burleigh Hill Cottage, was Burleigh Hall Lodge, where we find Hedley Gurney, born 1897, the farm horseman and tractor driver, Martha Gurney born 1893, his wife, and a redacted person. Next door to that is Knightthorpe Lodge, followed by Holywell Cottage, then Holywell Farm, then The Priory pub, which had only opened three years earlier.

During the Second World War (1939-1945), Howard was the chairman of the County War Agricultural Committee, and diplomatically encouraged farmers to produce as much as they could, even though this might mean the ploughing of pastureland for the sewing of crops, or even evicting those farmers who were less productive and efficient.

Sadly, in 1942, Howard and Chrissie’s only son, John, a Sergeant Observer, No. 1151281 [3] in the RAF (V.R. 115 Sqdn.), was reported as missing, and presumed to be dead. John had attended the Loughborough Grammar School, as had his father before him, and had passed his intermediate law exams, before signing up for the RAF. John is remembered on the Runnymede Memorial.

1950 saw the establishment of the Thomas Burton Lodge No.7007 of the local Freemasons, and an obituary appearing in The Loughburian of July 1964 suggests that Howard was one of the founding members, however, he is not included on a photograph of the founders back in 1950: perhaps he was away at the time the picture was taken.

In January 1951, Howard and Chrissie’s only daughter, Ann Theodora, became engaged to Mr Herbert John Frank David Morris, who was the son of Mr John Cameron Morris, himself the son of Herbert Morris. The marriage took place later that same year.

In the New Year Honours List of 1952, Alderman Howard Coltman, Deputy Chairman of the Leicestershire Agricultural Executive Committee, was awarded an OBE. Howard had been a member of the Leicestershire County Council for more than 15 years, and at the time of the award was the Chairman of the North Leicestershire Education Executive, and a farmer at Burleigh Hall. In 1958 Howard was awarded an honorary Master of Arts degree from the University of Nottingham in recognition of his contribution to agriculture in Leicestershire, and for his work at the Sutton Bonington campus of the Nottingham University when it was the Kingston [-upon-Soar] Agricultural College, where he had been a governor during the time of transition to the Nottingham University, and also for his work at Brooksby College, near Melton Mowbray.

By 1958, Howard Coltman was living at 258 Forest Road, and this year marked his 26 years of membership of the East Midlands Regional Committee of the Milk Marketing Board, for which he received an inscribed silver salver, at a lunch to celebrate the occasion.

Known to be a proponent of the advancement of both general and agricultural education, in 1961, Howard Coltman was elected to the sub-committee of the Regional Council Advisory Panel for Agricultural Education, which was looking into agricultural education in the region.

On 26th January 1964, Howard Coltman died, and probate was granted on 2nd April 1964, to solicitor Walter William Straw, and chartered accountant John Bernard Sidney Marsh. Effects were £138,679. An extensive obituary appeared in the Loughborough Grammar School magazine, ‘The Loughburian’.

Howard's wife, Chrissie, lived on at 258 Forest Road until her death on 19 January 1972.

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Notes

[1] According to reports from the House of Commons for 1914, it was proposed to grade milk into three classifications: Grade A, being the best sort of milk that had been drawn from herds guaranteed free from Tuberculosis, and with a low bacterial count, that could safely be given raw to children; Grade B would be safe for adults to drink, but probably less so for children, and which included pasteurised milk, and Grade C would include any milk that didn’t fall into either Grade A or Grade B! 

[2] ‘National Milk Recording’ was established in 1943, and was aimed at encouraging milk producers to record the yield of their cows. However, prior to this Milk Recording Societies existed in each county, and each had its own committee. According to the NMR website, although membership of these societies was small, the members made up for this by being both enthusiastic and progressive!

[3] An air observer in the RAF was mostly concerned with reconnaissance missions.

____________________________________

Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2025). Where the Coltman's and Burleigh Hall Collide. Pt 2. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2025/02/where-coltmans-and-burleigh-hall_01080011251.html  [Accessed 23 March 2025]

Take down policy:

I post no pictures that are not my own, unless I have express permission so to do. All text is my own, and not copied from any other information sources, printed or electronic, unless identified and credited as such. If you find I have posted something in contravention of these statements, or if there are photographs of you which you would prefer not to be here, please contact me at the address listed on the About Me page, and I will remove these.

External Links:

By including links to external sources I am not endorsing the websites, the authors, nor the information contained therein, and will not check back to update out-of-date links. Using these links to access external information is entirely the responsibility of the reader of the blog.

Blog archive and tags:

If you are viewing this blog in mobile format, you will not be able to easily access the blog archive, or the clickable links to various topics. These can be accessed if you scroll to the bottom of the page, and click 'View Web Version'. Alternatively, there is also a complete list of posts, which when clicked will take you to the page you are interested in.

Searching the blog:

You can search the blog using the dedicated search box that appears near the top of the blog when viewed in the web version. Alternatively, you can search using your usual search engine (e.g. Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo etc.) by following this example:

site: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/ “Radmoor House”

NOTE – the words you’re actually looking for must be in “” and the first of these must be preceded by a space

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne

Mary Tate

I remember turning out one cold and wet winter evening in 2016 to attend a book launch at Donnington Hall for a Victoria County History Book about Castle Donnington! It was a lovely event, and the authors each gave a short speech. One of those authors was Pam, which was how I came to meet her. Since then, it won't surprise you to know that our paths have frequently crossed at heritage events and talks, and we often find our areas of interest and research overlap! In her guest post, which is the last article in a series specifically celebrating the 10th anniversary of the blog, Pam tells us the story of Mary Tate, a notable inhabitant of Burleigh Hall. Read on to find out why ...

Mary Tate

By Pamela J. Fisher

Writing to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in 1849 about the new church and benefice of Thorpe Acre, the Bishop of Peterborough wrote of Miss Mary Tate: ‘Her exertions, to use the expression in the neighbourhood, hav[e] been the very “making of the place”’. It was not just Thorpe Acre that benefited from her ‘exertions’: Mary Tate also provided two schools in Loughborough, assisted a third, made a substantial contribution towards the cost of building Emmanuel Church, provided food for the poor of Loughborough and left money in her will to Loughborough Dispensary.

Mary was the life tenant of her family property, Burleigh Hall, a country house in substantial grounds, the site of which now forms part of Loughborough University campus. She was born on 20 December 1775 and was the only child of George Tate and his wife Bridget Moore (née Ford), who had married on 9 March that year in St George’s church, Hanover Square in the city of Westminster. George was of that parish and Bridget was from the parish of St James, Westminster. Mary was baptised at St George’s church, Hanover Square on 14 February 1776.

Members of the Tate family had been at Burleigh since at least 1705. Mary inherited her life interest from her father in 1822, but she was not a direct descendant of ‘Henry Tate of Burleigh’, the owner of the Hall and Park who had died in 1722. A hint of her family’s extensive landholdings is given in the parish register of Mitcham, Surrey when her father was buried there on 25 May 1822, aged 76: ‘George Tate Esq from Southampton, Hants, of Burleigh House near Loughborough’. The mention of Southampton is a reference to another family property, Langdown House in Dibden and Hythe, near Southampton Water, which is believed to have been built for George in 1797. It was demolished in the 1960s, but a painting shows a substantial property standing in large landscaped grounds. 

George also owned at least one property in London and another in Mitcham, and the latter place was clearly dear to the family, as both George and Mary in their wills asked to be buried at Mitcham, where there was a family vault. Mary paid for a wall monument to her father’s memory in St Peter and St Paul church in Mitcham, which had then just been rebuilt, and this joined several other family monuments that had been carefully moved from the old church to the new one.

Burleigh Hall was acquired by Mary’s grandfather Benjamin (George’s father) through his second marriage in 1765 to his cousin, Mary Herbert (née Tate). Mary Herbert had inherited Burleigh as the granddaughter of Anthony Tate, the brother of the Henry who died in 1722. Benjamin was the grandson of Henry and Anthony’s younger brother William.

We don’t know how the Mary Tate we are concerned with here was educated, or how frequently she visited Burleigh. She was 46 and unmarried when her father died in 1822. She had inherited land and property in Mitcham and shares in six canal companies in 1821, on the death of her uncle (George’s younger brother), the Rev. Dr Benjamin Tate. On her father’s death the following year she received a life interest in Burleigh Hall and Park, in other land in Loughborough and Woodthorpe, in properties in Chelsea, Brompton and within Middlesex (including Grosvenor Place) and was left outright ownership of Langdown House, other land and properties in Dibden and Fawley in Hampshire, all of George Tate’s bank stock, his household goods and £30,000 in bank annuities ‘to do with as she pleases’.

As well as erecting the monument mentioned in Mitcham church in memory of her father, Mary also commissioned Sir Richard Westmacott RA to provide a memorial for All Saints’ church in Loughborough, where it can be seen today on the south wall of the chancel. Westmacott was one of the leading sculptors of his age, and had provided two of the wall monuments to other family members in Mitcham church. For this commission he produced a figure of a kneeling angel in classical robes, holding a sickle to cut surrounding sheaves of corn.

Memorial to members of the Tate family by Sir Richard Westmacott RA in the chancel of All Saints’ church

The inscription remembers ‘with the deepest sense of gratitude and with the tenderest impressions’, her grandfather Benjamin Tate (died 13 January 1790), his wife Martha (died 29 December 1760), their four children who reached adulthood, George (Mary’s father, died 15 May 1822), the Rev. Dr Benjamin (died 22 November 1820), Martha (died 6 December 1793) and Sophia (died 1 April 1780), and also Mary, Benjamin’s second wife, who had inherited Burleigh from her parents (died 24 May 1798).

A series of letters written by ‘our’ Mary Tate survives from 1844–5, when she was dividing her time between three properties, Burleigh Hall, Grosvenor Place in London and Langdown House in Hampshire. Her time in Leicestershire had been sufficient for her to become well acquainted with William Herrick of Beaumanor Hall and his family, and she turned to him for advice in the 1840s. She was then managing a large estate, and appears to have been doing so very capably, but as a woman she probably faced discrimination in some of her dealings, and he may have provided support on business and legal matters.

Mary extended the Burleigh estate a little by purchasing a neighbouring piece of land, and also improved her estate in Fawley, Hampshire by exchanging with Southampton Corporation parcels of land in other parts of Hampshire for land in Fawley. The latter suggests astute land management and confidence in her business dealings.

Mary was a devout Anglican, and spent large sums in charitable works and the establishment of new churches. In Mitcham, she demolished the property she had inherited from her uncle and built almshouses for 12 poor women on the site, which opened in 1829. In Dibden, near her Hampshire home, she gave money to a school for poor children. Her closest affections seem to have been for Loughborough and the neighbourhood of Burleigh, where the majority of her philanthropy was directed, and especially from the 1830s in Emmanuel parish, Loughborough and Thorpe Acre.

She began an infant school In Loughborough in a building in the yard of the Boot Inn, Fishpool Head (later known as Cattle Market) and by 1836 had rented two other buildings from John Paget, also for use as infant schools, which in that year were teaching 180 boys and 100 girls. These would have been a huge boon to the town, helping married women to obtain work, for example in the local hosiery industry. After Loughborough’s rector, the Rev. William Holme, built a boys’ school at Wards End attached to the new church of Emmanuel, Mary Tate built a girls’ school for Emmanuel on Bedford Square (the building survives as part of the retailer Bed City), endowed it with income of £54 annually towards the payment of salaries and other expenses, and gave a further endowment worth £30 annually to Emmanuel boys’ school. 

The former Emmanuel Girls’ school on Bedford Square

She gave £500 towards the building of Emmanuel church, alongside £1,000 from the Rev. William Holme and £1,000 from Emmanuel College, Cambridge (patron of All Saints’ church and soon-to-be patron of Emmanuel church). These donations were sufficient to leverage £2,143 from the Commissioners for the Building of New Churches and £500 from the Incorporated Society for Promoting the Enlargement, Building and Repairing of Churches and Chapels, which together enabled Thomas Rickman to be commissioned to design the church, and Rickman’s favoured contractor, John Bennett of Birmingham, to be employed in building it. Emmanuel Church opened in 1837. 

Emmanuel Church on Forest Road, built 1835–7

The comment that opened this post, by the Bishop of Peterborough in 1849 (Leicestershire was then within Peterborough diocese), relates to the building and endowment of Thorpe Acre church and its ministry. Thorpe Acre was then a small rural village with a population of 298 in 1841 (it is close to 20,000 today). There was no church in the village, but there was a weekly Sunday service in the medieval chapel at Dishley, a much smaller village c.¾ mile away. Dishley chapel was a donative – a church that was owned by an individual. In this case it had originally belonged to Garendon abbey and had passed into lay hands at the dissolution of the monasteries. Donative churches lay outside ecclesiastical jurisdiction: the family of the owner could choose and pay a minster, and refuse entry to anyone. Dishley chapel was the property of Charles March Phillipps of Garendon, and weekly Sunday services there were conducted by his brother, the Rev. Edward Thomas March Phillipps, vicar of Hathern. A copy of a printed circular now held in Lambeth Palace library shows that there were concerns in the early 1840s for the continuation of Anglican worship in Dishley chapel over the long term as Ambrose March Phillipps, the eldest son and heir of its owner, had converted to Roman Catholicism and was ‘full of zeal for the faith’ (he was employing a priest who was trying to convert local people). The ‘solution’ suggested, and supported by the Rev. E.T.M. Phillipps, was to build an Anglican church in Thorpe Acre, with its own minister.

An appeal was launched for funds to buy land, build a church and parsonage house in Thorpe Acre and provide an income for an incumbent. One account says Miss Tate was the principal donor towards the building of the church, but the amount she gave is not recorded. She donated £1,000 to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners towards an endowment to provide a minister’s salary, gave £500 for the parsonage house and established a fund for church repairs. Her £1,000 gift was the statutory sum that would enable Mary and her heirs to nominate the vicar at each vacancy, but she realised that this sum was insufficient to provide a decent clerical living, and that it could be bolstered by funds from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners at no extra cost to herself if she agreed that the incumbents would always be chosen by some ‘public body’. She therefore specified that the advowson (the right to nominate the minister) was to rest with the bishop of the diocese, but at the same time made a private agreement with the Bishop of Peterborough that she could choose the first appointee. It seems that her first, and possibly second, choice declined the appointment, but the Rev. John Bridges Ottley, a Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford accepted the position. Mary had met him 20 years before, when he was a curate at Dibden (Hampshire).

With a minister in place, Mary consulted him on the location of the parsonage, agreed an alternative site when he rejected the land already purchased for this purpose, and arranged for him to brief the church architect, William Railton, on the specification of the house he wanted. Ottley had a wife and daughter, servants and a private pupil who was boarding with the family, and a large house with three reception rooms and seven bedrooms was built. (This house has since been demolished and replaced by a smaller vicarage on a new site.) Mary Tate also told the bishop in confidence that she would ensure Mr Ottley received a stipend of £150 p.a., although she would not provide an endowment to pay that sum until the Ecclesiastical Commissioners (who then had no funds for augmenting livings) had added to the £1,000 she had already provided. To this end she set up a separate trust, endowing it with bank stock that would provide £120 annually above the sum that her endowment to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners would provide.

Thorpe Acre church was consecrated and opened on 30 September 1845. 

All Saints’ church, Thorpe Acre. The original nave/chancel to the right of this image was extended to the south (and also to the west and north) in 1986, trebling the number of seats. The tip of the original western bellcote is just visible.

Other less prominent acts of philanthropy, of no less importance to the beneficiaries, included weekly gifts of meat to 200 poor families each winter and setting up ‘an establishment in which young women were taught washing’, helping them to earn money to lift them out of poverty.

Mary Tate died at Burleigh Hall on 15 March 1849, aged 73, the last of this Tate lineage. In accordance with her wishes, her body was taken to Mitcham, where she was buried on 22 March. Her charitable wishes continued to the end, with bequests in her will of £500 to each of four medical establishments, including Loughborough Dispensary and Leicester Infirmary. She also left £200 to the Rev. Ottley, the first incumbent of All Saints’ church, Thorpe Acre. Burleigh House passed under the terms of George Tate’s will to a cousin, Louisa Pinfold, who took the surname Tate, as George had desired. Louisa Pinfold Tate gave stained glass for the east window of Emmanuel church in 1851 in memory of Mary.

Before her death, Mary had settled her properties in Surrey on her half-brother Richard Moore (her mother’s son by Bridget’s first marriage to Blunsden Moore). By her will she left Langdown House to one of Richard’s children, Charlotte Selina Hobart (née Moore) and £30,000 to be divided equally between three other children of Richard, Mary Bridget, Mary Jane and Edmund. She does not appear to have been close to her cousin Louisa, as to raise the cash to settle her many personal bequests she instructed her executors to sell the land she had purchased on the edge of the Burleigh Estate, after giving Louisa the option of buying it before it went on the market.

Mary Tate has largely been forgotten today, yet she was a remarkable woman, especially for her time, and one of Loughborough’s and Thorpe Acre’s major benefactors.

Pamela J Fisher

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Sources

Primary Sources

The National Archives, letter of wishes for Benjamin Tate (PROB 11/1190/8); wills for Edward Butler (father of Mary Herbert, PROB/ 11/742/486); the Rev. Dr Benjamin Tate (PROB 11/1637/245); George Tate (PROB 11/1658/44); Henry Tate (PROB 11/588/390); Lucy widow of Henry Tate (PROB 11/591/485); Mary wife of Benjamin Tate (PROB 11/1309/3); Mary Tate (PROB 11/2093/364); and others from this family, of less direct relevance to this article; 1851 census HO 107/2085/373.

Lambeth Palace Library, Emmanuel Church: CBC/7/1/4; ICBS 1701; ICBS MB7.

Lambeth Palace Library, Thorpe Acre Church: CC/OF/NB19/54; ECE/7/1/6676/1; ICBS 3319; ICBS MB12; QAB/7/3/F1442.

The Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland: DE884 (deeds Burleigh); DG9/2249 (Letters re Burleigh and Thorpe Acre); DG9/2556/1–39 (letters re Thorpe Acre church).

Parish registers (through FindMyPast), St George, Hanover Square; Mitcham, and others.

Commissioners for Building New Churches, Annual Reports, 1836, 1837

J.H. Chapman, The Register Book of Marriages belonging to the parish of St George Hanover Square in the County of Middlesex (Harleian Society, London, 1886).

 

Newspapers (through British Newspaper Archive)

Hampshire Advertiser, 29 Nov. 1834.

Leic. Jnl. 17 Oct. 1845; 16 Jan. 1852.

Leics Merc., 24 Mar. 1849.

Northampton Merc., 4 Oct. 1845.

Nottingham Review, 4 Mar. 1836; 3 Oct. 1845.

 

Secondary Sources

N. Pevsner (rev. E. Williamson), Buildings of England: Leics and Rutl.

M.H. Port, Six Hundred New Churches: The Church Building Commission, 1818–1856 (Reading, 2006)

VCH Hants. IV, Dibden

VCH Leics. III, Table of population

White, Hist., Gaz. and Dir. of Leics. and Rutl. (Sheffield, 1863)

Websites (all accessed 17 July 2023)

http://research.hgt.org.uk/item/langdown-house/

https://collections.hampshireculture.org.uk/object/painting-watercolour-langdown-house-and-garden-langdown-hythe-and-dibden-hampshire-louise-c;

http://www.speel.me.uk/chlondon/mitchamch.htm

http://www.croydonalmshouses.org.uk/our-history.html

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About Pamela Fisher

Dr Pamela Fisher works with Leicestershire Victoria County History Trust and is currently researching a social and cultural history of Loughborough since 1750. This will include a history of the schools, churches and other places of worship in Loughborough (including Thorpe Acre and Nanpantan) and will be published as a paperback book as part of the national Victoria County History series of books. Other topics and periods will follow, to eventually become a full history of Loughborough from the earliest settlement in the town to the 21st century. You can follow progress on Twitter and Facebook (@LeicsVCHT) or make contact through their website https://leicestershirehistory.co.uk/ to be added to their mailing list for Newsletters and updates. 

____________________________________

Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

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Fisher, Pamela J. (2023). Mary Tate. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2023/08/mary-tate.html  [Accessed 31 August 2023]

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The Right Hon. Alan Joseph Pennington of Burleigh Hall, Part 2

Last week we looked into the earlier part of the life of the Honourable Alan Joseph Pennington, and today we pick up the story where we left off in 1880, when Alan was living in Billesdon ...

Burleigh Hall, Loughborough, pictured around 1920

On 1st December 1880, Alan Joseph Pennington married Anna Eleonora Hartopp at the new parish of St Michael, Chester Square, London, whilst he was living at White Hall in Billesdon, and she was of the new parish, and daughter or Edward Bourchier Hartopp, and Honoria Gent, of Dalby Hall. It was the Rev. T. Hinde, vicar of Little Dalby, who performed the marriage ceremony.

On 16th December 1880, when Alan and his new wife returned from honeymoon to the White Hall in Billesdon, they found it had been beautifully decorated with evergreens and banners, and all the village inhabitants lined the streets to welcome the happy couple home. Alan had provided a sumptuous dinner for his 40-50 tradesmen and servants at the White Hart Inn, where they were served by the host Mrs Bishop. He also provided beer and tobacco to the men of the workhouse, and tea, cake, oranges, and sweets to the women and children, and gave more than 100 families 5 cwt. of coal.

White Hall, Billesdon, viewed from the side, August 2023

The former White Hart Inn, Billesdon, left

However, the Penningtons very soon left White Hall in Billesdon, and in September 1881 sold off some of their furniture, carpets, kitchen equipment, and two timber huts.

The 1881 census return shows Alan Pennington, aged 44, of independent means, with wife Anna, aged 40, at what is described as the Park Grounds of Dalby Hall. There are being visited by Charles J. Fletcher, aged 37, and a magistrate with independent means, and Helen Fletcher aged 30. There are numerous servants listed: Eliza Stevenson aged 60 is the housekeeper; Anne Stevenson is the cook; Fanny Folley and Anne Ellson are Lady’s maids; Sarah A. Freer is the kitchen maid; Harriet Amis, and Jane E. Hatch are the house maids; Harriet Smith is the stillroom maid; Emma Smith is the scullery maid; James Boulger is the butler; William Sharp is the stud groom; Henry Griffiths is the valet, and John McCall the footman.

Census return

Meanwhile, Josslyn, Alan’s older brother, the 5th Baron Muncaster, was MP for the Egremont Division of Cumberland (he owned about 15,000 acres and minerals in Lancashire), from 1885-1892.

After this, Alan’s place of residence and land-owning starts to get a bit confusing! On the electoral rolls for 1885-1887, Alan Pennington is eligible to vote on account of him occupying Dalby Parva Hall [1]. But, in 1888 he is eligible to vote on account of him occupying Ragdale Hall with Pickwell Manor, and in a separate register, Pickwell Manor, Oakham.

By the time of the 1891 census returns, Alan Pennington is getting closer to Loughborough, so aged 53, is living with his wife Anna, aged 49 (who was born in Dalby Hall), at Ragdale New Hall. Visiting the Penningtons are J.C.D. Whitmore, aged 51; Louisa M.E. Whitmore, aged 21; Ethel M. A. Whitmore aged 20, and the honourable Henry C. Butler. Servants listed on the census return are Sarah H. Reading, housekeeper; Agness McDowell, lady’s maid; James Duval, butler; Dora Bishanter, Emma Baker, Mary Sywell, and Emma Tailby, all maidservants; William Capp, footman, and Edmund Morrison, servant.

Census return

So, we know that Alan Pennington took part in many hunts over the years (as indeed, did his wife, who we know was hunting with The Belvoir in 1881), and many of these hunts were recorded in the press of the day. Here’s just one of those newspaper reports, from the ‘Lincolnshire Chronicle’, 9th November 1894, page 5:

“THE QUORN HOUNDS.

Five hundred ladies and gentlemen in the saddle, and a procession of carriages over a mile in length, attended the opening of the hunting season with the celebrated Quorn Hounds at Kirby Gate, Leicestershire, on Monday morning. Lord Lonsdale, the master, was very cordially greeted by a brilliant assemblage. The morning was fine, and the gathering was an exceptionally distinguished one, amongst those who assembled to welcome Lord Lonsdale being Prince Henry of Pless, the Duke of Marlborough, Lady Cardigan, the Duchess of Hamilton, Lord and Lady Crawshaw [whose family seat was at Whatton House], Lord Edward Manners [eldest son of the 7th Duke of Ritland of Belvoir castle], Lady Gerard, Count and Countess Zborowski, Lord and Lady Churchill, Lord and Lady Seymour, Sir Robert and Lady Affleck, Lord Morton, Mr C. and Lady Augusta Fane, Mr Lancelot Lowther, Baron Max De Tuyll, Lady Henrietta Turnor, Lord Herbert Vane Tempest, Lord Cholmondeley, the Hon. Henry Bourke, Lord Cecil Manners, the Hon. Alan Pennington, and Mrs Asquith. Contrary to the usual custom, Lord Lonsdale first gave the order for Cream Gorse [2], and it was a long time before a fox was found, but at last one made play for Ashby Pastures and Thorpe Trussell [3], where the hounds threw up their heads. Another fox was found in Burrough Hill spinnies, and afforded and enjoyable spin.”

Electoral rolls for 1897-1898 show that Alan Pennington was eligible to vote on account of him occupying Ragdale Hall. And he is clearly closely associated with the Quorn Hunt as in 1899 he and his wife contributed towards a presentation (of a cheque) in response to the resignation of one Tom Firr, a popular huntsman with the Quorn who was suffering with ill-health. The presentation was made at the kennels in Quorn. [4]               

The 1901 census returns show Alan Pennington aged 63, is living at Ragdale Hall with his wife Anna who is now aged 59, and with his niece. They have nine servants: Henry Ralph is the butler; Frederick Britt is the footman; Thomas Watson is the hall boy; Thomas Nibloe is the under-gardener; Mary Timms is the housekeeper; Emily Peel is the lady's maid; Emma Whittock (or Whitlock) is the scullery maid; Evelyn Bradbury is the kitchen maid, and Charlotte Asken is the house maid. The nearby groom's house is occupied by Austin Edmonds, the stud groom, his wife, Alice, and their baby son William, along with Walter Thompson the coachman, and the grooms, Edward Artis, William Harpham, and Charles Pollard. The nearby Ragdale Lodge is farmed by the Biddles family.      

Brother, Josslyn on the same census return is living with wife, Constance at St Martin-in-the-Fields. In November of 1901, Mrs Anna Pennington was actually connected to  Loughborough when some of her work was on show at the annual exhibition of the Leicestershire Ladies’ Needlework Guild, in the lecture room at the Town Hall, as had the Duchess of Somerset, Lady Crawshaw, Lady Percy St. Maur, Lady Alice Packe, Lady Agnes de Trafford and many others.

And finally, the connection with Loughborough is cemented!! According to the ‘Midland Mail’ of 12th July 1902, “the Hon. Alan Pennington has taken Burleigh Hall, Loughborough, a picturesquely situated seat...", and the move to Burleigh was certainly confirmed in the November issue of ‘The Sportsman’.

However, it seems that the Pennington’s still owned Ragdale Hall as Alan Pennington was eligible to vote on account of him occupying Ragdale. This was in 1903, when Alan was described as being one of the oldest Quornites, who hunts from the Loughborough side of the country, with Lord Crawshaw of Whatton Hall. Moving in certain circles, when the squire of Lockington’s son died in late December 1904, Alan and his wife Anna attended the funeral.        

In February 1905 Alan was elected a member of the Unionist Free Trade Club, a move which was approved at a meeting of its Executive Committee. During the following years, the Penningtons regularly take up residence at 14 Lowndes Square, something which is newsworthy so reported in the newspapers! And from 1906-1913, Alan Pennington was registered to vote on account of him occupying Burleigh Hall in Loughborough, Leicestershire. His coachman at Burleigh in 1907 was someone called James Bunker. Meanwhile, in 1909, brother Josslyn, Lord Muncaster, was appointed to the Colonelcy of the Border Regiment of the Territorial Forces. He has no children, so the title and estates will pass to Alan Pennington, if he should survive his brother.   

Also in 1909, Alan Pennington subscribed to a book which included an entry for both him and his wife. This was ‘British Hunts and Huntsmen’, which appeared in four volumes, and was published by the Biographical Press. Mrs Pennington was described as having 

“always hunted with the best packs in the Midlands, and is known as a straight rider to hounds and an accomplished horsewoman.” 

Alan Pennington was described thus:

“Early experiences in the hunting field were with the Holderness when a boy, and later in life he became Master of that pack, during the season 1877-78. Since the sixties he has been a regular follower of the Quorn, Cottesmore, Mr Tailby’s and the Belvoir, with the exception of a year in Ireland, which he devoted chiefly to the Meath and Kildare… Mr Pennington is a member of the Army and Navy Club, and resides at Burleigh Hall, Loughborough, Leicestershire, his town house being 14, Lowndes Square, S.W.”

We don’t hear much about Mrs Anna Pennington, although it is reported in the local newspapers that she regularly donates journals and other things to the local dispensary. However, we do learn from the Pennington’s activities, in this case sending a wreath to the funeral of Lady Mount-Edgcumbe, that they referred to themselves as ‘Alan and Annie of Burleigh Hall, Loughborough’.

The 1911 census returns show Alan Pennington now aged 73, and living at Burleigh Hall with wife Anna, now 69. Their visitors the night the census were Edith Henare Pilley aged 40, and John A. Cecil Pilley aged 42, who is a senior clerk in the Foreign Office. There are numerous servants: Charles Morrell, the butler; Herbert Howard the footman; Norah Webb, the cook; Elery Ferguson is the lady’s maid; Mabel Rasbough and Doris Dyston are the house maids; Margaret Dask is the kitchen maid; Mary Ellen Griffin is the stillroom maid, and Cecily Frost is the scullery maid. [NB These names are a little difficult to decipher, so they might be inaccurate].

1911 census returns

There are other properties on the Burleigh Estate, and these are listed separately on the 1911 census. Living at the Burleigh Lodge is Walter Maurice William Garrick with his family. Then there are two separate entries for the Burleigh Hall Stables, one listing the occupier as W. Henry Barrett, the other as Rowland George: both are grooms. In the Gardener's Cottage we find gardener George Pawlett, with his wife and young son, and also with gardener Fred Jarvis. The estate was a reasonably large one to manage, and many staff were needed to support the Pennington's. However, the coachman, Austin Edmonds, and his family - wife, Alice Edith, sons William (aged 10) and Leonard (aged 6), and daughters Ethel (aged 8) and Dorothy (aged 4) - were living at 42 Paget Street. Austin Edmonds had previously been living at Ragdale and working as the stud groom.

We return to Alan Pennington, who after residing at Burleigh Hall for just over 10 years, died on 14th June 1913. He was noted in documentation as being of Burleigh Hall in Loughborough, Leicestershire, but died at his town residence of 14 Lowndes Square. Probate was granted on 30 July 1913, to his widow Anna Eleonora (nee Hartopp), and Charles John Huskinson, solicitor, of Newark on Trent. Effects were £73,775 16s. 10d., which was resworn to £75,097 16s. 8d. It was reported in the ‘Melton Mowbray Mercury and Oakham and Uppingham News’ of 31 July 1913 that Alan Pennington bequeathed £500 to the Leicester Infirmary.

Alan Pennington was buried on 19th June 1913, in St James’ Church, Little Dalby, and inside the church is a bronze memorial tablet, which says:

 “In loving memory of Alan Joseph Pennington, 3rd son of the 3rd Lord Muncaster. Born April 5th 1837. Died June 14th 1913, aged 76, he served his Queen in the Royal Navy, in the Bellerophon at the Siege of Sebastopol and afterwards in the Rifle Brigade. His body rests in the adjoining churchyard. I know that my redeemer liveth.”

There is also a marble tablet on a slate backboard, on the north wall of the quire in St Michael’s Church in Muncaster (Ravenglass in the Lake District, close to Muncaster Castle), which reads:

“Sacred to the memory of Alan Joseph Pennington, 3rd son of Lowther Augustus Lord Muncaster, born 1837, died 1913. He served in the Navy at the Siege of Sebastopol, 1854, and afterwards in the Rifle Brigade.”

By August 1913, Mrs Anna Pennington had decided to leave Burleigh Hall, and was arranging a sale of furniture through German and German. The auction takes place on Tuesday 9th September and Wednesday 10th September in the King’s Head, where Mr Rayment provides tea and luncheon.

Up for auction were highly decorative antique and superior modern furnishing, including bedroom suites, carpets, Sheraton and Chippendale furniture, bedsteads, gilt mirrors, and much more, some of which is detailed in the advert below, from the Loughborough Echo of 5th September 1913:

Some of the items from Burleigh Hall for auction 1913

On 30th March 1917, Josslyn Frances, 5th Baron Muncaster died. Probate was granted to Sir John Frecheville Ramsden, baronet, and a relative of his mother’s. Rosslyn was listed as being of Muncaster Castle, Ravenglass, Carnford. Effects were £8,187 15s. 3d. He expressed a desire that whomever succeeded to Muncaster Castle, would take the Muncaster family surname of Pennington. As his brother, Alan had pre-deceased him, and neither of them had any children, it is not clear who Muncaster Castle passed to.

Only three months after the death of her husband, in July 1917, Constance A. Pennington, aged 77, wife of Josslyn Frances Pennington, died, the death being registered at Bootle. She had suffered a long illness. Bizarrely, her death happened on the day the will of her husband was proved.

On 13 July 1921, Gamel’s widow, died. She had re-married, between 1861 and 1871, such that in 1871 she was living with Hugh Barlow Lindsey on Albermarle Street, Mayfair, but died at Dinoin Portpatrick Wigtownshire. He was born in Calcutta and had retired from the Indian Civil Service, while she had been born in Motcombe, Dorset, and was styled Lady Lindsey.

On 5th December 1934 Anna Eleanor Pennington, wife of Alan, died. She was of 21 Princes Gardens, Middlesex. Probate was granted on 14 February to Henry Beauclerk Howe, and bank agent, and John Brownlow Norman, a solicitor. Effects were 34,968 3s. 2d. resworn to £33,543 6s. 3d.

As I said in Part 1, I do not know who inherited the estates left by the Pennington family, as there were no direct descendants. I do however know who took on Burleigh Hall after Mrs Pennington left, but that story is for another time!

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Notes

[1] Dalby Parva is today known as Little Dalby

[2] Cream Gorse is an area between Gaddesby and Great Dalby (once known as Dalby Magna)

[3] Thorpe Trussell is close to Thorpe Satchville

[4] You can read a detailed report of this presentation on the Quorn Village Museum website 

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2023). The Right Honourable Alan Joseph Pennington of Burleigh Hall, Loughborough Part 2. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2023/09/the-right-hon-alan-joseph-pennington-of.html  [Accessed 17 August 2023]

Take down policy:

I post no pictures that are not my own, unless I have express permission so to do. All text is my own, and not copied from any other information sources, printed or electronic, unless identified and credited as such. If you find I have posted something in contravention of these statements, or if there are photographs of you which you would prefer not to be here, please contact me at the address listed on the About Me page, and I will remove these.

Blog archive and tags:

If you are viewing this blog in mobile format, you will not be able to easily access the blog archive, or the clickable links to various topics. These can be accessed if you scroll to the bottom of the page, and click 'View Web Version'. Alternatively, there is also a complete list of posts, which when clicked will take you to the page you are interested in.

Searching the blog:

You can search the blog using the dedicated search box that appears near the top of the blog when viewed in the web version. Alternatively, you can search using your usual search engine (e.g. Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo etc.) by following this example:

site: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/ “Radmoor House”

NOTE – the words you’re actually looking for must be in “” and the first of these must be preceded by a space

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne