A Short History of Maxstoke Castle

CHAPTER 7:    THE FETHERSTON-DILKE FAMILY (1940-PRESENT)

In 1940, the Castle was taken over by the Ministry of Aircraft Production and used for storage of aircraft engine components made in Coventry which might otherwise have been destroyed by bombing. The Castle remained in their hands until January 1946 and later that year Beaumont and Stella returned to their former home. They were met by a scene of dirt, disorder and dilapidation both inside and outside the house. The grounds and garden had been totally neglected and a prisoner-of-war camp, established in 1940, still remained in the park. The compensation awarded by the Government for the damage to the house sufficed to redecorate one room.

By this time, Beaumont was 71 years of age and Stella sixty-two. The rehabilitation of the Castle was a slow process but, within the limitations imposed by their age and the difficulties of the post-war period, they had to adapt to the conditions of the time which were very different from those of the 1930s - particularly as regarded the number of staff employed.

Beaumont had been elected to the Leamington Spa Borough Council in 1936 and, in 1937, to the Warwickshire County Council. In 1945 and 1950, he served as Mayor of Leamington Spa. In 1953, Maxstoke received a further Royal visit from Her Majesty Queen Louise of Sweden, who was staying privately in England. She planted a sycamore tree on the north lawn outside the Castle.

All four of Beaumont and Stella's children served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War. Charles had entered the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth in 1935, Mary joined Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing Service in 1942, Kitty served in the Women's Royal Naval Service and Timothy went to sea in 1943. On leaving the Royal Navy, Timothy joined H.M. Coastguard becoming HM Chief Coastguard; on his retirement in 1986, he was awarded the C.B.E.

In turn, Mary reached the highest rank in her profession - that of Matron-in-Chief of Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing Service and was awarded the C.B.E. and R.R.C. for her services.

In 1943, Charles (III) married Pauline, younger daughter of Major Horatio Stanley Williams, D.S.O. They have two children, Anne (1945-) and Michael (1948-).

The park, which for many years had provided grazing, was leased to Maxstoke Park Golf Club (formerly Castle Bromwich Golf Club) in 1946. Initially they used the stables as their clubhouse but, in 1969, construction was started on a purpose-built building in the field which had been the site of the prisoner of war camp.

Beaumont (II) died at Maxstoke in 1968, at the age of 92, and Stella survived him by only 9 months and died two days after her son, Charles (III) retired from the Royal Navy and took over the Castle to which she had devoted so much care and affection. In this she might be said to have followed the example of Louisa Dilke 120 previously. She and Beaumont were both buried at Shustoke where most of the Dilkes lie.

On inheriting Maxstoke, Charles (III) retired at his own request in the rank of Captain. He had served throughout the Second World War and in the Korean War and had commanded Her Majesty's ships afloat and ashore. He settled at Maxstoke and he and his wife, Pauline, embarked on a major programme of restoration of the whole Castle and its contents. This lasted ten years and was carried out despite the very heavy death duties which were levied on Beaumont (II)'s estate.

In 1971-72, the moat was dredged for the first time for around 150 years. Some 200,000 tons of mud were removed and spread in the park and adjoining fields. No objects of great value were recovered; the main items of interest consisted of accumulated kitchen rubbish which had been consigned to the moat on the west side since the early 19th century.

In the park, a new wood (the Captain's Wood) was planted along the north boundary and, in 1984, a further plantation was established in the big meadow to the north of the Castle.

On his retirement from the Royal Navy, Charles (III) was appointed a Justice of the Peace and, in 1970, was elected to the Warwickshire County Council. He served as High Sheriff Warwickshire in 1974 - the first naval officer to do so since Thomas Dilke (V) in 1848 - and, in the following year, was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant in the county. In 1978, he was elected chairman of the County Council. After 47 years in the public service, afloat and ashore, he did not stand for re-election in 1981 and devoted his time to farming land around the Castle and to a number of charitable organisations. He served as Vice Lord Lieutenant of Warwickshire to Viscount Daventry from 1990 - 1996.

Charles (III)'s daughter, Anne, was married in 1964 to Captain Jeremy Hopcraft of the 22nd (Cheshire) Regiment and had two children, Charlotte (1966-) and Rupert (1968-). Her husband died in 9175 and, in 1980, she married Colonel Antony Griffiths, T.D., A.D.C., J.P., D.L. of Sutton Coldfield.

Michael, a chartered accountant, has pursued a career in industry and commerce; for some years he was with the BET group of companies and travelled extensively abroad and now has a range of business interests in the Midlands. In 1983, he married Rosemary, elder daughter of Michael Keith of Hoe Hall, Norfolk; he have two sons, George (1985-) and Edward (1986-) and a daughter, Sarah (1989-). In 1999, Michael was sworn in before Mr Justice Owen as High Sheriff of Warwickshire, exactly 25 years since his father had occupied this appointment.

In 1989, after more than twenty years living in and caring for the Castle, Charles (III) and his wife moved from the Castle to a house in the park. Michael and Rosemary thereupon undertook a programme of restoration and alteration to suit the living quarters of the Castle to a young family in the last part of the 20th century. In so doing, they made a number of internal structural alterations, the most important of which was to remove the main staircase installed when the alterations were carried out by Louisa Dilke early in the 19th century. A new main staircase was built, made of English oak, and fitted almost exactly where the original stone staircase had been along the west wall, following the line of the Gothic window which is such a feature of the west aspect of the house.

In the Castle grounds, the swimming pool built by the country club, which had occupied the Castle and grounds during the 1930s, was filled in and the process begun of creating a formal garden in this area.

In 1990, Michael and Rosemary moved with their family into the Castle, thereby continuing the pattern of family ownership and occupation of Maxstoke which has been its hallmark for so long - and of which the Dilke and Fetherston-Dilke families have been part for nearly 400 years.