WEDDINGTON CASTLE - An Online History

CASTLE HISTORY - Part VI

Developing the Castle: 1800 – 1900AD

The nineteenth century was to prove a time of great change and development for England, and indeed the same can be said of Weddington Castle.

On a national level the Victorian Age was characterised by rapid change and developments in nearly every sphere - from advances in medical, scientific and technological knowledge to changes in population growth and location. Over time, this rapid transformation deeply affected the country's mood: an age that began with a confidence and optimism leading to economic boom and prosperity eventually gave way to uncertainty and doubt regarding Britain's place in the world.

Today we associate the nineteenth century with the Protestant work ethic, family values, religious observation and institutional faith. For the most part, nineteenth century families were large and patriarchal. They encouraged hard work, respectability, social deference and religious conformity. While this view of nineteenth century life was valid, it was increasingly challenged by contemporaries, with a marked emphasis on the wider role of women in society.

Politics were important to the Victorians; they believed in the perfection of their evolved representative government, and in exporting it throughout the British Empire. This age saw the birth and spread of political movements, most notably socialism, liberalism and organised feminism. British Victorians were excited by geographical exploration, by the opening up of Africa and Asia to the West, yet were troubled by the intractable Irish situation and humiliated by the failures of the Boer War. At sea, British supremacy remained largely unchallenged throughout the century.

During the Victorian heyday, work and play expanded dramatically. The national railway network stimulated travel and leisure opportunities for all, so that by the 1870s, visits to seaside resorts, race meetings and football matches could be enjoyed by many of this now largely urban society.

Life for the residents of Weddington, as has been seen in earlier sections, had already been irrevocably transformed from the peasant existence of its earliest incarnation as ‘Watitune’. The migration of workers in previous centuries, coupled with the booming silk trade in Nuneaton (which saw an almost 50% population rise in the early 1800s) meant that living patterns were changing, although at this time almost all the population of Weddington were still engaged in agriculture while others were servants (largely at Weddington Castle).  The census of 1841 shows a population of 77 here. With the collapse of the ribbon trade in the 1840’s local work patterns changed once again, with many workers migrating to the coal mines, brickyards and quarries. Coal had been mined locally since the fourteenth century, and by the 1860s and 1870s new mining techniques, together with the advent of the railways, boosted coal production in this area.

This building of railways and roads generated the need for good stone, of which Nuneaton also had plenty. The town was also blessed with beds of the finest brick clay in the country. Entrepreneurs took over old brick kilns, modernised them, and created the opportunity for their products to be shipped countrywide. Indeed an old brick kiln is referred to in records of the 1840s, just along from Weddington Grove.

Back at the start of the century however, developments at the Castle began in 1807 when its ownership was acquired by one Lionel Place, whose family originated from the Yorkshire area and were related to titled gentry. A report in December 1818 (when the Castle was offered sale for £30,000) reveals that Lionel Place paid £14,000 for the Castle and grounds and £12,000 for the surrounding farms. Lionel's investment in the Castle didn't end there however, and in 1809 he commissioned the well-known architect Robert Lugar to redesign the Castle, incorporating the old house and making it castellated. The Castle was transformed into a stone-faced building, possibly using Attleborough sandstone, of a similar nature to Arbury Hall. This transformation was achieved by encapsulating the Elizabethan Hall, which dated back to about 1600, within a decorative stone façade. The North and South Lodges may have been built at this time or modified from earlier buildings, and were designed in the Picturesque and Cottage Orne architectural styles which developed in the 1790s. The Castle grounds were also landscaped at this time, possibly by a disciple or assistant of Lancelot 'Capability' Brown and a map from 1811 shows ornamental lakes and a boating river course. Robert Lugar, in a work from 1811, describes the Castle and grounds thus:

"THIS house stands in an extensive space of grounds, or sheep-fed lawn, presenting a park like appearance, on the slope of a hill. The principal rooms command a flower-garden, drest ground, and plantations; and beyond are some rich meadows, and a river with a fine rise of ground, enlivened by cultivation, and a considerable wood with a varied pleasing line of country. The house is sheltered by some fine trees, and the towers are seen at a distance rising above them with good effect...

...the old front [was] altered by making an entrance porch and square tower, carried up to shorten the length of the roofs, and to give character with more accommodation. The south end, also, is carried up to obtain two family bed-rooms, as well as to give more feature. The subordinate buildings are chiefly conveniences to the kitchen: these, together with the gateway, which is the entrance to the stable court, are entirely new. The improvement of the grounds has been effected under Mr. Place's direction who has, by judiciously planting, removing hedges, and altering the roads, produced the most beneficial, as well as pleasing advantages to the demesne."

Around 1816 The Grove and Grove cottages were built. The Grove - a large residential house - was subsequently occupied by Isaac Swinnerton, a sawmill owner who became the overseer of the Weddington estate. The relationship between Mr Swinnerton and Mr Place appears to have had its ups and downs however, and records for April of 1817 detail Place indicting Swinnerton for "carrying soil from off the road (Derby Lane)" (Mr Swinnerton won the case). Lionel Place seems to have been no stranger to the courts, and on the 19th August of the same year:

"An adjourned petty sessions was held at Weddington Hall to inspect Roads lately indicted by Rev. Heming and others. Several of the principal people of Nuneaton attended and stated to the magistrates where the bridge formerly stood and where the road went".

Subsequent to - and presumably as a result of - this meeting a bridge across the River Anker (Weddington Meadows Bridge) leading from the top of Abbey Street to Weddington was erected and ground raised at Lionel Place's expense on the 2nd January 1818. It was later this year that Place offered the Estate for £30,000, although in the event he only sold a 196 acre farm at Weddington for £13,000.

Despite further run-ins with the court (most notably in October of 1818, when he "kicked the posterior of a labourer (Davis) with such force (and the man being ruptured) he was so affected that his life was for some time in imminent danger"), Lionel Place was elected Sheriff of Warwickshire in 1826.

By 1826, gardening duties at the Castle were the responsibility of one William Seymour, who in a letter to "The Gardener's Magazine and Register of Rural & Domestic Improvement" dated January 21st 1826, describes himself as Gardener to Lionel Place, Esq., Weddington (click here to view a PDF of the letter).

A 'Martin Leggatt' is also noted as being a resident of Weddington Hall in 1827 (according to the book: "Records of the Woodmen of Arden from 1785" which detailed members of the historic 'Woodmen of Arden' archery club, based at nearby Meriden).

Mr Place died, aged 72, in 1838 and was buried at St. James' Church, Weddington, with the estate passing to his wife, Sophie. For the next few years Isaac Swinnerton continued to develop the Grove, building a brick wall by the road side of Derby Lane (later to be known as Weddington Road) in 1836, and Weddington continued to expand. By 1841 the population was 77, living in 11 households, with records showing John Arnold as residing at the Lodge and a James Ward as being a servant at the Castle. A nearby isolated bungalow cottage, located by the old brick kiln along from the Grove, was inhabited by a Mr Woolley during the 1840s.

We know from records that, on the 7th August 1843 an auction was held at the Castle by the auctioneers William Pullin, at which furniture, library contents and paintings were sold off. The sale catalogue lists the sumptuous trappings of a very wealthy family, including several paintings by Turner, Moreland, Molinaer and Towns, as well as a well stocked library of 509 books and manuscripts and 129 antiquarian books printed before the first half of the 18th century. In 1845 Sophie Place was officially noted as land owner in the tithe apportionment for the Weddington estate although the actual succession of ownership and occupation of the Castle and Manor becomes rather complex from this point revolving largely around the Bracebridge, Hall, Heming and Kay families. These associations in various ways served to engender close links between Lindley, Caldecote and Weddington, all of whom had impressive Halls at the time. In 1845 the New Incumbent was named as the Reverend S.B. Henry; and John Atkin, Joseph Robottom and Robert Swinnerton are recorded as farming the area.

In 1849 Reverend Heming became the Lord of the Manor until his death in 1856, with the lawyer Henry Dewes of Weddington Castle apparently making extensive repairs there in 1850. By 1852 however, a William Henry Cooper, (1820-1906) a clergyman, occupied the Hall. William Cooper later became rector of Deeping St. James in Lincolnshire. Robert Swinnerton is recorded as living at the Grove at this time. In 1857 the Place family papers are recorded as containing a dated parchment instructing that Weddington Castle and Estate be disposed of. The situation of Sophie Place is unclear here, although there is no doubt that this sale signified the end of an era for the Castle. That same year Isaac Swinnerton died aged 85, and was buried at St. James' Church.

The Castle was then bought by Henry Kay, although William Cooper  from Peckleton in Leicestershire(described in 1861 as a 'Clerk Without Care Of Souls', and in 1865 as a 'Clerk Without Lands') continued to live there. Despite effectively being a tenant, it appears from the 1861 census that Mr. Cooper kept a full household staff befitting such an establishment: including a nurse, 2 laundry maids, 2 housemaids, a ladysmaid, a kitchenmaid, a footman, 2 gardeners and a coachman. Full details of the Castle's inhabitants from the 1861 census can be found here.

The owner Mr. Kay was a cotton and silk merchant from Manchester. Records of 1861 detail a rise in the Weddington population to 74 (from an ebb of 51 ten years previous), this is possibly due to the earlier demise of the silk trade, following by the boom in mining and quarrying in the area. In 1865, Henry Kay died at the age of 65 and was buried at St. James' Church. In 1866 the Castle passed to Henry's son, Frederick Henry Jewell Kay, who was 21 at the time, whilst Henry's widow, Elizabeth Kay continued to live at the Castle until her death, aged 61, in 1871. When Mr. Kay junior married the next year the marriage was said to be the biggest event in Nuneaton for many years with the streets festooned with flags, evergreens, buntings and triumphal arches. Sadly, records appear to show that Frederick's wife died in childbirth (the premature son, also, was stillborn) in 1874**.

The following year the Reverend Richard Samuel Bracebridge Heming Hall was named as the New Incumbent. In 1873 Robert Swinnerton died aged 60, and was buried at St. James' Church. His widow, Sarah Swinnerton continued to live at the Grove, whilst a George William Taylor took over Lower Farm and occupied the Grove Cottages. The same year Frederick H J Kay had the Castle (and a surrounding acreage of 122a 1r 1p) valued for £401.9s and auctioned off many if its contents (see Appendix I for details) – obviously with a view to selling it, as the Castle was sold to the Shawe family, namely Henry Cunliffe Shawe, on 25th March 1874.

Henry Cunliffe Shawe was active in the local community and in 1865, he inserted three windows in the nave of St. James' Church. He also paid for reconstruction work on the church in 1881. A new organ was installed in 1882, and the following year a stained glass window inserted as a memorial to two of Mr. Shawe’s children. During both Mr. Kay and Mr. Shawe’s ownership the Castle and its pleasure gardens were well known for local fetes and garden parties. The influence of the Shawe’s can still be seen today, and one of the principal roads of Weddington is named ‘Shawe Avenue’ (and indeed the first house in this avenue has the original crest from the Castle incorporated into its frontage to this day).

Shawe was married to Georgina Wilmot Shawe - the daughter of Sir William Nigel Gresley, of Netherseal Hall, Leicestershire - and had two sons (Henry Nigel Pole Shawe and Charles Shawe, an army captain) and two daughters - Edith Mary Shawe (who married Colonel Francis Capel Manley) and Eleanor Grace Shawe (who married Lt. Colonel Egerton Stanley Pipe Wolferston of the 1st Battalion, S. Staffs Regiment). In 1889 Henry Shawe added Lower Farm to the Estate, purchasing it from Ebenezer Brown for £3,900. In 1891 a census was carried out which showed the Weddington population as 100 (up from 81 the previous decade). Inhabitants detailed include Henry Cunliffe Shawe at the Castle, Alfred French at the Grove, Charles Pendry at Gardener's Cottage, Henry Badger at the Lodge and David Blythe at the Wardens. In 1901's census, we see that there were eight servants at the Castle, including a butler, Robert Thompson. The Grove boasted eight servants also, along with its own butler, Peter Fleming.

Little of note appears to have occurred for the next two decades, although a feature of Weddington at the time was the annual flower festival held in the Hall grounds. This was attended by thousands of Nuneaton townspeople. and must have been a wonderful event with all the stalls of colourful flowers set out in the landscaped gardens of the Hall, with its specimen trees and extensive shrubberies. More generally, the construction of the Nuneaton-Ashby Joint Railway would have inevitably changed the layout of the local footpaths and fields - as well as bringing increased work and workers to the area. Indeed, the Nuneaton district’s population grew again at the end of the nineteenth century from about 10,000 people in 1880 to about 30,000 in 1920 – a boom that, as we will see, was to have dire consequences for Weddington Castle itself in the following century...

* picture above is of the Nuneaton Market Place in 1881 taken from 'The Graphic Illustrated' of the same year.

** "Bedworth Guardian & Warks Miners' Saturday Evening Journal 1874" entry dated 19/12/1874.