![Ashton Gifford 056](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/Ashton_Gifford_056.jpg)
Ashton Gifford House is a
Grade II listed
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
country house
An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...
in the
hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...
of Ashton Gifford, part of the
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...
of
Codford
Codford is a civil parish south of Salisbury Plain in the Wylye Valley in Wiltshire, England. Its settlements are the adjacent villages of Codford St Peter and Codford St Mary, which lie some southeast of Warminster.
The two villages are on th ...
in the English county of
Wiltshire
Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...
. The house was built during the early 19th century, following the precepts of
Georgian architecture
Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1714 and 1830. It is named after the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I, George II, Georg ...
, and its estate eventually included all of the hamlet or
tithing
A tithing or tything was a historic English legal, administrative or territorial unit, originally ten hides (and hence, one tenth of a hundred). Tithings later came to be seen as subdivisions of a manor or civil parish. The tithing's leader or s ...
of Ashton Gifford. The house sits in the
Wylye valley, part of the
Cranborne Chase
Cranborne Chase () is an area of central southern England, straddling the counties Dorset, Hampshire and Wiltshire. It is part of the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).
The area is dominated by, ...
Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; , AHNE) is an area of countryside in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, that has been designated for conservation due to its significant landscape value. Areas are designated in recognition of thei ...
.
Early history
Ashton Gifford is recorded in the 1086
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...
, listed as land belonging to Humphrey de l'Isle. The land was held by Robert, previously (under King Edward) having been held by Cynewig. Ashton Gifford was a relatively prosperous estate, valued at six pounds (from four pounds in 1066). The estate consisted of of meadow, and pasture "6 furlongs long and as much broad".
The site of the
Anglo Saxon
The Anglo-Saxons were a cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo-Saxons happened wit ...
settlement can be seen in the field to the south of the current Ashton Gifford House, where different patches of colour in the earth indicate the sites of Anglo Saxon houses.
There is reference to the manor being known as Ashton Dunstanville in the late 14th century.
The 1773 version of Andrews' and Dury's map of Wiltshire refers to Ashton Gifford as "Isherton". The map shows around eleven houses forming the tything or hamlet of Ashton Gifford.
["Codford: Wool and War in Wiltshire", John Chandler, Phillimore 2007"]
Enclosure
![AGH Ridge view](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/AGH_Ridge_view.jpg)
An Act of
Enclosure
Enclosure or Inclosure is a term, used in English landownership, that refers to the appropriation of "waste" or " common land" enclosing it and by doing so depriving commoners of their rights of access and privilege. Agreements to enclose land ...
was passed for the "Tything of Ashton Gifford, in the Parish of Codford Saint Peter" on 27 May 1814. This allowed for the enclosure of lands in the hamlet, naming William Hubbard Esq., William Hinton Esq., and Sarah Bingham, Spinster as the owners under the
Lord of the Manor
Lord of the Manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England, referred to the landholder of a rural estate. The lord enjoyed manorial rights (the rights to establish and occupy a residence, known as the manor house and demesne) as well as seig ...
of Codford St Peter (Harry Biggs Esq.). Three "gentlemen" were appointed Commissioners for the enclosure: John Hayward of
Rowde
Rowde () is a village and civil parish in the English county of Wiltshire, on the A342 about northwest of Devizes. The parish includes the hamlet of Tanis.
History
The village now mainly consists of modern brick-built houses, but a number of 1 ...
, John Rogers of
Burcombe
Burcombe is a village in the civil parish of Burcombe Without, in Wiltshire, England. The village is about west of Salisbury city centre and lies each side of an unclassified road. Burcombe is an unspoiled village with many of the houses' garde ...
and Ambrose Patient of Corton. The Commissioners were instructed to meet at "a certain House called the ''George Inn'' in
Codford
Codford is a civil parish south of Salisbury Plain in the Wylye Valley in Wiltshire, England. Its settlements are the adjacent villages of Codford St Peter and Codford St Mary, which lie some southeast of Warminster.
The two villages are on th ...
Saint Peter aforesaid". The George still exists, as the ''George Hotel'', in Codford High Street, though it was rebuilt in the later 19th century.
Construction
![AshtonGiffordfront](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/AshtonGiffordfront.jpg)
The main house appears to have been built in two principal stages. The central part, of three storeys, has thick walls which were constructed as external walls and which now lie in between the central portion and the east and west wings of the property. It is surmised that this part of the property was constructed some time around 1806 by Benjamin Rebbeck, a local landowner who had purchased the property (including around of land) from the estate of the
Earl of Shrewsbury
Earl of Shrewsbury () is a hereditary title of nobility created twice in the Peerage of England. The second earldom dates to 1442. The holder of the Earldom of Shrewsbury also holds the title of Earl of Waterford (1446) in the Peerage of Ireland ...
.
Rebbeck lost the house to the mortgage holder in 1815 as a result of his spiralling debts, for which he was imprisoned in 1818, and the mortgage holder, William Hubbard, who is mentioned in the enclosure of Ashton Gifford, took possession of the house and added the two ashlar wings.
William Hubbard appears to have been resident by May 1817 (at the latest). Hubbard also increased the size of the estate, to around .
The
walled garden
A walled garden is a garden enclosed by high walls, especially when this is done for horticultural rather than security purposes, although originally all gardens may have been enclosed for protection from animal or human intruders. In temperate c ...
, which appears to have been constructed around this time, and which is still a part of the property, lies to the west of the current house. It has been described as the largest in the county (at 1.3 acres). It was in active use as a vegetable garden as recently as the 1980s, when the house was a school (see below).
In the 19th century significant modifications to the property were undertaken. The owners added a service wing to the western side of the house, running from the original Georgian structure towards the
walled garden
A walled garden is a garden enclosed by high walls, especially when this is done for horticultural rather than security purposes, although originally all gardens may have been enclosed for protection from animal or human intruders. In temperate c ...
. This wing contained the kitchens for the house (two in number), two dairies, pantries and store rooms, and servants' accommodation.
[Auction brochure, Ashton Gifford House, Constable and Maude (of London), for a ]public auction
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...
held on 20 November 1929 This wing was damaged by fire in the 1950s, and demolished in the early 1970s. The westernmost portion of the wing remains, and is now in use as garages.
The railway line linking
Salisbury and Warminster, running to the south of the house, was opened on 30 June 1856 and
Codford station close to the West Lodge (also known as Thatched Lodge or Station Lodge) provided rapid transport links for the Ashton Gifford Estate.
Architecture
English Heritage
English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses.
The charity states that i ...
, in their Images of England section describe the property as having a limestone
ashlar
Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...
front with side walls of brick. The property is three-storied, with a three-window central block breaking forward and two-storey same-height side-bays. The main entrance is a
distyle in antis
In classical architecture, distyle in antis denotes a temple with the side walls extending to the front of the porch and terminating with two antae, the pediment being supported by two pilasters or sometimes caryatids. This is the earliest type of ...
Tuscan portico
A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...
to the centre with inserted double half-glazed doors and flanking tripartite sashes, an inner main door with six fielded panels,
fanlight
A fanlight is a form of lunette window, often semicircular or semi-elliptical in shape, with glazing bars or tracery sets radiating out like an open fan. It is placed over another window or a doorway, and is sometimes hinged to a transom. Th ...
s and flanking margin-pane round-arched sashes with interlaced glazing bars. The ground floor of the centre block has
rusticated stonework. The first floor has three nine-pane sashes, and the second floor has a plat band and three six-pane sashes. The two-storey side-bays have eight-pane margin sashes and a plat band. At roof level there is a moulded
cornice
In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...
to the plain stone
parapet
A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Whe ...
, with 20th-century pineapple decorations.
At the rear of the property there are two central bays which break forward with 12-pane sashes to ground floor, nine-pane to first and six-pane sashes to second floor, while the side-bays have eight-pane margin sashes to ground and first floors. The interior features of the property that are highlighted by English Heritage include the central entrance hall with an oval open-well staircase (which has a continuous handrail and cast-iron
baluster
A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its cons ...
s). Also noted are the presence of period doors, of six-panelled design, in panelled
reveals and moulded
architrave
In classical architecture, an architrave (; from it, architrave "chief beam", also called an epistyle; from Greek ἐπίστυλον ''epistylon'' "door frame") is the lintel or beam that rests on the capitals of columns.
The term can ...
s, and the period window shutters. On the ground floor, the drawing room has a scrolled plaster ceiling margin and a fireplace, which are singled out for special mention.
The house is mentioned in
Pevsner's Wiltshire edition, referencing the staircase and Tuscan columns to the porch.
Nineteenth century
William Hubbard, having completed the building of Ashton Gifford House (also known as Ashton House) sometime between 1815 and 1824, had occupied it by 1817 and remained in residence until his death in 1831. One Henry Hubbard is recorded as having obtained a game licence at Ashton Gifford in 1817 and in 1825. William Hubbard married three times. First, to Margaret Wilkinson in St.Petersburg by whom he had three children: Henry, Jane, and William. Second, to Grace Powditch (in London), by whom he had three further children: Grace, Susannah and Elizabeth. Third to Jane Turner Ingram, with whom he lived at Ashton Gifford; there were no children from this marriage. William's brother was John Hubbard, of Forest House,
Leyton
Leyton () is a town in east London, England, within the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It borders Walthamstow to the north, Leytonstone to the east, and Stratford to the south, with Clapton, Hackney Wick and Homerton, across the River L ...
. Around 10 of the old village houses were still standing in 1817, but these had been removed by 1839. The only original village building to be retained was a 17th-century cottage, which became the western (or Station) lodge house, now known as Ashton Cottage.
After Hubbard died in 1831, the trustees of his estate sold the property in 1834 to James Raxworthy. The house was then sold to Wadham Locke in 1836, who at the time of the 1841 census was living at Ashton Gifford House with his wife Caroline and daughter Charlotte. The estate at this stage amounted to some . In 1844 Locke married for a second time (Caroline having died in 1842). His new wife, Albinia, was the daughter of the landowner John Dalton (of Keningford Hall,
Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...
and
Fillingham Castle, Lincolnshire). Locke was formerly an officer in the first
Dragoon Guards, and went on to become
High Sheriff of Wiltshire
This is a list of the Sheriffs and (after 1 April 1974) High Sheriffs of Wiltshire.
Until the 14th century, the shrievalty was held ''ex officio'' by the castellans of Old Sarum Castle.
On 1 April 1974, under the provisions of the Local Gov ...
in 1847 (he was occasionally described as being of "Ashton Giffard", the alternative spelling of the locale). He was a huntsman, purchasing a "famed" pack of foxhounds known as the Headington Harriers for "two seasons" from a Mr Jem Morrell, before selling them to
Sir John Cam Hobhouse (later Lord Broughton). An account of hare coursing on the Ashton Gifford estate is given in the Sporting Review of 1840. Locke's father, also
Wadham Locke
Wadham Locke (1779–1835) was an English banker and politician.
Life
Locke was born at Brownston House, Devizes, Wiltshire, the only son of Wadham Locke II and his wife Anne Sutton, daughter of James Sutton. He was High Sheriff of Wiltshire in ...
(of Rowde Ford House), had been High Sheriff in 1804 and was Member of Parliament for
Devizes
Devizes is a market town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. It developed around Devizes Castle, an 11th-century Norman architecture, Norman castle, and received a charter in 1141. The castle was besieged during the Anarchy, a 12th-century ...
in 1832. Wadham Locke I was the senior partner in the banking company of Locke, Hughes and Co of Devizes. Wadham Locke II's youngest sister (Wadham Locke I's youngest daughter) became
Frances Isabella Duberly, who achieved notoriety for her presence with the army at the front line of the
Crimean War
The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia.
Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...
. After her mother's death in 1838, she had lived with her brother at Ashton Gifford, until her marriage in 1845. Locke apparently collected stuffed birds, amasing almost a thousand British and foreign specimens kept in glass cases.
Wadham Locke paid for the construction of the village school at Codford St Peter, and subsequently supported it financially.
![AGH in natural landscape setting](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/AGH_in_natural_landscape_setting.jpg)
The Ravenhill family occupied Ashton Gifford House (sometimes known as Ashton House at this time) from 1850 until the 1870s.
John Ravenhill was a banker, the Chairman of the North Wiltshire Banking Company. As a
Warminster
Warminster () is an ancient market town with a nearby garrison, and civil parish in south west Wiltshire, England, on the western edge of Salisbury Plain. The parish had a population of about 17,000 in 2011. The 11th-century Minster Church of S ...
magistrate he had read the
Riot Act
The Riot Act (1 Geo.1 St.2 c.5), sometimes called the Riot Act 1714 or the Riot Act 1715, was an act of the Parliament of Great Britain which authorised local authorities to declare any group of 12 or more people to be unlawfully assembled and o ...
at
Hindon during the riots of 1830 (this was before he took possession of Ashton Gifford). He served as the first Chairman of the Warminster Board of Guardians and was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the 10th company, Wiltshire Volunteer Rifle Corps at the end of May 1860. He was also a member of the
Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society
The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society was founded in 1853, and is one of the largest county-based archaeological societies in the United Kingdom. It runs the Wiltshire Museum in Devizes, Wiltshire which has the best Bronze Age ...
. John Ravenhill was
Deputy Lieutenant of Wiltshire, and (in 1870)
High Sheriff of Wiltshire
This is a list of the Sheriffs and (after 1 April 1974) High Sheriffs of Wiltshire.
Until the 14th century, the shrievalty was held ''ex officio'' by the castellans of Old Sarum Castle.
On 1 April 1974, under the provisions of the Local Gov ...
. Ravenhill became friends with his neighbour
Prince Leopold and Prince Leopold's wife the
Duchess of Albany. The Duchess helped John Ravenhill's granddaughter
Alice Ravenhill in her career.
John Ravenhill's eldest son, John Richard Ravenhill (1824–1894) was an engineer in the firm of Miller, Ravenhill and Co (Richard Ravenhill, brother of John Ravenhill of Ashton Gifford, was a founding partner). The second son became Major General
Philip Ravenhill
Major General Philip Ravenhill (9 February 1828 – 24 February 1891) was a Royal Engineer who rose to be their commander in Gibraltar.
Life
Ravenhill was born at the Manor House in Warminster in 1828, the second son of John Ravenhill and Sophia ...
who was the Commanding Royal Engineer in
Gibraltar
)
, anthem = " God Save the King"
, song = " Gibraltar Anthem"
, image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg
, map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe
, map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green
, mapsize =
, image_map2 = Gib ...
. The third son was the Reverend Canon Henry Everett Ravenhill (died 1913). The fifth son, William Waldon Ravenhill, was a lawyer (called to the bar in April 1862). The family were actively involved in the Codford St Peter School, with John Ravenhill providing much of the funding. An annual school fete took place, at which students from the "Sunday, National, and Night" schools were entertained (on the lawn, not in the house) and provided with tea and cake. John Ravenhill died in 1878, apparently having moved out of the house to London some time before his death
In the 1881 the house was occupied by George Clement, a race horse trainer, along with his family. Clement had achieved the notable success of the "autumn double" in 1876, when his horse "Rosebery" won the Cambridgeshire and
Cesarewitch Handicap
The Cesarewitch Handicap is a flat handicap horse race in Great Britain open to horses aged three years or older. It is run at Newmarket over a distance of 2 miles and 2 furlongs (3,621 metres ...
s (the first of only three occasions when this has happened). However Clement appears to have been a tenant of John Richard Ravenhill, the engineer and eldest son of John Ravenhill.
By 1882 the house was sold by John Richard Ravenhill to Thomas King Harding, a farmer, who occupied the house until his death in 1916.
The establishment was somewhat reduced under Harding. While the Ravenhills had run the house with six indoor servants (in addition to the gardening, coach and farm staff), Harding had only three servants in the house.
In 1886 the head gardener at Ashton Gifford, William Henry Line, was charged with unlawfully destroying plants in the walled garden, and fined five pounds on being found guilty by the Warminster police court presided over by the Marquis of Bath. A newspaper article of the trial gives a sense of the productivity of the walled garden: "Unripe cucumbers had been cut, the onion bed had been knocked about, fruit had been knocked off the trees and the trees pulled from the wall, strawberry plants pulled up and chrysanthemum plants in pots destroyed". The trial described the garden as having a wall of seven or eight feet in height, enclosing roughly an acre, with three locked gates into the garden. The wall was (and still is) capped with stone. The prosecution noted that the moss covering the stone had not been disturbed, in arguing that no one had scaled the wall from outside. Alongside the chrysanthemums (fifty six in number), strawberry plants (fifty) and damaged fruit trees (fifteen plum and one pear), the trial mentioned vines (with Harding unhappy about the way Line had maintained them), potatoes, celery, and onions. Line was convicted on the basis of the footprints in the garden, which matched his boots.
In 1908 the Australian publication ''The Pastoralists' Review'' included an article about Harding and Ashton Gifford House. The correspondent reported:
![The Pastoralists' Review 15 Aug 1908 picture 3](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ad/The_Pastoralists%27_Review_15_Aug_1908_picture_3.jpg)
''At Ashton Gifford House, Mr. Harding’s home, one could hear the chimes or bells of eight churches, all within a radius of five miles. My host
ardingis one of the best-known men in Wiltshire. He is eighty-three years of age and still hunts twice a week in the season. He farms 900 acres and keeps some very beautiful Devon cattle round the house, his deer he calls them. The river Wylye runs through his property. This, with numerous springs, gives a fine supply of water in all directions, good fishing can be had in any creek on the place. The copper beeches and other trees make it a most lovely spot.''
The same publication reported on Harding's birthday and a meeting of the local foxhunt at Ashton Gifford, two years later:
''A glorious and typical morning signalised the meet of the South and West Wilts Foxhounds at Ashton Gifford House last December, where they went at the invitation of Mr. T. K. Harding, and in honour of that esteemed gentleman's celebration of his eighty-sixth birthday. The ground was crisp in the grip of early winter, and the sun shone brightly as the various ladies and gentlemen taking part in the proceedings arrived in the picturesque grounds surrounding Mr. Harding's residence.''
Sale of 1920
The "Ashton Gifford Estate" was put up for sale by auction in 1920, on the "order of Captain H. N. Fane". Rawlence and Squarey were the auctioneers, and the auction took place at the White Hart Hotel,
Salisbury
Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath.
Salisbury is in the southeast of Wil ...
on 1 June. Fane had purchased the property on the death of Harding in 1916.
The house was described at this time as having sixteen bedrooms and dressing rooms and "the usual offices". The dining room (now kitchen) and drawing room did not have the French doors to the south terrace that they currently have. The estate included a
bailiff
A bailiff (from Middle English baillif, Old French ''baillis'', ''bail'' "custody") is a manager, overseer or custodian – a legal officer to whom some degree of authority or jurisdiction is given. Bailiffs are of various kinds and their offi ...
's house, two lodges and two additional cottages and was described as an attractive gentleman's residence.
The estate, of , included the home farm, which was described as "grass and meadowland, lying in a ring fence". The proximity of station (on the
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...
line) and the post and telegraph office are highlighted in the advertisement for sale.
From at least 1926 the house was occupied by Mrs Broughton Hawley. In 1928 the house was bought by a local farmer, Mr Dowding (of Smallbrook Farm, Warminster) who had speculated in property in the past for £3,100. He sold at a loss.
The 1930s and Lord Headley
By 1929 the house and land were auctioned by again, this time by Constable and Maude of London.
The agents had attempted to sell the property beforehand, offering the house and land at £4,500 before going to auction "at a low reserve". The property was described as a "Residential and Sporting Estate", and at the time comprised of park land. There was an ornamental lake, woodland, parkland and pasture, and a variety of estate buildings. The auction lot included stabling and garages (in the two former coach houses, which were advertised as accommodating up to six cars). There were also two lodge buildings: a main entrance lodge to the north east of the property (on the Codford High Street), and a "Station Lodge" with a
thatched roof
Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge (''Cladium mariscus''), rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of ...
at the end of the south west drive, near the (no longer extant)
Codford station. The station was in fact part of the Ashton Gifford hamlet, some way to the south of
Codford
Codford is a civil parish south of Salisbury Plain in the Wylye Valley in Wiltshire, England. Its settlements are the adjacent villages of Codford St Peter and Codford St Mary, which lie some southeast of Warminster.
The two villages are on th ...
village.
The estate was advertised as possessing a wide range of farm buildings, and a
bailiff
A bailiff (from Middle English baillif, Old French ''baillis'', ''bail'' "custody") is a manager, overseer or custodian – a legal officer to whom some degree of authority or jurisdiction is given. Bailiffs are of various kinds and their offi ...
's farm house. The bailiff's accommodation was substantial, with three reception rooms in addition to the kitchen.
Ashton Gifford House itself was described as having twelve bedrooms and dressing rooms – though there was only one bathroom servicing the main house (on the first floor) with a ground floor "Gentleman's W.C.". There were separate (outside) facilities for the servants. On the ground floor of the property, along with the "Gentleman's W.C.", there was an entrance hall, dining room, library, and two sitting rooms. At this time the external front door to the house was positioned in the most easterly of the three bays of the entrance portico. The doorway was subsequently repositioned in the central bay, restoring the symmetrical appearance of the front of the house. The Georgian portion of the house had, at this time, additional chimney stacks: two on the eastern and two on the western outer walls, servicing the upper floors of the property. These four stacks were removed later, and only the four central chimney stacks remain. The pineapple roof decoration had yet to be added at this stage, and the roof was pitched throughout (currently only the central part of the roof is pitched, with the east and west wings having flat roofs).
![Lady_Headley_and_Captain_R](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/Lady_Headley_and_Captain_R._Phipps.jpg)
In 1930 and 1931 H. T. Guest was listed as resident at Ashton Gifford House. The house was occupied from at least 1931 (until his death) by the Irish peer Lord Headley –
Rowland Allanson-Winn, 5th Baron Headley
Rowland George Allanson Allanson-Winn, 5th Baron Headley (19 January 1855 – 22 June 1935), also known as Shaikh Rahmatullah al-Farooq, was an Irish peer and a prominent convert to Islam, who was also one of the leading members of the Woki ...
. Lord Headley is sometimes referred to as the first Muslim peer of Britain (a misnomer, as he was actually the second). He was President of the British Muslim Society, and died in 1935. Lord Headley's widow (his third wife), Lady Catharine Headley (née Lovibond), continued living at Ashton Gifford House until 1940, when she shared the house with Greenways School. Lady Headley opened the gardens to the public in aid of the
Queen's Institute and district nursing under the
National Gardens Scheme
The National Garden Scheme opens privately owned gardens in England, Northern Ireland, Wales, and the Channel Islands on selected dates for charity. It was founded in 1927 with the aim of "opening gardens of quality, character and interest to th ...
Lord Headley and, after his death, Lady Headley hosted the local Wyle Valley foxhunt on several occasions.
As a school
In 1940 Greenways Preparatory School was evacuated from
Bognor Regis
Bognor Regis (), sometimes simply known as Bognor (), is a town and seaside resort in West Sussex on the south coast of England, south-west of London, west of Brighton, south-east of Chichester and east of Portsmouth. Other nearby towns ...
,
Sussex
Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...
to Ashton Gifford House, and the property became a school. The poet
Adrian Mitchell
Adrian Mitchell FRSL (24 October 1932 – 20 December 2008) was an English poet, novelist and playwright. A former journalist, he became a noted figure on the British Left. For almost half a century he was the foremost poet of the country's Cam ...
attending the school (which was run by Vivien Hancock, a friend of his mother) during the 1940s. The poet
Siegfried Sassoon's son,
George
George may refer to:
People
* George (given name)
* George (surname)
* George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George
* George Washington, First President of the United States
* George W. Bush, 43rd Presiden ...
, also attended Greenways in the mid-1940s. The school was a conveniently short distance from
Heytesbury
Heytesbury is a village (formerly considered to be a town) and a civil parish in Wiltshire, England. The village lies on the north bank of the Wylye, about southeast of the town of Warminster.
The civil parish includes most of the small neigh ...
, where Sassoon lived. Siegried Sassoon was a close friend of Vivien Hancock (giving her a present of a horse when her own died). Sassoon's wife, Hester, accused Sassoon and Hancock of being "too close" in 1945, and Vivien Hancock eventually threatened legal action against her. Vivien's own son, Anthony, was killed (aged 21) in 1945 on the Western Front in France. When Vivien Hancock needed money to purchase the school outright, it was Sassoon who lent her the £8,000 she required (and who then waived the low rate of interest when Vivien Hancock had difficulty meeting it). The politician and author
Ferdinand Mount
Sir William Robert Ferdinand Mount, 3rd Baronet, FRSL (born 2 July 1939), is a British writer, novelist, and columnist for ''The Sunday Times'', as well as a political commentator.
Life
Ferdinand Mount, brought up by his parents in the isolate ...
was briefly a student at Greenways in the 1950s.
Around 1942 the British artist
Keith Vaughan
John Keith Vaughan (23 August 1912 – 4 November 1977), was a British painter.
Biography
Born at Selsey in West Sussex, Vaughan attended Christ's Hospital school. He worked in an advertising agency until the World War II, when as an intending ...
was stationed with the
Royal Pioneer Corps
The Royal Pioneer Corps was a British Army combatant corps used for light engineering tasks. It was formed in 1939, and amalgamated into the Royal Logistic Corps in 1993. Pioneer units performed a wide variety of tasks in all theatres of war, inc ...
in Codford, and painted "The Wall at Ashton Gifford" (now in the possession of Manchester Art Gallery). The walled garden at Ashton Gifford were painted in "The Garden at Ashton Gifford" (1944) and "Tree felling at Ashton Gifford" (1942–43). Vaughan described the garden as an "oceanic surging of tangled nettles", with "waist high grass", the wall covered in a "jungle of weed and ivy". Keith Vaughan's "The Working Party", drawn in 1942, has also been tentatively set at Ashton Gifford.
There was a fire at Ashton Gifford House during the late 1940s which partially destroyed the Victorian era service wing of the property. Vivien Hancock blamed this on an "electrical fault", though this has been disputed. Greenways School remained in possession until the late 1960s, when the school closed.
In 1969 planning permission was granted to Harrods Estate Offices to convert the house into three separate flats, which appears not to have been acted upon. By August of the same year the property was acquired by Mr. R. S. Ferrand, who renovated the house as a single-family dwelling. The work was completed in 1972. In the late 1970s the house was occupied by S Cardale. In 1982, however, Ashton Gifford House became a school for boys with behavioural problems (trading as Ashton Gifford School in the 1980s). This finally closed in 1989, and ownership was transferred to a charitable trust.
Reversion to private dwelling
In 1992 Ashton Gifford House was sold, and planning permission was granted to convert it back to a private residence. The
Codford
Codford is a civil parish south of Salisbury Plain in the Wylye Valley in Wiltshire, England. Its settlements are the adjacent villages of Codford St Peter and Codford St Mary, which lie some southeast of Warminster.
The two villages are on th ...
by-pass (the
A36 road
The A36 is a trunk road and primary route in southwest England that links the port city of Southampton to the city of Bath. At Bath, the A36 connects with the A4 to Bristol, thus providing a road link between the major ports of Southampton a ...
) was built through the northernmost part of the property in the mid-1980s, shortening the drive.
(
George Sassoon
George Thornycroft Sassoon (30 October 1936 – 8 March 2006) was a British scientist, electronic engineer, linguist, translator and author.
Early life
Sassoon was the only child of the poet Siegfried Sassoon and Hester Sassoon (née Gatty), and ...
was to unsuccessfully fight a similar encroachment of his father's estate at
Heytesbury
Heytesbury is a village (formerly considered to be a town) and a civil parish in Wiltshire, England. The village lies on the north bank of the Wylye, about southeast of the town of Warminster.
The civil parish includes most of the small neigh ...
). This required some of the agricultural land and woodland to be sold to the Department of Transport. The east drive for Ashton Gifford House now emerges onto Sherrington Lane, while the west drive continues its original link with Ashton Gifford Lane (prior to the breakup of the estate, Ashton Gifford Lane made up the complete length of the west drive, terminating at the Thatched or Station Lodge on Station Road). By 1992, all of the farm buildings and lodges had been sold as private dwellings, and the land associated with the house was reduced. The total land associated with the property is now some .
References
External link
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Grade II listed buildings in Wiltshire
Country houses in Wiltshire
Grade II listed houses