High Barnet Methodist Church foundation stone

Rhoda Wyburn (25 August 1841 - 8 May 1934) was an English

milliner Hat-making or millinery is the design, manufacture and sale of hats and other headwear. A person engaged in this trade is called a milliner or hatter. Historically, milliners, typically women shopkeepers, produced or imported an inventory of g ...

who with her sister Emily ran a successful business in

Regent Street Regent Street is a major shopping street in the West End of London. It is named after George, the Prince Regent (later George IV) and was laid out under the direction of the architect John Nash and James Burton. It runs from Waterloo Place ...

that enabled them to buy

Hadley Manor Hadley may refer to: Places Canada * Hadley Bay, on the north of Victoria Island, Nunavut England * Hadley, London, a former civil parish within Barnet Urban District from 1894 to 1965 * Hadley, Shropshire, part of the new town of Telford ...

near Chipping Barnet in north London. The sisters were committed Methodists who donated funds to establish Methodist churches in north London and elsewhere.

Early life

Rhoda Wyburn was born in

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

, on 25 August 1841, to Robert and Susanna Wyburn. She had a sister Emily (c. 1837 - March 1913). Their father was a cabinet-maker and Methodist preacher who owned the Woolavington Throckmorton manor house in

Woolavington Woolavington is a village and civil parish on the Somerset Levels in the English county of Somerset. It forms part of the District of Sedgemoor, and is north east of Bridgwater, south east of Burnham on Sea and west of Glastonbury. At the ...

, Somerset."The Wyburns of Hadley Manor"
by Colin Smith in ''The Messenger'', December 2014 - February 2015, pp. 4-5.

Career

With her sister Emily, Rhoda Wyburn ran a millinery business in Bridgwater, Somerset, and later had premises at 246 Regent Street, London, under the name Mademoiselle Emelie.

Hadley Manor

In 1890,Monken Hadley: Manor and other estates.
British History Online. Retrieved 15 October 2016. the sisters bought Hadley Manor from Julia Hyde, widow of Henry Hyde of Ely Place, Holborn, thus becoming lords of the Manor of Hadley. The manor house stood on the eastern side of

Hadley Green Road Hadley may refer to: Places Canada * Hadley Bay, on the north of Victoria Island, Nunavut England * Hadley, London, a former civil parish within Barnet Urban District from 1894 to 1965 * Hadley, Shropshire, part of the new town of Telford, ...

, to the north of Chipping Barnet, until it was destroyed by fire in the early 1930s. It was purchased by East Barnet council in 1934 on Rhoda's death and demolished in 1935. At about the same time, Rhoda gave to the public the land known as Hadley Manor Fields to the rear of the manor house which was combined with purchases from adjacent estates such as the

Hadley Hurst Estate Hadley Hurst is a grade II* listed building on Hadley Common road, in Monken Hadley, north of Chipping Barnet. History The house was reputedly designed by Christopher Wren and dates from at least 1707. In 1936 the owner, Gordon Saunders, who ...

and

Gladsmuir Estate Lemmons, also known as Gladsmuir and Gladsmuir House, was the home of novelists Kingsley Amis (1922–1995) and Elizabeth Jane Howard (1923–2014) on the south side of Hadley Common, Barnet, on the border of north London and Hertfordshire.K ...

to form

King George's Fields A King George's Field is a public open space in the United Kingdom dedicated to the memory of King George V (1865–1936). In 1936, after the king's death, Sir Percy Vincent, the then-Lord Mayor of London, formed a committee to determine a ...

which were created to mark the jubilee of King George V. Nothing remains of the manor house today and the site is used as the western entrance to King George's Fields.

Methodism

A Miss Wyburn laid the foundation stone for the High Barnet Methodist Church in 1891. It was demolished in the 1980s apart from the spires which are now incorporated into The Spires Shopping Centre. Miss Wyburn also funded the first Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in the area which was "a good iron hut" transferred to

East Barnet East Barnet is an area of north London within the London Borough of Barnet bordered by New Barnet, Cockfosters and Southgate. It is a largely residential suburb whose central area contains shops, public houses, restaurants and services, and ...

from Hadley Manor in 1915. In Somerset, Miss E. Wyburn laid the foundation stone for the "New" Wesleyan Methodist Church in Middlezoy in 1898. In 1901, a Miss Wyburn laid the foundation stone for the Queen Victoria's Seamen's Rest home in Jeremiah Street, Poplar.

Death and legacy

Rhoda Wyburn died on 8 May 1934. A notice in ''

The London Gazette ''The London Gazette'' is one of the official journals of record or government gazettes of the Government of the United Kingdom, and the most important among such official journals in the United Kingdom, in which certain statutory notices are ...

'' gave her address as Hadley Manor and 19 Burton Road, Branksome Park, Bournemouth. The executors of her Will were Mrs Susan Emily Evans and John William Pepper. She left no descendants. A legacy from the Wyburn family continues to fund Methodist activity in Barnet.''The Messenger''
March–May 2015, p. 19.

References

External links

*http://www.riverwye.us/getperson.php?personID=I6121&tree=Watkins *http://www.riverwye.us/getperson.php?personID=I6120&tree=Watkins {{DEFAULTSORT:Wyburn, Rhoda 1841 births 1934 deaths English Methodists British milliners English businesspeople in fashion Monken Hadley Chipping Barnet English temperance activists People from Somerset English philanthropists Lords of the Manor