Weston Park Servants

Weston Park is a 1000+ acre estate that straddles the Staffordshire/Shropshire border at Weston under Lizard, a village strongly tied to the estate. There has been a settlement there since the Domesday Book; the Norman baron, Rainald Bailgiole, Sherriff of Shropshire, overseeing 10 villains and 2 serfs. In 1666, there were 25 hearths listed in the Hearth Tax. The park was used by the gentry as a deer park in Medieval times, now, there is a stately home and associated buildings with the parkland, which in modern times, has been developed for the public to also enjoy.

 

The current hall was built, either for, or under the guidance of Elizabeth Wilbraham, (14th Feb1632-27th July 1705). At 19, Elizabeth Mytton, had married Thomas Wilbraham, of a landed family. On their honeymoon, touring Europe, she became very interested in architecture and it developed into a life-long interest, being connected with several famous architects and buildings.  Her interest in the Palladian style is shown in the, three storied, Georgian, redbrick, grade I listed, Weston Park, with its emphasis on symmetry and austerity on the outside contrasted with its lavish interiors.

 

The hall contains a library of over 3,000 books, works of art by famous artists such as, Constable, Van Dyke and Lely, tapestries, with furniture by Chippendale. The hall has never been sold, descended by family routes, within the Wilbraham, Newport and Bridgeman families, often down the female line. The different owners have developed the estate, Capability Brown being employed to develop the park, with James Paine being responsible to the grade I listed Roman Bridge and grade I listed, Temple of Diana. The Orangery is grade II listed. The estate church was dedicated to St. Andrew and is thought to have been greatly influenced by Elizabeth Wilbraham.

 

The family were involved with the village, catering for the poor of the area. In 1851, 40 children were supported with their education and a new school was erected in 1873, with alms-houses being built in 1874. In 1986, the family gifted Weston Park to the nation and it is run by the Weston Park Foundation who work to provide a place where the treasures of the estate can be appreciated by as many people as possible. They also aim to conserve and promote the history of the estate, to this end, them have compiled a database of the estate's servants, both male and female, taken from census returns and wages books. Having registered, this database is free to search.

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We are researching some of the female servants as part of our A Few Forgotten Women Fridays Everyday initiative. If you would like to take part, please browse the database and choose a name You may like to do a quick check to see if anything can be found but please do contact us before starting detailed research, just in case someone else is working on that name. Alternatively, just ask us for a name. We can also send you a list of all  the names if you prefer. Note that it might be sensible to focus on the nineteenth century servants, as we don't include the names of anyone born after 1921 in our stories and with twentieth century servants, this might make writing up stories more difficult. When you get in touch, we will send you further hints for research. We are particularly keen that these stories should include background information about what the woman's role would have involved and an article about domestic servants, with plenty of links and further reading, can be found here.

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The census returns references for Weston Park are:

1841: HO107/974/15 folio  8

1851: HO107/1987 folio 172

1861: RG9/1853 folio 3

1871: RG10/2747 folios 8-9

1881: RG11/2633 folio 8

1891: RG12/2097 folios 5-6

1901: RG13/2522 folio 8

1911: RG14/16014 SN1

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The stories of Weston Park servants are below. Where the women have descendants, we have tried to contact them to get permission to tell their ancestor's stories. This has not always been possible. If we have told a story of your ancestors and you would rather we removed it, please do contact us.

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Annie Bathe, later Annie Twynhan 1873-1929, from Kings Sutton, Northamptonshire  – Women at Work, Weston Park. 4 minute read.

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Annie Douthwaite, later Annie Ellingham 1854-1921, from Kirkbymoorside, Yorkshire  – Women at Work, Weston Park. Video story 18 minute listen see here.

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Mary Holden, later Mary Arnold 1877-1944, from Shifnal, Shropshire – Women at Work, Weston Park. 7 minute read.

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Alice Kavanagh 1871-?, later Alice Harper, from Bangalore, India – No Descendants, Women at Work, Weston Park. 10 minute read.

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Georgina Meddings 1856-1906, from Wolverhampton, Staffordshire – No Descendants, Women at Work, Weston Park. 4 minute read. Please note that Georgina takes about 30 seconds to  download.