Tuesday May 22 2012
History Archive
Village History
Broken memories
Posted on March 13 2009 at 4:23:00 0 comments
Neville Billington mourns the sorry state of a prominent local family’s resting place.
The Hon Other Robert Viscount Windsor celebrated his Coming of Age at Hewell Grange and at the family seat at St Fagan’s Castle in Wales in October 1905.
Embarking on a career in the Diplomatic Service, on Saturday April 7, 1906, he set sail for South Africa where he became Aide de Camp to Lord Selbourne, the British High Commissioner.
Ominously, in its Court Circular, the Birmingham Post predicted it was likely to be a “prolonged absence from England” for the young Viscount. He was reported to have taken a keen interest in local affairs while working for Lord Selbourne but it was not long before he set sail again, this time to Agra in the United Provinces to become an Aide on the staff of the Earl of Minto, Viceroy of India.
Over two years had passed since leaving Hewell and the Viscount was advancing his diplomatic career. In due course, alas, in far-away England his parents received a series of cables to say their son had been taken ill with enteric fever. Concern heightened when there was no sign of recovery as the malady reached its critical 28-day stage.
Other Robert passed away at 1.15pm local time on Wednesday December 23, 1908. His parents, Robert George Windsor-Clive, Earl of Plymouth and Countess Alberta Victoria Sarah Caroline, were at their London home when the dreadful news arrived by cable.
Other’s body was brought to the family home at Hewell Grange and his funeral was held at Tardebigge Church on February 25, 1909. As a teenager the Viscount had been a lieutenant in the Worcestershire Yeomanry and the regiment provided a group of trumpeters to play the last post at his graveside, watched by local people including workers from the Hewell Estate.
At 11am on Wednesday February 25, 2009, exactly 100 years after the ceremony, I was the only visitor to the Plymouth Family’s Enclosure in Tardebigge Churchyard.
It was a melancholy experience; the enclosure is in considerable neglect. This is especially sad given the pool of labour that potentially exists for community work locally, given that Hewell Grange, the one-time family home of the Plymouths, is today an offenders’ institution.
The Viscount’s father’s memorial plaque is broken, the vacant chair and surrounding masonry(pictured above) are in a sorry state and the surrounding fence is broken. Weeds cover the family graves, not least Other’s.
At 11am sharp, I thought I might at least sign the visitors’ book, registering the moment, but I found the church door locked.
Hewell Grange ceased to be the Plymouth Family’s home in 1946 when it was sold to the Home Office. The family gave St Fagan’s Castle to the Welsh Nation in the same year and the castle today houses the National Museum of Wales. Hewell Park is a sprawling prison complex.
Following the Great War, the Earl built Tarbebigge Village Hall in memory of his second son, Archer, who lost his life in 1914 while in action near Andrecies and was buried on the battlefield.
The village hall went into the brewery trade in the 1960s, when bas-reliefs recording the Plymouth Family’s history were thrown into a skip. It was just one step in a century of huge social changes that affected every community in the land.
For Tardebigge however, the changes of a hundred years seem to have been particularly profound. When the Viscount died, Hewell Grange dominated the local community, the reverence of local people to the family and its traditions was a central part of life.
But the centenary of an event that saw an outpouring of local grief and mourning has passed the modern world by, unnoticed and unrealised.
What Villagers have been saying about this story . . . most recent comments first
HAVE YOUR SAY . . .
What do you think? Share your views by typing in the box below.