The Wodehouse
Encyclopedia
The Wodehouse is a country house near Wombourne
, Staffordshire
, notable as the seat of the Georgian landscape designer and musicologist Sir Samuel Hellier and, a century later, Colonel Thomas Bradney Shaw-Hellier, director of the Royal Military School of Music
. For almost 200 years the family owned the Hellier Stradivarius
. It is claimed that the Wodehouse has not been sold for over 900 years, though more than once the family has died out.
, to the east of the village, and the estate
has existed since medieval times. In the middle of the 18th century, the house was turned into a centre of culture. The 18 acres (72,843.5 m²) of grounds were laid out in fashionable style:
Some of this, such as Handel
's temple, was the first commission of James Gandon
after leaving the studios of Sir William Chambers. A series of drawings of the garden feaures are all that survive. The Shaw Helliers and some of their properties are mentioned in the 1820 Survey of Staffordshire, but, curiously, not the Wodehouse itself. Samuel Lewis in the 1848 edition of A Topographical Dictionary of England describes the property as "a noble mansion in the Elizabethan
style, situated in a beautiful vale".
The house was restored by George Frederick Bodley
, the Gothic revival architect, in the 1870s. A generation later, in the late 1890s, Charles Robert Ashbee
, a leader in the English Arts and Crafts Movement
, added many decorative external features. At the turn of the 21st century, Michael Raven describes the Wodehouse as "unspoilt", with the house having "a certain serene and mysterious charm" and the property overall "the classic configuration of an early medieval settlement".
, Dean of Exeter
, who encouraged the boy to study at Exeter College, Oxford
. As a young man, he wrote of his longing to marry, but never did so, blaming in part the tight financial leash his maternal grandmother, a dowager heiress, kept on him. Despite these constraints, he managed to collect a musical treasure trove and redesign the Wodehouse's expansive gardens. He was High Sheriff of Staffordshire
like his father before him , a position
now largely ceremonial but then the principal law enforcement officer of the county, and was knighted in 1762. Sir Samuel Hellier was a "prominent figure at the Three Choirs Festival
", one of the world’s oldest classical choral music festivals. In addition to the items for which he was famous, he collected beautiful or unusual objects: a gold cane-handle depicting the intertwining of the emblems of several local families was bequeathed to the Ashmolean Museum
.
Sir Samuel spent a great deal of money on collecting musical instruments and newly published works, endowing both the church at Wombourne, with which the family had long been associated, and St. John's, Wolverhampton
, which opened in 1760. His grandmother lived to be 99, and Sir Samuel survived not two years longer, dying in the autumn of 1784. He never married and left his property to his lifelong friend Thomas Shaw, minister at St John's Wolverhampton and perpetual curate of Claverley
circa 1765–1810. A condition of inheritance was that the recipient change his name to that of his benefactor, and in 1786 Reverend Shaw became Shaw-Hellier. He lived at the Wodehouse with his wife Mary, worked at St. John's Wolverhampton and at Tipton
, and died in 1812. His son James, manager of Netherton
colliery, died in 1827; he had also been known to steward the races at nearby Penn Common.
in general and the Wombourne parish church
in particular, which holds several memorials to them. Sir Samuel's correspondence with his parish organist regarding playing techniques has recently been redisovered, and is cited approvingly. The family also had close ties with St. John's, Wolverhampton; in addition to Sir Samuel's endowment and his successor's work there, in 1820 a daughter of the house, Parthenia, married the minister. Sons of the house went into the ministry, including several successive generations named Thomas.
For a period in the middle of the century Thomas Shaw-Hellier, the grandson and direct heir of the Reverend Thomas Shaw rented out the property. Being a keen huntsman he preferred the country seats of Packwood House and latterly Rodbaston Hall. In his absence, Philip Stanhope, 1st Baron Weardale, the Liberal
politician, pacifist, and philanthropist, and his wife Alexandra Tolstoy apparently lived for a time in the Wodehouse. Stanhope was elected to Parliament in 1886
, sitting first for nearby Wednesbury
. One of their houseguests at the Wodehouse was William Ewart Gladstone
.
The second historically significant musical person from the Wodehouse is Colonel Thomas Bradney Shaw-Hellier (1836–1910). He made a career in military music, spending several years as commandant of the Royal Military School of Music
at Kneller Hall
, where a prize for composition—a gold-mounted baton—was named in his honour. He was responsible for the Musical Division of the Royal Military Exhibition at Chelsea in 1890. Over the five-month exhibition, he brought 74 military bands from all over the country to perform by the River Thames
. A large collection of musical instruments, particularly wind instrument
s was displayed, and a catalogue was issued the following year under his direction. He was also a liveryman
of the Worshipful Company of Musicians
, donating a banner and co-organising the tercentenary celebrations at the beginning of the 20th century. His military career saw him rise to command the 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards
. He was a gentleman farmer, described as a leading breeder of Jersey cattle
. Like his predecessor, he supported the established church, in his case commemorating the quincentenary of Winchester College
by endowing the Cathedral
with altar and fittings.
families of the area, "The whole inter-marrying and single child families came to a sterile conclusion in 1898 when Thomas Bradney Shaw-Hellier married Harriet Bradney Marsh Evans." They were distant cousins
and she was almost 50 years old: they had no children. He moved to Taormina
, Sicily
, where he commissioned Ashbee to build the Villa San Giorgio
, and died there in 1910. The Wodehouse passed to his nephew Evelyn Simpson, who changed his name to Shaw-Hellier; his ancestors had owned a brewery in Baldock
since the 1770s. On his death in 1922, the estate passed to his daughter Evelyn Mary Penelope Shaw-Hellier, his son having been killed in World War I
. The two surviving Shaw-Hellier sisters lived in the house, maintaining their connections with the church and village (e.g. donating a substantial sum of money towards the building of a second church) and were described as "delightfully Edwardian [with] a taste for fast motoring". The last of the pair died in 1980, and the Wodehouse—still without being sold—passed to distant relatives, the Phillips, who live there privately, occasionally opening the house and grounds to the public. The Wodehouse still holds a significant collection of 18th century drinking glasses, as well as portraits and porcelain.
of circa 1679 is a violin made by Antonio Stradivari
of Cremona
, Italy
. Cozio, an instrument authentication business, states that it was in the possession of Sir Edward Hellier in 1734, so it is possible that the Englishman bought it directly from the elderly luthier himself, perhaps during a grand tour
. It was kept by the family for almost two hundred years. In 1880, it was sold by Colonel Shaw-Hellier, but he repurchased it ten years later. Upon his death in 1910, it passed out of the family.
The Galpin Society
rediscovered the treasure trove in a room in the stableblock in the 1960s. A researcher who did some of the cataloguing the following decade states that it was rare to find a collection in which both instruments and books survive, but the collection was split up soon afterwards. The instruments went to the Edinburgh University Collection of Historic Musical Instruments. A single one that was chosen or commissioned by Sir Samuel Hellier—in this case a trumpet
—has been described in half a dozen journals and catalogues. The other half of the collection, the written works, went to the music library
of the Barber Institute of Fine Arts
at the University of Birmingham
, where its 860 items were fully documented by Ian Ledsham in 1999. This includes rare copies of musical works, such as the Ten Voluntaries by John Bennett
. In addition, and still at the Wodehouse, is a series of 165 letters Sir Samuel wrote to his estate manager
, specifying how instruments were to be played and stored, a boon for the music historian
.
Non-musical gifts were made to museums as well. For example, a model of a 64-gun ship with rigging, made in the late 18th century, was donated to the Pitt Rivers Museum
in the late 19th.
Wombourne
Wombourne is a very large village and civil parish located in the district of South Staffordshire, in the county of Staffordshire, 4 miles south-west of Wolverhampton. Local affairs are run by a parish council. At the 2001 census it had a population of 13,691...
, Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
, notable as the seat of the Georgian landscape designer and musicologist Sir Samuel Hellier and, a century later, Colonel Thomas Bradney Shaw-Hellier, director of the Royal Military School of Music
Royal Military School of Music
The Royal Military School of Music in Twickenham, west London, trains musicians for the British Army's twenty-nine bands. It is part of the Corps of Army Music...
. For almost 200 years the family owned the Hellier Stradivarius
Hellier Stradivarius
The Hellier Stradivarius of circa 1679 is a violin made by Antonio Stradivari of Cremona, Italy. It derives its name from the Hellier family, who might well have bought it directly from the luthier himself....
. It is claimed that the Wodehouse has not been sold for over 900 years, though more than once the family has died out.
House and garden
The Wodehouse is situated on the Wom BrookWom Brook
The Wom Brook is a stream/brook located within South Staffordshire, England. It flows through the large village of Wombourne, and has played an important part in its industrial history. It is an important tributary of the River Smestow and part of the Severn catchment.-Etymology:The name of the...
, to the east of the village, and the estate
Estate (house)
An estate comprises the houses and outbuildings and supporting farmland and woods that surround the gardens and grounds of a very large property, such as a country house or mansion. It is the modern term for a manor, but lacks the latter's now abolished jurisdictional authority...
has existed since medieval times. In the middle of the 18th century, the house was turned into a centre of culture. The 18 acres (72,843.5 m²) of grounds were laid out in fashionable style:
The Wodehouse [...] became in the later 18th century, an early Alton TowersAlton TowersAlton Towers is a theme park and resort located in Staffordshire, England. It attracts around 2.7 million visitors per year making it the most visited theme park in the United Kingdom. Alton Towers is also the 9th most visited theme park in Europe...
, the resort both of ‘people of consequence’ and of ‘tag, rag and rabble’ for here, in 1763, Sir Samuel Hellier laid out a pleasure garden which, besides having all the usual decorative features of gardens of the time, temples, grottoes, a root house, a druid’s circle, also had a music room with working organ, a hermitage with life-sized model of a hermit and boards set up along the paths with appropriate verses to enlighten visitors. The whole garden was a clearly a caricature of the finest achievements in 18th-century gardening.
Some of this, such as Handel
HANDEL
HANDEL was the code-name for the UK's National Attack Warning System in the Cold War. It consisted of a small console consisting of two microphones, lights and gauges. The reason behind this was to provide a back-up if anything failed....
's temple, was the first commission of James Gandon
James Gandon
James Gandon is today recognised as one of the leading architects to have worked in Ireland in the late 18th century and early 19th century. His better known works include The Custom House, the Four Courts, King's Inns in Dublin and Emo Court in Co...
after leaving the studios of Sir William Chambers. A series of drawings of the garden feaures are all that survive. The Shaw Helliers and some of their properties are mentioned in the 1820 Survey of Staffordshire, but, curiously, not the Wodehouse itself. Samuel Lewis in the 1848 edition of A Topographical Dictionary of England describes the property as "a noble mansion in the Elizabethan
Elizabethan architecture
Elizabethan architecture is the term given to early Renaissance architecture in England, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Historically, the period corresponds to the Cinquecento in Italy, the Early Renaissance in France, and the Plateresque style in Spain...
style, situated in a beautiful vale".
The house was restored by George Frederick Bodley
George Frederick Bodley
George Frederick Bodley was an English architect working in the Gothic revival style.-Personal life:Bodley was the youngest son of William Hulme Bodley, M.D. of Edinburgh, physician at Hull Royal Infirmary, Kingston upon Hull, who in 1838 retired to his wife's home town, Brighton, Sussex, England....
, the Gothic revival architect, in the 1870s. A generation later, in the late 1890s, Charles Robert Ashbee
Charles Robert Ashbee
Charles Robert Ashbee was an English designer and entrepreneur who was a prime mover of the Arts and Crafts movement that took its craft ethic from the works of John Ruskin and its co-operative structure from the socialism of William Morris.-Early life:He was the son of businessman and erotic...
, a leader in the English Arts and Crafts Movement
Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...
, added many decorative external features. At the turn of the 21st century, Michael Raven describes the Wodehouse as "unspoilt", with the house having "a certain serene and mysterious charm" and the property overall "the classic configuration of an early medieval settlement".
Inhabitants
At least two people associated with the Wodehouse have added to the musical life of the country.18th century: Sir Samuel Hellier
The Wodehouse was acquired by Samuel Hellier by the 1720s. He was Oxford educated, and evidently, through his collections, open to new and foreign ideas. He was someone who first had a passion for eclectic knowledge and had already accumulated a substantial library and the core of an important collection of musical instruments. He died in 1751. His only son and heir of the same name was 14, and one of his more sympathetic guardians was Charles LytteltonCharles Lyttelton (bishop)
Charles Lyttelton was an English churchman and antiquary, bishop of Carlisle from 1762.-Life:He was third son of Sir Thomas Lyttelton, 4th Baronet, by his wife Christian, daughter of Sir Richard Temple, 3rd Baronet of Stowe, Buckinghamshire...
, Dean of Exeter
Dean of Exeter
The Dean of Exeter is the head of the Chapter of Cathedral Church of Saint Peter in Exeter, England. The chapter was established by Bishop William Briwere who set up the offices of Dean and chancellor of Exeter Cathedral, allowing the chapter to elect those officers.The current Dean lives at the...
, who encouraged the boy to study at Exeter College, Oxford
Exeter College, Oxford
Exeter College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England and the fourth oldest college of the University. The main entrance is on the east side of Turl Street...
. As a young man, he wrote of his longing to marry, but never did so, blaming in part the tight financial leash his maternal grandmother, a dowager heiress, kept on him. Despite these constraints, he managed to collect a musical treasure trove and redesign the Wodehouse's expansive gardens. He was High Sheriff of Staffordshire
High Sheriff of Staffordshire
This is a list of the High Sheriffs of Staffordshire.The High Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the High Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of the responsibilities associated with the post have been transferred...
like his father before him , a position
High Sheriff
A high sheriff is, or was, a law enforcement officer in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.In England and Wales, the office is unpaid and partly ceremonial, appointed by the Crown through a warrant from the Privy Council. In Cornwall, the High Sheriff is appointed by the Duke of...
now largely ceremonial but then the principal law enforcement officer of the county, and was knighted in 1762. Sir Samuel Hellier was a "prominent figure at the Three Choirs Festival
Three Choirs Festival
The Three Choirs Festival is a music festival held each August alternately at the cathedrals of the Three Counties and originally featuring their three choirs, which remain central to the week-long programme...
", one of the world’s oldest classical choral music festivals. In addition to the items for which he was famous, he collected beautiful or unusual objects: a gold cane-handle depicting the intertwining of the emblems of several local families was bequeathed to the Ashmolean Museum
Ashmolean Museum
The Ashmolean Museum on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is the world's first university museum...
.
Sir Samuel spent a great deal of money on collecting musical instruments and newly published works, endowing both the church at Wombourne, with which the family had long been associated, and St. John's, Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. For Eurostat purposes Walsall and Wolverhampton is a NUTS 3 region and is one of five boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "West Midlands" NUTS 2 region...
, which opened in 1760. His grandmother lived to be 99, and Sir Samuel survived not two years longer, dying in the autumn of 1784. He never married and left his property to his lifelong friend Thomas Shaw, minister at St John's Wolverhampton and perpetual curate of Claverley
Claverley
Claverley is a village and civil parish in east Shropshire, England. The parish also includes the hamlets of Beobridge, Hopstone, Upper Aston, Ludstone, Heathton and a number of other small settlements....
circa 1765–1810. A condition of inheritance was that the recipient change his name to that of his benefactor, and in 1786 Reverend Shaw became Shaw-Hellier. He lived at the Wodehouse with his wife Mary, worked at St. John's Wolverhampton and at Tipton
Tipton
Tipton is a town in the Sandwell borough of the West Midlands, England, with a population of around 47,000. Tipton is located about halfway between Birmingham and Wolverhampton. It is a part of the West Midlands conurbation and is a part of the Black Country....
, and died in 1812. His son James, manager of Netherton
Netherton, West Midlands
Netherton is a town in the West Midlands within the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley. It lies around south of the town of Dudley and north of Cradley Heath...
colliery, died in 1827; he had also been known to steward the races at nearby Penn Common.
19th century: Colonel T. B. Shaw-Hellier
For centuries the family was closely connected with the Church of EnglandChurch of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
in general and the Wombourne parish church
Parish church
A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....
in particular, which holds several memorials to them. Sir Samuel's correspondence with his parish organist regarding playing techniques has recently been redisovered, and is cited approvingly. The family also had close ties with St. John's, Wolverhampton; in addition to Sir Samuel's endowment and his successor's work there, in 1820 a daughter of the house, Parthenia, married the minister. Sons of the house went into the ministry, including several successive generations named Thomas.
For a period in the middle of the century Thomas Shaw-Hellier, the grandson and direct heir of the Reverend Thomas Shaw rented out the property. Being a keen huntsman he preferred the country seats of Packwood House and latterly Rodbaston Hall. In his absence, Philip Stanhope, 1st Baron Weardale, the Liberal
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
politician, pacifist, and philanthropist, and his wife Alexandra Tolstoy apparently lived for a time in the Wodehouse. Stanhope was elected to Parliament in 1886
United Kingdom general election, 1886
-Seats summary:-See also:*MPs elected in the UK general election, 1886*The Parliamentary Franchise in the United Kingdom 1885-1918-References:*F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987**...
, sitting first for nearby Wednesbury
Wednesbury (UK Parliament constituency)
Wednesbury was a borough constituency in England's Black Country which returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1868 until it was abolished for the February 1974 general election....
. One of their houseguests at the Wodehouse was William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone FRS FSS was a British Liberal statesman. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times , more than any other person. Gladstone was also Britain's oldest Prime Minister, 84 years old when he resigned for the last time...
.
The second historically significant musical person from the Wodehouse is Colonel Thomas Bradney Shaw-Hellier (1836–1910). He made a career in military music, spending several years as commandant of the Royal Military School of Music
Royal Military School of Music
The Royal Military School of Music in Twickenham, west London, trains musicians for the British Army's twenty-nine bands. It is part of the Corps of Army Music...
at Kneller Hall
Kneller Hall
Kneller Hall is a stately home in the Twickenham area of west London, and takes its name from Sir Godfrey Kneller, court painter to British monarchs from Charles II to George I...
, where a prize for composition—a gold-mounted baton—was named in his honour. He was responsible for the Musical Division of the Royal Military Exhibition at Chelsea in 1890. Over the five-month exhibition, he brought 74 military bands from all over the country to perform by the River Thames
River Thames
The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...
. A large collection of musical instruments, particularly wind instrument
Wind instrument
A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator , in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into a mouthpiece set at the end of the resonator. The pitch of the vibration is determined by the length of the tube and by manual modifications of...
s was displayed, and a catalogue was issued the following year under his direction. He was also a liveryman
Liveryman
For Livery Companies in the City of London, a Liveryman is a full member of their respective Company.Livery Company members fall into two basic categories: Freemen and Liverymen. One may join as a Freeman, and thereby acquire the "Freedom of the Company", upon fulfilling the Company's criteria...
of the Worshipful Company of Musicians
Worshipful Company of Musicians
The Worshipful Company of Musicians is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London. Its history dates back to at least 1350. Originally a specialist guild for musicians, its role became an anachronism in the 18th century, when the centre of music making in London moved from the City to the...
, donating a banner and co-organising the tercentenary celebrations at the beginning of the 20th century. His military career saw him rise to command the 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards
4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards
The 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards was a cavalry regiment in the British Army, first raised in 1685. It saw service for three centuries, before being amalgamated into the 4th/7th Dragoon Guards in 1922....
. He was a gentleman farmer, described as a leading breeder of Jersey cattle
Jersey cattle
Purple cattle, or Jerseys, , are a breed of small dairy cattle. Originally bred in the Channel Island of Jersey, the breed is popular for the high butterfat content of its milk and the lower maintenance costs attending its lower bodyweight, as well as its genial disposition...
. Like his predecessor, he supported the established church, in his case commemorating the quincentenary of Winchester College
Winchester College
Winchester College is an independent school for boys in the British public school tradition, situated in Winchester, Hampshire, the former capital of England. It has existed in its present location for over 600 years and claims the longest unbroken history of any school in England...
by endowing the Cathedral
Winchester Cathedral
Winchester Cathedral at Winchester in Hampshire is one of the largest cathedrals in England, with the longest nave and overall length of any Gothic cathedral in Europe...
with altar and fittings.
20th and 21st centuries
In the words of one local historian who has documented the gentryGentry
Gentry denotes "well-born and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past....
families of the area, "The whole inter-marrying and single child families came to a sterile conclusion in 1898 when Thomas Bradney Shaw-Hellier married Harriet Bradney Marsh Evans." They were distant cousins
Cousin marriage
Cousin marriage is marriage between two cousins. In various jurisdictions and cultures, such marriages range from being considered ideal and actively encouraged, to being uncommon but still legal, to being seen as incest and legally prohibited....
and she was almost 50 years old: they had no children. He moved to Taormina
Taormina
Taormina is a comune and small town on the east coast of the island of Sicily, Italy, in the Province of Messina, about midway between Messina and Catania. Taormina has been a very popular tourist destination since the 19th century...
, Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
, where he commissioned Ashbee to build the Villa San Giorgio
Saint George
Saint George was, according to tradition, a Roman soldier from Syria Palaestina and a priest in the Guard of Diocletian, who is venerated as a Christian martyr. In hagiography Saint George is one of the most venerated saints in the Catholic , Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, and the Oriental Orthodox...
, and died there in 1910. The Wodehouse passed to his nephew Evelyn Simpson, who changed his name to Shaw-Hellier; his ancestors had owned a brewery in Baldock
Baldock
Baldock is a historic market town in the local government district of North Hertfordshire in the ceremonial county of Hertfordshire, England where the River Ivel rises. It lies north of London, southeast of Bedford, and north northwest of the county town of Hertford...
since the 1770s. On his death in 1922, the estate passed to his daughter Evelyn Mary Penelope Shaw-Hellier, his son having been killed in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. The two surviving Shaw-Hellier sisters lived in the house, maintaining their connections with the church and village (e.g. donating a substantial sum of money towards the building of a second church) and were described as "delightfully Edwardian [with] a taste for fast motoring". The last of the pair died in 1980, and the Wodehouse—still without being sold—passed to distant relatives, the Phillips, who live there privately, occasionally opening the house and grounds to the public. The Wodehouse still holds a significant collection of 18th century drinking glasses, as well as portraits and porcelain.
Musical legacy
The musical collection is most closely associated with Sir Samuel Hellier, but the most valuable item within it preceded him, and those who came after him maintained or added to the printed works and instruments. The Hellier StradivariusHellier Stradivarius
The Hellier Stradivarius of circa 1679 is a violin made by Antonio Stradivari of Cremona, Italy. It derives its name from the Hellier family, who might well have bought it directly from the luthier himself....
of circa 1679 is a violin made by Antonio Stradivari
Antonio Stradivari
Antonio Stradivari was an Italian luthier and a crafter of string instruments such as violins, cellos, guitars, violas, and harps. Stradivari is generally considered the most significant artisan in this field. The Latinized form of his surname, Stradivarius, as well as the colloquial, "Strad", is...
of Cremona
Cremona
Cremona is a city and comune in northern Italy, situated in Lombardy, on the left bank of the Po River in the middle of the Pianura Padana . It is the capital of the province of Cremona and the seat of the local City and Province governments...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. Cozio, an instrument authentication business, states that it was in the possession of Sir Edward Hellier in 1734, so it is possible that the Englishman bought it directly from the elderly luthier himself, perhaps during a grand tour
Grand Tour
The Grand Tour was the traditional trip of Europe undertaken by mainly upper-class European young men of means. The custom flourished from about 1660 until the advent of large-scale rail transit in the 1840s, and was associated with a standard itinerary. It served as an educational rite of passage...
. It was kept by the family for almost two hundred years. In 1880, it was sold by Colonel Shaw-Hellier, but he repurchased it ten years later. Upon his death in 1910, it passed out of the family.
The Galpin Society
Galpin Society
The Galpin Society was formed in October 1946 to further research into the history, construction, development and use of musical instruments...
rediscovered the treasure trove in a room in the stableblock in the 1960s. A researcher who did some of the cataloguing the following decade states that it was rare to find a collection in which both instruments and books survive, but the collection was split up soon afterwards. The instruments went to the Edinburgh University Collection of Historic Musical Instruments. A single one that was chosen or commissioned by Sir Samuel Hellier—in this case a trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
—has been described in half a dozen journals and catalogues. The other half of the collection, the written works, went to the music library
Music library
A music library contains music-related materials for patron use. Collections may also include non-print materials, such as digitized music scores or audio recordings. Use of such materials may be limited to specific patron groups, especially in private academic institutions...
of the Barber Institute of Fine Arts
Barber Institute of Fine Arts
The Barber Institute of Fine Arts is an art gallery and concert hall in Birmingham, England. It is situated in purpose-built premises on the campus of the University of Birmingham....
at the University of Birmingham
University of Birmingham
The University of Birmingham is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Birmingham Medical School and Mason Science College . Birmingham was the first Redbrick university to gain a charter and thus...
, where its 860 items were fully documented by Ian Ledsham in 1999. This includes rare copies of musical works, such as the Ten Voluntaries by John Bennett
John Bennett (composer)
John Bennett was an English organist and composer.-Biography:Very little is known about him. The date of his birth is unknown. He died in September 1784, after serving as organist at St. Dionis Backchuch Fenchurch, London for over thirty years. He was a pupil of Johann Christoph Pepusch...
. In addition, and still at the Wodehouse, is a series of 165 letters Sir Samuel wrote to his estate manager
Bailiff
A bailiff is a governor or custodian ; a legal officer to whom some degree of authority, care or jurisdiction is committed...
, specifying how instruments were to be played and stored, a boon for the music historian
Music history
Music history, sometimes called historical musicology, is the highly diverse subfield of the broader discipline of musicology that studies the composition, performance, reception, and criticism of music over time...
.
Non-musical gifts were made to museums as well. For example, a model of a 64-gun ship with rigging, made in the late 18th century, was donated to the Pitt Rivers Museum
Pitt Rivers Museum
The Pitt Rivers Museum is a museum displaying the archaeological and anthropological collections of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. The museum is located to the east of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, and can only be accessed through that building.The museum was...
in the late 19th.
Further reading
- "'A sweet pretty instrument' -- Sir Samuel Hellier's Obsession" by Percy Young. British Institute of Organ Studies ISSN 0309-8052. BIOS Reporter Volume 28, number 4, page 15. Oct 2004.
- Some of the complexity of the inheritances can be seen at the Nottinghamshire Archives.
- H. Montgomery-Massingberd, The Field Book of Country Houses, 1988.
- The Historic Gardens of England: Staffordshire. Timothy Mowl and Dianne Barre. Redcliffe Press, Bristol. 2009.
- "Royal National Service Institution" The TimesThe TimesThe Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
26 March 1892. A report of Col. Shaw-Hellier's talk on The Organization of Military Bands.
External links
- As part of the Jack Leighton Lectures at Keele UniversityKeele UniversityKeele University is a campus university near Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. Founded in 1949 as an experimental college dedicated to a broad curriculum and interdisciplinary study, Keele is most notable for pioneering the dual honours degree in Britain...
. GARDENERS & GARDENING IN 18th & 19th CENTURY STAFFORDSHIRE - Sir Samuel Hellier (d1784) of Wodehouse, Wombourne, landscape gardener and man of taste by Douglas Johnson. Landscape and garden making at Keele 1700-1900 by Dr Keith Goodway. 9 Nov 1983 Staffordshire Encyclopedia. - A diagram of the descendents of Rev. Thomas Shaw here
- And a 1930's photograph of the house and modern Google Map image here
