A recent local auction brought some artefacts with a Kings Weston connection to our attention. As many people will know the present Kings Weston house was preceded by an older mansion, one swept away in 1711 ahead of reconstruction to the designs of Sir John Vanbrugh starting the following year. This earlier house appears to have been built by Sir William Wyntour.

Queen Elizabeth I appointed Sir William Vice-Admiral of England, the second most powerful position in the Royal Navy, and was succeeded in that position by Sir Francis Drake. Sir William was knighted by the Queen in 1573 and was pivotal in the repelling of the Spanish Armada in 1588. In 1561 William had purchased the manor of Lydney in Gloucestershire, on the north side of the Severn, and rebuilt the house there. He accumulated other Gloucestershire lands, and in 1570 bought the Kings Weston estate; As at Lydney it’s likely that he erected a grand new mansion here shortly afterwards. The recently rediscovered artifacts appear to be fragments of that house.   

Eight decorated stone fragments make up the collection of stonework. Several can be identified as parts of decorative fireplace surrounds, one is a section of a mullion window, and there are a pair of carved stone heads. Two portions of stone have been reconstructed into a tall heraldic lion, though now heavily defaced. The lion retains an odd lead insert that might have been a lance or banner that it’d once clasped in its paws. The heads are badly weather-beaten and have been exposed to the elements longer than the other fragments, though they are still recognisable as that of two men; one with a beard and one clean shaven.

When the collection came to auction it was described as “reputedly” from Kings Weston, though the circumstances of their discovery have since been established more accurately. The fragments were discovered in a boundary wall, on the “west side of Kingsweston Hill” by local amateur antiquarian Antony Scammel. Scammel was a well-known collector of historic artefacts and coins, and recorded the find in writing on the back of a print showing the old house that also formed part of the auction lot. He recovered the stones in 1967, but aside from the rough identification of the find spot we are still unsure of the exact location.

What we can tell from the stones is their rough date, from the style of the designs, and that they were deliberately broken up to use as building stone. Stylistically they accord with having been part of Sir William’s Tudor mansion, and the quality of the design and execution shows that they were from a high status building. Certainly a heraldic lion gate finial or roof ornament would most likely be found on a house of Kings Weston’s size and quality rather than a smaller house in the same vicinity. We must take Mr Scammel’s assessment that the wall in which they were found was Eighteenth Century on face value, but this would tie in well with the documented demolition date of the old building. Mr Scammel’s attribution of the sculpted heads as Sir William Wyntour and his son can be less certain.

A major new addition has been made to our website recently. You can now browse a collection of over 100 historic postcard images from across the Kings Weston estate.

In the early decades of the Twentieth Century postcards could be sent between towns in a matter of hours, with several deliveries a day; they were the text messages of their era. The collection dates mainly to the years before the First World War, before the telephone became the quickest way to communicate. The picturesque Kings Weston estate offered photographers great opportunities for to produce popular views for cards, and they seized on Penpole Point, the Iron Bridge, and the lily pond for their chocolate-box qualities. After the First World War postcards began a slow decline. Amongst the collection are a few representing the inter-war period, but only a couple from after WWII.

Views around Kings Weston house itself are relatively rare. It may have been the retiring character of Philip Napier Miles that saw him reluctant to see his home recorded in popular postcards. But a significant number that do record the house stem from the period it was used as an auxiliary Hospital during the Great War; perhaps the cards were sold in aid of Red Cross charities that Miles keenly supported. These were published by S E Robinson who ran the Post Office in Shirehampton and record many of the wounded servicemen who were sent to Kings Weston to recuperate. 

S E Robinson is again well represented amongst cards of Penpole Point that appear to have been a keen obsession of postcard photographers, with the spectacular views across the Severn of particular note. Sadly these views have gone; along with nearby Penpole Lodge that’s another frequent feature of cards. Spectacular views also attracted photographers to the southern part of the estate, on Shirehampton Park, where the impressive panoramas above horseshoe bend were a popular retreat for locals. As unlikely as it sounds the driving of the Portway through the same pastoral scene didn’t diminish its interest for postcard views. Perhaps it was the marvelous feat engineering that attracted purchasers of these views, many of which feature the new carriageway as much as the views beyond it. 

These postcards are an important visual and social record of the times. Many have been written and sent, and occasionally you will find interesting snippets about the estate. One written from Kings Weston house and sent in 1906 is from an unnamed young lady who wrote “This is just a view of the house, but I am living at my mother’s. I have exactly the same work to do here as I did at the Castle, the housework. Instead of this I wish myself at home. Tell Jack I wish I never saw the place.”

You can look at the whole collection one the website at:  https://www.kwag.org.uk/gallery/historic-images-2/postcards-from-kings-weston/

Last month we shared some photos and memories of David Pickering whose uncle, Fred Whapshare. Since then David has very generously donated a number of historic items with Kings Weston connections to KWAG.

Central to the small collection is a beautiful box veneered in beautiful Coromandel wood, with robust but elegant brass edges and handles. During the reign of Queen Victoria, Coromandel was considered one of the most exotic, luxurious and expensive woods to work with and it was the veneer of choice for some of the finest boxes. It’s of little surprise that such a fine wood was selected for use on a possession of the Miles family who lived at Kings Weston between 1834 and 1935. In the top a rebated brass plaque has the initials HCWM joins the arm-and-anchor arms of the family; from this we can attribute the box’s ownership of Henry Cruger Miles, widely known as Cruger.

He lived with his brother, Philip William Skinner Miles, at Kings Weston for much of his life. He never married, but was a highly regarded in Bristol, being High Sheriff of the City, a Master of the Merchant Ventures, and the principle supporter of the rebuilding of the Cathedral nave. On his death in 1888 he bequeathed all his possessions to the only heir, his nephew Philip Napier Miles, amongst which we assume was this case.

It’s designed as a travelling case, with handles, a robust but elegant exterior, and an interior fitted out with compartments, a silk lining, and a detachable mirror. Some of the original contents are happily still contained. A cut-throat razor and a silver travelling shaving brush are, sadly, the only survivors, but enough to be able to date the box to 1874 from the hallmarks.

Now housed in the box are a partial set of gilt livery buttons carrying the Miles family arms. These, Mr Pickering tells us, were dug from the garden of a cottage on Kings Weston Lane that his Uncle and Aunt lived in until after WWII. Perhaps they were stripped from an old uniform and discarded when new clothes were procured.

Another item with a direct Kings Weston connection is an engraved copper printing plate. On this, written backwards, is an invite to dinner with Mr and Mrs Napier Miles at Kings Weston, with the details of the invitee and time to be filled in by hand when the plate was used to print invitations. It must date to after Napier Miles married in 1899 and his death in 1935, but it’s not possible to narrow down dates further.  

The last item is a more palpable link to My Pickering’s own family connection. A pair of secateurs was owned by his uncle in his role as head gardener at Kings Weston. We shared a photo of Fred Whapshare in our last newsletter and the garden tool was his, and shared with Napier Miles when the latter borrowed them, on occasion taking them to use at his Italian villa at Allassio. 

We’re incredibly grateful to Mr Pickering for the kind gift of these items, that will now form part of our growing collection of books, images, and artefacts with Kings Weston connections.      

We were contacted recently by David Pickering who has a family connecting to Kings Weston and still lives nearby. He’s kindly send us some historic images to publish in our newsletter and we’re grateful to him for adding to our understanding of the estate’s history.

One of the photos is of his uncle Fred Whapshare posed, probably in the 1920s, in front of the stone gate-piers at the back of the house, one of which still stands. Mr Pickering writes that his uncle “ worked on the estate most of his life, as a gardener ,being born in about 1893. His wife worked as a housemaid there, and they were left in charge as custodians when the house was closed up before the old lady (Sybil, Philip Napier Miles’ wife) moved to the House in the Garden. They eventually bought the attached-row of Hawksmoor cottages in the lane, before one day selling up and building the bungalow ‘Wingrove’ in some of their garden.”

He continues “My uncle carried on as gardener when Mrs Miles moved to the House in the Garden, and I have fond memories of being taken round the place as a child, being given my first-ever peach from a hot-house wall. Really I have always felt that the estate was part of my own background. My Aunt and Uncle were devoted to the place, and worked there most of their lives. Some entertaining stories of staff parties, with exuberant footmen!”

When, in 1937, the contents of the house were auctioned, after the death of Philip Napier Miles, Mrs Whapshare bought a few keepsakes. These included some paintings and etchings of Italy done by the Miles’s brother in law, the artist Robert Goff. Goff regularly joined the Miles’s at their villa on the Italian coast and they shared a love of the country. Also amongst Goff’s works Mrs Whapshare bought was this painting of Kings Weston, dated 5th September 1911, and looking across Shirehampton Park. The haystacks in the middle distance are at the bottom of Longcombe, now on the golf course, and the present location of a utilitarian steel shed, but the focus of the painting appears to be the twisted red pine tree, a feature that appears in many of Goff’s other works.

Last October volunteers from KWAG, along with families from around the estate, came up for our 7th annual Big Bulb Plant. Our target was to plant over 8000 daffodil bulbs on The Centre. This are was the historic heart of the landscaped parkland, and remains the focus of the paths and avenues crossing the estate today.

The October event was our most popular yet, and the bulbs have now burst to life in dramatic fashion! The whole are is now richly golden with a dense field of flowers and are proving quite an attraction. The daffodils can be seen far across the park, appearing in views up the main avenues, from the lawns around the house, and from the path from the public car park on Shirehampton Road.

It’s difficult to imagine that just a few years ago this same area was a deep jungle 8 feet deep in brambles and hemmed-in with invasive cherry laurel. KWAG volunteers have gradually cleared the area and have been methodically keeping on top of regrowth since then. The flowering of the bulbs marks a huge landmark in reversing the tide of neglect and enhancing the parkland.