Hasfield Court,
Gloucestershire
A
short history of Hasfield Court
|
Return to the Home Page of the Bakers Family part of the website |
The Bakers of Highfields Story
The Story of the Dods and Bakers and of Highfields,
Fenton House and Hasfield Court. A journey through the history of Cheshire and
Staffordshire, an Anglo-Saxon nobleman who retained his lands after the
Conquest, pottery at Stoke on Trent, an encounter with Elgar, and the history
of an Elizabethan manor house at Audlem |
The family tree of the Bakers of Highfields |
The Family Tree of the Dods, predecessors to the
Bakers of Highfields |
The Bakers of
Fenton House and Hasfield Court
The Family Tree of the pottery Bakers of Stoke on Trent |
The Family Tree of the Bellyse Family |
The main part
of this website tells the story of the Farndale family from Yorkshire Descendants of Arthur Baker, the story of the
Farndale ancestry is told through the main part of this website You can also return to the Farndale
website home page |
The genealogy of the family of James Hall, linked to
the Baker family through marriage to Arthur Baker |
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This page is work in progress
Hasfield Court is a Grade II listed manor
house in Hasfield, Gloucestershire, with origins
dating back to around 1200. The site began as a moated medieval manor house and
potential stronghouse in around 1200.
It was a medieval manor house, the
home of the Pauncefoot family from about 1199 until
1598.
Over the centuries, the site
evolved from a medieval stronghold into a Tudor manor and later underwent major
nineteenth century Victorian remodelling featuring a French Mannerist Revival
exterior. The house contains
sixteenth century Tudor wood panelling bearing the initials of Richard
Pauncefoot (died 1558) and Dorothy Pauncefoot (died 1568).
In the late seventeenth century it
was rebuilt or significantly altered by John Parker, with smaller updates in
the eighteenth century.
It was later owned by Thomas
Fulljames (1847–1863), the local county architect and surveyor, who made minor
adjustments.
In 1863, it was bought by William Baker IV (BAK00301) from Staffordshire, whose family later remodelled and
refaced the exterior in a striking French Mannerist Revival style. In
1863 he bought an estate called Hasfield Court, in
Gloucestershire, from a Mr. Fulljames whose father
had bought it from a relative of the Bakers. In fact William had stayed at the
house as a young boy and the memory of it had remained. A family story relates
that William bought Hasfield in order to grow exotic
fruits, especially bananas, in greenhouses there, well away from the smoke of
the Potteries. According to Pevsner Hasfield had been
owned by the Pauncefoot family from 1200 to 1598 when
they were obliged to sell owing to the persecution of recusants. Pevsner
thought that the mediaeval or early Tudor house was probably moated. [the
present owner doubts this]. The house itself is last half of C17 but contains
early Tudor features. William made plans to change it by refacing the brick
walls with stone and adding a porch but, sadly, he died before the move was
accomplished and the alterations were completed and paid for by his brother
Ralph who also added bay windows. (Dodd, F (1987), The Baker Family and Fenton,
Presidential Address in Transactions 1986 to 1987, The North
Staffordshire Field Club, page 14).
The lantern roof construction and the large round
headed windows of the conservatory allowed for the cultivation of a range of
exotic plants indoors, a popular pursuit not just inside the house but as part
of the development of the gardens in response to the introduction of many new
plant varieties. The restoration of the Victorian rooms and gardens at Hasfield Court will recapture a golden age for the house when
it was filled with music. Today these rooms can be visited as part of a
‘restoration in progress’ tour led by members of the family (Hasfield Court:
where Elgar played, Country Houses
Foundation).
When William Meath Baker (his
mother was the daughter of the Bishop of Meath) inherited Hasfield
Court from his uncle in 1865 (sic,
recte 1875), the house was a fine country seat
for a gentleman whose fortunes were founded in the Stoke-on-Trent potteries,
but it lacked space to enjoy some of the finer pursuits of a wealthy Victorian
life. Employing the architect, Frederick
Sandham Waller, Meath Baker commissioned a Billiard Room, Music Room and
adjoining Conservatory. The Music Room and Conservatory were adorned with fine
stained glass, appropriately featuring musical instruments in the Music Room
and apple and rose trees in the Conservatory. The Conservatory is lit by a glass
lantern roof and the restoration, with help from the Historic Houses
Foundation, is part of a larger plan by the family for the restoration of these
rooms and of the surrounding gardens. Outside as well, the gardens give a good
indication of the style of Victorian living at Hasfield
with a walled kitchen garden, beech maze, croquet lawn and far-reaching views
from the terrace across the Severn vale to the Cotswold escarpment. (Hasfield
Court: where Elgar played,
Country Houses Foundation).
In 1888 William Meath Baker
extended the house, adding a music room, a conservatory with a lantern roof,
and a billiard room. William Meath Baker was a close friend of composer Sir Edward Elgar, who frequently visited Hasfield Court. Three of Elgar’s famous Enigma Variations
(including Variation 4 for William Meath Baker himself) were based on members
of the Baker household.
W.M.B.
continued to be associated with Fenton up to his death in 1935. In 1933 his
name appears on the list of patrons of the Christmas Fair and Bazaar at the
Church. On the first day the Bazaar was opened by Mrs. Baker his
daughter-in-law. The factory ceased trading in the depression year of 1932 and
the major interest of the family in Fenton was reduced there-after. W.M.B.'s
grandson is the present owner of Hasfield
Court and there are sons to continue the line which started with the architect William
Baker and Jane Dod of Highfields. (Dodd, F
(1987), The Baker Family and Fenton, Presidential Address in Transactions
1986 to 1987, The North Staffordshire Field Club, page 20).
The historic property remains
owned by the Baker family. Ticketed
tours are arranged in afternoons.
Bibliography
Parishes: Hasfield, in A History of the County
of Gloucester, Volume 8, ed. C R Elrington
(London, 1968), British History Online, pages 282 to
290.
Features and History, Hasfield.
Historic England, Hasfield Court, 1091444,
National Heritage List for England.
Hasfield
Court: where Elgar played,
Country Houses Foundation.