9th December 1955 SS
SANDON Has Watched the Wayfarers of Centuries Pass By…
ARTICLE By “J.A.”
To a great many non-Staffordshire people, the feudal village of Sandon is merely a glimpse of quaint country dwellings straddling the great highway, an anonymous roadside hamlet somewhere along the way on the London-Manchester run.
Such a pity it is that these relentless travellers must be in, through, and out of Sandon in little more than five seconds, taking with them only a windscreen memory of the village scene. Could they but know it, they are roaring through charm, through history, and through an exquisite remnant of Old England.
Although the screech and the rattle of Progress is literally on Sandon’s front doorstep, the villagers treat this continuous disturbance with splendid disregard. Or perhaps they are so accustomed to it as to be completely immune to noise.
For Sandon, be it remembered, has watched the wayfarers of centuries pass by, and heard the sounds of travel change over the years from clopping hooves to howling exhausts.
Sandon has its quiet bypaths away from the roadway, of course, and if you care to walk about half a mile up one of these to the fine old Parish Church, you will come to a gentle hillside place where the only sounds are the bird calls and the rustle of treetops in the breeze.
Looking back from the church, a wide vale of the Trent stretches out in front, and long expanses of Mid-Staffordshire country come into view.
From other high points near here, the famous spires of Lichfield make a smudge on the southern horizon behind Cannock Chase, and over to the south-west the familiar hulk of the Wrekin pierces the winter light.
The church stands on the edge of the Sandon Hall estate, the delightful home of of the Earls of Harrowby since the latter half of the 18th century, and the pride of the loyal and tightly-knit village community.
Here is a marriage of Nature’s arts and the best of Man’s history, surrounded by magnificent sweeps of parkland covering over 5,000 acres.
The estate has a long history, from the time William the Conqueror gave it to Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester, and through the centuries it passed through the hands of various great families before the first Baron Harrowby bought it.
Treasure House
The fine hall, which was built in 1852 after fire had destroyed the original Elizabethan mansion, has a main front 200 feet in length, and is built in the Tudor style, modified by the Greek influence.
Stone quarried on the estate was used in the building, which was designed by a leading London architect, William Burns.
A treasure house of art pieces and historic bric-a-brac, Sandon Hall reflects the wide travel and interests of the Ryder family.
There are pictures by old masters, family portraits, and collections of antiques and curios from the world over.
A feature of great interest is the Polish vestibule, in which is a beautiful tapestry depicting the arms of all the Polish provinces and portraits of leading Polish nobility.
The second Earl showed great friendship towards Poland, and the present Lord Harrowby, and Lady Harrowby, further exemplified the family’s interest in that country when they visited a Polish Army camp at Keele just after the last war.
In the grounds there are memorials to two Prime Ministers of this country. A 75-foot column, modelled on the famous Trajan column, was erected to the Younger Pitt by his Foreign Secretary, the first Earl of Harrowby, and a Gothic Shrine is to Spencer Perceval, the premier who was shot in the lobby of the House of Commons.
Another fine masonic piece on the estate is part of the tower which Sir Charles Barry—the man who built the Houses of Parliament—raised at Trentham Hall.
This was taken to Sandon when the former house of the Duke of Sunderland was taken down early this century.
The Ryder family has been associated with the political and public life of England for generations, ever since Sir Digby Ryder was appointed Lord Chief Justice in 1754.
He died on the day that George III created him Baron Harrowby, and thus he never held the title.
His son, Nathaniel, became the first Lord Harrowby and he purchased Sandon from Lord Archibald Hamilton in 1777.
It was Nathaniel’s son, Dudley, who was a great friend of the Younger Pitt, and became the first Earl of Harrowby and Viscount Sandon in 1809. He himself refused the premiership in 1827.
The first Earl’s oldest son carried on the family’s tradition of public service, And it was he who showed much sympathy with Poland in her attempts to free herself from Russian domination.
He was also a founder of the Staffordshire Agricultural Society.
First Chairman
The third Earl became the first Chairman of the Staffordshire County Council, held several Cabinet offices, and was appointed Lord Privy Seal in 1885. He was largely instrumental in the passing of the Education Act of that same year.
When the third Earl died in 1900 he was succeeded by his brother, the Hon. Henry Ryder, who, however, died in the same year without ever taking up residence at Sandon.
The fifth and present Earl John Henry Dudley Ryder, succeeded in the title as the eldest son, and for over half-a-century he has rendered great service to Staffordshire as Lord Lieutenant, from which he retired in 1948—a member of the County Council, in the administrative work of the Territorial Army, and in furthering many good causes. He has also been a soldier and a Member of Parliament.
Public Service
At 91, Lord Harrowby can look back on a life of great public service and of equally great married happiness.
He and Lady Harrowby celebrated their 68th wedding anniversary on November 16th and at their golden wedding—now almost a generation ago—Lord Harrowby described his bride as “a perfect wife, one who shares all my joys and sorrows, and who has been a real help, a real pal.”
Lady Harrowby, who is 88, was the daughter of the Right Hon. William Henry Smith, M.P., whose name is perpetuated by that of the famous firm of booksellers and newsagents.
In 1919 she became a Dame of the Order of the British Empire, and her many interests have embraced the Mothers’ Union, Girl Guides, Women’s Institute, Waifs and Strays Society, and Personal Service League.
To these many public pursuits Lady Harrowby has also added the skills of an enthusiastic gardener.
She knows the names and histories of almost every tree and plant in the grounds of Sandon Hall.
Norman Family
One of the great names in Staffordshire about 300 years ago was Erdeswicke, and the family, descendants of the Normans, held their home at Sandon. The moat which guarded their manor house can still be seen.
The Erdeswickes have permanent associations with Sandon Parish Church, through the mighty monuments installed there by several members of the family.
Hugh stands in 15th century armour, with his wife, son and daughter-in-law, and the first Sampson Erdeswicke lies with a dog at his feet.
But the tomb of the second Sampson Erdeswicke, the antiquary and Staffordshire chronicler, who died in 1603, is the most striking of all.
He lies in a recumbent attitude, accompanied by his two wives, but the hands which were raised in an attitude of prayer, are broken off.
This damage is believed to have been caused by Parliamentary soldiers in 1643, on the day before the battle of Hopton Heath, with which Sandon Church has other close associations.
Sampson Erdeswicke, who did much work restoring the church, built his own tomb during his lifetime, and painted the chancel walls with his family tree.
His second wife, a Leicester heiress, had a son by her first marriage who was one of the chief conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot, and who went to the scaffold for his crimes.
Of Hugh Erdeswicke, it was said that he was “the sorest and most dangerous Papist in England.” He was reputed to have struck a magistrate “upon the pate with his crabtree staff.”
This little affair happened in the churchyard—perhaps under one of the great old yew trees.
Ancient Church
Sandon’s original church was built shortly after the Conquest by one of the Barons de Malbanc, and confirmation that the original church was Norman was discovered in the last century during repair work, when a stone with Norman zig-zag designs was found.
After the Reformation, the patronage passed from the dissolved Abbey of Combermere into the hands of the Lords of the Manor.
The south aisle is considered to be the body of the original church, and the nave and chapel are over 600 years old. There are Norman and Jacobean fonts, and ancient glass in the sanctuary.
A white stone near the porch marks the resting place of one of the church’s famous vicars, Walter Careless, who was a companion of Charles II in the oak tree at Boscobel.
The vicar’s wife was formerly Anne Hector, an intimate friend of Dr. Johnson, and reported to be that great man’s first love.
Elsewhere in the churchyard there is a grave which is said to be that of a highwayman who met his death at Sandon. Certainly the curious shape of a horse and rider on the gravestone would bear out this legend.
Sandon’s link with the Battle of Hopton Heath in 1643 began on the Sunday before the clash, when the Roundheads passed through the village.
The exact position of the battle is not known, but it probably took place two miles or so to the south of Sandon, somewhere near Hopton Pools.
A chronicler described the battlefield as “full of coalpits and dangerous to their horse, and there were some pools thereabouts.”
There are a number of eye-witness accounts of the battle available, and both sides are said to have won the day by the varying historians! Perhaps a middle course would serve as the best narration here.
The Parliamentarians had marched from Lichfield under Sir John Gell to attack Stafford Castle, where the Royalists had strongly garrisoned the town.
But the Earl of Nothampton, hearing of Gell’s victories at Lichfield, hastened to join the King’s forces at Stafford.
Gell knew he would be outnumbered now, so he retreated to Hopton, where he knew help would soon be at hand.
It came in the shape of a large number of North Staffordshire moorlanders, who had rallied around Sir William Brereton, the Roundhead leader, in Newcastle.
Heroic Earl
About 3,000 Parliamentarians then surged towards Stafford, hoping that the Earl of Northampton would do battle with them outside the walls. Their hopes were realised when the Earl rode from the gates with a force of about 1,000.
Although the King’s forces were outnumbered, the number of horses was nearly equal, and in the first charge the Earl’s cavaliers scattered the enemy.
But the pools in the battlefield gave the footmen a near-equality with the horsemen, and the rebels rallied determinedly.
Leading a charge, the Earl of Northampton was brought down, but, surrounded by enemies, he fought on with the greatest courage and slew a number of men, including the Colonel-of-Foot, before he eventually died a hero’s death.
When he was finally overcome, his enemies offered mercy, but the Earl scornfully refused it, and fought on until a blow from the rear slew him.
During the battle a cottage on the heath was used as a “first-aid” centre for the wounded, and local rustics said afterwards that over 600 bodies were taken away from the field the following day.
Since Hopton Heath has been enclosed, it is said the plough has, from time to time, turned up human bones and weapons.
Evidence that at least one of the soldiers was buried at Sandon Church was found in 1839 during church repairs.
Part of the foundations of the east wall was disturbed and there the astonished workman discovered a human skull with a clean bullet hole through it.
Market Place
Soon after the battle the Plague spread its terrors all over England, and while it was raging at Stafford gteh market was held at Sandon, instead of the county town.
Remains of an old market pillar, where the tradesmen gathered with their goods, have been discovered during the last century.
Long before the Hopton Heath encounter, Sandon had its own men of war. In the chaotic 14th-century England Sir James Stafford, M.P., lived at Sandon, and, besides being a law-maker, he was a law-breaker.
This high-class criminal murdered Alexander de Swynnerton and John de Pichford, took part in serious riotings at Ipstones and was eventually outlawed.
About this time Sandon was probably still “Scandone”, as was its designation in Domesday. The root of the name is probably the Anglo-Saxon sand-dün—a “sandhill.”
The last vicar of Sandon was the Rev. W.B. Buckland, who left in July to become Rector of St. James’ Church, Longton. Since then, there has been an interregnum, but a new incumbent is due to arrive early in the new year.
A man who knows as much about Sandon as anyone is forthright Mr. Sam Berrisford, Chairman of the Parish Council, who lives in part of Sandon Lodge—the old Dog and Doublet, which was an important posting house in the days of the coach. The other part is occupied by Colonel Arthur Jerrett.
After the great fire had destroyed Sandon Hall in the last century, Lord Harrowby and his family made their temporary residence at Sandon Lodge, and the old signboard was removed to the present vilalge in in The Square.
At the bottom of Mr. Berrisford’s garden there is a circular Elizabethan bowling green—now rather overgrown—where travelling gentlemen of centuries ago found rest and recreation after the long ride.
Mr. Berrisford maintains that his home is haunted by an old man in brown clothes and a little wig—possibly “Mine Host” at the old Dog and Doublet.
Discussing modern Sandon, Mr. Berrisford, who is Vice-Chairman of Stone Rural District Council, says that a large portion of Sandon and nearly the whole of Burston, which is in the parish, is still without piped water but schemes are afoot for remedying this. Sandon’s water supply comes from a borehole, a reservoir and a windmill pump.
Mrs. Berrisford has been the Weekly Sentinel correspondent in Sandon since the war years.
There are, of course, no new houses in Sandon, and great efforts have been made to preserve the beauty of the village by Lord Harrowby, the principal landowner.
There are no overhead wires across Sandon, and new electric lights erected in the village in recent years are pleasantly unobtrusive.
But, alas, the village smithy is gone. It is now a haystore.
Both Sandon’s social centres—the village club rooms and the parish room—are half-a-century old.
The village club, in The Square, was presented to the village exactly 50 years ago by the present Earl, and Sandon Parish Room was erected in 1902 by villagers and friends as a memorial to the third Earl.
The two centres provide practically all the social life for something like 1,000 people, with whom dances, badminton and other indoor games are the most popular pastimes.
The village club rooms are also used by Sandon Cricket Club when they hold their home matches (all friendlies).
Sandon also has a football team — Hill Vale Rovers—in the Stafford Amateur League. They play on a pitch hard by the three other transport routes which run through Sandon beside the road.
These are the canal, railway and River Trent, all of which were used in the last century.
The new bridge across the Trent replaced an old pack horse bridge, which had inlets for people to stand in to make way for traffic. In rough weather the Trent used to flood above this bridge.
Wild Cherries
Sandon has been fortunate in the past, in that progress has never had any material effect on the village—after all, the traffic is not a lasting eyesore—but in the future the road through Sandon is going to be widened, and this means that a plot of wild cherry trees on the roadwide will have to be removed.
The village is noted for [cont. page 9 – His Home is Set in a Sylvan Wonderland] its wild cherry trees, and the Countess of Harrowby planted one in the village square to commemorate the jubilee of King George and Queen Mary.
The distinctive war memorial in The Square is the design of Sir Guy Dawber.
There are a number of old people in Sandon, but the Earl and Countess far outstrip all opposition in longevity.
But even they had to be [sic] bow the knee to the late Mr. John Wright, organist, who died about two years ago at the grand age of 102.
Two Shops
Just finding their feet in Sandon are the village’s two shopkeepers, both of whom have only arrived in recent years.
Mr. C.C. Welsh has the general provisions store in the main road, and a few yards away on the opposite side Mrs. Evelyn Warhurst has her low-beamed premises as Sub-Postmistress and stationer.
The post office building has served successively as a tailor’s shop, reading room and tea room.
Mrs. Warhurst’s husband and son both work in Stafford—like many other Sandon menfolk—and her father, Mr. Andrew Wood, was butler to Lord Harrowby for a few years.
Sylvan Wonderland
One of Lord Harrowby’s estate workers who knows every acre, tree and rabbithole (while there were still some rabbits) on the park is Mr. Geoffrey Merrick, who is head gamekeeper and has worked in these beautiful surroundings for the last 28 years.
His home, painted in black and white imitation of the Tudor style, nesles in an enchanting dell in the Earl’s woodlands, and there are Queen Anne-style chimneys.
He and his wife have lived in this sylvan wonderland since 1940, and their contentment is shared by Mr. and Mrs. Harry Everson who also share the building with them. Mr. Everson is a bricklayer’s labourer on the estate.
Assisted by Mr. Ian Webster, Mr. Merrick has charge of all game over a stretch of 5,000 acres, and, now that Sir George Nelson has acquired the shooting rights on the estate, the gamekeeper is kept busier than ever.
A native of Gloucestershire, Mr. Merrick was a gamekeeper on an estate in Herefordshire before he came to Sandon. He and his wife have one daughter, who works at the English Electric Company, Stafford.
Two people who had the unusual experience of becoming the caretakers of the village school they attended as children are Miss Gladys Emery and her brother, Thomas.
Their mother was caretaker before them, and they lived at the school premises as children. It is unlikely that they were ever late for school!
Miss Watson has been the village schoolmistress for 21 years, but, strangely enough, she has never settled in the village. She lodges during the week with Miss Bently in a house behind the Post Office, and goes home to Sudbury at the week-end.
The Secretary
A man who might be called “Secretary of Sandon” is Mr. Tom Holford, of The Square—who claims, incidentally, that he was the first person to call the road junction in the centre of the village “The Square.”
He has been Secretary of the Village Club since 1946, Secretary of Sandon Cricket Club since 1936, Secretary of the Parish Church Council for many years, and Secretary of the Scout troop. The only thing he has hasn’t been secretary of is the British Legion branch.
Mr. Holford, who is a young 60, was a prominent sportsman in his earlier days, and played both football and cricket for Stafford Lotus Company, where he has worked for 46 years.
His son, Charles, has also worked there 20 years, and Mr. Holford thinks this is “something of a record.”
His son is a well-known cricketer, and has twice played for Staffordshire. He scored over 1,000 runs last season for his club, Little Stoke.
As Secretary of the Parochial Church Council, Mr. Holford sen. was closely connected with the effort which raised £3,000 in eight years for Sandon Church renovation.
The organ was repaired, and new lighting and heating installed with the money.
Reach PLC. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD
