It’s extraordinary what pops out of the woodwork… or in this case, the plasterwork. A radiator leak in Park Gate House (the last house on the right before Nup End), meant a ceiling had to be re-plastered. During the work, this photo of a woman fell from under the floorboards of the room above. All that is written on it is “Paton & Humphrey, Photographers, Kilmarnock and Campbellton”.
‘Cambellton’ – here’s a mystery that’s right up the street of Knebworth House Archivist Jill Campbell (of the Scottish Campbells)! Researching the photographers, she discovered that they flourished at 123 King Street, Kilmarnock, between 1864 and 1867. So was there a Scottish connection to the tenant at Park Gate House soon after this date?
Yes, there was. A Matthew Gray and his wife were living there in the 1881 census, both born in Scotland. Mr Gray was the Land Agent for my great-great-grandfather Robert Lytton (1831-1891). He was dismissed from his post in 1891, although allowed to retain the tenancy of Broadwater Farm. We don’t know the circumstances of the falling out, but mention is made in one of Robert’s letters that “the course he thought fit to take was not satisfactory to me”. We know he had made himself unpopular with the hunting community, as the leader of a group of farmers who barred the local Hunt from crossing their farmland. But more likely to have been an issue with the Lytton family was a “small dispute on the ice (presumably on the lake in Knebworth Park) between the skaters and curlers” in which Mr Gray supported the curlers. The Lyttons have always been great skaters.
If you have a mystery that relates to Knebworth’s past, do contact Jill in the Knebworth House Archives to see if she can shed light on it – jcampbell@knebworthhouse.com.
Henry Lytton Cobbold
@HenryCobboldKH