Henry Lytton Cobbold

Classical trumpeter, Alison Balsom OBE, to John Wilson, “This Cultural Life”, 4th September 2025, BBC Radio 4:

“Our whole family, we’re really big fans of Queen, and my love of Queen comes from the fact that my grandparents live in Knebworth and we used to see a lot of them, and I remember my mum and my uncle in particular being really excited about going to hear them across the fields.  Me and my cousins and my brother, we weren’t old enough, and we were in my granny’s house just listening across the fields to this Queen concert – but the longing for this band…”

“Knebworth Village is some way away from Knebworth House where they were playing, but was it very clear?”

“Very clear.  Very exciting.  Very loud.  And we’d gone down earlier in the day and we’d seen the excitement, and the fact that I think, at the time, you know, if the security guards weren’t watching, you could probably sneak in, and there was a lot of excitement and longing that that would be us.”

“This would have been 1986, so you would have been 7 years old.”

“Yes, it’s sort of become mythical in my head, the fact that they were really playing live. And I feel that around that age, 7 or 8, I had so many powerful and quality experiences of music that have stayed with me, and I think the rest of my life is, sort of, searching for those moments of inspiration again, you know, that feeling of like, ‘wow’, I’ve just discovered this for the first time.”

“You say that they were mythical, Queen, in your head at the time. It’s a legendary concert that, because I think it was the last time that Freddie Mercury ever performed live – so that was quite a concert to have heard…”

Henry Lytton Cobbold
@HenryCobboldKH

I love it that as your plane begins its descent to Luton airport your first sight of England is Knebworth Park.  Not a bad introduction to England’s green and pleasant land.   Around the world, those watching Netflix’s No1 film at the beginning of August, “My Year At Oxford”, were introduced to an Oxford University Ball… taking place in front of Knebworth House.  The American heroine in the film falls in love with an Englishman living a house, the interior of which is… Knebworth House.  Yes, there’s more to England for foreign visitors to discover than Knebworth House and Park, but we are pleased to be on the front line!

Henry Lytton Cobbold
@HenryCobboldKH

Knebworth Festivals do have a history of world-class music, and this summer it was the turn of the Knebworth Village Festival to take that crown.  ‘Midsummer Mozart’ was billed as a ‘fringe’ event, but that can only mean ‘fringe’ as in ‘decoratively hanging in front of the face’ as this event was a particularly special addition to this year’s fine Festival line up.  It took place in beautiful St Martin’s church at the suggestion of local professional musicians, violinist Gaby Lester and her husband, horn player, Jonathan Williams.  They brought with them a chamber of seven other exceptional musicians to perform Mozart’s Horn Quintet K407 and Divertimento K334 – and, of special interest and relevance to Knebworth, Elisabeth Lutyens’ String Trio 1939.

Elisabeth Lutyens (1906-1983) was the daughter of architect Edwin Lutyens, designer of Knebworth Garden Village and of St Martin’s church, and Emily, née Bulwer Lytton, daughter of Robert Lytton of Knebworth House.  To hear Elisabeth’s work performed under a signature Lutyens arch in her father’s church was a special treat.  The splendid piece – rarely aired and with no known recording – was thrillingly dramatic and, it could be said, more gothic than her father’s taste.  This tarries with Elisabeth’s later career scoring films, particularly thrillers, including Hammer Horror movies such ‘Never Takes Sweets From A Stranger’.

This 1960 film was the personal favourite film of its late director Cyril Frankel, with whom I worked closely in my youth and whose small archive is now part of the Knebworth House Archive.  So, you can imagine my delight at this rare opportunity to hear my first-cousin-twice-removed’s work.  What a glorious and unique treat!  The Mozart was good too.

Henry Lytton Cobbold
@HenryCobboldKH

“It is indeed a dream to me that I should be writing to you on this delicious afternoon, under the oak-tree on the lawn of my grandmother’s garden – the bees humming, the birds hopping, the children capering around me – the sheep-bells drowsily tinkling from the distant Park – and Budget dozing in the mossiest turf at my feet, and the air bathed in the manifold scents of an English August.”  Robert Lytton, 1880.

My great-great-grandfather wrote these words the day he returned to Knebworth from four tumultuous years governing the Indian Raj as Queen Victoria’s Viceroy.  He had hosted 63 Indian princes and maharajas for the Imperial Assemblage at Delhi; he had faced the challenges of severe famine affecting 60 million people; he had survived an assassination attempt and lands still riddled with deadly cholera; he had ordered troops into Afghanistan when the British Mission in Kabul was massacred… and now he was sitting under this oak-tree in the peace of Knebworth House Garden with his little dog Budget (who’d accompanied him back from India) and his children playing around him.
It puts life into perspective when I sit under this oak-tree and contemplate what I’ve been up to for the last four years!  But a visit to this oak-tree was a fitting end to the conference we hosted in May for the University of Singapore to discuss Robert Lytton’s challenges in India.  And, goodness, what peace and tranquility this magnificent tree still spreads across this garden.

Henry Lytton Cobbold
@HenryCobboldKH

One the great pleasure in June is that the dogwood tree in Knebworth House’s Wilderness Garden is fully in bloom.  How magnificent it is!  With its white flowers, even in a black and white photo, how spectacular it looks.  Martha’s family in Alabama had a tradition of always planting a dogwood tree when one of their Great Danes died.  But the name does not refer to dogs.  Its etymology is thought to be from the word dag, or skewer, as the hardness of the wood made it popular to use for butchers’ skewers.  The wood was apparently also used for crucifixion crosses.  One wishes that the name and uses of such a beautiful tree had more beautiful origins.

I can assure you however that Dog Fest – which returns to Knebworth Park on 7th & 8th June – is wholly about dogs. 6000 of them are expected.  Dog Fest has beautiful origins – as an event to celebrate every aspect of dogs and dog companionship – and that too will be a beautiful sight this June.  So come join us this month in going to the dogs in Knebworth Park and Gardens!

Henry Lytton Cobbold
@HenryCobboldKH

What a beautiful day we had for our Parish Open Day!  We hosted almost 1000 parishioners; that’s about 20% of the village.  Our M.P. Kevin Bonavia joined us, attending also the Twinning AGM, on what I reminded him is meant to be his one day off (Sunday).  Here we are in front of Knebworth House… and, yes, that’s the 50 Years of Knebworth Rock Concerts jacket I’m wearing, because I’d been signing copies of my new book on the subject.

I’ll be doing that again on the second May Bank Holiday Monday (26th).  I’ll repeat the talk I gave for Knebworth Twinning last September, so if you missed it here’s a second chance to hear my romp through all the fun and frolics of 50 years of Knebworth Park Concerts.  I’ll do the talk at 11am and at 2pm, and your ticket will include a visit to our concert exhibit; and of course the Gardens and Park will be open for you to go find the spot in the field where you were standing when Led Zeppelin played ‘Stairway To Heaven’ or Oasis played ‘Wonderwall’.

Details are on the Knebworth House website, as they are for the other talk I’m giving in May, a repeat of another talk I have given for Knebworth Twinning, on the mystery surrounding my ancestor Emily Bulwer Lytton.  This talk will be in the context of the unusual peripatetic childhood she shared with her brother Robert, whose role as Viceroy of India during the Second Afghan War is the subject of a full day’s conference in the Cobbold Barn on Friday 16th May.  So, whether your interest is politics or rock & roll, there’s history for everyone at Knebworth House this May!

Henry Lytton Cobbold
HenryCobboldKH

As the former home of the novelist Edward Bulwer Lytton, Knebworth House is a member of LitHouses, a network of the Literary homes of Great Britain, that includes the homes of Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare, the Bronte sisters and many more. Surprisingly there isn’t an equivalent network for artists’ houses.  I was told on a recent visit to the impressive G. F. Watts Galleries in Surrey that, extraordinarily, it is the only museum in Great Britain open in the name of a single artist.  I had to think about that.  What about Gainsborough House in Suffolk?  No, although Gainsborough lived there and is well represented, that museum showcases a number of different artists.  Hogarth’s House in Chiswick?  It has Hogarth’s prints, but not galleries of paintings…  So where are all the artist’s museums?  Why aren’t more artists’ homes open to the public?

This painting that hangs in Knebworth House is not of Edward Bulwer Lytton.  It is of his son, Robert, who although also a writer, is better known to history as Viceroy of India during the 2nd Afghan War (1878-1880).  The University of Singapore is sponsoring a day’s seminar on Robert and this subject at Knebworth House on Friday 16^th May.  It is the first conference we have hosted on Robert and politics, as opposed to Edward and literature.  If you are interested in joining the day, details are on our website.  Who painted the painting?  Well, Britain’s only artist with their own museum.  G. F. Watts.

Henry Lytton Cobbold
HenryCobboldKH

This March edition of the magazine arrives in your letterbox just as the Oscars take place in Hollywood which, every year, makes me think of our late Great Dane Oscar (probably my best chance of getting an Oscar), and this favourite photo of him.  We miss our Oscar, but these lovely daffodils return every March to remind us of him.

Knebworth does feature in an Oscar-nominated movie this year – the Robbie Williams film “Better Man” is up for Best Visual Effects.  This Australian-produced film apparently went to Serbia to recreate Knebworth – yes, that doesn’t make much sense to me either, but maybe it helps its chances in this category.  We don’t have to go to Serbia, we have Knebworth right here.  And if you want special Visual Effects, just come see these daffodils in Knebworth House Gardens on our Parish Open Day!

This year our Parish Open Day is on Sunday 25th March, also Mother’s Day, and the beginning of British Summer Time – so, an hour less in bed, but “the Winner is…” any Knebworth resident who’d like a day with Mum in Knebworth House Gardens.  Your invite is a copy of this magazine – bring it to the gate at St Mary’s.  No red carpet to be photographed on, but there will be a carpet of beautiful yellow daffodils for you to pose in front of!

Henry Lytton Cobbold
@HenryCobboldKH

Enjoyed a pleasant pause on the new bench in the Recreation Ground, dedicated to my parents David and Chryssie.  A quiet winter day, with just a few dogs out walking their owners.  What a lovely place to sit and contemplate the world!  Thank you to the Parish Council for arranging the purchase, the plaque, and the siting of this fine new bench.

It is almost 100 years since my great-grandfather Victor opened the Rec.  The Hertfordshire Express of May 29^th 1929 records that in a speech in front of a Bank Holiday crowd of over 2,000, he “hoped that the future of the ground would be as cloudless as the sky was that day.”  The chairman of the Parish Council, Mr. T. Lester Sayer, “thanked Lord Lytton for his gift.  It was (he said) one of the finest, if not the finest, recreation grounds in that party of the country.”  I do hope ‘party of the country’ is not a newspaper misprint, and either the chairman’s Freudian slip that fete day, or otherwise a charming 1920s expression!

Mr. Sayer continued that he was “pleased to say that the school authorities had arranged to make full use of the ground for both boys and girls.  One had (he said) only to look around the ground to realise the immense benefit it would at once be to Knebworth.  Not many of them could wait to see what it would mean to Knebworth in 50 years’ time: but looking forward even ten years, and with a speck of imagination one must see that that day was a great day for Knebworth.”  Hear, hear, I say… from a winter’s day almost 100 years on.

Henry Lytton Cobbold
@HenryCobboldKH

Another Year!  Lots of positive things to look forward to.  Spring.  Snowdrops, daffodils, bluebells, June busting out all over…  But a few of the old chestnuts are still hanging around.  Are you sufficiently holidayed and refreshed for yet another tussle about vehicle traffic in Knebworth?  I’m afraid it’s coming.

KB 1 & 2 proposals for residential development along the western edge of New Knebworth are being presented for consultation in the Village Hall from 4pm to 8pm on Monday 13^th January.  I have been working with housebuilder partners to negotiate the Local Authority hoops, hurdles and rule changes for about seven years now, and I wish I could say I was more positive about what is being proposed.  Having played an active part in the many village consultations since the last Local Plan in 1996, I know exactly what the general feeling will be about these proposals.

Fundamentally, they don’t answer the key negative raised in all these consultations, Knebworth’s historic backlog of road and access infrastructure.  Current Highways ideology and policy – which may be perfectly splendid for other communities – does not work for Knebworth.  This is, plain and simple, for historic and landscape reasons, not because Knebworth is looking to buck a trend.  County Highways appear to answer to no one, and so the proposals to be presented have not been allowed to bring forward community-driven solutions.  What we have instead – as the people who live here will immediately see – looks set to make the problems worse, across the whole village.

Having said that, the 30 years of consultations also raised a key positive of Knebworth as its ‘Garden Village’ heritage; and this – where allowed to – the proposals do draw on, and seek to reflect in a contemporary context.  With your support, we should be able to create good and attractive neighbourhoods, with hedges, trees, snowdrops and daffodils…  We just won’t be able to get in or out of them.

Henry Lytton Cobbold
HenryCobboldKH