Henry Lytton Cobbold

Lovely weather, the height of summer, and the largest village in Hertfordshire – at time of writing – has no pubs.  Do not panic.  Keep calm, carry on… and be assured that normal service will be resumed, for certain, at the Lytton Arms.

The temporary shut down of Old Knebworth’s pub is the result of the shocking and sad death of the publican James Price in May.  Our thoughts are with James’s family at this difficult time.

The freehold owner of the pub, the charity, the Knebworth House Education and Preservation Trust, is committed to the future of the Lytton Arms.  There are complex lease and legal issues to sort out, but much hard work is underway to get the pub up and running again… and hopefully there will be some summer remaining when the doors reopen.  Which they will.

Henry Lytton Cobbold
www.knebworthhouse.com

If two actors are perfect for the part, the producer will give the role to the one who has more followers on social media.  If one actor appears slightly better for the part, the producer will probably still give the part to the one who has more followers on social media.  It is the world today.  Your social media face is becoming more important that your actual face.  It will take those of us born in an age when post cards were sent a while to get used to this… But for all the potential negatives of this brave new world, there are some immediate positives.  For instance, if you don’t have a face – now you can have one!

The Knebworth House Archive is wonderful resource of historic artefacts and papers about the community of Knebworth and the people who have lived here over the centuries, that – thanks to the Knebworth House Education and Preservation Trust – has part time archivists; but, until last month, no face.  Now it has “Knebworth Archive @bulwerlyttonweb”, a ‘Twitter handle’ that you can ‘follow’; and through which it will publish, on a weekly basis, interesting discoveries made by these archivists; and through which, you, and the world, can now interact with them (they’re called Clare and Jill, by the way).  And if the word ‘Twitter’ means nothing to you more than the happy garden melody of a summer evening, well, the Knebworth House Archive also now has a website – a face on your computer on which you can read its ‘Tweets’ – www.bulwerlytton.com – a face for the future, to tell of the past.

Henry Lytton Cobbold
www.knebworthhouse.com

The story of Chas Lowe & Sons goes back to the very beginnings of Knebworth Garden Village.  It was Monday 20^th November 1905 when Charles Lowe bought his first plot off the Knebworth Estate.  It was a condition of sale that he did not erect a pigsty or allow a house on wheels to remain on the site, and that the property he built should cost at least £400 in addition to any stabling.  Mr Lowe purchased four more plots in 1908, two for £75 and two for £138.  By the time he bought a further plot in 1922, it was required that at least £1600 be spent on the building.

Since then, Chas Lowe’s has been at the very heart of our village, filling our shops and cafes with people from all over the district, as they popped in to pick up some lengths of 2×4, or a lock chain, or a tub of exterior gloss.  The builders’ merchant has kept our village vibrant, whilst other villages – for instance our closest neighbour to the south – have become sleepier as their commerce has drifted away.

But maybe we want our villages to be sleepier.  Few supported the idea ten years ago of keeping the business close by relocating it to the railway-side field to the south of Monread Nursing Home and opening up its High Street site as a village centre or village green.  And many, I know, will not miss the delivery lorries that have got bigger and noisier over the years, since the days of ‘stabling’.  But I suspect, after 112 years, we will miss Chas Lowe & Sons.

I certainly will.

Henry Lytton Cobbold
www.knebworthhouse.com

So I have finally finished my book.  If you have spent any time with me over the last 17 years, you will no doubt have had your ear bent at some point about my great-great-great-aunt Emily Bulwer Lytton (1828-1848), and how, in 1999, we stumbled upon her open coffin in the previously bricked up Mausoleum in Knebworth Park, and a box of unread cross-written letters that she wrote that have been hidden in our Attic since the 1840s.  (Cross-written letters are where the correspondent turns the paper 90 degrees and writes over what they have already written – until postage got cheaper in the 1860s it was common.  They are fiendishly difficult to the modern eye.  And even harder when written, as Emily sometimes does when telling secrets, in Old German!)

17 years later – almost as long as Emily’s tragic short life – I have at last finished writing her story, and the story of the extraordinary adventures I have had uncovering its mysteries and debunking its legends.  It is a tale of a tormented heroine, villainous celebrity parents, violence, scandal, abuse, abandonment, gothic governesses and foreign doctors, a passionate adolescent love story, a tragic haunting mysterious death as Europe burns in the flames of revolution… I wish I could persuade you to buy it.  And yet I know I will struggle.  Because in my enthusiasm I have made it almost 1000 pages long, across two beautiful full-colour illustrated volumes – that are consequently not inexpensive.  I couldn’t help it.  The story was just too good to boil down.

So you will have to take my word for it.  Or maybe get a taste of the story by taking a guided tour of Knebworth House this Easter Holidays – we have a small exhibit on Emily and the biography which some of you may have seen on the Parish Open Day.  Alternatively, you could weigh up the difference between the cost of a family meal out, and my volumes – and decide that maybe two beautiful hardbacks and hours of fascinating stories and images are worth the equivalent of a night out at the Italian or the Indian. If you do, God Bless You – the set is £60 bought with cash or cheque at our Estate Office.  If you go looking for it on Amazon, with shipping, it is more like £80 – and for that I totally understand a preference for dinner out with pudding and a fancy bottle of wine!

Henry Lytton Cobbold
www.knebworthhouse.com

When we lose a prominent garden tree, that we have lived with every day for sometimes hundreds of years, it is like losing a member of our extended family.  We were particularly saddened a couple of years ago by the death of one of Knebworth House Gardens’ two most prominent cedar trees.  Rather than lose the tree completely, we asked local chainsaw carvers Dennis Heath and Dave Flemons to create some Lytton family sculptures and motifs out of the base of the trunk, which since have been much enjoyed by our visitors.  Now we are thrilled to have planted a beautiful new cedar tree alongside the old trunk, which we look forward to living with for another couple of hundred years.  It is like welcoming a new member to the family!

We are also looking forward to welcoming you to the House and Gardens for our Parish Open Day, which this year is on Mother’s Day, Sunday 26^th March.  Please join us via the gate at St Mary’s and bring this magazine with you to let us know you live in the parish.  We hope the weather is good and you and your family enjoy a lovely day.

Finally this month all at Knebworth House and Park mourn the passing of Alan Sapsed, who with his family has farmed the fields around Knebworth village for as long as anyone alive will remember.  Alan was the very best of farmers, the very best of neighbours, and the enormous wealth of local knowledge that passes away with him, I in particular, will sorely miss.  We salute you Alan – thank you for your fine custodianship for so many years of the beautiful landscapes of Knebworth village.

Henry Lytton Cobbold
www.knebworthhouse.com

New Cedar in Knebworth House Gardens – February 2017

In these winter months, without much incentive in the snow and the cold to go visiting gardens and parks, and most historic houses closed for repairs and maintenance, I suggest an outing into town to renew your acquaintance with London’s world class museums.  The V&A is currently hosting the exhibition “Lockwood Kipling: Arts and Crafts in the Punjab and London” to highlight the beautiful design and illustration work of John Lockwood Kipling (1837-1911), until now probably better known as the father of Rudyard Kipling.  My great-great-grandfather Robert Lytton, as Viceroy of India in 1877, commissioned Kipling Sr. to design the great Delhi Durbar (which is the focus of our permanent “Indian Exhibition” at Knebworth House).  Consequently, our painting of the Durbar is on display at the V&A exhibition, hung prominently, newly glazed, and every detail beautifully lit.

It hangs just behind a rarely seen John Millais portrait of Robert Lytton made just before he went to India.  This fine painting has been in the V&A vaults for 100 years – which seems a shame when we’d have been delighted to show it off on the walls of Knebworth House!  Robert can also be seen in outline in a small picture from Bowood House next to the Durbar picture.  The Exhibition is not large, but has lovely things in it, and a little taste of India does wonders for taking the chill out of a February afternoon!

Henry Lytton Cobbold
www.knebworthhouse.com

Lots to look forward to in 2017 at Knebworth Park.  Our year clambers, climbs and scrambles to a start with the Muddy Mayhem 5K Obstacle Race in aid of Garden House Hospice Care on Saturday 18^th March.  We celebrate the beginning of our open season by welcoming the whole Parish on our Parish Open Day, Sunday 26^th March.  This year our Open Day is also Mother’s Day, so the perfect opportunity to take Mum for a walk amongst the daffodils.  Jousting returns on Easter Sunday and Monday, 16^th and 17^th April – hopefully the weather will be kinder this year! – and also on Father’s Day, 18^th June, a perfect day to set about Dad’s shins with your plastic sword.  We have a new Great British Food Festival on the weekend of 22^nd and 23^rd of July and a new Great British Prom classical music event on Sunday 20^th August.  And if the Great Balmy Mediterranean is where you would rather be in August, all is not lost, as you can come dancing at a new Classic Ibiza event, with live orchestra, the night before, Saturday 19^th August.  But the 2017 excitement my family is most looking forward to – since, now the kids have left home, the majority of us have two left feet – is a brand new event for Knebworth Park on the weekend of 24^th and 25^th June…  DogFest!

lining up for DogFest in Knebworth Park

Happy New Year!

Henry Lytton Cobbold
www.knebworthhouse.com

“If you don’t get turned on by Knebworth, you know what I mean, you must be ******* mental, you know what I mean…” announces the steel-tongued Liam Gallagher at the London premiere in October of the Oasis documentary “Supersonic”.  I think I know what he means and I’m pretty sure it’s a compliment.  The band’s record breaking concert in Knebworth Park in August 1996 is the climax of the film, and playing ‘Knebworth’ is presented as the crowning achievement for any aspiring rock band.  Sadly no rock band has achieved playing ‘Knebworth’ in the last two years – which is always a worry, as a concert is our insurance policy against bad weather during our open season, and in 2016 we had more than our fair share, particularly in early summer.

Films, however, have come to the rescue.  It has been a good autumn for filming at Knebworth House.  We have hosted: “Transformers 5” – two full days of work for what, in the finished film, will be a few seconds of a car driving on gravel; a film about A.A.Milne (author of Winnie-the-Pooh), as yet untitled; and “Victoria and Abdul”, starring Judi Dench as Queen Victoria, for which we again double as the interior of Balmoral.

This is the third time Knebworth House has played Balmoral – “The King’s Speech”, “The Crown” and now “Victoria and Abdul”.  I am not sure why the Queen bothers to go all the way to Scotland for Christmas, she might as well have it here!  This year she can join us in front of the T.V. for a big Christmas evening special, which also features Knebworth House (I am not allowed to spoil the surprise by saying which one).  It’ll be the third year in a row we’ve been on television on Christmas Day (previously it was the Amazon adverts during “Downton Abbey” – whose Spratt the butler is performing Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” in the Banqueting Hall on 10^th & 11^th December).  So, as Liam might say, turn on to ‘Knebworth’ this Christmas – it’ll be mental, you know what I mean!

Our very best Christmas wishes to all,

Henry Lytton Cobbold
www.knebworthhouse.com

This month we are involved in the three things that make us unpopular with our neighbours.  We are culling deer in our deer park, we are cutting down trees in New Wood as part of our Forestry Management Plan and we own land that is proposed for Greenbelt rollback and, if approved, development.  All three of these things make me uncomfortable – I am a vegetarian, even dead trees I like to preserve by making sculptures out of them, and I prefer country to town.  However I understand that in all three of these cases continued vitality is the result.

I see that our neighbours like it that we maintain a deer herd, I see that our neighbours enjoy walking the public footpaths through and past the woods that we are responsible for maintaining, and I see that our neighbours benefit from and enjoy living in the houses that have been built on our land since we purchased it off the Hotoft family (some time ago) and Knebworth was all green fields.  Ah, I hear you say, deer stock renews, woods renew, but open spaces once gone are lost forever.  But I see that over the years the majority have benefited by the evolution of New Knebworth.  I do believe development works best when there is a plan, and consequently I have spent a lot of time over the last 35 years involved in initiatives to investigate how change, if inevitable, might work for the better.  Ask me for positive examples of the loss of green fields and I point to what was built of Knebworth Garden Village in the early 1900s (e.g. Stockens Green) and the creation of Old Knebworth Village Green in the 1980s.

Change is unsettling, and makes us feel uncomfortable, but I suggest that Knebworth has an advantage over other communities.  As yet, no third party developers are involved in the larger areas of land proposed for change in Knebworth by North Herts District Council’s Plan, and the two families that are responsible for that land live in this area, work in this area, and have for a long time called our community home.  They are your neighbours, and as George Eliot wisely says in her novel ‘Middlemarch’, “I believe that people are almost always better than their neighbours think they are”.

Henry Lytton Cobbold
www.knebworthhouse.com

I visited Downton Abbey last year.  I sat next to Mrs Patmore, the cook, at dinner.  Before dinner we went downstairs, for a tour of the old servants’ halls.  It was the first time Mrs Patmore had ever been downstairs at Downton Abbey…

You’re thinking, he’s finally lost it.  Maybe you think I lost it long ago!  But all of the above is true.  Although, of course, I am talking about Highclere Castle and the actress Lesley Nicol – two of the stars of the TV show Downton Abbey.

This month I am delighted to announce that Downton Abbey will be visiting Knebworth House at Christmas.  I shall be welcoming Spratt, the Dowager Countess of Grantham’s butler, to give our fireside readings of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol in the Banqueting Hall on Saturday 10^th and Sunday 11^th of December.  Traditionally this popular perennial event sells out, so have your valet or ladies maid visit our website to reserve your place.  And be swift about it.  Jeremy Swift about it.

Henry Lytton Cobbold
www.knebworthhouse.com