Notable Occupants of the Grand Houses of Abbots Langley
web site researched and maintained by Lesley and Tim Brooks, Abbots Langley
#3 Cecil Lodge
Built c1760, demolished 1953
Cecil Lodge and its surrounding estate stood on the Bedmond Road looking up Abbots Langley High Street , (across where the mini-roundabout is today)
Another view of Cecil Lodge
Map showing location of Cecil Lodge relative to the Church
The history of the building is described in an article by Clive Clark on Cecil Lodge, published in 1994 in the Abbots Langley Local History Society Journal no 1
The Notable Occupants of Cecil Lodge
James Cecil, Viscount Cranborne, (later, 1st Marquess Of Salisbury)
Owner/occupant, Cecil Lodge 1773 -1780
Portrait by by Daniel Orme, published by Edward Orme stipple engraving, published 1 August 1796. Collection of the National Portrait Gallery ref NPG D13724
Information from William Noble is that that Lady Browne bought Cecil Lodge in 1773 from a Mrs Legrande for her nephew Lord Cranborne (James Cecil) as a wedding present.
They lived there for seven years until he moved to Hatfield House to take up his seat, when his sister-in law, the widowed Lady Charlotte Hill, Countess Talbot, moved in, staying for a further 4 years
Read more about James Cecil here
Lady Emily Mary Hill Countess of Salisbury (wife of James Cecil above)
occupant, Cecil Lodge 1773 -1780
Mary Amelia 'Emily Mary' Cecil, 1st Marquess of Salisbury, (1750 – 1835) Painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds 1780 /CCO
Lady Charlotte Hill Countess Talbot of Hensall
occupant, Cecil Lodge 1780-1804
Portrait of Lady Talbot by Sir Joshua Reynolds 1723–1792 Tate Britain . Photo © Tate Images ID #: N05640
W H Smith
Bookseller
Occupant, Cecil Lodge 1864-1870
Source: by John Douglas Miller, after George Richmond, mezzotint, published 1883 © National Portrait Gallery, London
WH Smith expanded his father’s booksellers and newsagent Business, by recognising the opportunity to have a stall on every Railway Station, and built the empire we know today. Hertfordshire Magistrate, and MP for Westminster, he rose to the position of first Lord of the Admiralty, and due to his lack of Naval experience was supposedly the model for WS Gilbert’s character Sir Joseph Porter in HMS Pinnafore.
In 1866 the Abbots Langley Waterworks Company was set up after a tenants of Cecil Lodge provided the capital. Initially the Lodge’s water tower was employed but 1886 water was being pumped from a new artesian well at Hunton Bridge up to a specially built tank located off Love Lane. Project was aided by William Turnbull at Rosehill, another notable resident of Abbots Langley.
More about WH Smith here
The Mure Family (sometimes MUIR)
See a reproduction of the complete Three Bears manuscript held in Toronto Library here
Occupants, Cecil lodge 1832 - 1848
Noted here because Eleanor Mure produced a hand-made story-book telling the traditional story of 'The Three Bears' in rhyme for her nephew, Horace (then 4 years old).
The 1841 Census shows the occupants as James Mure (81) (his wife, Frederica Sophia Mure, née Metcalfe, is not listed, having died in 1834)
....together with some of their children....
Frederica Sofia (45) (I have assumed that Frederica is wrongly listed in the census as 'Federick) and her husband (Horatio) George Broke (50), - parents of Horace, 14 at the time of the census, but not listed.
Eleanor(40)- who wrote the book, Catherine (45), Harriet (40) , and her Daughter, also Harriet (5)
and 13 servants.
There are prominent monuments erected by the Mure family in St Albans Cathedral described in an article by Roger Shepherd, together with an extract about the Mure family, from Clive Clark's book, both published in 2004 in the Abbots Langley Local History Society Journal no 21
Archibald James Wall
Entrepreneur
Owner/Occupant, Cecil Lodge c1920- ????
Archibald James was born in 1870 near Birmingham. His father died when "A.J.” was five , so he was brought up by his mother, Sarah Jane, who came from the Norfolk family of Lemmon and around 1875 was left a widow with three young sons. She managed with some difficulty to send them all to St. Paul's school in London. In 1890 he answered an advertisement by Charles Coverley & Co. of Porto where he stayed for six months after which he returned to London where he received an offer of permanent employment from the same firm. In 1902 AJ left Coverley's and set up on his own in the Rua de Reboleira as a shipping agent for J. & P. Hutchinson (later Moss Hutchison Lines). A few years later he joined with Charles Chambers to form Chambers & Wall for the production of chinaware. He met his future wife, Beatrice Hardy, at a dance in Porto, and they were married in 1896. They raised a family of nine children, four boys and five girls. In 1911 he became known for his heroic work in rescuing a number of passengers from a tram that had plunged into the river Douro. For this deed he was presented with a silver plaque by the City. By the late 1920s he had amassed a small fortune, some quarter of a million pounds (a not inconsiderable sum in those days), and had purchased a property on the outskirts of Abbots Langley in Hertfordshire, called Cecil Lodge.(The purchase was probably made in the early 1920s). A separate building on the grounds housed an indoor tennis court, and it was there that A.J. played many a game of tennis. According to his daughter Cecily, he was a bad loser.
Photo Sources:
Archibald James Wall's Geni Profile
Family portrait - David Spain via
Abbots Langley Local History Society Website photo archive
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