Memories of Hestercombe: The Honourable E. W. B
4 weeks ago
**Part 1 - Wealth, Marriage and Home to Hestercombe.**:
- He spends his money on eating hospitals & cattle breeding & is to boot a real good sort (not mine a bit) (Edwin Lutyens to his wife, Lady Emily, 23 April 1904. RIBA Library ref 6/8/27)._
The Hon. Edward William Berkeley (E.W.B.) Portman, eldest son of the 2nd Viscount Portman of Bryanston, Blandford Forum, Dorset, was born in the parish of St. Martin-in-the
- Fields, London, on 30 July 1856. He was baptised on 17 October at the family seat of Bryanston, then the largest estate in Dorset and the home of E. W. B.’s grandfather, Edward Berkeley Portman (1799-1888), a former politician turned agricultural improver created 1st Baron Portman in 1837. Since inheriting from his father, also named Edward Berkeley Portman (1771-1823), E. B. Portman had shrewdly managed the family’s affairs, freeing them of debt and significantly enlarging their largely agricultural holdings. By 1883 the now 1st Viscount Portman could lay claim to 1,754 acres of land in Devon, 7,798 in Dorset, and 24,339 in Somerset, generating an estimated annual rental income of almost £46,000 (£5,520,000 today). The agrarian empire was to be short-lived, however.
From the early 1900s Portman lands were gradually sold off as death duties, first levied on agricultural land in 1894, mounted. (Six Viscounts died between 1919 and 1948.) Bryanston was sold in 1927 for £35,000 and three years later 1,500 acres of prime farmland in the Somerset parishes of Durston, Hatch Beauchamp and North Petherton fell under the hammer. Then, in December 1944, Hestercombe House and grounds (now about 234 acres in extent with 15 houses and cottages) along with most of the remainder of the Portman (Somerset) Estate, comprising 10,488 acres (4,244 hectares), was transferred to the Commissioners of Crown lands by the Hon. Gerald Berkeley Portman (1875-1948), the younger of Teddy Portman’s two surviving brothers.
Six years later 3,800 acres in Dorset had to be sold off to meet Gerald’s own death duties (he became 7th Viscount Portman in 1946) which amounted to a then record £7,582,119. What remains of the Portman family’s wealth today is centred on the Marylebone estate in central London. Acquired in 1532 by Sir William Portman (c.1498-1557) and once stretching from Oxford Street to the Regent’s Canal, the eleven fields that originally constituted the estate covered an area of about 270 acres. The 110 acres that remain today are managed from the Portman Estate office at 40 Portman Square, prime rental property that still ranks the Portman family as one of the wealthiest landlords in England.
- Bryanston, Dorsetshire, 1818 by J. P. Neale.As the heir to a substantial fortune, it is not surprising that ‘Teddy’, as he also came to be known, was sent to the finest schools. After first studying at Eton like his father and grandfather before him, he followed the latter’s example once again and matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1875, leaving in 1878 to receive a commission in the Dorsetshire Yeomanry. The previous year on the 14th of August, E.W.B Portman was the cause of an elaborate coming-of-age celebration held at what would one day become his permanent home, Hestercombe.
- The Hon. E.W.B. Portman’s coming-of-age fete, Hestercombe 14 August 1877.Under sunny skies and with the Somersetshire and Devonshire tenantry and their families in full attendance, acquaintances were renewed and relaxation sought about the spacious grounds surrounding Hestercombe House. In the newly completed Terrace Garden adjoining the south front members of the Portman family, including the 1st Viscount Portman (who had personally laid out the Garden two years earlier), received their guests against a stunning floral backdrop ‘it being literally a many lined carpet of glorious colouring - purple and crimson, gold and green’. Then, at 3:00 pm, five hundred guests duly sat down to a hardy luncheon of _recherche _description in tents erected in front of the House while the band of the West Somerset Yeomanry Cavalry under the supervision of Mr. Summerhayes played ‘sweet music’ and marched about the grounds. ‘The Hon. Mr. Portman, M.P. for Dorset and father of the heir to the family fortune, presided, and on his right sat Mr. E. W. B. Portman to whom all had met to do honour.’
- Three Portman generations 1877: Hon. E.W.B. Portman (middle), Edward Berkeley Portman 1st Viscount Portman (left) & the Hon. William Henry Berkeley Portman (right).Following the meal, and before tea was served at 6 o’clock, ‘cigars and tobacco were supplied to any one who felt inclined’ and vigorous country dancing commenced behind the House, thereby ‘affording employment for busy feet’. Those with more athletic tendencies ‘urged the flying ball’ (played football). On hand to maintain order, Supt. Goldsmith and ‘a small body of police’ witnessed only harmony and contentment as speeches flowed, pipes were lit and t
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Memories of Hestercombe: The Honourable E. W. B
4 weeks ago
Taunton, United Kingdom Hestercombe Gardens Full time**Part 2 - Sport, Eating, Hospitals and Tragedy.**: - Mr. and Mrs. Edward Portman will give a ball about January 11 to celebrate the coming of age of Mr. Ivo Vesey, Mrs. Portman’s eldest son by her first husband, Captain Eustace Vesey... To Mr. Portman, indeed, everything connected with dancing is more or less of a bore. He prefers hunting, shooting, or...
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Taunton, United Kingdom Hestercombe Gardens Full time**Part 2 - Sport, Eating, Hospitals and Tragedy.**: - Mr. and Mrs. Edward Portman will give a ball about January 11 to celebrate the coming of age of Mr. Ivo Vesey, Mrs. Portman’s eldest son by her first husband, Captain Eustace Vesey... To Mr. Portman, indeed, everything connected with dancing is more or less of a bore. He prefers hunting, shooting, or...
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Memories of Hestercombe...part 17.2
4 weeks ago
Taunton, United Kingdom Hestercombe Gardens Full time**Memories of Hestercombe - The Portman Chapel - **_criticism from a variety of media & magazines..._** Characters that no reader will forget... prose as clean and strong as any Legate has yet laid down... and a drop-dead evocation of a time and place that will mark this article as a classic slice of Edwardiana - Prague Post The plot surges forward,...
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Memories of Hestercombe...part 17.2
1 day ago
Taunton, United Kingdom Hestercombe Gardens Full time**Memories of Hestercombe - The Portman Chapel - **_criticism from a variety of media & magazines..._** Characters that no reader will forget... prose as clean and strong as any Legate has yet laid down... and a drop-dead evocation of a time and place that will mark this article as a classic slice of Edwardiana - Prague Post The plot surges forward,...
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From The Archives: Memories of Hestercombe
4 weeks ago
Taunton, United Kingdom Hestercombe Gardens Full timeThe Hestercombe archives are bursting at the seams with facts, pictures and accounts of the history of Hestercombe and those who lived and worked here. In this installment of Memories of Hestercombe we hear about the Grand Ball which took place in January 1897 - and the star studded Taunton guest list in attendance. _Written by Kim Legate, Archivist_ - On...
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Taunton, United Kingdom Hestercombe Gardens Full timeThe Hestercombe archives are bursting at the seams with facts, pictures and accounts of the history of Hestercombe and those who lived and worked here. In this installment of Memories of Hestercombe we hear about the Grand Ball which took place in January 1897 - and the star studded Taunton guest list in attendance. _Written by Kim Legate, Archivist_ - On...
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From The Archives: Memories of Hestercombe
1 week ago
Taunton, Somerset, United Kingdom Hestercombe Gardens Full timeThe Hestercombe archives are bursting at the seams with facts, pictures and accounts of the history of Hestercombe and those who lived and worked here. In this installment of Memories of Hestercombe we hear about the Grand Ball which took place in January and the star studded Taunton guest list in attendance. _Written by Kim Legate, Archivist_ On Christmas...
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Memories of Hestercombe: The Portman Chapel
2 months ago
Taunton, United Kingdom Hestercombe Gardens Full time**Chapter Two: The Portman’s & the Church of St. Mary, Hestercombe** “I remember well how, when I came to St. Andrews (Taunton) in 1947, I was faced with a very large and run-down parish, & no curate... and no car. You can perhaps imagine how I thought when I was told that I was expected to take services for an old lady in her private chapel, which was...
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Taunton, United Kingdom Hestercombe Gardens Full time**Chapter Two: The Portman’s & the Church of St. Mary, Hestercombe** “I remember well how, when I came to St. Andrews (Taunton) in 1947, I was faced with a very large and run-down parish, & no curate... and no car. You can perhaps imagine how I thought when I was told that I was expected to take services for an old lady in her private chapel, which was...
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From The Archives: Memories of Hestercombe
1 week ago
Taunton, Somerset, United Kingdom Hestercombe Gardens Full timeThe Hestercombe archives are bursting at the seams with facts, pictures and accounts of the history of Hestercombe and those who lived and worked here. This post is the first of a series called 'Memories of Hestercombe', where we uncover lost and forgotten characters of the estate. Written by Kim Legate, Archivist_ Figure Thomas 'James' Tooze & Amy Mathews...
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From The Archives: Memories of Hestercombe
4 weeks ago
Taunton, United Kingdom Hestercombe Gardens Full timeThe Hestercombe archives are bursting at the seams with facts, pictures and accounts of the history of Hestercombe and those who lived and worked here. This post is the first of a series called 'Memories of Hestercombe', where we uncover lost and forgotten characters of the estate. - Written by Kim Legate, Archivist_ - Figure 1 - Thomas ‘James’ Tooze &...
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Taunton, United Kingdom Hestercombe Gardens Full timeThe Hestercombe archives are bursting at the seams with facts, pictures and accounts of the history of Hestercombe and those who lived and worked here. This post is the first of a series called 'Memories of Hestercombe', where we uncover lost and forgotten characters of the estate. - Written by Kim Legate, Archivist_ - Figure 1 - Thomas ‘James’ Tooze &...
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Memories of Hestercombe: The Grand Ball of 1897
4 weeks ago
Taunton, United Kingdom Hestercombe Gardens Full time**”Fascinating... filled with deadly accurate characterizations by an author who knows both the Portman’s and their social circle from the inside.” The Sydney Herald "بناء درجة كبيرة من التشويق... المندوب يسلم له في المادة شاطر أشهر. إجازته الممتدة من تاريخ شديد اللهجة...
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Taunton, United Kingdom Hestercombe Gardens Full time**”Fascinating... filled with deadly accurate characterizations by an author who knows both the Portman’s and their social circle from the inside.” The Sydney Herald "بناء درجة كبيرة من التشويق... المندوب يسلم له في المادة شاطر أشهر. إجازته الممتدة من تاريخ شديد اللهجة...
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From The Archives: Memories of Hestercombe
4 weeks ago
Taunton, United Kingdom Hestercombe Gardens Full time**MEMORIES OF HESTERCOMBE: THE 1873-77 REMODELLING OF HESTERCOMBE HOUSE**: The moulded stone arch that frames the east entrance to the Gallery Shop, originally the Great Hall, probably formed part of the rear wall of the original, early medieval house at Hestercombe. By the late 17th century the increasingly substantial residence of the Warre family...
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Taunton, United Kingdom Hestercombe Gardens Full time**MEMORIES OF HESTERCOMBE: THE 1873-77 REMODELLING OF HESTERCOMBE HOUSE**: The moulded stone arch that frames the east entrance to the Gallery Shop, originally the Great Hall, probably formed part of the rear wall of the original, early medieval house at Hestercombe. By the late 17th century the increasingly substantial residence of the Warre family...
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Hestercombe’s Landscape Saved with £1.5million
2 months ago
Taunton, United Kingdom Hestercombe Gardens Full time**A vision to completely restore Hestercombe is one step closer thanks to a £1.5 million grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund.**: This remarkable donation has enabled Hestercombe to acquire land totalling 320 acres, securing the world-class, Grade 1 heritage landscape, gardens and buildings for future generations. A vision to completely restore...
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Taunton, United Kingdom Hestercombe Gardens Full time**A vision to completely restore Hestercombe is one step closer thanks to a £1.5 million grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund.**: This remarkable donation has enabled Hestercombe to acquire land totalling 320 acres, securing the world-class, Grade 1 heritage landscape, gardens and buildings for future generations. A vision to completely restore...
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Hestercombe at War
2 months ago
Taunton, United Kingdom Hestercombe Gardens Full time**1940-42**: In July 1940, the British Army established 8th Corps to take responsibility for all British troops in the South West of England, and Hestercombe became the division’s rear HQ. In early 1941 the first six barrack blocks were built with brick bases, concrete block walls and roofs covered with asbestos slates. **1943-44**: The British 8th Corps...
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Hestercombe at War
1 day ago
Taunton, United Kingdom Hestercombe Gardens Full time**1940-42**: In July 1940, the British Army established 8th Corps to take responsibility for all British troops in the South West of England, and Hestercombe became the division’s rear HQ. In early 1941 the first six barrack blocks were built with brick bases, concrete block walls and roofs covered with asbestos slates. **1943-44**: The British 8th Corps...
