Meeting one of the trustees from the Rootes Archive Centre Trust (RACT), I learned that he and his wife had owned a flat in Ladbroke Hall, near Southam and that in the 1950s the hall had been owned by Lord Rootes. The gentleman told me that he had mentioned his ownership of the flat to the current Lord Rootes, Nicholas, who remembered playing in the hall’s gardens as a child.
Those of us who are familiar with the Rootes story, and particularly those who worked for the company, will be familiar with the other Ladbroke Hall in North Kensington. When I was told of the Ladbroke Hall where the flat was, it was the first time that I had heard of that building. I began to wonder about the two Ladbroke Halls and whether it was just a coincidence they both had a Rootes connection. This is what I discovered,
Ladbroke Hall, Warwickshire
The current house at the Warwickshire Ladbroke Hall site was built in the 18th century. It is interesting to note that before William Rootes bought the property, it has links with the betting company Ladbrokes. The company was founded by Messrs. Schwind and Pennington in 1886, as commission agents for horses trained at the hall. The name Ladbrokes was adopted in 1902, when Arthur Bendir joined the partnership, and operations were moved to London.
The Ladbroke Hall Estate was finally bought by Billy Rootes from the Honourable Peter Montfiore Samuel of London in 1953. Of note, a valuation in January of that month of hay and straw, acts of husbandry, crops and foodstuffs found that this came to £801, 18 shillings and 9 pence1. After his death in 1964, Ladbroke Hall was sold by his son, the 2nd Baron Rootes, for £60,0002 the property was then auctioned off at the White Lion Hotel, Banbury a mere few months later in 19663. However after failing to meet its reserve price and being split into smaller lots, the hall was sold to East Haddon Hall School, who moved there briefly before the building was converted into flats in the 1970s. The view from the road is peaceful, idyllic, tranquil. You can see how Lord Rootes might have wanted to live here as his escape from the high pressure of business.
Ladbroke Hall, North Kensington
The North Kensington Ladbroke Hall, built in 1903, was financed by Charles Chetwynd-Talbot, 20th Earl of Shrewsbury and Talbot. It was the elaborate administration office of the Clement-Talbot company, one of the first series production motor manufacturers established in the UK. I have read somewhere that the Earl chose the name of his wife’s family home, located near Southam in Warwickshire, for this grand building. This seems very odd when the area where the factory was built was already called Ladbroke, the name of the family that owned the land. What an extraordinary coincidence!
The company had a very complicated history, and in 1935 STD (as the company had become, building by this time Sunbeam Talbot and Darracq cars) collapsed because of financial problems and was taken over by Rootes Securities. Warwick Wright was a well-established STD dealer and was made bankrupt by that company’s collapse; Rootes picked up the remnants of that company too. Post-war, car production at the Ladbroke Grove plant was transferred to Coventry while Ladbroke Hall became the Rootes Service Centre and later a Warwick Wright dealership.
In the 1980s the site was a Thames Television film studio and many TV shows such as The Bill were made there. In 1993 the old car manufacturing sheds were demolished and the site was redeveloped. It is now an international venue for contemporary art, collectible design, culture, dining and music.
Changes of use
Many years after their genesis, both Ladbroke Halls are being used and enjoyed, albeit in a different context to that originally intended.
References
1 Warwickshire County Record Office reference CR3612/32/2
2 Leamington Courier 19th August 1966
3 Coventry Evening Telegraph 6th December 1966 p.36
This article is a revised version of that first published in the June 2024 edition of the Rootes Gazette, the bi-monthly newsletter of the Rootes Archive Centre Trust.
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