Holbrook Grange has an interesting history. The land was part of the Boughton estate and the family lived the other side of the river in Lawford Hall. This Hall was said to be haunted, and after a tragic poisoning the family decided to demolish it in the late 18th century (as described in the linked article).
A Georgian manor house
John Caldecott Esq bought the estate from Sir Edward Boughton in 1793 and built the current house, Holbrook Grange, in 1803. It was subsequently extended in 1847 and is Grade II listed. A bell on the Grange roof was used to summon labourers from the fields. There used to be a boathouse down by the river Avon, and a footbrige across the river still stands. Mr and Mrs Shaw bought the estate in 1977, did the house up and sold it in 1985. The watercolour of the Grange by R. Clarke, shown above, dates from the 1980s. The current owners of the main house have added a billiard room in an extension.
Garden and outbuildings
The Shaws gradually renovated the coachman’s house and other outbuildings. They retained the two large walled gardens that they are restoring. In one garden a pond has been rescued: it has steep steps down into it and may possibly have been an icehouse originally.
A trip down the River Avon revisited
This is part of a series of ‘before and after’ photographs based on the Rev. E.N. Dew’s lantern slides for a talk about the Warwickshire Avon. The original photos date from around 1900 and the linked article explains the history of the photographs.
Comments
Sharp-eyed readers will notice that I’ve finally worked out how to ‘flip’ a photo so the old photo above is now the right way round (many thanks for the tip Ron!).
In the early 60’s, I was one of the few young children who played at the grange… running around the courtyard with my school friends who both lived there. Sadly, I no longer remember his and her first name, but I do recall the family name was Fox. The grange itself had a very special atmosphere to say the least.
Advertised in today’s Rugby Advertiser for £1.25 million!
Thanks Yanster for interesting memories. Do you remember what games you played? Did you get to see inside the Grange, and if so was there anything particular that struck you about it? (I intend to look at the estate agent’s website to see what pictures there might be of the interior – thanks for the tip Alain!)
Apparently the Grange was for sale in May last year for £1.65 million! Even at that price ‘The Birmingham Post’ called it a ‘bargain for a London commuter’ and pointed out that ‘it costs much the same as a one-bedroom apartment in Chelsea’.
You can buy it now if you like… complete with bar.
I grew up in the 1950s playing in the grounds there and remember vividly the grapes that grew in the greenhouse that we were allowed to help ourselves to. On the other side I also remember the leeches when we paddled in the river by the ford!
From: ‘The Warwickshire Village Book’ by the Warwickshire Federation of Women’s Institutes (1988).
Long Lawford: There was founded in 1077 a small priory of Benedictine monks. When Henry VIII abolished the monastery in 1542 the Grange of Long Lawford and other lands were granted to Edward Boughton. Lawford Hall, the home of the Boughtons, dominated the life of the village for the next two centuries until the murder there in 1780 of Sir Theodosius, the last male heir of the Boughtons. The hall was sold to the Caldecott family, who pulled it down as ‘a thing accursed’ and built Holbrook Grange on the opposite side of the river and much closer to the village.
The church of St John was built in 1839 by John Caldecott as a Chapel of Ease to Newbold church and was intended mainly for the use of the servants from Holbrook Grange.
The family who lived there in the 1950s and 1960s were Foxley, and were the jewellers in Regent Street. The daughter Diane was my age. Lawrence Foxley had a great interest in racing cars with my father Bert Brockbank, and every Sunday morning was spent there working on cars in the old coach house. They both used to go to Silverstone to steward the racing there each year. Unbeknown to mum, when we drove down their long drive to the house, I was allowed to sit on dad’s lap and steer the car and once I nearly hit the bridge half way along!
Thanks for your comments Linda, you know, it’s been going around in my head for days whether the name was Foxley not Fox, as I initially thought. What was Diane’s brother’s name? And what happened to them? Bit of a spooky place I thought…
I see from the estate agent’s pictures that it was a snooker room (with bar as Ben points out) that was added, rather than billiards. Not quite so appropriate!
Long Lawford: referred to in the Domesday Book as Lelleford (The ford by the elders).
Paul was the brother. The family moved to Overslade estate when they left the Grange and although Mr Foxley and dad have been dead for a few years now, I think the family is still in the Rugby area, but I lost touch when mum died. They only lived in part of the Grange and I spent all day exploring outside so remember nothing of the inside. But the garden was walled, the courtyard and coach house floor was cobbled and it smelt of racing engine oil, there was a room over the coach house that you got to up outside steps and was very eerie, and it all had an old feel of mystery and historical romance about it, even then!
Holbrook Grange is the ancestral home of my great great grandmother Margarette Elizabeth Caldecott, her father being Judge, Charles Marriott Caldecott. Margarette Elizabeth married into the Cochran family of Ashkirk, Scottland.
My great grandfather, her last child and son, Herman Cochran, ended up in Cape Town and then later died up in Lusaka, Zambia. His first son is my grandfather, Paul Alexander Cochran, although, it may have been Alexander Paul? My father, his second born and eldest son is John Caldecott Purves Cochran, we are living now in Western Australia……..
I might be a bit late to comment but my father, Tom Smith bought the house from the Foxleys in about 1968. We lived there until 1970.. My father exchanged our house in Overslade Lane Rugby for the Grange… we went to school with Diana and Paul. Wonderful memories…
Never too late, Mark 🙂
Thank you for adding my comment. Although I have lived in Spain for the last 15 years my heart remains in lovely Warwickshire, the county of my birth. One last comment about this lovely magical house; when my father drained the pond in the garden, it was full of green oval shaped bottles – never discovered what they were used for… I will stay in touch with Our Warwickshire.
I am sure I went to Brownies with Diane Foxley in the church hall. One year the Brownies went to the Grange. We played in the grounds and went to the kitchen to collect a glass of orange juice each. Unfortunately that’s all I can remember about it.
Hi all.
Mark Smith!
My name is Paul Price, I lived in Bilton, went to high school at Herbert Kay with your Brother, Julian.
We knocked about a bit and I visited your house, Holbrook Grange quite a few times. Remembered rightly, you had a mate called Danny, but faded memory. Like you I have mighty memories of growing up in Warwickshire. We emigrated to Melbourne in 1970, but before you moved. I have, over the years, remembered Rugby, Bilton and Holbrook Grange.
If you have any photo’s of the house and the area, and the bridge! I would love to get in touch. If you don’t, would love to hear from you anyway if you remember me. You and I didn’t have too much to do with each other, but we crossed paths often when I was there.
I still live in Melbourne and have since 1970.
Hope to hear from you.
If not, All the best.
My parents bought the house in 1985 and can firmly tell you that it was in a poor state of repair,;the Shaws retained the mews buildings with newly built cottages as part of the purchase of Holbrook Grange. For the next 10 years with structural repairs, window replacements, decorating (all within constraints of listed building rules) this was like no other home! I was very lucky to go throughout my schooling living there and enjoying the vast space basically living in the countryside. A place not many people know is there, but have great fond memories of.
I lived in Long Lawford from 1945 to 1948. My favourite place to play was at the Grange as we called it. There was a big tree there that I used to climb I think it was in front. wonderful memories.
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