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Nympsfield and the Leigh Family

by Sheila Dennison

Journal of the Gloucestershire and North Avon Catholic History Society.

Spring 1990, Issue No 13

The Altar at Chapel House

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William and Caroline Leigh

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‘Squire’ Willie Leigh

Behind: Aubrey Jarrett, Charles Jarrett, Bede Jarrett, Hubert Jarrett. Seated: Colonel Henry

Jarrett (‘Willie Leigh’s brother-in-law), Agnes Jarrett, Aylmer Jarrett

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Bertrand (?), ‘Squire’ Willie Leigh, Beatrice. Seated Blanche and Caroline Leigh

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Henry Vincent Leigh

The Cottage

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Beatrice and Blanche Leigh

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Blanche Leigh, Elizabeth Jarrett, Fr Bede Jarrett, Agnes Jarrett, Beatrice Leigh

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Posted 1933

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Postmark 1924

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From the Newspapers of the 1930’s:

TWO SISTERS WHO OWN A COTTAGE WHERE TEAS ARE SERVED TO TOURISTS WHO VISIT THE

DISTRICT TO SEE THE MAGNIFICENT COUNTRY SCENERY ARE THE OWNERS OF A £20,000

MANSION.

By GWYN JAMES, Sunday Express, 1933/34 circa

Miss Leigh and her sister Beatrice are mistresses of the 1,000-acre estate between Stroud and

Bath. It comprises, in addition to a mansion, another large house (fifteen bedrooms), a

number of small farms, a church, and seven lakes. Miss Leigh is lady of the manors of

Nymphsfield (sic) and Woochester. But she and her sister live secluded with a woman servant

and two dogs in one of the lodges to the mansion.

The unfinished mansion – it has had no front door for thirty years

STRANGE LEGACY

When the last tourist has passed on his way with souvenir postcard views of the mansion,

sold by the sisters to raise money for religious charities, the sisters unlock the gate that guards

it. They stroll along the drive that winds through their domain, their sole companions being

the hundreds of rabbits that live undisturbed in the mansion grounds. The two women gaze

at the magnificent building built by their grandfather, but never completed. He died leaving

it in the state in which it now is. They ponder over their strange legacy and returning to their

cottage they quietly lock the gate once more. The mansion is an imposing Gothic structure of

stone with grotesque gargoyles and arched windows.

NO FRONT DOOR

Its own beautiful chapel forms one of the main buildings. The designer intended to revive the

spirit of the Middle Ages, for he planned to include among the twenty-five rooms his own

bakery, brewery, dairy, and laundry. But the mansion remains an unfinished symphony in

stone. No work has been done on it for thirty years. Staircases are without bannisters.

Provision was made for a front door and porch – but none exists. The chapel has a ceiling of

delicate fan tracery – but the walls are unplastered.

Miss Leigh related to me the strange story that lies behind it all. She said:-

“Mr. William Leigh, my grandfather, spent £20,000 on the mansion. Craftsmen who had been

working on the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, were brought over specially from France to

help. My grandfather also enrolled scores of local masons. He was determined to have

nothing short of perfection, and time and again work would be undone again because he had

discovered flaws.”

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GRANDFATHER’S WISH

“Work had been in progress for seventeen years when my grandfather died. It was his wish

that my father should carry on the building of the mansion. But father had different ideas.

The original gardener’s cottage was once more enlarged. It now has fifteen bedrooms.”

Miss Leigh sighed as she added:

“We cannot even live in that house, let alone the mansion. My grandfather never knew that

death duties would bring the day when his grandchildren would be glad to make their home

in the smallest of his lodges.”

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BUILDING WHICH WAS NEVER COMPLETED

From the Stroud News & Journal, January 29th 1937:

During the last century Mr. George Gingell, who celebrated his 92nd birthday last week

worked for 30 years on the building of a mansion in Gloucestershire which has never been

completed.

About 70 years ago Woodchester Park was owned by Mr. William Leigh, who had purchased

it from Earl Ducie. Mr. Leigh decided to build a large mansion and Mr. Gingell, then a young

Nympsfield carpenter, was engaged to help in the building. “My father was a carpenter there,

and it was my first job,” Said Mr. Gingell to a reporter. “The house was built of stone, which

all had to be cut, and it was a very expensive and long job. I helped to put in the first rafters,

and was there to put in the last.”

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