Brickendonbury
Brickendonbury is an estate in the Metropolitan Green Belt, roughly halfway between the town centres of Hertford and Brickendon, consisting of several Victorian era farmhouses, a Georgian era mansion, several blockhouses, and modern facilities. Several of the buildings on the estate are listed in the National Heritage List for England, including the main Brickendonbury Manor, Clock Cottage, East Cottage, and Stable Cottage. The farm area of this estate has been continuously inhabited since at least the Saxon era, and several Roman coins have also been found here, indicating a much earlier presence. It was briefly home to the Stratton Park School. During World War II, the estate was occupied by Section D of the Secret Intelligence Service to become "D School," the first British school ever established for modern guerrilla warfare, which was later operated by the Special Operations Executive. In the early 1970s, the estate was used to film Catweazle, a television show about a time traveling wizard.
In 1974, Brickendonbury was purchased by the Malaysian Rubber Producers' Research Association, which changed its name in 1994 to the Tun Abdul Razak Research Centre, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Malaysian Rubber Board. In the early 2000s, the National Sports Council of Malaysia was involved in a real estate scandal here that was eventually called the Brickendonbury Scandal. Each Summer, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the British Malaysian Society host the Malaysian Merdeka Day Carnival, a public celebration of Malaysia’s independence that attracts thousands of attendees to the historic grounds.
Early history
There seems to have been activity here during the times of Roman Britain, the extent to which has not yet been determined beyond ritual wells possibly belonging to the Catuvellauni or later people groups. There are extensive Roman sites nearby, including Verulamium to the east, and Stane Street, which joined Verulamium to Camulodunum. Ermine Street, which ran from Londinium to Eboracum is also roughly a half-mile away from the Parish boundary.Between 1893 and 1895, while conducting drainage works on the moat that surrounded the estate, 430 Roman Denarii coins were found by the property owner George Pearson and evaluated by Antiquarian archaeologists. Collectively, they were called the Brickendonbury Hoard, and they contained the likenesses of; Commodus, Pertinax, Severus Alexander, Julia Domna, Caracalla, Plautilla, Geta, Diadumenian, Elagabalus, Julia Paula, Aquilia Severa, Julia Soaemias, Julia Maesa, Severus Alexander, Julia Mamaea, Orbiana, Maximinus, Maximus, Pupienus, Gordian III, Philip I, Philip II, Trajan Decius, Etruscilla, and Herennius. Soon afterwards, in February 1896, George Pearson was inducted into the Royal Numismatic Society and a paper on the finds were read aloud to the group in attendance. However, the bulk of the Brickendonbury Hoard was stolen from the Hertford Museum not long after being documented and photographed. Coins claiming to be from the Hoard occasionally appear online on coin collecting markets.
The name Brickendonbury, however, is etymologically descended from the Saxon era, broken down into its three distinct parts: Brica, being the name of an Anglo Saxon king or nobleman; don, meaning hill; and bury, being a medieval word for manor house. Hence, the name Brickendonbury means "The House at the hill belonging to Brica." Brica’s estate likely stretched from the River Lea in the north, an ideal location for a mill, to the wooded lands in the south near Brickendon Brook, which would have supplied timber, fuel, and game.
11th century – 18th century
By the early 11th century, the estate was owned by the Canons of Waltham, later known as Waltham Abbey. Their possession was confirmed by Edward the Confessor in 1062 and again by Harold II before the Norman Conquest. The Domesday Book of 1086 provides a brief account of its inhabitants, who were engaged in typical medieval rural work such as cultivating crops and grazing livestock. Under Henry II, the Abbey’s rights over Brickendon were reaffirmed as part of the king’s atonement for the murder of Thomas Becket. This grant included special privileges relating to taxation and criminal forfeiture, creating what became known as the Liberty of Brickendon.After the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the reign of Henry VIII, the property changed hands several times. It was first granted to Thomas Knighton of Little Bradbury in 1542, then to Edmund Allen, who sold it in 1588 to Stephen Soame and his son William of Suffolk for £1,000. Over the next few centuries, numerous owners and tenants occupied the estate.
Construction of the Brickendonbury mansion
In 1682, Edward Clarke, a successful London merchant originally from Leicestershire, purchased Brickendonbury from the Soame family. He was knighted in 1689, became Master of the Merchant Taylors’ Company in 1690–91, and served as Lord Mayor of London in 1696. Clarke is generally credited with building the earliest and most prominent part of the present mansion at Brickendonbury.After his death in 1703, the property descended through his family to his granddaughter Jane Morgan, and then to her daughter, also named Jane, who married Charles Gould, the Judge Advocate General and Judge Martial. Upon inheriting the estate, Gould adopted his wife’s surname, becoming Charles Morgan. A portrait by Gainsborough commemorates him as a distinguished figure of his time. The Morgan family expanded the house and landscaped the grounds, establishing the tree-lined avenue now known as Morgan’s Walk, which links the estate with Hertford. The last member of the family to live at Brickendonbury was George Gould Morgan, who died there in 1845.
19th century
For roughly four decades following the mid-19th century, Brickendonbury was leased to a succession of tenants, the most prominent being Russell Ellice, Chairman of the East India Company in 1853 and a Director from 1831 until his death at the estate in 1873. His association with the company marked the first documented link between Brickendonbury and Southeast Asia.By the late 1870s, the Morgan family had divested their interest in the property, selling it off in stages between 1878 and 1883. During this period, the estate was reduced in size, lost its status as a liberty, and the lordship title was also sold.
Subsequently, the estate was purchased by Charles Grey Hill, a lace merchant from Nottingham, who died before taking up residence. In 1893, George Pearson acquired the mansion and its remaining 1,000 acres for £30,000. By then, both the house and grounds fell into disrepair. George Pearson and his son, Sir Edward Pearson, were partners in S. Pearson & Sons, a major civil engineering firm responsible for constructing the Great Northern and City Railway, today forming the southern section of the Northern City Line, which passes across former estate land. The modern media corporation Pearson plc, publisher of the Financial Times, traces its origins to this same company.
Pearson renovations, farm and gardens
Following George Pearson’s death in 1902, the estate passed to his son, Sir Edward Ernest Pearson, a civil engineer who also held several local offices, including Justice of the Peace for Hertfordshire, High Sheriff in 1909, and Mayor of Hertford for three years. Sir Edward was known for his commitment to agricultural science and modernization. At Brickendonbury, he implemented progressive farming methods based on soil analysis conducted by Dr. Augustus Voelcker & Sons and pursued advanced crop cultivation techniques. He also raised a stud of Shire horses, and herds of Dairy Shorthorn and Devon cattle.To support these agricultural efforts, a dairy, constructed in 1900 and inspired by the design of the royal dairy at Sandringham, supplied produce for the household and surrounding estate. Later, the lodges, cottages, and Home Farm were redeveloped, and part of the farm site was eventually adapted for use as scientific laboratories, continuing the estate’s long association with applied science and experimentation.The Pearson family significantly altered the appearance and layout of Brickendonbury during their ownership. They extended the mansion by rebuilding the west end of the south front, adding an additional storey, and in 1919 constructing a Jacobean-style banqueting hall, which now serves as the estate’s conference room.
The gardens were also redesigned and enhanced. At the end of the moat, an ornamental rock garden was created using Pulhamite, an artificial stone developed by the firm Pulham and Son, renowned “Garden Craftsmen” based in Oxford Street, London. The company held Royal Warrants as gardeners to King Edward VII and King George V. At the time, Brickendonbury’s head gardener, R. Smith, was regarded as one of Britain’s leading fruit growers. A 1909 feature in The Gardeners’ Magazine praised the estate for “the extent, beauty, and high keeping of its gardens,” noting its national reputation for horticultural excellence.
Stratton Park School
Following Sir Edward Pearson’s death in 1925, Lady Pearson moved away from Brickendonbury, and in 1933 she leased the grounds to Stratton Park School, a private preparatory school of around fifty boys that had moved from Great Brickhill in Buckinghamshire. Two traces of this period remain visible today: the former banqueting hall, used as the school gymnasium, still bears ceiling hooks for climbing ropes, and the outdoor swimming pool, renovated in later years.The school uniform consisted of grey fabric trimmed with dark green piping. The dormitories were spread across two floors and named after notable British naval and military leaders; Nelson, Collingwood, Hood, Drake, and Wellington. Each Saturday morning, pupils were required to sit mock examinations to build familiarity with formal testing, while Sundays were reserved for writing letters home. School outings and field trips included visits to Vauxhall Motors and Whipsnade Zoo.
The school was well-equipped for recreation, with a billiards table and suits of armour displayed in the entrance hall. Sports played an important role: older boys competed in rugby, younger ones in football, and all participated in cricket. There was also a swimming pool and a rifle range where boys were trained to handle.22 rifles. The manor’s conference room still bears a trace of this period—hooks in the ceiling once used for ropes in what had been the school gymnasium.
During the Munich Crisis of September 1938, an air raid trench was dug in front of the school, and by 1939, staff members were taking turns standing guard from the mansion’s tower with rifles in case of a German paratrooper landing. Declining enrolment at the start of World War II coincided with the sale of the Brickendonbury estate by Lady Pearson around 1939. That same year, the school relocated—along with most of its pupils—to Benington House at Hebing End near Stevenage, where it continued as Stratton-Stanmore Park School under headmaster Donald MacDonald.
In the late 1930s, Lady Pearson sold the Brickendonbury estate to Ernest Gocher, a businessman from Roydon. However, he never occupied the property, as it was requisitioned by the British government at the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. Contemporary accounts suggest that Lady Pearson herself may have alerted the authorities to the estate’s availability for wartime use.
Although Kelly’s Directory for 1943 still listed the Stratton Park School at Brickendonbury, records indicate that it vacated the premises in the autumn of 1940. The mansion, four cottages, and associated buildings were officially requisitioned by the Office of Works on 12 July 1940 under the Emergency Powers Act 1939, followed by the remainder of the estate on 25 July.