Emma Dent
Emma Dent was an English antiquarian and collector who restored and developed Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire.
Dent corresponded with some of the most famous names and eminent thinkers of the 19th century. She planned the layout of the gardens at Sudeley and oversaw their creation. She was an authority on the locality, publishing a lengthy account and documenting antiquities. She also acquired many fine antiques, and amassed a large collection of autographs, as well as a world-class collection of lace and needlework.
Life
Emma Brocklehurst was born in April 1823, one of four daughters and four sons of John Brocklehurst and Emma Coare. Sent to be tutored in London, at the age of fourteen she attended Queen Victoria's coronation, and four years later in 1841 was presented at court by Lady Stanley of Alderley. In 1852, she and her husband travelled to London for the state funeral of the Duke of Wellington.She spent most of her life restoring Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire, having married John Coucher Dent, the heir to the property, a romantic ruin purchased by his uncles in 1837. John and William Dent had already completed a significant restoration. Emma and her husband inherited the castle in 1855. John Coucher Dent, and particularly Emma, insisted on continuing the restoration.
After her husband's death, Emma was able to increase her direct involvement, with the North Lodge and Tithe Barn, an ambitious plan to add terracing around the moat, a new West gateway and adjoining buildings, and finally the North Tower, replacing an earlier one shown on drawings of the original castle. A reliable source lists her achievement as having significantly expanded the gardens and having "substantially enlarged the house and its services... she remodelled the western side of the castle through the full length of both courtyards, overbuilding one section of the ruins, and beginning a new tower at its north-east corner in March 1890".
Locally in northern Gloucestershire she enjoyed the company of the Hanbury-Tracey family of Toddington Manor, Lord Elcho and other local gentry.
She continued the Dent uncles' tradition of hosting large events at Sudeley, including in the Conservative interest: the Blue Ball of January 1854 attended by nearly 600 people celebrated a by-election victory, and at a historical party in January 1859 she and her husband entertained in the guise of Henry VIII and Katherine Parr.
Emma Dent was an active correspondent and was known in her lifetime as an avid collector and antiquarian. Inspired by visiting the 1862 International Exhibition, she collected coins, stamps and curiosities from throughout the world. Her most lasting legacy is the gardens at Sudeley, a re-creation in historical style, in keeping with the remains of the castle. She published a substantial account of the history of the locality and for seven years towards the end of her life a monthly local magazine.
Her mark on the neighbouring Cotswold town of Winchcombe was perhaps even greater. The Dent Almshouses and Dent School were built in the 1860s and restoration, enlargement, and construction of other buildings in the town followed; she also helped renovate the parish church. She had the road from the town to the castle completely rebuilt in the 1890s. To commemorate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, she had St. Kenelm's Well on the Sudeley estate restored to provide tapped water to the town. Ten years later, Emma spent £400 constructing open-air public swimming baths. Further afield she started a small school in nearby Gretton and used her share of a legacy to build the church there.
Emma adopted the Tory politics of her husband's family, having grown up in a Liberal household. Although unable to vote herself, she campaigned energetically for the Conservatives, to the extent of falling out with those in Winchcombe who had different views. Small electorates made for tight elections and she engaged in what she described as 'gerrymandering', selling houses which conveyed votes. She wrote circulars to the electorate, was a supporter of women's suffrage, and also a member of the National Anti-Vivisection Society.
Family
Dent's father, John Brocklehurst, was a silk manufacturer and banker, who served as MP for Macclesfield from 1832–1868. He was succeeded as Macclesfield's Liberal MP by her eldest brother William. Her younger brother Philip was created a baronet in 1903. Her younger sister Marianne was an English traveller and collector of Egyptian antiquities who supported a number of Egyptian excavations in the 1870s–90s.John Brocklehurst withheld his consent to marriages proposed by both Emma and subsequently Marianne; both broke off the engagements. Although Emma took exception in the latter case, interceding on her sister's behalf, she bore her father no lasting ill will, after his death commissioning a marble bust which she presented to Macclesfield Town Hall along with an "In Memoriam" book.