Foxley, Herefordshire

Foxley
Herefordshire
Wartime works on the Foxley Estate
Location
Grid reference:	SO413466
Location:	52°6’52"N, 2°51’29"W
Data
Post town:	Hereford
Postcode:	HR4
Dialling code:	01981
Local Government
Council:	Herefordshire
Parliamentary constituency:	North Herefordshire

Foxley is a rural estate with a hamlet, in Herefordshire. Foxley Manor was once at its heart – a country house associated with the judicial, political, artistic and later ennobled Price family. Duringthe Second World War, Foxley Camp was established here.

The dilapidated mansion was demolished in 1948.

The Foxley Estate is to be found about seven miles north-west of Hereford, is mostly in the parish of Yazor, with the south-east part in Mansel Lacy, while also extending into parts of the parishes of Brinsop and Wormsley and Weobley. At the south-east border of Yazor parish stood the estate house, Foxley Manor (SO41384660).

The estate is within a horseshoe valley (alternatively named Yarsop Valley), of 1600 yards long by 1,300 yards wide, with its main entrance in Mansel Lacy. Through the estate flows a stream, interrupted by seven man-made lakes and ponds, of the 19th century or earlier. The sides of the valley are wooded, at the south-west by Nash Wood and north-east by Bache Wood. Through the valley bottom runs a single road, once serving the manor house.

About the estate

On Foxley Estate may be found the former 1860s stable block set around a courtyard 70 yards north of the remains of Foxley Manor. The stable block itself incorporates, on the south side, a c.1700 Grade II listed, two-storey dovecot built around 1700, but with 1868 alterations. Found 500 yards south from the stable block, in Nash Wood, is a folly, known as Ragged Castle (SO41334624), a trapezoidal-plan gazebo dating to 1743, with a restoration in 1975. It was built to provide panoramic views, and as a memorial to the Davenport family. The gatehouse, Yazor Lodge, at the head of the drive opposite St Mary's church on the A480 was built to plans by William Chick (1829-1892), of Hereford in 1872.

History

The valley of Foxley Manor, by John Warwick Smith

At the time of the Domesday Book, Foxley was part of the estates of Robert of Baskerville, himself under Roger de Lacy.

Historically, Foxley Manor covered a wider area than today's valley estate. By the reign of King Henry III in the 13th century, the manor of Foxley, and Yazor, was held with the manor of Weobley by the Baskerville family of Eardisley Castle. In 1166, the first year in the reign of King John, Ralph de Baskerville, with the approval of the king, had handed the advowson and tithes of the parish and manor to the Welsh Llanthony Priory. The manor remained in the control of the Priory until the 16th-century suppression of the monasteries by Henry VIII. Following this, Yazor, with Foxley, was purchased from the Crown by Hugh Welsh (the Mayor of Hereford in 1531), In 1646, the Yazor and Foxley was sold to James Rodd of Hereford (c.1572–1667). It passed through several families, by inheritance or sale. in later ages, until it came into the Price family.

Around 1743, Robert Price built 'Ragged Castle', a folly still seen in Nash Wood, and it was enlarged by Uvedale Price. Foxley was described as "The noble and extensive domain... with the manors and advowsons, one of the most influential and important residential estates in the country...". Uvedale Price's work and views were described in his three editions of An Essay on the Picturesque (1794, 1796 and 1810), a Dialogue on the distinct Characters of the Picturesque and the Beautiful (1801), Sir Uvedale Price on the Picturesque (1842), and in the 1822 edition of John Claudius Loudon's Encyclopædia of Gardening. Price was an acquaintance of William Wordsworth and friends with Charles James Fox and Sir George Beaumont. Sir Thomas Lawrence painted portraits of Price, and Sir Joshua Reynolds painted his wife, Lady Caroline (Carpenter), who was daughter to George Carpenter, 1st Earl of Tyrconnel. He was created a baronet in 1828. In his time, the house of Foxley Manor was described as "suitable for a large establishment and family of wealth and distinction", and included an inner hall, dining room, billiard room, library, study, a suite of grand rooms, a drawing room, breakfast room, bedrooms, dressing rooms, servants quarters, and housekeeper and butler rooms. The estate contained more than three farmhouses, and water mill for corn, blacksmith and wheelwright shops, and workers' cottages. Parts of the estate had begun to be mortgaged by 1818.

Sir Robert Price, Sir Uvedale;s son invested in coal and iron, particularly ironworks at Tondu, Bridgend, but this investments led to near bankruptcy. Heavily in debt, Robert Price sold the estate in 1856 to John Davenport, of Westwood in Staffordshire, son of the industrialist and porcelain manufacturer John Davenport. His son, the Rev. George Horatio Davenport JP, sole landowner and lord of the manor, who rebuilt much of the house, improved and renovated estate buildings.

At the beginning of the Second World War the Foxley Manor estate was requisitioned to become a military camp for Canadian forces, including the First Battalion, 2nd Canadian Pioneers. In 1943 American forces were barracked, and built two general hospitals for war wounded. Foxley later served as a staging camp for soldiers awaiting the Normandy Landing. The concrete block, brick, timber, and asbestos camp buildings and barrack blocks were built by the Canadians. Initially with no inside toilet facilities (provided in 1951 by the local council, who took responsibility for the site). After the War the camp became a centre for the Polish Resettlement Corps and their families, reuniting Polish refugees and demobbed servicemen through the British Red Cross. It was also used to house local people subjected to post-war housing shortage. The camp included a school, church, youth club, cinema, a gym, shop, library, and a shower block. A NAAFI, and vans delivering fresh fruit and vegetables and soft drinks, visited weekly.

The eventually dilapidated mansion was demolished in 1948, but the former mansion's 19th-century stable block survives. The camp buildings remained occupied until 1958, but were demolished in 1962.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Foxley, Herefordshire)