At the beginning of the 20th Century, Kelvedon Hall's future looked less than rosy and it was staring down the barrel of some all-too-familiar decline and destruction.
The red brick Georgian home was built in Essex in 1742 by John Wright, and completed internally by his descendants around 1780. And it had a lot to recommend it. Inside, there were generously-sized rooms, decorated with magnificent Adam fireplaces and stucco detailing. Outside, and on a clear day, you could see the capital.
A photograph of Kelvedon's staircase, taken for Country Life in the 1940s, captures the exquisite Rococo plaster- and ironwork.
The comfortable and conveniently-located house and surrounding farms remained happily unmodernised and in the hands of the Wrights until the 1920s when, in the wake of the First World War, the family had to sell.
Its next owner remained in situ for a mere decade. Its third was a Roman Catholic Sister who ran it, according to a notice in the Telegraph 'as a rest home for gentlewomen of the Roman Catholic faith who are in distressed circumstances.' Unfortunately for the women, their stay was not a happy one. Following the unexplained deaths of two of the residents, which left the rest believing the place to be under an 'evil influence', Sister Superior Mary Francis D’Alton listed the property for sale (again).
Country Life featured Honor on the Frontispiece in the run up to her wedding to Henry 'Chips' Channon.
It's here that Kelvedon’s fortunes were reversed because far from being left to rot, it was bought by the writer, MP and notorious diarist Henry 'Chips' Channon — as an aside, his unusual nickname was due to his fondness for the then-fashionable Mayfair cocktail snack of potato chips — and his wife Honor, Lady Channon. (Lady Channon, the granddaughter of Edward Cecil Guinness, founder of the world-famous stout, was an anomaly — a wealthy and titled British heiress in a society dominated by rich American 'Dollar Princesses'.)
The 'Neo-Austrian-Baroque' swimming pool pavilion designed by William Kellner.
Lady Channon's octagonal bathroom — the mirrors served to make the space look a lot bigger than it actually was.
The couple set about renovating Kelvedon and in 1941 the work was deemed complete enough to appear in Country Life. Notable enhancements included a uniquely styled 'Neo-Austrian-Baroque' swimming pool pavilion designed by William Kellner, entrance lodges created by Wellesley and Wells and Lady Channon's octagonal bathroom by John Churchill — who decorated the space with palm tree and monkey motifs, and mirrors. In a two-part feature the magazine's then architectural editor Christopher Hussey wrote: ‘To this beautiful nucleus they have contributed their own excellent taste in furnishings and pictures which, appropriate in themselves, have been selected in such a way as to add a certain liveliness that was probably lacking to the house when it changed hands.’
Chips and Lady Channon mixed in heady social circles and regularly entertained at Kelvedon with some salacious details revealed in his posthumously-published diaries. Perhaps their most famous party took place on November 19, 1936. On the guest list: Edward VIII, Wallis Simpson, Prince Paul of Yugoslavia and his wife, Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark, and the Duke of Kent and his wife, Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark.
Despite their terribly happy home, the couple formally parted ways in 1945, but not with the Hall — and it remains in the stewardship of their descendants today. As well as a private residence it doubles as a popular video- and photoshoot location and has appeared in an Ed Sheeran music video, a Burberry campaign and, more recently, Church's Christmas one (above). And in the historic Rose Garden, the family now host opera and theatrical events. Rosy after all.
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