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Preston Manor, Brighton, East Sussex

This delightful old manor house dates from around 1600, was rebuilt in 1738 and then extended and altered in 1905. The house, its contents and grounds are presented to evoke the atmosphere of an Edwardian house both upstairs and downstairs, giving a rare insight into the lives of a wealthy gentry family and their servants during the early years of the 20th century.

The name Preston derives from the Anglo-Saxon word for priest's holding, suggesting that there was a settlement here in Saxon times. By the time of the Domesday Book in 1086 the property belonged to the Bishopric of Chichester, and was administered on their behalf by a steward or bailiff. The manor lands comprised the parish of Preston and large areas of what is now Hove as well as land elsewhere. By 1510 the bishops had given up farming and began renting out their lands. Their first tenant was Edward Elrington and his wife Beatrix Shirley. He died in 1515 and his tomb is in St Peter's Church. His family, including his son Richard, stayed at Preston, farming sheep and becoming tenants of the Crown after 1561 when Queen Elizabeth I forced the bishops to give up their lands. When he died with no sons in 1569, Richard Elrington left his property to his widow, who in turn left it to her son by her previous marriage to William Shirley.

Anthony Shirley inherited the estate in 1569 and married several years later. The couple had 12 children, and when husband and wife died in 1624 and 1623 respectively, the manor passed to their son Thomas. In 1628 he bought the reversion of the lease of the manor from the Crown and became the first lord of the manor. It was either the father Anthony or the son Thomas who rebuilt the manor house in the 1600s. Thomas also named his eldest son Thomas, and in 1654 this Thomas's son, who was also called Anthony, succeeded to the estate. Anthony was involved in public life as a Member of Parliament for Arundel (1654), Sussex (1656) and Steyning (1660). In April 1658 an enquiry was held at Preston Manor by Oliver Cromwell's Council of State concerning a royalist plot in Sussex. After serving the Commonwealth, Anthony somehow gained the favour of King Charles II and became a baronet in 1666. He was succeeded by his son Sir Richard, who was succeeded by his son, also Sir Richard, who died unmarried in 1705. The property was inherited jointly by his three sisters. One sister, Anne, married Robert Western in 1698 and another, Mary, married Robert's nephew Thomas Western in 1712. The third, unmarried sister, Judith, died in 1711 and her share was split between the two remaining. Thomas then purchased Anne's portion for £6,275 the following year.

Thomas Western had estates at Rivernhall, Essex and was from a mercantile family. When he died in 1733 he was succeeded by his son, also called Thomas. It was this Thomas Western who built a new house on the Preston site in around 1738. The succession then passed jointly to two of their sons, Charles Western and Reverend Thomas Walsingham Western. Thomas exchanged his estates for lands in Essex, while in 1766 Charles married Frances, the daughter of a colonial agent in the American colonies. Their married life was short as during a phaeton ride, the horse stumbled and her husband was killed. Her eldest son, also named Charles, was saved when his mother threw him into the safety of a bush. Soon after, Frances took her children to Rivernhall and never returned to Preston. In 1794 he sold Preston Manor to William Stanford, about 1,000 acres for a price of £17,600. This ended the long association of Preston with the Western family.

William Stanford came from an established farming family near Horsham in Sussex. When he bought Preston Manor in 1794 it included the manor house, farm and surrounding lands in Brighton and Hove. He married Elizabeth Avery and they had two children, both of whom died in 1790 and their mother died the following year. In 1802 he took another wife, Mary Tourle, from Lewes and had 7 children with her. He sold his farm produce in the growing town and was awarded a contract by the Town Commissioners to clear night-soil (sewage) from the streets and cesspools. In 1808 he became high sheriff of Sussex, and when he died in 1841 he was considered to be one of the richest private individuals in the county. His eldest son, the second William Stanford, inherited Preston and continued the life of a country farmer. In 1842 he married Eleanor Montague Morris, the daughter of a solicitor from London. Their first child, a son, died aged only five months, then a daughter, Ellen, was born in November 1848. Sadly, William died in 1853.

The following year, Eleanor married Captain George Varnham Macdonald and the couple had three daughters, Flora (b.1857) and twins Diana and Christiana, known as Lily (b.1866). Captain Macdonald was one of four commanding officers in the Yeoman of the Guard, the Queen's bodyguard. He died of kidney failure in 1881. The four girls continued to live at Preston Manor with their mother until they married. Eleanor's eldest daughter, Ellen, heir to the family estate, was educated at Miss Russell's private school in Montpelier Road, Brighton. In October 1867 she married Vere Fane Benett of Pythouse, Wiltshire. The wedding ceremony was held at St Peter's Church, Preston with a wedding breakfast for forty guests at the Manor afterwards. After the marriage, Vere assumed the Stanford surname as required by a provision in William Stanford's will, to prevent the Stanford name from dying out. The couple spent their married life at Pythouse or their London town house in South Kensington.

In February 1870 their first child, a son named John Montague Benett-Stanford, was born. He went to school at Eton, left at 16 and served a two year apprenticeship on the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway. He then joined the military, serving in the Wiltshire Regiment, the Royal Dragoons and the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry. In 1891 Vere persuaded the trustees of the Stanford Estate to purchase the Pythouse and Norton Bavant estates in Wiltshire. The money from this enabled Vere and Ellen to purchase a yacht and a property in Madeira called Quinta Vigia. In 1893 John joined a mapping expedition to Kenya and also married Evelyn Helme, daughter of Captain Burchall Helme of Broadfield Court, Herefordshire. Their first child, a son named Vere Benett-Stanford, was born in 1894. Tragically, his grandfather Vere Fane Benett-Stanford died in Madeira in May the same year. Their second child, a daughter named Patience Mary, born in 1899, only lived for five years.

The widowed Ellen Benett-Stanford divided her time between London, Brighton, Wiltshire and Madeira. In 1896 in Madeira she met Charles Thomas, a bachelor who had been seeking his fortune in the mines of South Africa and Rhodesia, and they married the following year. Charles took the Stanford name and arms in accordance with the will of Ellen's father and the couple went to live at Pythouse. They took summer visits to Charles's house in Norway, a base for his fishing trips, and winter visits to Quinta Stanford in Madeira which they purchased in 1902. Charles pursued his interests in history and archaeology and published several books. Meanwhile, Ellen's son John was in Africa hunting big game, serving with the Tirah Field Force and working as a freelance war correspondance. He was on of the earliest newsreel photographers and was wounded while filming the Boer War in South Africa.

Eleanor died in 1903 and by 1905 Ellen and Charles were living at Preston Manor. Ellen hired an architect, Charles Stanley Peach to make substantial alterations to the house and grounds. These included the construction of a new wing of servants and visitors rooms; a new dining room; alterations to the basement servants' rooms; the widening of the entrance hall; the addition of new attic rooms; and the addition of a verandah on the front of the house. This provided more space for enteraining in style. This was needed as after Charles was elected Mayor of Brighton in 1910, a position he held until 1913. Preston became the focus for a series of highprofile social events. Charles and Ellen entertained dignitaries including the late Queen Victoria's daughters, the Crown Prince of Sweden and author Rudyard Kipling.

In 1914 Charles was elected as an MP for Brighton, a position he held until 1922. Ellen and Charles were very involved in social and civic affairs. During the First World War they were involved in the organising of gifts for the Indian soldiers being treated in the military hospital at the Pavilion (and other locations in Brighton), at the same time Ellen apparently wrote to all those who lost someone in the conflict to express her sympathy. Ellen's grandson, Vere, served in field artilery units on the Western Front where his promotion was rapid. Despite several injuries, illnesses and hospitalisations, he remained in the army after the war, finally being diagnosed with tuberculosis in Burma in 1920. He was sent to a sanitarium in Switzerland where he remained, with occasional visits to his parents or to hospitals in England, until January 1922 when he went to live with his parents. He died in April. In 1922 Charles bought Lewes Castle and donated it to the Sussex Archaeology Society in trust for the nation. In 1925 Ellen and Charles were given the Honorary Freedom of Brighton, and in 1929 Charles was made a baronet in recognition of his years of public service.