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The Nether Grange Estate, the Mason family and the Victorian hydros of
Great Malvern
Contents
Introduction
The Nether Grange Estate
The Mason Family
The Grave of Edward Palmer
Rev Joseph Mason
References
The land on which Dr James Wilson's
water cure
establishment was built was part of the Nether Grange Estate and purchased from Oliver Mason in the 1840s.
In
the churchyard of Great Malvern Priory there is a tomb in the shape of a
slab topped by a cross bearing the inscription:
The Mason Family Vault
There
is no other inscription but we
speculate it could be the resting place of Oliver Mason and his wife,
although it seems a rather large construction for just two burials. If you
know more do please tell us.
Marks in the base indicate the grave was once protected
by iron railings, as were many other monuments in the churchyard. Sadly all
the railings in the churchyard were removed to provide scrap metal for the
war effort during WWII.
The Mason family vault in the Priory churchyard
We wondered who this Mason family was and what impact, if any, they had upon
the town.
So how was Oliver Mason linked with the Nether Grange Estate?
A monastic 'grange' was a manor or other centre of an
outlying farming estate belonging to a monastery and used for food
production. So the Nether Grange Estate would have been one of many parcels of
land once owned by the monastry of Great Malvern
Priory.
There is no trace of the 'Nether Grange Estate' in
Malvern now, other than the road running past the theatre being named Grange
Road, and a large Victorian house named 'The Grange' in the north west-corner of
Priory Park (see photo below viewed from Grange Road).
The Grange
In recent years 'The Grange', which was built circa 1830,
had been occupied by Malvern Hills District council, but in 2014 it was
offered for sale, being surplus to requirements and in need of extensive repairs
to the fabric of the building.
According to 'The Story of Park View' (ref 1), following
the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539 the monastic land immediately
surrounding the Priory was sold, eventually passing to William and Anne Savage
whose descendant Thomas Burch Savage of
Elmley Castle, High Sheriff
of Worcestershire in 1757, sold the land to Alderman James Oliver of
Worcester circa 1774.
We know nothing of James Oliver but speculate that James
passed ownership of the land to his daughter Elizabeth Oliver, born about
1753, who became the second wife of Birmingham merchant William Wallis
Mason, when they married at St Nicholas, Worcester in 1782; Elizabeth was in
turn the
mother of Oliver Mason.
William Wallis Mason was born in Birmingham about 1746.
He is recorded in Chapman's trade directory
as a merchant (commerce) of 15 Temple Street, Birmingham. He died in 1805 and his will
reveals he was quite a wealthy man.
William first married Mary Collett (1746-1782).
They had a daughter Mary and a son also named William Wallis, as was his
son, the name passing down through the generations.
After Mary's death, William then married Elizabeth Oliver in 1782, and they
had nine children, Sarah, James, Oliver, Philip, Charles, Samuel, George,
Mary and Frederick. Two children died in infancy and several at a young age; our story is concerned primarily with Oliver and his youngest sister Mary.
The Foley Estate map of the Manor of Great Malvern in
1828 shows the Mason family owning a large swathe of land around what is now
Abbey Road and to the south of Church Street.
Oliver Mason
Oliver's mother, Elizabeth Mason, died in 1835 when Oliver was aged 48 and
she was buried at
St Philip, Birmingham.
Oliver Mason Esq born 1787, is recorded in Pigot and Co's
Royal National and Commercial Directory of 1842 resident in Malvern (ref 2).
He probably moved to Malvern following his mother's death and after
inheriting the Nether Grange Estate, as he was not listed in the earlier Pigot's
Directory of 1828.
Building land must have attracted a premium with the
arrival of the water cure doctors Gully and Wilson in 1844, and perhaps
Oliver Mason saw an opportunity to sell them land to augment his income.
He had instigated the building of a system for collecting
spring water in a large cistern known as The Mason Tank, which once stood
near the site of the Baptist Church, to supply water to
those wishing to buy his land. This was of great importance before the
introduction of a public water supply.
The Mason Tank fed the Hydro, Fonthill, Chatsworth House,
and Tintern House in Abbey Road (ref 5).
Oliver may also have been responsible for the building of
Reginald Tower (see below) and The Grange, mentioned above.
Billings Directory of 1855 lists Oliver living at Reginald Tower, Great Malvern.
where he lived until his death in 1871 (ref 3).
Reginald Tower
There is no house named Reginald Tower now, but the
census (ref 4) indicates the house lay near The Grange, and the Gentlemens'
Club; the latter now an Estate Agents,situated by the traffic lights on the
corner of Grange Road and Church Street.
We think it very likely 'Reginald Tower' was next
renamed 'Hendon'. In 1891 spinster Mary Bramwell, born Hendon, Sunderland
about 1839, was living there with a cook, ladies maid, parlour maid, general
house maid, and a kitchen maid. Trade directories suggest she was there
until 1904. In 1881 she was living at Townshend House in College Road with
her widowed mother and sister Jane Elizabeth who had married
Rev Charles Henry Ford (1825 - 1888). Mary's father was Christopher Bramwell
a wine merchant and JP of
Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire who had died in 1866.
Mary left Malvern and in 1911 was staying with her
brother Rev Addison Bramwell in London. She died at London in 1918 and one of her
executors was her niece Caroline Sophia Eden nee Ford.
Trade directories indicate that by 1908 Reginald
Tower alias Hendon had been renamed Priors Croft. The 1911 census records Dr
Arthur Oliver Holbeche living there, who was born at Sutton Coldfield in
1855. He died at Priors Croft on Christmas Day 1931 leaving a widow Helen
Jane who died at Droitwich in 1950; one of his executors was Charles Francis
Dyson Perrins.
In 1904 Arthur Oliver Holbeche had been living just
around the corner at Abbotsfield in Abbey Road, once the home of
water cure
Dr James Loftus Marsden
Pictured below is Priors Croft with its 'fairy tale'
towers. The house, which was once named Reginald Tower, home of Oliver
Mason, is now a restaurant.
Reginald Tower now named Priors Croft
In 1853, aged 66 years, Oliver Mason married Emma Susannah
Hyde daughter of an Attorney.
Oliver, who is described in the census as a landed
proprietor, died at Reginald Tower in 1871 and Emma died there in
1883. They had no children.
Priors Croft was restored circa 2010.
Mary Mason
Oliver's youngest sister, Mary Mason, born 1796, married
a clergyman, Rev Edward Palmer, born 1793, at Saint Martin, Birmingham in 1833.
Rev Edward Palmer, was Curate of
St John the
Baptist, Deritend, Birmingham, long since demolished. They had one daughter Mary Phebe Palmer born Highgate, Birmingham in
1837.
Rev Edward Palmer died after a long illness at
Malvern on 31st January 1846 aged only 53 years and is buried in the
churchyard of Great Malvern Priory, see photo below. Maybe he had come to
Malvern for the water cure, or to visit his brother-in-law Oliver.
Following Edward Palmer's death, Mary moved to Great Malvern to
live at South Abbotsfield in Abbey Road near her brother Oliver.
 An
1884 map of Great Malvern indicates South Abbotsfield stood on the site of
the housing development now known as Croftdown Court. The oldest building on
the site had been occupied by Croftdown School for girls which came to
Malvern in the 1940s, and possibly the grand building (shown opposite,
screened by trees) was South
Abbotsfield.
Mary died on 4th November 1865 aged 69 years at South
Abbotsfield and is buried with her husband Edward. Her
executors were Rev Henry Gisborne Cooper, possibly a friend of her husband's and her nephew Alfred Mason of Uley
Lodge, Dursley,
who was the son of her deceased brother James.
Edward and Mary's daughter, Mary Phebe Palmer, continued to live at South Abbotsfield
until her death on 23rd December 1904. She is buried with her parents.
Louisa Sarah Mason
Louisa Sarah Mason born 1837 was the grand-daughter of
Mary Mason's elder half brother William Wallis Mason (the second)) who was a
jeweller and merchant. Wrightson's Triennial Directory of Birmingham 1815
lists William Wallis Mason and Sons, merchants, of Broad Street.
After Mary Palmer nee Mason died, Louisa Sarah Mason went
to live as companion to her 'cousin' Mary Phebe Palmer at South Abbotsfield
and remained there until her death in 1923. They were both born in 1837 and
did not marry.
Sarah Mason
Sarah Mason was the younger sister of Louisa Sarah Mason
and seems to have lived mostly with her parents; but following the death of
their father in 1885, she appears in the 1891 census living with her widowed
mother and a retinue of servants at 'The Grange' in Grange Road, Great
Malvern. She is still there in 1901 following the death of her mother, but with just a cook. Two people in such a large house (see another photo of The
Grange, taken from Priory Park, below).
Another view of The Grange
Soon after 1901 Sarah seems to have joined her sister Louisa
at South Abbotsfield where Louisa died in 1923 and Sarah in 1940.
Their father, William Wallis Mason (the third) who died
in 1885 was a Chemist and Druggist.
A large grey tablet set in the grass of the churchyard of
Great Malvern Priory, records the death of Edward and other members of the
extended Mason family.
The grave is about ten yards from the entrance of the
Priory on the north side of the footpath. There is a long inscription which
will be transcribed to our page about The Priory. It records:
Rev Edward Palmer who died 31st January 1846 aged 53 years.
Mary Palmer nee Mason (his wife) died 4th November 1865 aged 69 years
Mary Phebe Palmer (their daughter) died 23 December 1904 aged 66 years
and the first cousins once removed of Mary Phebe,
Louisa Sarah Mason who died 10th January 1923 aged 85 years
Sarah (Louisa) Mason who died 28th January 1940 aged 96 years
Next to this grave is the tomb of water colour painter
Edward Webb who died at Malvern in 1854. Edward was was the father of famous
architect
Aston Webb.
Pigot's Trade Directory of 1842 also listed a Rev Joseph Mason after Oliver Mason Esq,
but he appears to be no relation.
This Rev Joseph Mason, the son of Abraham, was born Dublin about 1836, BA
Oxford 1841. Appointed a curate to Great Malvern Priory, he was in 1851
appointed vicar of East Tytherley in Hampshire where he continued to serve
until his death on 5th Sep 1876.
During the
Crimean War, Joseph served as a
chaplain to the forces. The 1861 census records Joseph visiting
Rev George Shaw
Munn at Madresfied Rectory, so possibly they were friends at
Oxford or had met as curates in Malvern.
- Hall-Jones, Roger, The Story of Park View Malvern, 2nd edition 2012,
printed by First Paige.
- Tombs, Kerry, Malvern Directories (1820 - 1862)
- National Probate Calendar
- England census 1851 to 1911.
- Cora Weaver and Bruce Osborne, Aquae Malvernensis, The Springs and
Fountains of the Malvern Hills, printed by Aldine Press, 1994, ISBN
1-873-809-07-7
- Grierson Janet, Dr Wilson and his Malvern Hydro, published by Malvern
Museum 1998.
- Harcup, John Winsor, The Malvern Water Cure, printed by Aspect Design,
second issue 2010.
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