EXPLORING THE COLONEL’S MANSION

Copyright Valerie Martin 2003

Colonel Ulric Oliver Thynne (born 1871) and his family resided in the grand mansion of Muntham Court during the first half of the twentieth century.  

In 1921 there was a royal personage visiting Findon when Prince Henry William, Duke of Gloucester, (and younger brother of George VI who was later to be King in 1936), paid a visit to Colonel Ulric Oliver Thynne and his wife, Marjory, at Muntham Court in Findon.  The indoor staff at Muntham Court were allowed to stand on the balcony to watch the party go in to dinner.  It was a grand occasion and Mrs Thynne went in to dinner on the arm of Prince Henry. 

Four years later Colonel Ulric Oliver Thynne DSO a Chitral Campaign (1895), South African War and First World War veteran, was believed to be the tallest member of the Gentlemen-a-arms at 6 ft. 3 in. when he went on duty  in the Albert Memorial Chapel at Windsor where the flag draped coffin of Queen Alexandra, wife of the late King Edward VII, lay.

The Colonel passed away on 30th September, l957 and after his butler and wife had departed, the house stood deserted and the grounds became overgrown.

The pupils from the local school in the late 1950s came from the nearby cottages and council estate.  They were in the habit of frequenting the pond at North End during their summer holidays.   Here they amused themselves with the pastime of searching for coots among the reeds.  The poor birds scuttled off their nests and the boys would steal the eggs.  

When the children grew bored during the long hot summer months, the old Colonel's mansion beckoned as being a paradise for exploration.   They left the pond (a little grubby by now) and crossed the road and walked up the lane to the long drive.   This already had an air of neglect and suddenly around the corner the property stood before them formidable and drab.   The substantial yew hedge had been tended in the past by gardeners trimming its many ornate archways.  It was now beginning to need urgent attention but there was no one to arrive with clippers.  Without grown-ups to stop them, the property's solitude and dreary appearance was an invitation to any youngster. 

Boys will be boys and without any trepidation they soon gained entry to the property.  This was through the dank cellars and they disappeared from the sunshine into the cool gloom.   It was just a boyish prank and they did not mean any harm as they started their adventure.  They talked quietly as cautiously crossing the dirty underground room and bumping into piles of rubbish.

No one could help to miss the large crayon creation standing silently in the cellar.   This illustrated a rather nondescript maiden in a mini-Grecian dress.   Her feet were bare and a little on the big size for the rest of her proportions.   One of her arms was raised and holding a tray of items precariously balanced on her head.  

The boys did not know that this artistic object had originally been there for a purpose.  It was a shutter for the window beside the fireplace in the Drawing Room above the cellar.   In the past, it would have been the duty of the footman to wind the shutter up by hand from the cellars.   I can not help wonder if this would have been done silently, or whether there were one or two creakings as it proceeded.  Once this task had been completed, the footman entered the Drawing Room to pull the curtains.   

It has been said that the sight of the apparition of a maiden suddenly appearing at the Drawing Room window always caused a ripple of excitement from any guests being entertained there.   

The colonel's teenage sons would unmercifully pull the visitors' legs by wagering them a pound that they could not discover the whereabouts of the hidden button working the mechanism.   Edward — who was the more scientifically minded of the youngsters, was a renowned leg-puller.   There was the occasion when he informed one of his father's callers that the shutter worked by a sheet of litmus paper on the balcony outside.  This was affected by darkness falling and automatically triggered an electrical connection to be made.   What is more surprising, is the fact that the guest was taken in by the boy's explanation.

I am making a guess when I suggest that the shutter had been originally installed by a previous owner in the eighteenth century — that mechanical genius, William Frankland.   If he had not been the instigator of the invention, it could have perhaps been a whim of the Marchioness of Bath (the Colonel's grandmother) during her occupation of the property before the Colonel came into his inheritance.

At first the Findon lads tiptoed over the oak floors from room to room, looking around in expectant excitement, wondering what they would find.  There was the library with a fine marble Adam-style fireplace and French doors leading to the sun filled terrace.   This is where the Colonel's wife, Marjory, spent many hours during her latter years  — working on exquisite embroidery and tapestry which was either framed or used to cover chairs and stools.

Next to the library was Marjory's Gardening Room and that led the young explorers to the Billiard Room.   The Colonel's brother, Tom, had been a captain in the Royal Navy and was a rather eccentric character and a great traveller of the world.  During his long life he had mounted stuffed animal heads on the walls encircling the billiard table.  As well as these specimens, there had also been present a resplendent stuffed baby hippopotamus to complete the safari atmosphere.

A hippopotamus seems an unlikely mammal to find at Muntham Court.  There was one though, albeit stuffed.   It resided in the Billiard Room too.  Brian Thynne's little girls would rush to sit on it immediately they arrived at the mansion. The creature had been captured in the tropical African grassland but had died during the journey to England and so Tom decided to bring a stuffed hippopotamus to Muntham — otherwise it might have been alive one if it had survived. 

The larger rooms filled the young visitors with awe.   They had been used in the past for grand balls, musical evenings, and afternoon entertainments — or for other celebrations, such as the christening of the Marchioness of Bath’s grandson — now the Colonel.   Goodwood racing weeks were also a highlight of the social calendar.  Sunday luncheon parties were a large occasion and held once a month.  

In one room the boys were fascinated to see the curling remnants of faded aeroplane photographs still tenaciously hanging from the walls .  Brian Thynne (the Colonel’s son) owned models and silhouettes of many aircraft and these were crammed into his bedroom-cum-sitting room.   He also kept other various souvenir trophies such as blinds, pictures and even door handles taken from railway trains.

Beyond Brian's sitting room lay the vast kitchen quarters including servants' hall, the housekeeper's room, the butler's pantry, a bare scullery and a kitchen fitted an Esse Range. 

Eventually enthusiasm overtook the young explorers and they were running from room to room and shouting to each other as each new discovery was made.   There was a narrow back staircase that caught the explorers' eyes and they found it led up to the nursery suite.   In the past Brian Thynne's two little girls had swore that the place was haunted by children who had previously ridden on an old rocking horse that once stood outside the door of the day-nursery.  Perhaps they had heard it rocking when no one was present?

An impressive oak staircase led them also to the First Floor. Encircling the hall above the panelling were small shields with the Thynne family's arms on them.  The Minstrels' Gallery was approached by this massive principal staircase.   This balustraded gallery was created in the Marchioness of Bath's days.   It was done by destroying some of the bedrooms at the time as it was two storeys high.

On the First Floor were six bedrooms, three dressing rooms, three bathrooms, two more principal double bedrooms.  There were also two single bedrooms with a fourth bathroom.  During their escapade, the boys came across a reminder of the previous occupant —  an oil painting of a stern gentleman — the Colonel wearing his dress uniform was looking straight at them.

On the Top Floor were nine more bedrooms including three single and two extremely large double bedrooms.  There was also another bathroom, a separate w.c. and a housemaid’s closet.

The very top of the house was a bit scary to enter as the dusty attics were crowded with piles of faded carpets and furniture no longer having a use in the mansion. 

In total, the boys had made their ways through a total of four reception rooms and  hall, garden room, twenty-two beds and dressing rooms and five bathrooms.

They had found a Nu-way oil-fire central heating boiler and an Ideal boiler for domestic heating.  They were not to know at the time but the house had once had its own private water supply and cesspool drainage. 

Eventually, hunger got the better of their inquisitiveness and they left their new world behind them as they climbed back out through the cellar entrance.  With their imaginations fired with the grandeur they had seen, they finally departed from the mansion to make their way home to their village homes.

Around this time it was muted that the film star Diana Dors was purchasing Muntham Court but this fell through. 

In 1961, the beautiful panelling, oak wood and tiled floors, staircases, doors, fireplaces and windows were removed.   This was prior to the demolition of the mansion leaving a stark gap on the hillside where the mansion had graced the scene for so many years.

 It is often said that some of the windows and doors were to find their way into other properties in Findon.

The contents of the mansion were auctioned and many items found their way to the States — as did these two watercolours of roses.

They are from Marjory Thynne's collection (she had a number of Taylor's pictures) and these two ended up in Connecticut.   The roses have since crossed the Atlantic again and in 2002 found their way back to the village (Findon) where they started out so many years before.

In 1964, Francis (Frank) Morris was appointed the Worthing Borough Architect.    Some 15 months after this, he won a national award for the design of the new crematorium to be constructed in the grounds of the Muntham Court mansion.

Continue if you would like to read about The Demise of a Great House.

This is Findon Village — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created by Valerie Martin exclusively for documenting life in Findon.