Henbury Lodge Hotel, Edmund Burke and Jonathan Neat
Researched by Julian Culliford
Henbury Lodge Hotel is one of those buildings which both beautifies the village and
provides a very practical service to local people. Indeed, there can be very few people
who know Henbury but don't know the Hotel, given its prominent position on the corner
of Henbury Road and Station Road.
The building has a very interesting link with national history. Whilst campaigning for
one of the two Bristol parliamentary seats in 1774, Edmund Burke (1729-1797), the
great statesman, political theorist, philosopher and famed supporter of the American
colonists in their struggle against what they saw as a tyrannical and unrepresentative
government, stayed here. Many of us will have seen his statue on Colston Avenue and
his great contribution to the nations of both Britain and the United States of America is
noted by further statues in London and Washington D.C. But how many of us are aware
of his connection with our own Henbury.
According to the book “Two Centuries of Ceramic Art in Bristol, a History of the
Manufacture of 'the true porcelain'” published in 1873, Burke stayed as a guest of the
then owner, Richard Champion, who was engaged as a porcelain manufacturer and had
a factory in the city.
It seems that inside the Hotel a plaque marks the bay window, known as "Burke's
Window", where Burke would sit to admire the pleasant pastoral scenes straight down
to the Hazel Brook and up the other side; a view that, unfortunately, no longer exists.
The Culliford family has held various functions at the Hotel over the years. We were
entirely unaware of the connection with Edmund Burke at the time. However, at the
same time as discovering that fact, it was fascinating to find out that our own family
also has a very close historical connection with the building.
It turns out that before Richard bought the property in about 1772 and evidently carried
out the works, which give the building its beautiful Palladian appearance, it was a much
more simple farm property. On the page on the Henbury Lodge Hotel section of the
Best Western website, it is described as looking in Kip’s early 18th century panorama
engraving of Henbury as "a large two-storey house of Tudor style". The owner who
sold it to Richard was one Jonathan Neat, a yeoman farmer. We knew that Jonathan
Neat was our ancestor, that his will was proved in 1795 and that when his then wife
Sarah Neat's will was proved in 1782, she had been resident in Sea Mills and so
probably had he. The great antiquarian of Gloucestershire , Ralph Bigland, visited
Henbury churchyard, some time between 1781 and his death in 1784, and recorded in
his publication "Historical, Monumental and Genealogical Collections relative to the
county of Gloucester" the presence of a grave containing the remains of the first,
second, third and sixth wives of Jonathan Neat. Yes, by 1781, Jonathan Neat had
managed to marry and outlive a total of six wives! This number at that time would
seem incredible for an aristocrat, let alone a humble yeoman farmer such as Jonathan
Neat. Each time he buried yet another wife, it isn’t difficult to imagine the neighbours
wondering whether he himself had had some hand in their deaths and yet no evidence of
foul play has ever been unearthed. It seems that he was just a very unlucky man who
could not find any satisfaction in widowhood and yet who constantly retained some
mysterious attractiveness to the fairer sex.
So next time you pass by the Hotel perhaps you will see in your mind’s eye Edmund
Burke pondering the great North America question as he peers out of the bay window
but spare a thought too for the six unfortunate wives of Jonathan Neat (and perhaps
Jonathan Neat himself) resting peacefully somewhere in the churchyard.
David Culliford
Jan 1st 2014
[Jonathan Neat is David Cullifords 4 x Great Grandfather]