Broxwood Court - A Brief History

The Broxwood court estate is owned by Richard Snead-Cox, Anne's brother, who lives mostly in London.

Their ancestors, the Cox's lived in this part of Herefordshire from the 13th Century and in the early 17th Century, when Gabriel Cox married Elizabeth Sneade, the family name became Snead(e)-Cox with the joining of the two families and their lands (Their portraits hang in the drawing room).

The Snead-Cox family were and remain Roman Catholic and survived the Reformation and remained in Herefordshire after 1745 when many of the Roman Catholic families left for France.

During this period the family home was twenty miles from Broxwood, on the Eaton Bishop Estate, which had belonged to the Sneades before being joined with Broxwood.

Around the middle of the 19th Century, Anne's great grandfather became engaged to Maria Teresa Weld of Leagram Hall in Lancashire and embarked on the building of the house at Broxwood Court as an appropriate residence for his new wife!

The Architect L. Stokes was engaged to design and oversee the building of the Court and work commenced in 1858. During the construction Stokes suddenly died and it was not until the late 1890’s that the house was completed, with the addition of the west wing designed by F. Hansom. The garden was designed by William Nesfield, a well known Victorian landscape architect, in the style of the times, with terraces, long straight paths, parterres, a rose garden, yew hedges and the avenue of trees, one mile long, plus a number of ponds.

Richard and Anne's grandfather, John Snead-Cox, married a young American 18 years his junior whom he had met at dinner party in Paris! They had four sons, Richard, Geoffrey, Herbert and Robin, but tragically three were lost in the Great War, Richard and Geoffrey in the same week at the ages of 21 and 19. When Herbert was lost aged 16 at the Battle of Jutland in 1916, Robin was only eight.

In 1928 Robin became a regular officer in the Royal Welch Fusiliers and left Broxwood to soldier throughout the Empire, leaving his mother at the Court.

In 1939 the Court was taken over by the Government and used by Mrs J.B. Priestley, wife of the famous author, to house evacuees from the Blitz. A large part of the garden was ploughed up to feed the many hungry mouths!

After the war Mrs Snead-Cox, Anne's grandmother, handed the Court over to a convent which had had to leave their own building and it became a school until 1951 when her son, Lt Col. Robin Snead-Cox decided to leave the army and return home with his wife and two children (Richard and Anne).

The house was enormous, much of the furniture had been sold and many repairs were needed. At this point Robin and Elizabeth took the brave decision to knock down the big house, retaining the courtyard and building a smaller house using the old stone. It was completed in 1954 during which time the family lived in a wooden hut in the front meadow!!

Anne's mother, a gifted sculptress and artist, softened the severe angles of the Victorian garden design and together with her husband who was a very keen arboriculturalist, they began to return the avenue to its former glory.

Sadly Robin developed leukaemia in the late 50's and in 1968 the estate passed to his son, Richard.