Tributes paid to one of Hestercombe estate's last residents

Margaret, 97, of Monkton Heathfield, Taunton, passed away peacefully on September 1. Margaret was the adored mum of Michael and Nigel, and beloved widow of Ken.

Speaking to the County Gazette in May 2016, Margaret shared her memories of growing up at the Hestercombe estate...

I grew up on the estate and still have vivid memories of a very different era. I was born on a winter’s night in 1927 at 2 Park Gate. Our home faced the drive leading down to Hestercombe House beneath Volis Hill.

My parents had met as gardener and head housemaid in Berkshire and moved to Somerset in 1926, when my father was taken on as ‘pleasure groundsman’, responsible for Hestercombe’s landscape gardens, by the Hon Constance Portman. He later became head gardener.

Mrs Portman had a horse and cart waiting for them when they arrived at Taunton Station. It stopped at Pearse’s hardware store, Kingston Road, so they could buy furniture.

Hestercombe House was said to have 365 windows, one for every day of the year. As an only child growing up in a rural area, life could be lonely, but through the years I learned a lot about the work of a country estate.

It reminded me of the card game Happy Families – there was Mr Bradbury the butler, Mr Trump the gamekeeper, Mr Humphries the chauffeur, Mr Smith the dairyman, Mr Bond the carter, Miss Pike the dressmaker, who made some of my clothes – even the village nurse.

Hestercombe House. The first records of the estate date back to 682, in an Anglo–Saxon charter. (Image: Hestercombe)

Staff were expected to attend Holy Communion at Hestercombe Church within the grounds, which was served by the priest from St Andrew’s, Rowbarton.

We all had our designated pews and Mrs Portman was the organist. You always knew when she was arriving because of the jangle of her bracelets.

Margaret Bradbury, the butler’s daughter, and I were baptised together and I especially remember Harvest, when the fresh vegetables from the estate were displayed. I still have Mrs Portman’s prayer book in which she placed photographs of the church.

There is also a painting of the chapel with the words ‘All Hail’. Most moving are the prayers she wrote on the blank pages. The church was later dismantled and restored at Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton.

Next to the church was a dairy where milk was obtained from a Jersey herd. Tradespeople called at the house – the butcher, baker, oilman and fishmonger. In the isolation of the country estate, their presence brightened my day.

There was a large laundry, where a neighbour worked. Employing 30 people to keep the estate going, Mrs Portman ran things regimentally.

I soon learned that on no account was I to step on the grass verges running beside the driveway from South Lodge to the main house.

This was one of the routes I took cycling home from school. As the chauffeur left the estate with Mrs Portman, he would blow his horn and travel down the manicured private drive towards the main road to Taunton. At each lodge he passed, a wheel would have to be turned to open the gates to allow them through.

All the cottages had their own large gardens so employees were self-supporting with fruit and vegetables. Dad was in charge of the flowering shrubs and pruning. He told me how he had to mow the terraces by hand, which was an all-day job.

He spoke of the 50-rung ladder and rope used to prune the magnolia and creepers on the front of the house.

Dad was on duty in the greenhouses every other weekend. We would cycle there together. I would watch him tending various plants and checking temperatures. He worked alongside a robin that stayed with him in the garden. When he cycled home for lunch, the bird, which was blind in one eye, flew alongside him.

Mrs Portman was knowledgeable about the garden, especially the shrubs. She kept geese in a canal. Every morning at 8am she would call ‘girlies’ from her window and they always answered.

I attended Cheddon and Kingston Schools, and sang in the choir at Cheddon Fitzpaine Church, where I later married. I particularly recall the Hestercombe Reading Room opposite our home. During the war it became a Naafi canteen. I remember sitting on the wall, hoping one of the Americans would bring me a Mars bar! I never imagined I would later perform there in pantomimes and a production of Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit.

Mrs Portman was known for her thoroughness and meticulous approach to punctuality. She didn’t allow staff to smoke on duty. Nonetheless, she was always very sociable.

Every year she visited the estate families in their homes. On one occasion, she was chatting to my mother at the doorway when I appeared and noticed her jewellery. “I’ve got bracelets like that in my rubbish box,” I piped up. My Mother was speechless – so was Mrs Portman.

• Margaret Ford's Funeral service is to take place at the parish church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Cheddon Fitzpaine, on September 28, at noon, followed by private cremation. A four-horse cortege will travel past Hestercombe and her birthplace ahead of the service.