SAMUEL WHITBREAD & SOUTHILL HOUSE

Samuel Whitbread 1720-1796

Today I took a short break from my Election Campaign to enjoy a Charity Visit and Tea in aid of MacMillan Cancer Support at Southill House, home of the Whitbread family since 1795. Our host was Charles Whitbread, Patron of Elstow Abbey, who lives at Southill House with his wife and 4 children and has now taken over the management of the Southill Estate from his father Sam Whitbread.

Samuel Whitbread I was born in Cardington in 1720, grandson of William Whitbread, who bought land there in 1653 and was a contemporary of John Bunyan. In 1736 Samuel was apprenticed to a brewer by his widowed mother and created the huge Whitbread brewing empire, while investing in Bedfordshire land and becoming a local Member of Parliament. He campaigned vigorously for the aboliton of slavery with his cousin John Howard, famous prison reformer. There have been seven Samuel Whitbreads in all including the present Sam Whitbread, Lord Lieutenant of Bedfordshire.

The Whitbread family created one of the largest estates in the country, including the villages of Southill, Cardington and Elstow and have been great benefactors to the local community, eg building Bedford Hospital. The Whitbread family donated the 15th Century Moot Hall to Bedfordshire County Council in 1959 and and the Whitbreads have also renovated several local churches including Elstow Abbey in 1880-82.

Southill House has beautiful wooded grounds and some lovely historic paintings, all by English painters such as Sir Joshua Reynolds and Gainsborough, favoured by Sam Whitbread 1. We had a delicious tea and I bought a bottle of Warden Special Reserve wine, one of five varieties produced by their Warden Abbey Vineyard.

This evening it was back to earth with a bang with an Elstow Parish Council meeting and tomorrow I am back on the campaign trail. I have canvassed over 400 houses in three days and organised the delivery of 50% of my manifestos, my third leaflet this year. An election campaign involves a lot of leg work and organisation with only a few helpers and this is my 8th personal election campaign.

THE CYCLE OF LIFE and QUEEN VICTORIA

These two photographs epitomise the Cycle of Life from 0 to 110 years.


Last weekend I attended two christenings - the first of Eleanor Milligan, the 3rd chld of Philip and Katherine in the Roman Catholic church in Flitwick. On Sunday I sang in Elstow Abbey choir at the Anglican christening of Isabella Rose Sanderson. Both events were joyous family occasions attended by many relatives and children.

Elstow Abbey is a popular venue for christenings because it is a beautiful and historic church, where John Bunyan was baptised in 1628. Also we have a charismatic Vicar Jeremy Crocker and in the next 2 weeks we will have the baptisms of Natalie, granddaughter of our organist Steve McDonald and Alice, Martha and James Matthews, the triplet grandchildren of my fellow chorister Teresa.

The 2nd photo is of Margaret Fish, the oldest person in Bedfordshire who lives in Wilstead and celebrated her 110th Birthday on Friday 6 March. Sam Whitbread, the Lord Lieutenant of Bedfordshire, personally presented Margaret with her 7th telegram from the Queen. There are only 30 people aged 110 years in whole of the UK.

Margaret was born in London in 1899, the year the paper clip was invented and Coca Cola was first bottled in America. The population of Britain was only 29 million. Mrs Fish was a dressmaker, married in 1928 and moved to Bedfordshire with her husband during the 2nd World War bombings. She visited her daughter in Australia at the age of 90, lived independently in Cople until she was 104 and was still digging her garden at the age of 100! And her favourite TV programme is "Dancing on Ice".

Margaret was born during the reign of Queen Victoria and on Saturday evening I went to see the new film "The Young Victoria". Victoria became Queen when she was just 18years old and faced a daunting task, surrounded by a dominant mother and power hungry politicians and courtiers. Fortunately Victoria found the ideal husband in Prince Albert, who was intelligent and had a strong social conscience and inspired the 1951 Great Exhibiton at Crystal Palace. It was a true love match which resulted in 9 children and many grandchildren who married into most of the royal houses of Europe - Germany, Spain, Greece, Norway, Italy, Denmark,Russia, Sweden.

Victoria ruled for 64 years, the longest reign in British history and ruled an Empire which covered 25% of the world in the 19th Century. Her great granddaughter Queen Elizabeth II has followed in Victoria's footsteps, having become Queen at the age of 26 and she has reigned for 57 years.