Winton House, overlooking Denham's village green, is one of the village's most imposing buildings. It's a Grade II listed building believed to have been built in the late 18th century and refronted in the early 19th. Penny Forsyth spent some of her childhood living there. She was Penny Stewart then. Her father was film producer Hugh St. Clair Stewart. The Stewart family have played a major part in Denham village life since Hugh and Frances moved into Winton House in 1951. Penny has told us of her family's Denham story - and more besides.
The history of Winton House
There are houses around England with the name Winton and a splendid castle near Edinburgh, home to the Earls of Winton and other members of the Scottish nobility since the 12th century but there is no known link between Winton House in Denham and any of those properties. In old English the word "winton" simply means pleasant or friendly place, so we must assume that its early owners blessed it with that description. In 1955, English Heritage added Winton House as a Grade II Listed Building – designated for its special architectural or historic interest
Winton House in Denham was, it seems, constructed during the lifetime of the first Benjamin Way (1740 to 1808), descendant of Sir Roger Hill who commissioned the building of what we now see as Denham Place. As owners of Denham Place, the Way family descendants were Lords of the Manor of Denham and leading figures in the community. Still today, John Way is Patron of St Mary's Church.
We know that in the late 19th century the freehold ownership of Winton House was in the Way family. It was described as being a brick house with nine rooms and a scullery, a large garden and paddock. There was also a brick stable and cowshed. It had a gross estimate value of £310.
The house was then occupied by Robert Stone, his wife Charlotte and their 4 year old son Charles. Robert's first name for official purposes was Jeremiah but it is clear from newspaper records of the time that he preferred to be known as Robert.
Son of a substantial West Buckinghamshire farmer, Robert was a steward on the Way estate. His was a significant role. He was no servant. Author Sharon Latham describes the role of the estate steward "Squarely in the middle class, the estate steward usually owned a home away from the main house or lived in a separate dwelling on the estate. His duties included complete management issues for the estate itself: hiring and firing of workers, settling tenant disputes, overseeing the harvest and livestock, collecting rents, keeping the financial records, etc." The many reference to Robert Stone as the person to be contacted in the "For Sale" and "Situations Vacant" columns of local newspapers make clear that Jeremiah Robert Stone was managing the Way estate in the 1890s and 1900s until he died in 1908
Winton House of course went with the job. It was clearly a substantial residence suited to the senior manager of Colonel Way's estate. An updated description of the property appeared in the Field Book compiled in 1910 as a result of a Valuation Survey known colloquially as "Lloyd George’s Domesday Survey". This was undertaken by Prime Minister Lloyd George's Liberal Party government in England and Wales to enable taxes to be raised against future increases in the value of property. Each plot of land was assessed and details of all properties given. The entry for Winton House, described it as a ‘House and outbuildings & garden land’, being 1 acre in extent and a freehold property.'
The Reading Room
Writing about the “History of Denham” for the Denham News in 1980, Cyril Timms mentioned: “At the rear of Winton House, there used to be a large building, owned by Col. Way, known as the Reading Room, which was the centre of most village sporting activities, … It contained a full size billiard table, a bagatelle table, a library, a gallery for playing cards and adjacent to it was an indoor rifle range. It was strictly administered by a committee under the supervision of Colonel Way, and was also used for meetings of Boy Scouts, Church Lads’ Brigade and other organisations."
In fact, the so-called Reading Room was rather more than a meeting room. It was evidently quite a social centre for the village. Events held there were frequently reported in the gossip columns of the local press. For example, The West Middlesex Gazette of April 28, 1900, reported that "the Denham Reading Room dancing times were brought to a close for this season by an "All-night dance" on Easter Monday night. The rooms were very tastefully decorated by friends ; the floor was perfect and a programme of twenty-six dances was thoroughly enjoyed by all.
The refreshments, were in the hands of Mr. and Mrs. Stone, who, as before, gave every satisfaction. At the close three cheers were given, ending with the National Anthem.
The committee have decided to have a special patriotic dance on Wednesday evening, May 2nd, to honour the Sailors' Families Association. Subscriptions will be thankfully received from non-dancers on behalf of the committee by Mr. Stone, hon. Sec., Winton House, Denham, from whom tickets for admission can be obtained."
Other news reports of the time describe concert entertainments offered by local residents displaying their talents to their fellow villagers.
New owners
Robert Stone's role as steward was taken over by Alfred Marshall, but it seems Alfred did not last long in the job. By 1913 Winton House was occupied by a Mr. J. Marston of whom little is known save that he was a keen cricketer who was appointed secretary of the Denham Cricket Club in 1913.
The Way family is understood to have sold off most of their estate properties in the village in the 1920s. Winton House passed into occupier ownership. By the mid 1930s it was occupied by solicitor Percival Field Marshall, his wife Helen and their children including Nathalie. It was Nathalie who brought nobility to Denham when in March 1938 she married Charles De Vere Beauclerk, later the 13th Duke of St. Albans and a direct descendant of King Charles II and his mistress, the actress Nell Gwynne.
It's a strange coincidence then that royal ancestry and the status of steward came together in 1951 when Winton House came into the ownership of one of Denham best known families. It was bought by film producer Hugh Stewart and his wife Frances. The Stewarts trace their ancestry back to King Robert II of Scotland, grandson on his mother's side of King Robert the Bruce and on his father's side, a succession of High Stewards of Scotland. A branch of the Stewart family later came to rule both Scotland and England with the accession to the English throne of James VI of Scotland, James I of England in 1603. The spelling of the family name had by that time been changed to Stuart.
We are now very grateful to Penny Stewart, daughter of Hugh and Frances, for her stories of the Stewart family history and their time at Winton House from 1951 to 1969.
The Stewarts at Winton House
The Stewarts were a family of eight when they lived in Winton House in Denham Village from 1951 through 1969.
Hugh St. Clair Stewart and his wife Frances (nee Curl) had four children: Penelope, Andrew and twins Michael and Trottie (Margaret). Also living in Winton House were Edith Curl, Frances’s aunt, and Essie Benson, always known as Bunny or Abby, who had looked after Frances after her mother's death when Frances was only 9 years old. Bunny stayed with the family until she died at the age of 96.
From 1955 the household also included Hugh’s paternal grandparents, vicar Mervyn Stewart and his wife Margaret. Mervyn had retired from the ministry after 36 years in Manuden Essex. They lived in Fincoul, a house built in 1955-56 for them in the garden of Winton House by Hugh and Frances.
The name Fincoul evidently meant a lot to the Stewart family. With connections to Irish history and legend about which Mervyn was particularly knowledgeable, Fincoul was also the home in New Zealand of Mervyn's uncle George Vesey Stewart MBE who emigrated to New Zealand in 1875. Before emigrating George had served as Justice of the Peace for County Tyrone in Ireland. It was a position which he repeated in New Zealand and he also there became mayor of Tauranga. Notably he was the founder of the Stewart Special Settlements of Kati Kati and Te Puke into which he is reputed to have settled around 4000 emigrants from the north of Ireland.
Petit Versailles
Even before the house was given heritage status, Hugh Stewart called Winton House and its garden “my Petit Versailles”. Remaining evidence, namely a sunken rose bed divided into four quarters, still remains in the garden near Fincoul. Also there were two fishponds in the courtyard garden, one higher and one lower with circulating water. “Father loved his goldfish,” says Penny. “So much so, that once when there was a fire at home, father checked the condition of the goldfish first, after learning that the fire brigade had used water from the ponds to control the fire!”
The Stewart family thoroughly enjoyed the covered area in the courtyard which they called the Loggia – to begin the day with breakfast outside was a special day.
Pigs, chickens and Jack the donkey
To accommodate all their family members the Stewarts added a fourth bedroom by converting the existing garage. A new garage was built later by John Rixon, a well-known builder who lived in Cheapside and did many jobs for the Stewart family and for others in Denham Village.
Penny Forsyth remembers frequent visitors to the large garden of Winton House. It was often visited by Jack and other donkeys belonging to George James the village road sweeper. The photo shows Jack with Kate Ashbrook from Wrango. Arnold and Betty Lever and their sons who lived in Pyghtle Cottage “were brilliant friends as well as neighbours” but it was not uncommon for their pigs and chickens to be in the Winton House garden.
Penny chuckled when remembering an incident when her mother Frances had an idea to confine the pigs. Her mother had found an advertisement for pigsties, which were affordable. She made a hasty purchase but when they arrived they were found to be quite impractical they needed to be assembled, a detail Hugh only discovered when he returned home from a filming assignment.
Childhood and beyond
One humorous task for Mr. Rixon, the builder, was to find a way to rescue Michael aged two years from the toilet. He had taken the key and locked himself in. Mr Rixon finally succeeded by teaching Michael how to remove the key and put it on a sheet of paper he had slid under the door. The key was then used to let a very unhappy little boy out to join his family. Lesson learned.
The four children of Hugh and Frances Stewart were all educated in boarding schools – Frances thought it was compulsory – so none attended local schools.
Penny herself studied in Cheltenham before going on to Oxford University to study history in 1957.
Although Penny and her siblings were away from Denham at boarding schools for much of the year, she still has happy memories of meeting up with village friends. One particular friend was Barbara Moir who lived at the Old Bakery with her parents Jack and Mary Moir and sister Diana. Penny and Barbara were welcomed into the local Girl Guide group run by Marian Gilbey.
After university, Penny came back to live at home from 1960 to 1962. She then married and started working for the BBC – a job she did not enjoy. So she became a teacher, work which she continues to enjoy to this day. She is now 84 and still retains a part-time position as the Latin teacher in Wallingford. Penny’s husband, Hugh Forsyth was also a head teacher in Rickmansworth.
Separating Fincoul
In 1966, Hugh purchased land between Yew Tree Cottage and Pyghtle Cottage from Yew Tree Cottage's then owners in order to give a separate access from the Pyghtle for Fincoul. For nearly five years, Hugh and Frances lived in Fincoul before selling it to a Mr. and Mrs. Cross in 1975. The Cross family added stables to the property and maintained the tradition of keeping pigs and hens. The property is much changed now by the present owner. Its name is Kayalami – which means “my house” in Zulu - and its beautifully designed and developed garden is recognised for the
National Garden Scheme.
Hugh's Career
Denham Village already had a reputation in the film industry before the Stewarts arrived at Winton House. With a Cambridge University degree already on his CV, Hugh trained as a film editor at Gaumont-British, editing several films of the 1930s, including Alfred Hitchcock's original version of The Man Who Knew Too Much made in 1934.
But Hugh's career in entertainment movies was interrupted like that of so many other talented people, on the outbreak of World War II. He was commissioned into the Army Film and Photographic Unit (AFPU) in 1940 and spend much of the war recording some of its most intense battles.
After he was demobilised in 1945, Hugh desperately wanted to get back into the film industry making happy and joyous comedies. Penny remembers that her father was a very upbeat person and he wanted to put the war behind him, and he did so, with an attitude that helped him overcome the traumatic experiences of brutal warfare. His focus was on making films for entertaining families, including his own, now including son Andrew who had been born during the war and twins: Margaret (known always as Trottie) and Michael who both appeared in a film which included a real-live lion. Preferring to keep his work separate, this was the only time he included his youngest children, Michael and Trottie in a film.
By 1947, Stewart was working with Alexander Korda as an Associate Producer of An Ideal Husband. He encapsulated his view of Korda in a single sentence: “If you were Alex’s employee, you would benefit from his considerable generosity and kindness, but it was always on his terms.”
By 1949, Hugh was producing his own films starting with the musical comedy Trottie True based on a novel by Caryl Brahms and S.J. Simon. The cast included early outings for some of the best known names in film and television throughout the 1950s, 60s and 70s including uncredited appearances by a 27 year old Christopher Lee and a young 22 year old actor and later Denham resident called Roger Moore.
Trottie True gained importance for Hugh's family for another reason. Trottie became the family nickname for Hugh and Frances' daughter Margaret, Penny's sister.
In 1955 Hugh took on the production of a comedy film Man of the Moment starring a comedian whose popularity had soared since his film debut in 1953. This was Norman Wisdom, the comedian once described by none other than Charlie Chaplin as his favourite clown. Man of the Moment started a highly successful relationship between Norman Wisdom and Hugh Stewart through several movies. Speaking in 1996 Hugh has only praise for his star “Norman Wisdom is a tremendous talent,” said Hugh. "He was so intuitively clever that he would contribute so much to the script. Man of the Moment was the first film I made with him. I liked Chaplin and Buster Keaton and I wanted to make a comedy around a real screen personality with the fact and body movement. The only person anything like that at the time was Norman Wisdom.”
Hugh went on to produce the films of the comedy duo Morecambe and Wise and those of Leslie Phillips.
Although he went into semi-retirement in the late 1960s, he produced several films for the Children’s Film Foundation, including All at Sea (1970), and Mr. Horatio Knibbles (1971), and High Rise Donkey (1980).
“Father was always buoyant,” said Penny, “He helped Sir John Mills learn his lines when John’s sight was failing. He worked for the Rank organisation and they originally had a team of 12 all working in Pinewood. Each member of the team was employed on one-year contracts. One by one their contracts were not renewed and eventually Hugh and Betty Box were the only survivors; but eventually Hugh was also at his contract end.”
Bergen Belsen
But it is for a much more serious film work that Hugh made his great contribution to history.
In 1940 Hugh was in the USA making propaganda films to persuade the Americans to support Britain and the allies in the war in Europe. It was experience that may have been important five years later when Hugh's determination to make contact with a future US President almost certainly contributed to changing the course of history.
Hugh's work in the Army Film and Photographic Unit (AFPU) had him and his team No. 2 AFPU during the Allied landings in Tunisia in 1942. This was particularly difficult and challenging work in the smoke and darkness. Hugh was subsequently credited as co-director alongside the legendary American film directors Frank Capra and John Huston for his work on the propaganda film Tunisian Victory
Hugh's experience and talent were then recognised by placing him in charge of No. 5 AFPU to cover the D-Day landings, the Battle for Caen and the Rhine Crossing.
He and his team then marched with the armies through Belgium and into Germany where they encountered the horrors of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in what is now Lower Saxony
Hugh recognised the importance of capturing on film important evidence of the appalling atrocities found at the camp. He insisted on filming the piles of bodies bulldozed into mass graves, the camp's overcrowded barrack blocks and the pitifully emaciated survivors.
Penny remembers how her father Hugh challenged his commanding officer’s instructions to “come immediately with the regiment” and not remain at the camp.
Hugh bravely and immediately appealed directly to General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the then Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces and post-war U.S, President, that he and his team be allowed to remain longer in Belsen to record for posterity the conditions in the camp.
Hugh Stewart’s footage of the allies’ arrival and liberation of Belsen on April 15, 1945 by the British 11th Armoured Division was included in the undeniable and crucial evidence against Nazi war criminals in the Nuremberg trials in 1945/46. The same footage is now regularly used in documentaries of the time reminding us of horrors that should never be repeated. Without that documentation and the memorial with an exhibition hall currently standing at the site of the Bergen-Belsen camp, its history might never have been known.
He was awarded a military MBE and demobilized with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. Hugh Stewart came home in 1945, though still with the possibility of a posting to the Far East but fortunately for him the war in Japan ended in the summer of 1945 before he was called upon.
Remarkably it is possible to listen to Hugh himself talking about his experiences as a wartime cameraman. The Imperial War Museum website has six reels of an interview with Hugh recorded in December 1979. Click the link here to listen Stewart, Hugh (Oral history) | Imperial War Museums (iwm.org.uk)
Retirement?
Hugh continued making children's films in his semi-retirement throughout the 1970s, but with a degree in English from St John’s College, Cambridge, he obviously suffered the Cambridge curse believing that he has to continue making a working contribution. He decided first that he would teach English to the Asian women in Slough, but that offer was declined on cultural grounds, so Hugh then decided to teach English to engineers at the Technical College in Uxbridge.
He did remain in demand to talk about his experiences. A newspaper report of 7 July 1993 records:
Studio talk: The newly formed History of Denham Society meets on Tuesday for a talk by local resident Hugh Stewart on Denham Studios. The talk is at the May Coles Room in Denham Village Hall at 8 pm. Ref
In the news - a retrospective
In 1996, an extensive article about Hugh Stewart and his Denham home was published in a local newspaper. Hugh was no longer living in Winton House but still in Denham and still very much part of village life. Although some of it is repetitive of the story we have told about his career, we quote at length from the article as it does so much to describe Hugh Stewart against his the background of a village which has the film industry as such a large part of its 20th century history. The article was headed From Film to Fields.
Retired film producer Hugh Stewart has a passion for his village churchyard. The filmmaker who created a name for himself, by producing British comedies starring Norman Wisdom, keeps a quiet eye on the picturesque yard at St Mary the Virgin in Denham to ensure it is never spoiled.
The reporter went to his exquisite Denham home to find out about his filmmaking and his local church.
Falling in love with a beautiful girl at Cambridge University led Hugh Stewart into a lifetime of filmmaking. For although he had always enjoyed the cinema, his family had no background in movies and it was not until he was faced with his future father-in-law that he found a stepping stone into the industry. Hugh recalled how he got started in films, after his wife-to-be’s country doctor father asked what he intended to do when he left Cambridge.
“I said that I didn’t know, and he asked if I’d ever thought about films and I replied that I was very interested,” he remembered.
As the good doctor knew an editor, the young Hugh went along to meet him and ended up being one of about 30 apprentices taken on at the Lime Grove Studio in London where he worked as an assistant.
When he eventually became editor, one of his first assignments was to cut Alfred Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much and Hugh remembers it as a great experience.
“You get your jobs by the fact that you work for people like Hitchcock, but you learn your trade through all the other less glamorous work,” he says.
Hugh’s career has certainly included a dollop of glamour. He worked with Alexander Korda, the man who headed Denham Studios and put British films onto the international map before moving to Rank where he produced his first film.
“I was thrilled to death,” he remembers. “It was called Trottie True and starred Jean Kent. It was a light-hearted comedy about a chorus girl who married a duke.”
Hugh stayed with Rank for nearly 20 years, where he became interested in comedy and made nine films with Norman Wisdom and three with Morcambe and Wise.
“Jack Davies was the writer on nearly all the Norman Wisdom films I made. My happiest time in the business was working with the writer. A producer’s prime responsibility is the script. It is important to find a script of the right length.”
“It is wasteful and unprofessional to cut hours from a film afterwards, you tighten up scenes, but you shouldn’t need to cut huge chunks out.”
Hugh says he was extremely happy making films and never endured a Monday morning feeling in his entire life
Now retired, the 86 year old from Denham has more time to spend on his less publicised passion – the large churchyard of St. Mary the Virgin in Denham.
Over many years, he has studied the memorial stones and has made a historic record of all the grave positions in the field from 1855, noting who is buried and where.
Hugh says: “I look after the churchyard more for the sake of the living, rather than the dead.”
His influence persuaded fellow Denham resident, Sir John Mills, to open his garden recently to raise £1000 toward the annual costs of maintenance of the churchyard
Hugh has 12 grandchildren and has lived on and off in Denham since 1935. “I enjoy living here,” he says, “I am part of it.” As a former councillor, church warden, and member of the PCC of St. Mary’s Church, he is well qualified to say so.
Hugh still has links with the film world as he regularly meets with Sir John Mills with whom he has worked in the past. And he helped the actor prepare for his part as Mr. Chuffy in the BBC adaptation of Dickens’ Martin Chuzzelwit. “He can’t read now because of his eyesight,” explains Hugh, “so I put the whole of his part on tape for him. He turned up on the set word-perfect, not having read a word of it. He was excellent.”
Write for us
If you have enjoyed this story, you know something about the history of your home in Denham Village and the people who have lived there and you are interested in doing some research, then why not write for us? you can contact us by email at denhamcommunityhistory@gmail.com for more information about the project, how we work and the stories we can publish.
Note
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organizations, and public service outside the civil service.
Images
Norman Wisdom - Jack de Nijs for Anefo / Anefo, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Bergen-Belsen liberation - No 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit - Oakes, H (Sgt), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Stewart family photos - Penny Forsyth
Jack the donkey - Kate Ashbrook
Other contributors
Sources
Charles Drazin, 2002, Korda: Britain’s Only Movie Mogul, pp. 283-284, Sidgwick & Jackson
British Newspaper Archive
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