Mr Henry Chernoke Gibbs Brandreth

The Best available portrait of Mr Henry Chernocke Gibbs Brandreth (1856 - 1908). He was the last Brandreth to be Lord of the Manor.

Henry Chernocke Gibbs Brandreth, son and heir to Humphrey, was still a child when his father died and only eleven when his mother died. His uncles in the Gibbs family were able to guide him and especially his Aunt Rebecca’s husband John Brodrib Bergne. The Bergne family were very well connected and members of the family were appointed trustees of the Brandreth estates when Henry died.

Henry was educated at Rugby and attended St Johns College, Oxford where he matriculated 16th October 1875. In 1879 he married Evelyn Francis Christabel Lawton from Cheshire.

He followed in his great-uncle Henry’s footsteps by becoming involved in many local committees and charities. He is known to have been a Trustee of Dunstable Charity School in 1879. In 1889 he became first elected representative of Houghton Regis on the County Council and in 1898 became a JP and High Sherriff of Bedfordshire. As the manor lands had been re-acquired, he was Lord of the Manor of Houghton Regis and, like all the heirs of Houghton lands, he was Patron of the living of Houghton Regis.

Henry and Evelyn had three children, Frances, Barbara Minnie and William. Although they were born at the latter part of the last century it is difficult to find out much about them.

The eldest, Frances was away when her father was taken terminally ill. According to a letter from Mr J A’Court Bergne, one of the family estates trustees, Frances went to South Africa (or was sent), although she does not seem to have been in England at the time of her father’s death. Frances’s children had died before 1945.

Barbara never married. She died in 1941 and is known to have lived in Bournemouth.

The youngest child was William. His wife was Gertrude Maude. Their son Henry Renault Turner Brandreth was the last in the line of the family.

Reverend Henry was a most distinguished man. He was educated in Devon and then Sheffield University6. In 1940 he attended Lincoln Theological College and was ordained deacon in 1942 and then priest in 1943. His father went to Paris to live with him and died there in 1962. Three years later Henry returned to London where he was Vicar at St Saviours Highbury and closely connected with St Dunstan’s Fleet Street. He was a member of the Orarory of the Shepherd. And a well-respected theological author and an authority on East European Religions. He died in 1984 and a memorial service was held at St Dunstan’s Fleet Street attended by many of his friends.

After Henry Chernocke Gibbs Brandreth died in 1908, his estates were sold off in 1913 by his wife Evelyn. They covered most of Houghton Regis stretching from Blows Downs to Lords Hill and across to Dunstable. This was the time when the population of Bedfordshire was rising and plots of land were sold off for building, others being left as small holdings. The sale advertisement says:

“The important frontage land … particularly that on both sides of the Icknield way … from its situation of 400 ft above sea level is eminently suitable for residential purposes”.

One plot of land was used to build British Legion houses for soldiers suffering from gassing in the First World War. The road to these houses was called Evelyn Road after Henry’s wife and exists today. The veterans had to pay the Legion 4s 6d rent per week and follow a list of rules - for instance, no linoleum was to be laid on the floors! 

Today the houses are privately owned and have been smartly renovated. 

The first tenant at 45 Evelyn Road was ex-soldier Victor Field, who had fought at the Somme and Passchendaele and suffered for the rest of his life from the effects of a gas attack. Nevertheless, he and his wife Kate brought up 10 children in the house and descendants of the family still live there today. They took the opportunity to buy the house when this became possible in 1976.  A boyhood memory of Victor’s grandson Geoff Rawson was that the men in the neighbouring houses all bore war-time injuries. Some had only one leg.  

Victor became quite well-known locally for the model churches which he liked to build in his front garden. One can be seen in our old photo. The Legion houses once had very long rear gardens, parts of which are now the site of St Christopher’s School.  

Extract from Yesteryear is compiled by John Buckledee, chairman of Dunstable and District Local History Society. 

In fact most of the Brandreth estates are now built upon, but the family is remembered in the names given to the roads, Humphreys Road, Brandreth Road, Brandreth Avenue, Duncombe Drive etc.

Houghton Hall was sold to Lt Col Dealtry Part and after a variety of owners it is now used as the corporate headquarters of Chamberlain Holdings plc.

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