Rushbrooke 1938-1998

W. C. BELLINGER

Published by Rushbrooke: privately printed, 1999

About this Item

Wrappers. Edition limited to 150 copies. Recruited from Charborough Park in Dorset, William Cecil Bellinger (1911-2000) was employed by Victor, third Baron Rothschild as a land agent's clerk on his purchase in 1938 of Rushbrooke Hall, near Bury St Edmunds. Bellinger remained at Rushbrooke until his death, acting as estate manager for Lord Rothschild and then for his son Amschel; he dedicates these "notes and reminiscences", illustrated with 11 photographs, to Amschel's son James, who sold the estate in 2015. Bellinger's notes record the elaborate improvements and modernisations Rothschild undertook in 1938-9 at the hall, a fine Elizabethan house with no mains electricity or running water, where he installed the latest in security alarms and fire prevention systems, with steel fireproof bookcases in the library, a series of steel-bin-fitted wine cellars and a private telephone exchange. When the war came, the house was handed over to the Red Cross for use as a military convalescent hospital, and it never returned to family use; it was demolished in 1961. As well as listing many precise and telling details of the estate's progress and employees over 60 years, Bellinger offers engaging vignettes of family life, such as his supervision of an epic journey with the Rothschild children Sarah and Jacob (the fourth Baron) by gipsy caravan from Rushbrooke to Cambridge via the Rutland Arms Hotel, Newmarket. Seller Inventory # 30M200040

Bibliographic Details

Title: Rushbrooke 1938-1998

Publisher: Rushbrooke: privately printed

Publication Date: 1999

Binding: Soft cover

Condition: Near Fine

Edition: 1st Edition