Kintbury is an old, large village in the Kennet Valley located between Hungerford and Newbury in Berkshire. The river Kennet and the Kennet and Avon Canal are on the north side with their lovely watermeadows beyond, while to the south the land rises steadily to the chalk downs. It is a very beautiful area with many woods and pastures in unspoilt country.
For over seven hundred years, a large country house about a mile south-west of Kintbury was known as Wallingtons; since 1946 it has been known as St. Cassian's. What is known of its history? Parts of the present building possibly date from the beginning of the 17th century, but the estate has a much earlier origin. About the year 1220 the land was acquired by Robert de Wallington, from whom the estate derives its name. By 1292 the owner was Adam de Wallington, presumably the grandson or great-grandson of Robert. He was in turn succeeded by his son who increased the extent of the estate by purchasing two farms from his neighbour Edmund de Polhampton. It is more than probable that during the ownership of the de Wallingtons they built a manor house somewhere near the present buildings, but there is no surviving evidence of it.
The estate remained with this family until 1447 when Thomas de Wallington sold it to Thomas Waldronde. In 1478 it passed to his son-in-law Robert Strangbane, who, in 1481, sold it to William Waynflete, Bishop of Winchester. In 1453 the Bishop had founded Magdalen College, Oxford, and he bought lands in Berkshire and Hampshire which he gave to the College, so that it could benefit from renting them out to tenants. Little is known about the occupants of Wallingtons over the following 150 years apart from a list of the names of those who were tenants of Magdalen College: Bartholomew Parrocke, Richard Humphrey, Roger Fawne, Simon Stone, Edward Staverton, Thomas Bond, John and Daniel Kingsmill, and others.
In 1652 the estate passed to the Hayne family, when Daniel, his wife Elizabeth and their six young children moved from Aldbourne to Wallingtons, where six more children were added to the family; eight of the twelve survived into adulthood. The Hayne family would have been fairly well-to-do, since Elizabeth was the daughter of Sir William Lovelace, and at least two sons went to Oxford University, their father being described as “gentleman”. Daniel died about 1687, and was succeeded by his son Daniel, then by Daniel’s widow Joanna, and then by her son Lovelace. It is possible that parts of the present house date from the Hayne period, including perhaps a sundial on a chimney stack which bears the inscription “The Concern of the Rich and the Poor” and which can still be seen in the courtyard. Thomas, a brother of Lovelace, fought under the Duke of Marlborough in the War of Spanish Succession, was wounded in the battle of Oudenarde in July 1708 and died in August of that year. In 1726 Lovelace Hayne moved to Oare, near Chieveley, and the estate passed to William Dixon, a barrister, from whom it passed in 1737 to his elder son William and later to his younger son Samuel (also a barrister), who in 1757 acquired the neighbouring Balsdon estate.
Much of Samuel’s legal work over many years was done for the Earl of Warwick. In his Will Samuel mentioned two people, both knights, whom he described as “my most respected and honoured friends”, another indication of the circles in which he moved. One was Sir Henry Harpur and the other Sir Robert Burdett. A few years after Samuel’s death part of Inkpen was owned by Sir Francis Burdett, and so the Burdett family and Samuel Dixon may have been close neighbours. In 1784 Wallingtons was “broken open and robbed and then wilfully set on fire by a servant who had formerly lived in the family.” The servant was Benjamin Griffiths, who was convicted, sentenced to death and hanged at Reading Gaol. The local newspaper said that the house was “entirely burnt to the ground”, but possibly some parts survived, as some of the present brickwork is thought to pre-date the time of the fire. The house was rebuilt shortly afterwards, and probably enlarged. Features of the remodelling were a castellated roof, sham battlements and mock-Gothic canopies for the windows. The cedar tree, which is treasured as a significant feature of the grounds, was probably planted around the 1780’s, perhaps when the house was rebuilt after the fire. Samuel Dixon died in 1792 and, having no direct descendants, left Wallingtons to his cousin Jane Peveril. She married Cuthbert Johnson, and the house then passed from Jane (who died in 1826) to Cuthbert and thence (on Cuthbert’s death in 1840) to their three daughters Emma, Louisa and Rosa. Louisa established the first school in Inkpen and ran it from 1842 to 1859. The sisters decided to sell the house in 1847, and the auctioneer’s brochure at that time described it as “a handsome manorial residence of the olden Gabled Style of architecture in the midst of a most highly respectable neighbourhood, it being studded with Family Seats”.
However Wallingtons was not sold on that occasion, and it was not until 1859 that it came into the possession of the Major General William Dunn whose brother had bought the neighbouring Inglewood House in 1829. From 1859 to 1892 both estates belonged to the same family. The Major General’s son, William Hew Dunn, inherited Wallingtons on the death of his mother and was responsible in 1892 for the most notable alterations the house has undergone. All traces of previous remodelling were removed. The sham battlements were taken down and the Gothic canopies replaced by the present mullioned windows. The architect for this remodelling was Temple Moore, a well-known church architect of that period. William Hew Dunn died in 1911, and his obituary in the Newbury Weekly News showed the esteem in which he had been held: “A life of a fine English gentleman largely spent in devotion to public service in the county and in the district where he lived. He was at various times a Magistrate, Master of the Craven Hounds, High Sheriff and Chairman of the County Council.”
The widow of William Hew Dunn sold Wallingtons in 1912 to Arthur Steuart Gladstone, a grand-nephew of the statesman William Ewart Gladstone. Immediately the new owner put further alterations in hand, extending the East Wing to twice its length and adding coach houses and stables at the rear of the house. The kitchens, formerly on the West Wing, were transferred to the newly-extended East Wing, and a covered passage was built to connect the two wings. Mr. Gladstone was responsible for laying-out the flower gardens and lawns to the front of the house, which remain largely unaltered. At one time there were at least four fishponds in the grounds, but only two now remain, the others having been filled in and planted. Mr. Gladstone died in 1940, and again his obituary in the Newbury Weekly News provides an appreciation of his life in the village: “He was a true friend to Kintbury, taking a leading part in all activities; his greatest contribution to the social life of the village was his gift of a recreation ground, which is a lasting memorial to his generosity.”
The ownership of Wallingtons remained with his son until 1945, when it passed to Messrs. Edwards, local timber merchants, who were interested in acquiring some of the extensive woodland that was then part of the estate. It was from Messrs. Edwards that the De La Salle Brothers purchased the house with eighty-five acres of the grounds in 1946, to serve as a house of studies for boys interested in joining the Brothers. The house was given the name “Saint Cassian’s” after a Roman martyr who was a teacher and was venerated by St. John Baptist De La Salle, the French priest who had founded the Brothers in Rheims in the 1680’s. Along with Inglewood (the nearby house which served as a training centre for the Brothers from 1929 to 1971), Wallingtons became a familiar setting for many future Brothers. St. Cassian’s remained as a house of studies until June 1975, when it became a residential Retreat Centre. Exteriorly it has remained for the most part what it was after the Gladstone alterations of 1913, but interior alterations have been made, to enlarge some rooms and sub-divide others. In 1958 a classroom block was added to the East Wing and later converted to accommodation, and a parallel extension to the West Wing was built in 1964. At the same time the covered passage built in Gladstone’s time to connect the two wings was replaced by a new dining-room and corridor.
Wallingtons has been closely connected with the village of Kintbury for many centuries, and its story reflects the many changes that have occurred. It is a reminder of what we owe to our past and a sign of hope for our future.
