The Hull Family

The Rolling Stones and Harrod’s Department Store and La Flambé

OK, so how does the Hull family of Sutton Benger connect La Flambé to The Rolling Stones and Harrod’s? Well, there was an extended Hull family in and around North Wiltshire in the late 1700s, through the 1800s and into the early 1900s, the majority of who seem to have been shopkeepers when they weren’t farmers. For the purposes of this story, we can start with Richard Hull, the son of Thomas Hull, born in Christian Malford in 1781.

By 1804, when he married Hannah Day in Kington St Michael, he was ‘Richard Hull of Sutton’. He was a grocer, and it is possible that his first shop in the village was at the house on the western end of the High Street now known as Gate Cottage; in 1808 he seems to have been at Park View, but by 1839 he was at the house at 6/8 Seagry Road which is now The Cedars and La Flambé. The 1841 Census shows that 60-year old Richard was a grocer on Seagry Road, while his 30-year old son, Thomas Day Hull, was a draper at Park View.

By 1851 Richard’s other sons, Richard junior and Joseph, had taken over the grocer’s business on Seagry Road. And by 1861, Joseph was not simply a ‘grocer’ but a ‘Wine and Spirit Merchant’.

Meanwhile, where was Richard Hull senior? For some reason, he had moved to Hampshire; not to open a new shop, but to become a farmer. Or, as he puts it in the 1861 Census, to become a ‘Landed Proprietor’ of Stargroves Farm, East Woodhay.

His burial record in 1870 shows that, when he died, he was living at ‘Stargroves, East Woodhay’. It seems that he may have been a little economical with the truth, because it is hard to believe that he actually owned Stargroves House, sometimes known simply as ‘Stargrove’, which is – and was then – a huge Victorian-era mansion. It now has its own Wikipedia page and several claims to fame. The main story is that the house was owned at one time by Mick Jagger and became the home to a recording studio. More recently, it has also been owned by Rod Stewart. A brief history of the house can be found at https://research.hgt.org.uk/item/stargrove/

The history shows that the house was owned by a Captain Ramsay in the mid-1800s; so one can assume that Richard Hull was probably just renting Stargroves Farm, one small part of the large estate.

Meanwhile … in London, there was another member of the Hull family, who had opened a shop in Pimlico. Edward Hull had been born in Christian Malford in 1814; almost certainly he was a cousin of Richard Hull senior, although the exact family relationship has not yet been established. (Any help to dig further into the Hull family of Christian Malford would be appreciated: please get in touch: hello@bengertrails.co.uk )

The connection to the Hull family of Sutton Benger becomes complex in 1851 when Edward married his cousin, the daughter of Richard Hull senior of Stargroves House. In 1871, Edward was a Grocer and Tea Dealer, living at ‘Avenue House, Sunninghill’ (near Ascot); this was already an up-market area in the 1870s, and one can only imagine what sort of house he lived in, with rooms for himself and family and guests and servants. And he was obviously moving in fairly up-market circles; in 1883 his daughter Lois Clara married Henry Burbridge, a wine merchant.

At this point, the story becomes a little murky; the anecdotal story (found on-line on Ancestry.co.uk) suggests that Henry Burbridge was related to one of the founders of Harrods. Unfortunately the hard evidence shows that a second-generation developer of Harrod’s was called ‘Burbidge’ and not ‘Burbridge’. But Henry’s name morphed between 1880 and 1890, and he ‘became’ Henry Burbidge. Hmmm… perhaps he was simply ‘trading on the name’? Let’s leave him there.

Meanwhile, back in Sutton Benger … a third generation was running the shop on Seagry Road by 1881. The Census shows us that yet another Richard was a ‘grocer, wine & spirit merchant’ while his brother Joseph was a ‘cheese factor’.

 

Joseph moved to become a wine merchant in Bristol, but Richard carried on running the family business until he died in 1919. After his death the building eventually became The Vintage Hotel and Public House … and is now La Flambé.

 

 

With thanks and acknowledgements to George Barbour for the use of the photo from the J. J. Hunt Archive.

With thanks and acknowledgements to the Hampshire Gardens Trust for their information and for the use of the photo of Stargrove.

With thanks and acknowledgements to BBC History Magazine for use of the photo of Harrod’s.

Please get in touch if you are related in any way to any of the village doctors and can add to their stories, or if you want to know any more about them.

Is there any particular story from Sutton Benger’s past that you want to know more about? Please get in touch:
by phone: 01249 721731
by email: hello@bengertrails.co.uk