Linden House, or the New Rectory, or maybe Eversholt House, or Mr. Sandys’s House!

The Linden House that stands in Church End in 2011 doesn’t seem to have any connection at all with this other Linden House!

The modern Linden house became the rectory sometime just after 1900, when it was substantially enlarged and the rector moved in from the Old Rectory in Hills End. Now the rector lives in Woburn, and the New Rectory has turned into Linden house, a private dwelling again.
There are quite a few pictures of Linden House in the miraculously-preserved personal photo album of William Escott Collins, rector 1900-1937. Here’s just one of them as a taster. Unfortunately, they’ve faded badly, but they’re still a great record to have. This photo is from just after the building was enlarged, maybe 1905.
New rectory (now Linden House, Church End) after enlargement
The picture below turned up in John Blomfield’s collection, kindly leant by Anna Blomfield.. It’s not known where it comes from. John had a paper copy of a rather dirty copy of a print of what may once have been a watercolour. The version shown here has been photoshopped to greatly enhance the contrast and also to hide many apparent marks of damage. It is, despite all this, recognisably Linden House in Church End! The caption on the print was “Mr. Sandy’s House c. 1820”, with the apostrophe between the “y” and the “s”.
In 2020, the comment below from Magnus made all clear. The auction catalog from Dominic Winter states

Fisher (Thomas, 1782-1836). Mrs Sandy’s House, Eversholt, Bedfordshire, watercolour and traces of pencil, depicting a large and imposing red brick house with sash windows, a path between lawns leading to the panelled front door, and a door in the garden wall to the left leading into a small dwelling or bothy, image size 24 x 28.5cm (9.5 x 11.25ins), titled in ink by the artist to lower margin below image, mounted, framed and glazed

(Qty: 1)

Provenance: Sir Gregory Osborne Page-Turner (1785-1848), 4th Baronet of Battlesden, Bedfordshire; Christie’s, The Battlesden Sale, 1824, cat. no. 2503; Emily Page-Turner; purchased from her executors 1885; by descent from the purchaser; Sotheby’s Thomas Fisher’s Watercolours of Bedfordshire and British Architectural Drawings and Watercolours, 12th June 1980, lot 60.

The house depicted here is still extant, and now called Linden House, having been known as Linden Farm in the late 18th century, and subsequently as Eversholt House in the 19th century and Eversholt Rectory in the early 1900s. A number of Sandys family members are associated with, or lived in and around, Eversholt from the mid 18th century right up until the late 19th century.


I’m not aware of this house ever being called Linden Farm, I think they might have that wrong, especially in the late 18th century. The linden (lime) trees associated with Linden, the great house on the cricket pitch, were only planted around 1840, I think. Linden Farm was where what is now the End House stands. Let us know, please, if you have any evidence!

Here, below, is an image from a similar viewpoint made in 2012. The roofline was altered when the rectory was bought from the church and remade into a private house. The altered brickwork around the 1820 front door is still visible.

Linden House 2012
There seem to be several people called Sandys who might be the resident – or perhaps all of them were. John Sandys was rector of Eversholt from 1766 until 1810. His son, Samuel Sandys, went to Rugby school in 1774, so might be a different person from this Samuel Sandys, who has been languishing unloved on the Snippets page for quite a while:
Eversholt house was where Samuel Sandys lived. He was a surgeon, well known and well connected. His address is usually given as “Eversholt House, Woburn” so I (EJW) thought it was in Woburn and thus beneath our notice. However, I discover from The Bedfordshire farm worker in the nineteenth century that it was actually near the church in Eversholt. This is only google books snippet view, so this text is incomplete. It’s also a retyping of a retyping of an edited version of what was probably a bad photocopy of an old fiche of… it would be good to get the original.
Bedfordshire Times 10 October 1874
Mr. Joseph Arch in Bedfordshire. Meeting at Eversholt. On Saturday Mr. Arch, President of the National Agricultural Labourers’ Union, arrived in this county, arrangements having been made for holding two demonstrations – at Eversholt on that day and at Marston on Monday. Mr. S. Sandys, of Eversholt House, near the church, entertained Mr….
preparations… At 4.45 the Eversholt Brass band, under the leadership of  Mr. Franklin, 
after playing on the lawn of Eversholt House, led the way to the field, with Mr. Arch, Mr. Wright, Mr. Sandys and party, Mr. W. Cockbill, Mr. G. Butcher (agents of the N.A.L.U.), and the committee, wearing Union ribbons… Nearly 500 persons had tea, and many afterwards indulged in dancing…At 7 o’clock the platform was occupied by Mr. Arch, who was again cheered to the echo, Mr. Wright, who was voted to the chair with much cordiality, Mr Cockbill, Rev. W. Hillier (Ridgmount), Mr., Mrs and Miss Sandys, Miss Saunders and others and there must have been nearly 1800 persons present…
Mr. Arch was introduced with three cheers and one cheer more, and proceeded to address the meeting at length with astonishing effect, the cheering and homely ejaculations of the labourers being frequent… An earnest appeal was made to those present to remain united, as then they wielded a trememdous power, and they were urged to make themselves intelligent instead of muddling their brains with drink. With bitter sarcasm…
 
There is an “Eversholt House” in Leighton Buzzard and in London, which confuses matters. Kelly’s 1885 says that Thomas Godfrey, a farmer, lived there. Sandys lived in Eversholt House from at least 1864 until he died in 1878. Geroge M Hipwell, farm Bailiff to the Duke, lived there according to Kelly’s 1890, which seems to be the last mention. 
 

So was what we now call Linden House in Church End, what was called the New Rectory around 1900, previously called Eversholt House in the 1860s? The house is certainly a prime candidate for a surgeon’s house near the church. If that’s the case, then this is the place for this other very sad snippet:

 
From Jackson’s Oxford Journal, 29 April 1871:
Marriages
April 20, at Eversholt, by the Rev. C. Brereton, M.A., assisted by the Rev. W. S. Baker, M.A., G Annesley D Mahon, Esq., M.R.C.S.E., &c., of High-street, Swindon, eldest son of the late Rev. G. W. Mahon, M.A., Chaplain H.E.I.C.S., Madrs, to Agnes Amelia, second daughter of Samuel Sandys, Esq., M.R.C.S.E., &c., of Eversholt House, near Woburn, Beds.
MRCSE could be Member of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.
HEICS could be Honourable East India Company Service.
But, soon, tragedy. From The Daily News, 28 August 1875:
Deaths
Mahon
August 25, at Aspley Guise, Woburn, Beds, Agnes Amelia, wife of G. A. D. Mahon, Esq., and daughter of S. Sandys, Esq., of Eversholt, Beds, aged 31.
but these two Sandys relatives escaped death in childbirth:
From The Morning Chronicle, 5 Sep 1855:
Died
On the 1st inst., at Hamilton-terrace, St John’s-wood, at the advanced age of 93, Ann, Relict of Thomas Sandys, Esq., late of Eversholt, Beds.
and then from The Hampshire Telegraph and Naval Chronicle, 24 March 1900:
Deaths
Sandys
On the 18th inst., at Southsea, Sarah of Samuel Sandy, M.R.C.S., London, and formerly of Eversholt, Beds, aged 94.

And, if Linden Hose really is Eversholt House, then this is the place for this real oddity:

From The Morning Chronicle, 7 Feb 1859, in the section just below the Court Circular.

Wallace’s Hotel
Arrivals:
The Baron Vietinghoff, from Paris; Mr. and Mrs. Dashwood Watts Ricketts, from Eversholt House, Woburn, Bedfordshire.
Where was Eversholt House? Was it what we now call Linden House?
This family tree site mentions the splendidly-named Dashwood Poyntz Ricketts, who was the son of Dashwood Watts Ricketts and Fanny Gertrude Something. Dashwood Poyntz was born in Eversholt 25 March 1859 and baptised here on 5 May 1859, so Fanny Gertrude must have had a big bump when she arrived at Wallace’s Hotel in February. The next year, the family seems to have moved to Leamington where they lived in a property they called “Eversholt House”, so they must have had some affection for us. He went to Charterhouse School.   He married Caroline Louiza Elizabeth Humphreys in Strabane, Ireland, in 1896. They had at least two children. He was a member of the Institue of Civil Engineers. Dashwood Poyntz Ricketts became engineer-in-chief of the Pekin-Mukden railway. They arrived from China in 1922. The London Gazette of 16 March 1926 notes that

The King has been pleased to give and grant unto Dash Poyntz Ricketts, Esq., Engineer-in-chief Peking-Mukden Railway, His Majesty’s Royal Licence and authority to wear the insignia of the Fourth Class of the Order of the Excellent Crop, which decoration has been conferred upon him by the President of the Republic of China in recognition of valuable services rendered by him.

He died on 3 November 1944 at Parkwood, Harrietsham, Kent, aged 85. (Ancestry.com link, sorry.) [I am distraught that I cannot find a picture of the 4th class order! There is some detail here.]
Whoever knew that there was a son of Eversholt with a medal from the President of China?

3 Replies to “Linden House, or the New Rectory, or maybe Eversholt House, or Mr. Sandys’s House!”

  1. The picture shown as the second picture is almost certainly Church Farm and not Linden House (New Rectory, Eversholt House).

    1. Oh dear, you were entirely correct, thank you for bringing it to my attention. I put the right picture back. Does that look better now?

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