Denford Park, Kintbury - Hungerford Virtual Museum

Denford Park, Kintbury, Berkshire
The site of the present Denford Park (then still 'House') is shown on Thomas Moule's
map of Berkshire, first published in 1830, though the scale means that it is shown
only as a small square set in parkland. 31
A slightly more detailed map of 1844 clearly shows the evolving parkland, the walled
garden and stables - as well as the outline of the mansion and its outbuildings and the
new church.
After he died in 1848, Cherry was succeeded by his eldest son, George Charles
Cherry, who also served as Sheriff of Berkshire (in 1871) and who, in 1873, owned
nearly 770 acres of land in the county. 32 For many years George Cherry lived at
Denford with his widowed mother, Charlotte, and his two unmarried younger sisters,
Louise and Rachel.
George Charles Cherry is variously described as a 'landed proprietor' and a 'barrister
not in practice' in the census returns and, in 1881, as a JP. The family lived in some
style at Denford and had a large number of servants. For example, in 1871 there was
a butler, footman, cook, ladies' maid, two housemaids, two laundry maids, a kitchen
maid, a coachman and a groom.
When George died, unmarried, in 1887, Denford went to his brother, Major-General
Apsley Cherry; Apsley Cherry was then 54 years old and had an interesting military
career, serving with the 90 th Light Infantry during the Indian Mutiny of 1857-60, the
relief of Lucknow in the Gaika War of 1878, and the Battle of Ulundi during the Zulu
Warofl879. 33
In March 1885 he had married Evelyn Sharpin of Bedford who was 25 years his
junior; their first child, Apsley junior, was born a year later and would be followed by
two daughters, Ida and Elsie.
Major-General Cherry retired from the Army in 1887 and at the time of the 1891
census was living at what was then called Denford Park with his wife and three young
children, his still unmarried sister Rachel (who had probably never left), and several
servants - a butler, housekeeper, lady's maid, nursemaid, two housemaids, a kitchen
maid and a laundry maid.
In the following year, 1892, he inherited Lamer Park, near Wheathampstead in
Hertfordshire, from his mother, Charlotte's, side of the family, adding the second part
of her maternal surname, Drake-Garrard, and the coat of arms of that family, to his
own. 34
31 Moule, T, 1990, The County Maps of Old England, 23; this is a modern reprint and assemblage of
maps originally published in 1830 in The English Counties Delineated
32 HMSO, 1875, Return of Owners of Land, 1873; Vol. I, Berkshire, 4
33 Kelly's, 1892, Handbook to the Titled, Landed & Official Classes, 250
34 Pottle, M, 2004, 'Garrard, Apsley George Bennet Cherry- (1886-1959)', DNB, Vol.21, 511; also,
the change of name was listed in the London Gazette
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Richard K Morriss & Associates, Historic Buildings Consultants, Bromlow House, Bromlow, Shropshire, SYS OEA