 age in 1857 the usual tea, dinner and sports were arranged for his Northamptonshire tenants. (fn. 304) There are, however, few signs of new investment at either Wicken or Grafton Park to compare, say, with the model farms erected on the Grafton estate in the 1840s, nor any building of new cottages.
Little seems to have changed after the sale to Lord Penrhyn in 1877. (fn. 305) During the sixty-odd years in which the Douglas-Pennants owned Wicken, the income from which was unimportant compared with that from their North Wales estate, they made no attempt to develop its resources or to make it pay, apparently remaining content to subsidise the estate from their income from their Caernarvonshire slate quarries. (fn. 306) The estate was enlarged by the purchase in 1877 of Dovehouse Farm on the edge of Deanshanger village, just inside Passenham, whose land marched with that of Dagnail; (fn. 307) a house and four cottages at the Folly, also just over the Passenham border, in 1878; (fn. 308) and a couple of small additions in Wicken itself in 1882 and 1892. (fn. 309)
The estate after 1944.
After the death of Blanche, Lady Penrhyn, in November 1944 her son, the 4th baron, at once placed the estate (including the lordship and advowson) on the market, seeking a private treaty sale at £100,000 for just over 3,000 acres. At much the same time the Society of Merchant Venturers of Bristol, acting as trustee of the St. Monica Trust, founded in the early 1920s by Henry Herbert Wills (of the tobacco manufacturing family) and his wife Monica to establish a rest home at Westbury-on-Trym, obtained the approval of the Charity Commissioners to transfer up to a third of the trust's capital (i.e. about £500,000) from government securities into agricultural land. The Society accordingly undertook a programme of purchasing good quality estates, mostly in Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire and Rutland, beginning in 1944 with Mentmore (Bucks.). The following year they were advised that Penrhyn would only secure the asking price for Wicken from a buyer who intended to break up the estate for re-sale, that he would prefer to sell at £95,000 to an institution who would keep the property together, and that an offer of £90,000 would probably be accepted. The Society completed the purchase at the latter figure (£92,169 including costs) in July 1945. (fn. 310) The contents of the mansion were sold by auction four months, earlier. (fn. 311)
When the Society took possession of the estate they found it generally in good order, if run on somewhat conservative lines, with no attempt to make income meet expenditure. (fn. 312) Their agent observed that tenants had been chosen as much for their ability to ride to hounds as their farming skill; rents were low, although few tenants were of longstanding; and, until the Second World War, no mature timber had been felled except to meet the needs of the estate. The estate workshops were well equipped, although the four men employed there were too accustomed to the easy ways of the Penrhyns to be retained.
Of the 3,042 a. making up the estate (including 617 a. in Buckinghamshire), 2,306 a. were let in 10 farm holdings for a total of £2,650 (i.e. 23s. an acre, described as 'on the low side'). The farm buildings, mainly of stone with slate or tiled roofs, were above the general standard of the district and the farmhouses substantially built. Seven had piped water (five from the estate supply, two from the mains) and four had mains electricity. Before the war 628 a. had been arable, to which a further 871 a. had been added by order of the War Agricultural Executive, which the Society's agent felt had brought improvements. Lime was available on the estate and basic slag had produced good results on the pastures. All the tenants followed a system of mixed farming, growing wheat, beans and other cereals, and all had dairy herds, two of them attested. Ditches and drains had been improved, using prisoners of war, although the hedges had been neglected. The tenants were described as 'substantial and competent farmers', some of wh