Published in Windlesora 25 (2009)
© WLHG
In 1964, my wife Fiona and I decided that the flat in Windsor that we had lived in for a couple of years was no longer suitable for our fast-enlarging family of two girls and a baby on the way. We were very fortunate to come across a little cottage at the top of St Leonard’s Hill, which had just come onto the market. It was very close to my parents’ house and the historic plot of land that my father had owned since the beginning of the war, the estate and mansion of St Leonard’s Hill. The cottage had been a lodge to this mansion, but due to its proximity to the adjoining house now known as St Leonards, had also been used as one of its lodges.
Mrs Anna Thompson Dodge, the widow of Horace Elgin Dodge, founder of the American car company, had purchased the neighbouring estate known as St Leonards in 1932. Mrs Dodge leased it to Joseph Kennedy, U.S. Ambassador between 1937 and 1940, although he only spent a year there. In 1966, the estate was sold to Billy Smart of circus fame. By 1969 Billy Smart had turned the land around St Leonards into Windsor Safari Park; it was later transformed into Legoland in 1996.
Whenever a move is made, there are always alterations and additions to a house to suit it for its new inhabitants, and we were no different. During this time I kept my eyes open for what became known as ‘potential’, be it old doors, panelling or windows. One day in 1965, I was walking on the hill with our dog, and I noticed our next-door neighbour’s gardener starting the most enormous bonfire. Being a friendly sort of chap, I stopped for a chat, and at that moment I saw him reach for an enormous Gothic framed stained glass panel, broken and muddy but interesting enough for me to ask if I might save him the trouble of burning it, as it was just the thing that I was looking for. After scratching his head, he said, ‘Well, I was just told to get rid of it, so I don’t see why you can’t do it for me!‘ I was thrilled.
The window consisted of a large gothic arch which was six feet long and two feet nine inches high, made of solid oak (above), the stained glass panels held in place by brass glazing bars instead of the normal lead, and of course it weighed a ton. In the centre of this window was a coat of arms. Somehow, I got it home, and then came the fun of restoring it. We went to our old friends at Windsor Glass, in those days near the Windsor Riverside Station on the Datchet Road. They could only come up with some old bits of pale orange glass of about the same age, and not exactly retaining the continuity of the original, but the main feature of the coat of arms in the centre was happily still intact.
Having rescued the piece and realised that it was really rather large for the little cottage, it spent the next 40 years covered in a dust sheet at the back of the garage. In the year 2000 we decided that we must have a millennium project, we would build onto the house and clear out the garage.
We designed our new family room around the size and shape of the Gothic treasure. We mounted it where the southern rays of the spring and autumn sun would strike, filling the room with dazzling colours and shapes for several hours a day.
At this point I couldn’t resist exploring why this coat of arms should be on the window, and where had it started its life? It didn’t really look English, perhaps German, certainly continental, but how to find out? After exploring one or two avenues I was put in touch with a Mr John Allen, whose occupation was Armorial Identification. I emailed him some photographs of the window, and almost immediately, he came back with the news that the left-hand side (the male side) was the coat of arms of the Dawson family. These arms consisted of three birds known as martlets (a kind of mythical heraldic bird) and two hawks or possibly daws (Jackdaws). A number of the family were buried at Bursnall in Yorkshire. I discovered that the Parish Church of Saint Wilfred, Bursnall Yorkshire had two Dawson stained glass windows. This branch of the Dawson family were Lords of the Manor of Hartlington. The original Hartlington Manor was pulled down by William Dawson’s son the Rev. Henry Dawson. Another property known as Hartlington Hall was rebuilt by a Lieutenant H.P Dawson at the end of the 19th century, on a slightly different site.
I did not realise until looking at page 16 of the book St Leonard’s Hill Windsor, by Sheila and Pat Rooney, that one previous owner had been a Mr William Dawson. I then realised that the Dawsons of Hartlington were the grandchildren of William Dawson of St Leonard’s Hill. In more recent research for this article, I found out that William Dawson had originally come from a Huguenot family who settled in England in the Craven District of North Yorkshire. He was born there in 1755. He had inherited both land and money from his father William Dawson Senior (who had been a Linen Merchant, and also had a property in Bath).
I then turned to the other half of the coat of arms, which would have related to his wife. In 1787 the entry of the parish registers for St George’s Church, Hanover Square shows that William Dawson of London married Sophia Aufrere, daughter of Anthony Aufrere of Hoveton in Norfolk. The Aufrere coat of arms consisted of a red chevron with two bunches of grapes above a lion rampant below. This 1s exactly what is depicted on the glass from St Leonard’s.
William and Sophia Dawson bought the property at St. Leonard’s Hill in the Forest of Windsor in 1810. They also had a property in West London at 10 Hind Street, off fashionable Manchester Square. They acquired the services of the architect Mr. James Wyatt, and in a letter of 14 November 1811 to his cousin, he writes about showing him ‘the improvements I have been making at my residence under the directions of Mr James Wyatt, who has planned me a Hall that is universally admired in Gothic style.’ An illustration in Hakewill’s History of Windsor shows Wyatt’s newly completed Gothic Hall in 1813. The Gothic nature of the stained glass would suggest that this was put in place during Wyatt’s improvements. The house was renamed Sophia Lodge. (Interestingly a previous owner, The Duke of Gloucester, who at that time lived in the St. Leonard’s Hill mansion, purchased this building, previously named The Hermitage, and called it Sophia Farm).
Whilst the Dawsons were at St Leonards Hill the Royal family often visited their home. Sophia Dawson was also a frequent guest at Windsor Castle and was invited to play cards with the Royal family. William and Sophia had eight children, three sons and five daughters. One of the daughters married a Polish nobleman, whilst another married an Irish Baronet, Sir John Burke. Their second son Henry, took Holy Orders and became a priest, moving to Norfolk. William died at Sophia Lodge on St. Leonard’s Hill in December 1829. Sophia moved to the London house off Manchester Square and died in 1845. William and Sophia are both buried at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, together with William’s father and son. A white marble memorial tablet set on a black surround on the north wall of the Dean’s Cloister records their death.
Near this place are deposited the remains of
WILLIAM DAWSON ESQ
Of St. Leonard’s Hill, Berks
Who died 23rd October 1829. Aged 74
With the mildest disposition he possessed a firm mind
And lived in the practice of every Christian duty
His afflicted widow caused this tablet to be erected to
His memory
Also of SOPHIA
Wife of the above
Daughter of Anthony Aufrere Esquire
Of Hovelton [sic] Hall Norfolk
Died July 17th 1845 aged 83
There is much more to research on this interesting family, but time or space does not permit a more detailed account.
Geoffrey Try
Windsor Local History Group 