Published in Windlesora 18 (2000)
© WLHG
St Leonard’s Mansion, now part of Legoland, has often been confused with St Leonard’s Hill. Both were large mansions at the top of St Leonard’s Hill and even the esteemed architectural historian, Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, managed to merge them into one house. This is not surprising in view of the similarity of their names and that they both command fine views of the surrounding countryside. St Leonard’s Hill takes its name from the medieval chapel which was dedicated to St Leonard and where a hermit took up residence. The chapel on the hill disappeared but a hoard of coins, a lamp and other artefacts were found in 1705 near the site of St Leonard’s Mansion.
Contrary to some sources the present St Leonard’s Mansion is not the old original house. That was ordered to be demolished by the new owner, Mrs Horace Dodge, who commissioned the building firm, Willets, to rebuild it in the style of a French Chateau but with an American’s taste in modern conveniences. These included central heating, lifts, safes and ample bathrooms. She also wanted beautifully detailed interiors as a background to her valuable collection of exquisite French 18th century furniture.
Mrs Dodge was born Anna Thomson in 1871 in Dundee, Scotland. She emigrated to America as a child with her widowed mother and as a talented pianist supported herself and her mother by giving piano lessons to the daughters of the newly rich industrialists in Detroit. There she met the young garage mechanic Horace E Dodge (1868-1920) and they married in 1896. Horace and his brother John quickly became two of the key figures in the dawning American technological age. Their enormous success can be attributed to their skills as mechanics, their great determination and business acumen. In 1914 they began producing their own cars and by 1917 the Dodge Brothers Motor Car Company was established.
But Horace Dodge was never to enjoy the fruits of his acumen and wealth for he died suddenly in 1920, at the age of forty-nine, the beneficiary of an enormous fortune. Four years later the wealthy widow met Hugh Dillman, a former actor, who was 14 years her junior. They married in 1926 and Hugh set about helping Anna to spend her money. Into their circle moved a world-famous art dealer, Sir Joseph Duveen, whose knowledge of French furniture and art was soon to be enhanced by the Dodge’s, now Dillman’s millions.
Anna credited Hugh Dillman with helping her to have fun with her money. Joseph Duveen seems to have enjoyed it too as he scoured the French auction houses for choice 19th century pieces. The fallout from the Russian Revolution turned Europe into a happy hunting ground for discerning collectors, and Anna became the proud owner of Tsarina Maria Federovna’s jewel casket and Catherine the Great’s famed pearl necklace.
The two children of Horace Dodge Senior were not left a separate income by their father so it was Anna who decided their allowances. Horace Junior and Delphine would have to wait until the death of their mother before they would have any money of their own. Horace Junior inherited some of his father’s engineering talent but he never used it, explaining that he had a hard time getting up early in the morning. Anna did little to discourage this attitude. She wanted her son to be part of ‘high society’ and distanced herself from what had made their fortune.
It was in her fabulous collection of French furniture that she found comfort. The period before the French Revolution was for the French aristocracy one of relaxed elegance and gracious living. So great was Anna’s desire to immerse herself in the period that she commissioned a portrait of herself dressed as Madame de Pompadour. It was to grace the library of the splendid rooms in
one of her several houses.
One such house was St Leonard’s, which is roughly 400 metres from the other great house, St Leonard’s Hill. Some of the early history of the house might have been lost when it was demolished and the present building erected on the foundations, but there are still the records which show that in 1773 both houses formed the estate of the Duke of Gloucester. He had bought the house, which was then called ‘The Hermitage’, from Mr Lilley Aynscombe and renamed it ‘Sophia Farm’ after the birth of his daughter, Princess Sophia. When Gloucester sold the estate the houses were separated and in 1813 Mr William Dawson commissioned James Wyatt to extend the house in the then fashionable Gothic style. Wyatt also did some work at Windsor Castle and the principal reception rooms in several stately homes bear his distinctive interior designs.
St Leonard’s Mansion, as the house is now called, forms part of Legoland and much remains of Anna Dodge’s taste in interior decoration. The bell board indictor list (below) gives some idea of how she arranged the 39 rooms which exclude the basement but include the 10 bathrooms with their gold-plated fittings. She engaged the finest craftsmen available for the intricate cornices and carvings. In the library we can still see the beautiful panelling, and the only pictures which have survived are set into the panels.
Anna had bought the house in 1932 for her son Horace and it is he whom the residents of Windsor remember. He lived his entire life on the allowance his mother doled out to him, going through five failed marriages and countless financial and legal troubles. He could be charming and entertaining but according to “The Detroit Free Press” he had a dark side which kept him in the headlines. His mother said of him “If he hadn’t been a rich man’s son Horace might have been a great engineer, he had his father’s inventive genius.” Begging for still one more handout from his mother, Horace died in 1963 at the age of 63. Years of heavy drinking and a destructive life-style had claimed him.
His mother came to St Leonard’s in the Queen’s Coronation year, but it was Rose Terrace, her home on Lake St Clair outside Detroit, which she really loved. St Leonard’s was reconstructed after work on Rose Terrace was nearly completed. Mrs Dodge seemed to prefer to demolish a building and then rebuild it to her own, exacting specifications, for both Rose Terrace and St. Leonard’s (rebuilt c 1934) were treated this way.
Just prior to the outbreak of World War II St Leonard’s was placed at the disposal of the Kennedy family, when Joseph Kennedy was the United States Ambassador to Great Britain. The Embassy in London was considered by Joe Kennedy to be too close to the dangers of the London blitz and so he preferred the house in Windsor and spent most evenings and weekends there. His staff well remember the Hollywood films of that period which were shown in the basement cinema.
After the war the house stood empty for many years and with the death of her son, Anna lost interest in St Leonard’s. In 1966 it was sold to Sir Billy Smart of circus fame and he used the grounds to park his vehicles and overwinter the animals. In 1970 Windsor Safari Park opened and the house, now called St Leonard’s Mansion, became the headquarters. The finest rooms became
restaurants and Mrs Dodge’s beautiful library, minus the books, became a bar.
Anna Thomson Dodge, having outlived her son Horace and her daughter Delphine, died in 1971 aged 103, one of the richest women in the world.
Sheila Rooney
Sources:
The Detroit News
DELL, Theodore Catalogue of the Dodge Collection, The Detroit Institute of Arts 1996, Detroit Public Library and Historical Collection
ROONEY, S. St Leonard’s Hill, WLHPG, 1991.
Windlesora 4 and Windlesora 6.
PEVSNER, Sir N. Buildings of England.
Daily Telegraph, 18th June 1971.
St Leonards, Windsor – Bells on Indicator
Windsor Local History Group 