Old Warden House - front view with hunt in grounds about 1900 Z50-129-66
Joseph Shuttleworth hailed from Hartsholm Hall in Lincolnshire. In 1872 he purchased the Old Warden Estate from 3rd Baron Ongley for £150,000 plus a further £15,000 for timber. He had been born in 1819, the son of a boat builder called John. His father had gone into business with Nathaniel Clayton, founding a successful engineering firm - Clayton and Shuttleworth. When Joseph bought the Old Warden Estate he almost immediately pulled down the existing house in Old Warden Park and had a new one built by the Duke of Bedford's favourite architect Henry Clutton. The work took three years from 1875 to 1878 and the finished article resembled 17th century Gawthorpe Hall, home of the Lancashire branch of the Shuttleworth family.
Sketch of Shuttleworth coat of arms, for inclusion on their buildings [SL5/120]
Joseph Shuttleworth had married his father's partner's daughter, Sarah Grace Clayton in 1842 and they had two sons, Alfred (born 1843) and Frank. Sarah died in 1849 and Joseph remarried in 1861, his second wife being Caroline Jane Ellison of Boultham Hall [Lincolnshire]who died in 1899. She has a splendid memorial in Old Warden church, on the east wall of the south arcade.
Caroline Shuttleworth's memorial in Old Warden church March 2008
Joseph Shuttleworth died in 1883. His son Frank lived at Old Warden Park, the Bedfordshire Who's Who of 1909 lists his biography. He was born in 1845 and married Dorothy Clotilda Lang, youngest daughter of the Vicar of Old Warden in 1902 at the advanced age of 58 (she was 23). He was always known as Colonel Frank Shuttleworth due to his rank in the Bedfordshire Imperial Yeomanry, he was also a Major in the 7th Hussars. His monument in Old Warden church notes that he raised the Bedfordshire Imperial Yeomanry in 1901 and commanded it until 1905.
Frank Shuttleworth's memorial on the north wall of the chancel March 2008
He became a Justice of the Peace in 1877 and represented Northill on Bedfordshire County Council from its inception in 1889; he was also High Sheriff in 1901.He was a director of the Great Northern Railway and a former president of the Bedfordshire Agricultural Society. He had a London address at 17 Berkeley Square and also inherited the Goldington Bury Estate from his father.
South porch of Old Warden church March 2008
Frank Shuttleworth died in 1913 leaving one son, Richard Ormonde Shuttleworth, who had been born just three and a half years before, in 1909. Sadly he was killed on 2nd August 1940 in a flying accident whilst serving with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve and is buried in the family plot in Saint Leonard's churchyard. The south porch of the church and a lectern in the form of an eagle with the RAF motto "per adua ad astra" were given in his memory.
Lectern in Old Warden Church March 2008
Following Richard Shuttleworth's death his mother placed the Shuttleworth Estate in a charitable trust with the intention that the Estate be used to promote the Shuttleworth family's interest in agriculture and her son's hobby of aviation. Shuttleworth College opened in 1946 in the main house. Richard Shuttleworth's collection of aeroplanes and other vehicles opened to the public in 1963.
Shuttleworth family memorial March 2008
Dorothy Clotilda Shuttleworth, still only 35 had remarried in 1914, her second husband being Brigadier-General William McLaren Campbell and she had a daughter by him, Anne Elspeth. She married Alexander Georg Maria Ignatius von Croy in 1938 (they were divorced in 1968) and they had three children. Dorothy Clotilda died in 1968, aged 89.