Abbey History 1885 - 1892 Edward the Co-Operative Philanthropist

In the Shadow of the Abbey

Unexpected inheritance funds the co-operative movement, Henry and Florence finally marry, the opening of the Bisham institute, new road and profitable development for wealthy residents.
On November 4th 1885, 200 people attended GHVN the younger’s funeral at Bisham Church. He left £52,000 pounds and the Bisham estate to his cousin Edward. Was this Abbot Corderys curse at work?
Edward Ernest was born in 1810. His father, Edward, was the second son of the then Lord of the manor, George Vansittart. Edward succeeded to his wife’s estate of Allesley Park near Coventry in 1805, he had taken the name Neale on inheriting the property. After her death he married again; Anne (nee Spooner) and produced Edward Ernest in 1810 followed by 7 girls. In 1825 Edward became a trustee of the Bisham estate, on his brother’s death, because his heir, George Henry Vansittart the Younger, his grandson, was only a minor.

Edward Ernest went to Oriel College Oxford. In 1828 he started practicing as a barrister and in 1837 he married Frances Sarah Farrer. Edward Ernest believed passionately in ‘the inestimable value of co-operation as a method for conferring inestimable advantages upon mankind’ (Smith, 1892). In 1850 he became a Christian Socialist, along with others such as John Stuart Mill and John Ruskin.

By the 1850s Edward had lost some £40,000. Edward Vansittart Neale is Nationally recognised as the founding father of the Co-operative movement. The key role he played in its establishment is acknowledged in a memorial to him in the crypt of St Pauls Cathedral.

Inheriting the Bisham Estate in 1885 provided an unexpected source of funds to support his favoured co-operative movement. Edward started to sell off parts of the estate. In May 1888 he gave the inaugural address at Dewsbury as president of the Co-operative Congress.

Henry James, Edward’s son, had had to curtail his plans University in favour of getting paid employment at the Admiralty to support his mother and sisters who were secondary to his father’s co-operative endeavours. He married Florence, the daughter of Arthur Eddis a County Court Judge in 1887

Edward founded the Village Club and Institute, giving the land contributing towards the building which opened in November 1888. The estate cottages were upgraded around 1890. However Edward increased the rents significantly. He proposed building a new road from Bisham to Cookham to replace the track, from Bisham road through Quarry Wood. The charming terraces in the wood which command some of the most lovely scenery along the valley of the Thames, will be obtainable for building purposes.

Henry James and Florence took an increasingly active part in village life. Edward had broken the terms of the entail shortly before he died in September 16th 1892, to pass the estate to his wife Frances for life, to try to limit death duties. She died two years later in 1894.

“ I was willing to incur the risk of loss from the desire to promote a great cause and 2. The ill success of these trials did not discourage me from working for that cause” He propounded a scheme for converting the most beautiful parts of his estate into places suitable for wealthy residents ,

Margaret Dickinson, credits him with beginning the dissolution of the Bisham estate. Country Life 'if the inhabitants of Bisham well cared for, living in one of the oldest, most charming and picturesque villages of rural England, are not among the most contented and happiest of people it must be their own fault.’
Researched, written and narrated by Sheila Featherstone-Clark. Sounds from Freesound.org.