Radical new lease of life for reformer Cobden’s home
An anti-Corn Law hero’s descendant has won support from famous names for his plan to turn a mansion into a museum and a charity to tackle social problems, he tells Marianna Hunt
‘Afeisty streak has always run through our family,” chuckles Nick Cobden Wright. From the Victorian statesman who successfully campaigned to abolish the “bread tax” hampering Britain’s poorest, to a famous suffragette thrown into Holloway Prison for protesting outside the Houses of Parliament, the Cobdens have never shied away from a fight for justice.
Now Cobden Wright is faced with his own struggle: the fight to protect his family’s legacy. “Not unusually for schoolchildren at the time, I grew up learning about Richard Cobden, the liberal politician and peace negotiator,” the 45-year-old says. “The difference for me was that he was also my great-greatgreat-grandfather.”
Born in Dunford House in Midhurst, West Sussex, Cobden became a national hero. In 1846 he, along with the Anti-Corn Law League he founded, convinced the prime minister, Sir Robert Peel, to repeal the tax on imported wheat and corn. For three decades, the corn laws had hiked up the cost of bread for the poor while lining the pockets of Britain’s wealthiest.
“Aside from serving as an MP for Stockport and Rochdale, he was also involved in international politics,” adds Cobden Wright. “His personal intervention with Napoleon III brought about peace with the French, and what is considered to be the first modern trade agreement through the Cobden-Chevalier Treaty in 1860.”
Since his death Cobden’s humanitarian principles have lived on in his former home, the Dunford farmstead that he transformed into an elegant Victorian manor. The Italianate-style house, which is nestled within the South Downs National Park, was turned into a trust by Cobden’s descendants in the early 1900s and used as an international conference centre in his honour. Its status as a hub of free-thinking and
liberal ideas has meant that Dunford’s visitor book is stuffed with familiar names, from George Bernard Shaw to Mahatma Gandhi.
“The trust ran into financial difficulties in the Fifties,” says Cobden Wright. “So we gifted the Dunford estate to the YMCA as a perpetual endowment, which means they are entrusted to act forever as its guardians.”
For almost 70 years the charity has used the house for talks and conferences, but now it wants to sell up. It has already had to sell off most of the land and surrounding buildings to meet costs, meaning that only Cobden’s former residence remains today.
These sales have been made possible by a caveat in the Government’s rules on endowment that allow charities to sell assets permanently gifted to them as long as they can provide evidence that the money generated will further the primary causes the gift was intended to achieve.
“I can’t bear the thought of Dunford being sold off,” Cobden Wright says. “I want to return it to the family so we can safeguard its history.” He now wants to give it a new life as a foundation created in the memory of his ancestor.
The house has seen better days, he admits. “The dining room is full of old microwaves, there’s hideous woodchip wallpaper everywhere, and oil heating which is terrible for the environment. Dunford is decaying from the inside.”
Yet glimmers of its glory days remain. “The grand marble fireplaces are still intact, as is Cobden’s library with all his first editions. The place is scattered with artefacts, such as the Sèvres porcelain vase (worth tens of thousands) that Napoleon gave to Richard Cobden to thank him for averting war. There’s also a banner declaring ‘No Vote, No Tax’ that Annie CobdenSanderson, my great-great-grandmother, who was a close friend of Emmeline Pankhurst and William Morris, was holding when she was arrested outside the Commons.”
Another surviving legacy of Richard Cobden’s is the series of intimate rooms he had built to facilitate the “fireside chats” he would have with visitors both rich and poor, from prime minister William Gladstone to Dunford’s illiterate local carpenter. “The building is a listed heritage asset because of its historical and political significance, which means it is difficult for the YMCA to dispose of it,” Nick says.
Cobden Wright insists that the family has no wish to criticise the charity. “We’re grateful for its custodianship,” he adds. “But we want to preserve the house for future generations by turning Dunford into a public museum and charity dedicated to Richard Cobden.” He is trying to raise the funds to buy back and restore the manor, and is offering a six-figure sum to the YMCA.
The forms to register the Cobden Foundation as a charity have already been filled in and, if the offer is accepted, plans are afoot to use the house as a base from which it will tackle big social issues such as homelessness, mental health and loneliness. “We plan to continue the Cobden legacy of passion and activism, but futureproof it to suit modern times and needs,” he says.
The campaign has caught the attention of many well-known people, including Philippa Gregory, the notable author of historical fiction, and Helen Pankhurst CBE, the writer-campaigner and great-granddaughter of Annie Cobden-Sanderson’s fellow activist, Emmeline Pankhurst.
“We are welcoming donations, large or small, from members of the public or any organisations, which will be collected only if the offer is taken up,” explains Cobden Wright. The funds have to be raised this month in order to pay the YMCA; in return, donors can visit Dunford and get involved in its charitable activities.
Pankhurst is hoping to use the house to host lectures on women’s rights, while Gregory will be involved in plans for literary and cultural events on the 60-acre site.
“We used to play in the corridors as children and have annual family parties here. Now it’s time for the rest of the world to have the chance to learn about Richard Cobden and his beliefs about peace and social justice,” adds Cobden Wright.
‘I can’t bear the thought of the house being sold off... We want to safeguard its history’