Plan showing Gilstead Lodge in 1834.
The area shown on a map dated about 1900.
Zeelugt House shown on map dated 1855.
Linton House, a Grade II listed building, is one of a number of mansions erected alongside Thirlestaine Road during the first half of the 19th Century. Linton and Lake House, Cotswold House, Ravensworth Lodge, Walworth, Eslington, Park House and Thirlestaine House were all the chosen homes of men who had served or sought their fortunes in the outposts of Empire, bringing with them their large families and a retinue of servants.
The first building to stand on the site of Linton House was called Gilstead Lodge. It was smaller and its entrance faced Thirlestaine Road. In 1836 its occupant was Samuel Cox, a retired sugar planter from British Guiana. After he died in 1838 his widow lived on there for a few years, rechristening the house “Zeelugt” (sometimes written as “Zeelught”) after the name of the plantation where they had formerly lived, in an area originally colonised by the Dutch, hence the name which means “Sea Air”. It seems likely that the enlargement or rebuilding of the house took place during this period.
During the next decades Zeelugt had a series of occupants who had lived in or even been born in India. Major-General Sir William Sampson Whish of the Bengal Artillery stayed there in 1843 in semi-retirement but later returned to fight in India, distinguishing himself in the now-forgotten campaign to capture the Sikh city of Multan in 1849, and was subsequently knighted. Later came a fellow officer, Major-General Richard Tickell of the Bengal Engineers, Companion of the Bath, with his wife, five sons and two daughters, mother-in-law, butler and five other servants. In 1854, the year before his death, he moved to Ravensworth Lodge, where his widow and her household continued to live for another ten years.
Two more India veterans followed: Dr George Lamb, who had spent nearly forty years of his life in India, his last appointment being Physician-General to the Bengal Army, and Lieutenant-General David Barr of the Bombay Army.
From 1860 to 1864 the householder was George Nevile Wyatt. He had been an indigo planter in Behar, north-east India, one of four colleagues who later settled in Cheltenham, living within a few hundred yards of each other, the others being James Cox of Thirlestaine Hall, James Twoomey of Connelmore (demolished to make way for the Verneys) and Edward Studd of Walsworth (demolished to make way for the Christian Science Church). George Nevile Wyatt himself moved shortly afterwards to Lake House.
However, the name most closely associated with Zeelugt is that of St Clair-Ford. The family and their domestic servants lived at Zeelugt from 1868 until Mrs St Clair-Ford’s death in 1919. Both husband and wife had associations with Charlton Kings. The Captain (as he was widely known ) was born in Charlton Kings, the son of Sir Francis Ford, and his wife Eliza Jane was the eldest daughter of Thomas Smalley Potter of East Court.
The Captain had earlier been an energetic colonial administrator in India. The Bombay Gazette reported that during the 1850s he oversaw the building of a canal 5 miles long and 30 feet wide, to link two rivers. He made many improvements to the town of Larkhana in Scind, and his pièce de resistance there was the planning and creation of an elaborate public recreation ground, with a lake, flower beds and fruit trees, as ‘a favourite place of resort and relaxation for the townspeople’. He will have had that in mind back in Cheltenham when Naunton Park was being planned, a scheme in which he was closely involved and to which he gave both moral and generous financial support. Sadly, the ornate drinking fountain which he provided has been removed. He also applied his skills to designing the Charlton Kings Working Men’s Club, and ensuring that it was paid for, in recognition of which it bears the name of the St Clair-Ford Hall.
The garden at Zeelugt itself must have been a showpiece, especially on the occasion of the marriage of Ada St Clair-Ford in August 1893. After the wedding service at Holy Apostles’ Church, a meal was served in the house to 300 guests who afterwards could wander on the lawns among the brightly coloured flower-beds, which were supplemented by palms and greenhouse plants. Carpeted and furnished pavilions had been erected for refreshments and relaxation, while a band played. In addition Captain St Clair-Ford had provided tea at Charlton Kings for the choir and 200 schoolchildren, and at a celebration on the Naunton Recreation Ground the band of the Gordon Boys’ Brigade played to a large crowd of children, who took part in races and other sports until the evening closed with a firework display.
During or soon after the First World War the name of the house was changed to Linton, probably because Zeelugt had sounded too Germanic. From [1922] until [1982] it was owned by Cheltenham College and occupied by a series of schoolmasters, in some cases with their families. Now it is owned by Cobalt!
© Eric Miller 2015