[BITList] The man who brought Stonehenge

[John Feltham]

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Chubb, Sir  Cecil Herbert Edward, first baronet  (1876-1934), last private owner of Stonehenge and benefactor, was born on 14 April 1876 at Shrewton, Wiltshire, the eldest son of Alfred Chubb (1851-1912), harness maker and saddler, and his wife, Mary, nee Cross (1854-1927), of Frome, Somerset. He was educated at the village school and then at Bishop Wordsworth's School in Salisbury. During a cricket match between his school and a team from the nearby Fisherton House Lunatic Asylum, Chubb met his future wife, Mary Bella Alice Fern (1887/8-1955), the niece of the asylum's owner, Dr William Corbin Finch (1831-1905); they married at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster, on 27 April 1902, when she was twenty-four, and had two children, John Corbin (1904-1957) and Mary Cecilia (1907-1972).

Chubb initially worked as a teacher at his school, before training at St Mark's College, London. He then studied at Christ's College, Cambridge, from where he graduated with a first in natural sciences in 1904. After gaining his LLB in 1905, he resumed his studies in London and was called to the bar from the Middle Temple in June 1907. Chubb's legal practice was put to one side when in 1910 his wife inherited the mental asylum at Fisherton House and he became its manager. The asylum had been run by the Finch family since 1813 and was the largest in the country, with over 600 patients in the 1890s. Chubb adopted an innovative approach to his new line of work, allowing patients to spend time away from the asylum with their relatives, and he also invested in Crookes Laboratories, which carried experiments into the medical uses of colloids. He took in many military patients during the war and his own home, Bemerton Lodge, was turned into extra accommodation in 1919. Renamed the Old Manor Hospital, the asylum was transferred to a limited company in 1924 and was taken over by the National Health Service in 1954.

In 1915 the prehistoric stone circle at Stonehenge was put up for auction by the executors of Sir Edmund Antrobus, whose family had owned the monument since 1824. The care of Stonehenge had vexed the Office of Works for many years despite its scheduling as an ancient monument in 1882, for the Antrobus family had refused to place it under the guardianship of the act and had sparked local and national outrage in 1901 by enclosing the stones with a fence and charging admission. Attempts at purchasing the monument for the nation had come to nothing and there was intense public interest in the sale, which was conducted by Knight, Frank, and Rutley at the New Theatre in Salisbury on 21 September 1915. Chubb attended the sale and, almost on a whim, bid for the stone circle and thirty acres of surrounding land-Lot 15-and proved successful, paying £6600 in the process. Stonehenge had always fascinated Chubb, who-in his own words:

was born close to it and during my boyhood and youth visited it at all hours of the day and night, under every conceivable condition of weather-in driving tempests of hail, rain and snow, fierce thunderstorms, glorious moonlight and beautiful sunshine. (English Heritage Archives, AA071786, 15 Sept 1918)

It was said that he bought the stones as a present for his wife and he certainly hoped that the circle would remain a treasured possession of his family. Chubb continued to charge visitors a shilling to see the monument, in order to generate sufficient revenue to pay for the resident caretaker, a retired policeman named Frank Henry Smith, and also to raise funds for the Red Cross. The landscape immediately surrounding Stonehenge changed quite considerably during the First World War with the erection of an air base within sight of the stones which raised concerns that their setting would be permanently disfigured by the military presence.

On 15 September 1918 Chubb wrote to the first commissioner of works, Sir Alfred Mond, to offer Stonehenge 'as a gift to be held for the nation'  (English Heritage Archives, AA071786, Cecil Chubb to Sir Alfred Mond, 15 Sept 1918), explaining that 'it has been pressed upon me that the nation would like to have it for its own and would prize it most highly'  (ibid.). The delighted government accepted his offer with alacrity and readily agreed to his suggestion that the revenue from entrance fees be handed to the Red Cross Society. At a ceremony at Stonehenge on 26 October 1918, Cecil and Mary Chubb formally handed over the deed to Mond, witnessed by numerous dignitaries, among them Sir Arthur Evans, then president of the Society of Antiquaries. According to the deed of gift, the cost of admission to view the stones was not to exceed one shilling and no building was to be erected within 400 yards of the Amesbury milestone. Chubb was rewarded for his 'patriotic and public spirited gift'  (English Heritage Archives, AA071786, Sir Alfred Mond to Cecil Chubb, 18 Sept 1918) by the creation of a baronetcy in September 1919 and he took Stonehenge as his designation; his coat of arms bore the unmistakable outline of a trilithon. Even after Stonehenge had passed into government hands, its setting was threatened by potential development on nearby farmland and the former aerodrome site. In 1927 a public campaign was launched by a committee representing the National Trust, the Wiltshire Archaeological Society, and the Office of Works, and within two years the three parcels of land surrounding the stones had been bought by the trust at a cost of £32,000. In 1924 Chubb bought Bapton Manor in Codford St Mary, Wiltshire. His purchase included a renowned herd of Shorthorn cattle, which he continued to develop, breeding several prize-winning animals, including the heifers 'Princess Margaret' and 'Bapton Crocus 6th'. Chubb developed a taste for horse-racing and invested in several horses, and served as a JP in Salisbury from 1916 until his death.

Chubb died at his home, Rothwell Dene, West Overcliff Drive, Bournemouth, on 22 September 1934, and was survived by his wife; she died on 12 September 1955. He was buried at St Paul's, Salisbury, on 25 September 1934. Chubb's birthplace in Shrewton was marked by a plaque erected by Wiltshire county council in the 1990s, but his act of generosity in parting with Stonehenge-a decision which he admitted had not been easy-has not been marked in any other way.

S. J. Skedd 

Sources  Stonehenge-Amesbury-Wiltshire, presentation to the nation by Mr Chubb, deed of gift, English Heritage, Swindon, National Monuments Record, AA071786 + Ancient Monuments: Stonehenge, Wiltshire: earlier discussions for possible acquisition or preservation, TNA: PRO, WORK/14/213 + Ancient Monuments: Stonehenge, Wiltshire: preservation of amenities, TNA: PRO, WORK/14/488 + VCH  Wiltshire, 6.180-94 [Fisherton Anger] + J. Richards, Stonehenge: the story so far (2007) + J. Richards, Stonehenge: a history in photographs (2004) + S. Thurley, Men from the ministry: how Britain saved its heritage (2013) + The Times (8 Oct 1924); (30 Oct 1924); (3 March 1925); (17 Feb 1927); (27 Oct 1928); (24 Sept 1934); (26 Sept 1934) + Western Gazette (28 Sept 1934) + Evening Telegraph (17 Dec 1924) + Salisbury and Winchester Journal (2 Nov 1918) + WWW + census returns, 1881, 1891, 1901, 1911 + electoral registers, 1921, 1925, 1926, 1930 + b. cert. + m. cert. + d. cert.
Likenesses  double portrait, photograph (with wife Mary), L. Cong., prints and photographs division [see illus.] · photographs, Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum
Wealth at death  £83,777 8s. 7d.: probate, 25 Oct 1934, CGPLA Eng. & Wales




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