Save Nuffield Place , Huntercombe Oxfordshire

 See Presss Release 4th April 2008

1.         The importance of Nuffield Place and its contents

Nuffield Place is nationally significant as the long term residence of the engineer and philanthropist William Morris, Lord Nuffield, and his wife Elizabeth, Lady Morris.  It contains an extraordinary collection of Nuffield memorabilia, and remains furnished and equipped precisely as it was on the death of Morris in 1963.  It attracts visits from schools and the public during the limited opening times allowed by the present owners.  The house and gardens are of importance in their own right

1a.       Lord Nuffield

William Morris was born in 1877, and brought up in very modest circumstances in a terraced house in Cowley, Oxford .   At the age of 16 he started a bicycle repair and manufacture business from a shed in the garden of the family home, expanding in 1904 into a motor business in Longwall Street Oxford , then to the major works at Cowley in 1913.  Morris brought cheap mass-produced (but high quality) cars and buses to the British people, altering the lives and aspirations of all, and leading to the physical transformation of twentieth century Britain .

Morris’s business acumen was remarkable.  He bought up parts suppliers and rival manufacturers such as SU carburettors, Wolsely and Riley and started the MG (Morris Garages) marque of performance vehicles. In the first war, his factory made munitions and mine-sinkers.  In the second war, his many motor works turned out tanks, aero and vehicle engines, and complete Tiger Moth and Spitfire aircraft.

After the war, Nuffield created the classic Morris Minor car, and eventually led the 1952 amalgamation of Morris Motors and Austin as the British Motor Corporation. He retired from business in 1952, and died in 1963.  Lord Nuffield was regarded as a tough but fair employer by the unions, and he invested heavily in sports and social facilities for his workers.  Morris represents the archetypal self-made innovative entrepreneur, and stands for the last great flowering of British manufacturing expertise in the early 20^th century.

It is as a philanthropist that Morris’s influence is still alive and flourishing today.  His major benefactions alone amounted to well over £25m, equivalent to about a billion pounds in modern money.  The equivalent of £320m created the Nuffield Foundation and £47m established Nuffield College , which received a further £42m (in today’s money) in 1963.   The majority of his wealth went towards medical purposes, especially disability, orthopaedics and anaesthesia,   including the endowment of whole new university research departments.  Other major beneficiaries were servicemen’s welfare and youth support.  Nuffield gave his money where he felt it would make a significant difference, and frequently to enable change and innovation. Practically all of the Nuffield benefactions are still flourishing today, the Nuffield Foundation alone dispensing some £10m every year.

Cartoon showing Morris dispensing money to Oxford /University from his 'Horn of Plenty' 

1b.       Lady Nuffield

Elizabeth Anstey married William Morris in 1904.  Daughter of an Oxford farrier, she had been a teacher and dress maker before marriage.   She was retiring by nature and ran her millionaire’s household simply and modestly.  Her taste is strongly reflected in the interior design and fittings of the house.  In 1956 she set up the Elizabeth Nuffield Educational Fund which provides support for women studying to improve their employment prospects.

1c.       House and contents

Nuffield Place was designed by Oswald Partridge Milne, an assistant of Lutyens (and architect of the National Trust’s Coleton Fishacre). It was built for the shipping magnate Sir John Bowring Wimble in 1914, as a small country house with a large garden.  Morris bought the property in 1933, modernising and extending it and renaming it Nuffield Place . The house is featured in “ England ’s 1000 Best Houses” by Simon Jenkins.  It is furnished in the taste of the 1930s, conservative in décor, but advanced in its plumbing and electrical fittings. Although it contains some antiques, most of the fine furniture was commissioned by Morris from Hallidays in Oxford , saving money and providing work, two ideals close to his heart.

The house, with only 8 principal rooms, strikes one as extraordinarily modest for the home of the richest manufacturer in England .  It is attractive and comfortable, but neither extravagant nor immodest.  The personalities of Lord and Lady Morris stand out, their simplicity of life, and lack of pretension are striking, in strong contrast to the perception of the lifestyle of most exceeding rich people today. Their priority was hard work and providing good employment, not ostentation and excess.   Their bedrooms for example, are smaller and much less richly furnished than the guest rooms. They rarely used the formal drawing and dining rooms except when entertaining, preferring instead the intimate sitting room/study, little larger than the living rooms of the terraced houses of their upbringing.

Lord Nuffield's bedroom with his home-made reading lamp over the bed  

The house contains several thousand catalogued items, diaries, accounts, books, contemporary household equipment, and innumerable memorabilia and gifts from all round the world, still displayed as Lord and Lady Nuffield set them out   Among the items are the formal regalia worn by Lord and Lady Nuffield for the 1953 Coronation, other dress clothes and uniforms, signed photographs and notes from the royal family and other historic curiosities.   There is one of Lord Nuffield’s original bicycles, an iron lung constructed in the car works as one of hundreds provided free for UK and empire hospitals between 1938 and 1944.  There is Lord Nuffield’s early electric exercise horse, and even his own appendix, pickled in a glass jar.

The house is a rare survival of a complete, upper-middle class home of the 1930s. It is a treasure chest for children and all people interested in the life time of their parents and grandparents.  Its fully catalogued contents are a significant historical resource.

1d        The gardens

The roughly 4 ha of gardens were originally designed by Mr Milne of Stinchcombe and laid out just after the first war.  They are well maintained, with excellent specimen trees, and the design still reflects a Lutyens-influenced 1930s style.  The garden was Lady Nuffield’s chief interest and it contains mature shrubs, lawns, brick and stone walls, an orchard, vegetable garden, ornamental pond and some statuary. 

The grounds continue into Park Wood, secondary mature woodland roughly 15 ha in area, and full of bluebells in spring.  It contains two public footpaths and allows a very pleasant 20 minute circular walk. 

A full ecological appraisal has yet to be made of the woodland (and garden), but the presence of wood-banks and some ancient woodland indicators suggests they may be of some historical and conservation interest. The gardens provide considerable rough lawn and paddock space which could be used for parking or further interpretation buildings subject to planning consent.

2.         The current threat to Nuffield Place

The property was left to Nuffield College Oxford in 1963 as part of Lord Nuffield’s will.  The college has made relatively little use of the house, although it has been very well maintained.  The Friends of Nuffield Place charity (FNP) has for many years successfully managed public access and educational visits to the site in a programme limited in scope by Nuffield College .  The College has now given notice to the FNP that the current year will be the last season in which it may be open to the public, and that the house and its contents will be sold on the open market to raise funds for the College.

Without specific intervention, this sale will remove the property from access by the public, and disseminate the contents, destroying irrecoverably the integrity of the property as a fascinating memorial to Lord and Lady Nuffield, a remarkable survival of a complete and unspoiled window into an earlier way of living, and a national educational resource.

To preserve this remarkable national asset requires prompt action to ensure sympathetic ownership and continued public access to the house and its contents as they are today, exactly as Lord Nuffield left them on his death.  Neither the house nor its contents held separately have great historical value.  Together they are a priceless insight into a supremely important man and his times.

3.         Ownership options

Retention of the property by Nuffield College is not an option.  The FNP has managed limited public and educational access to the house and collection for many years.  However the charity’s board wisely decided that while it will do all it can to muster support for the preservation of the house and contents, it lacks the experience and confidence to properly manage and administer the property as its owner, and that the house would be better conserved under the aegis of an experienced larger body.

The Oxford Preservation Trust strongly backs the project, but the location of Nuffield Place prevents them from active engagement.  Likewise, the project has great support from Oxfordshire County Council, but the Council is financially unable to invest in a property of this sort.

4.         Opportunities for Public Benefit

Bringing Nuffield Place to public ownership would provide excellent recreational and educational opportunities.  The house is already opened regularly in season, but limited in frequency by Nuffield College .  It attracts large numbers of visitors, despite limited local marketing.

Access to Nuffield Place is via the excellent A4130 running between Wallingford and Henley on Thames .  It is approximately half an hour from the M40 (Junction 6) and from the M4 (J8/9 Maidenhead).  There is plenty of parking space on site.  It is also served by Thames Travel bus route 139 (Henley/Wallingford). 

4a        Present visitor use

Nuffield Place already attracts visitors because:

Opening is currently restricted to alternate Sundays between April and September. On more than half of these days the attraction of the site is boosted by visits from classic car owners clubs, such as MG, Rover and Morris.

4b        Present educational use

 Nuffield Place already hosts up to about 10 educational visits by school groups every year, and this could be greatly extended when access limits set by the present owners are removed.  The modern extensions created by Nuffield College have been adapted to provide a teaching room, and a substantial set of interpretation displays on the lives of Lord and Lady Morris, the history of Morris Motors, and some of the more significant display items such as the Iron Lung.  A large handling collection of artifacts from the 1930s to 1950s is available for use in the education room.

The house and its contents are used to support history teaching at Key stage 1 and 2.  They illustrate simple concepts of change in the way people's homes were furnished and equipped in comparison to today.

The house is an ideal resource for studying the changing way of life of different social groups since 1930. The associations, memorabilia, photographs and documents make it the perfect and atmospheric location to study the pivotal role of Morris Motors in the development of land transport.   The house, contents and grounds, also provide a valuable resource to enhance work in other areas of the curriculum including Design Technology, English, Geography and Science. 

4c        Future public benefit opportunities

When the present owner-imposed restrictions on opening are removed, there is scope for a considerable structured increase in visitor numbers. Although good interpretational displays are already present, there is the opportunity for renovating and expanding them, and adding modern audio-visual media to the existing static displays.  Likewise, more could be made of the domestic setting, particularly a restoration of the kitchen area, and of the garden and grounds.

The space and existing collections at Nuffield Place offer an exciting opportunity for the eventual development of a more formal museum-type display on the British Motor Industry, with Lord Nuffield’s role centre stage. The Fox Talbot Museum at Lacock Abbey affords an excellent model.   It would also be extremely timely and appropriate to couple this with a nationally unique examination of the sustainability of modern transport, and the options that may become available in the future as fossil hydrocarbons become unaffordable.   One could pose the question as to what a young William Morris coming to manhood in 2010 would see as his innovation opportunity in transport for the masses.  

It is certain that agency and charitable funds could be obtained separately in the future to create extended interpretation.  It is also possible that one or more classic car clubs, known to be looking for a site for a small permanent collection, could be invited to join the project, creating a nationally significant public attraction.

5.         Financial need

The property has been valued at £2.75m on the open market.  The intrinsic value of the contents is low in comparison.  

The Friends of Nuffield Place are already investigating fundraising options, assuming that a full scale national campaign will be needed, with the usual mix of large corporate and smaller private donations, and the energetic support of appropriate celebrities and the media.

BMW are now the owners of Lord Nuffield’s Cowley motor works where they make the extremely profitable new Mini range.  BMW are already aware of the significance of Nuffield Place , and have asked to use it for management away-day meetings.  It is thought likely that BMW would see a business benefit in supporting this project.

The educational access provisions and the significance of the house and its contents could qualify for a substantial investment by the Heritage Lottery Fund, although it is unlikely that this could be applied to the endowment. It is acknowledged that an application to the HLF would take two or more years to resolve.   Third party matched funding could be sought from local authority grants, and from the Landfill Tax Credit Scheme (LTCS)

A number of charitable trusts have been identified that may be in a position to contribute to both purchase and endowment funds for such a significant property, considering its educational and public access opportunities.  Some of these trusts also have a stated interest in this part of the country.

Lord Nuffield is an icon for a many motor vehicle enthusiasts, both individuals and specialist clubs.  This interest is not limited to the UK , but extends through America and other parts of the English speaking world.  Motor enthusiasts are likely to be a very significant source of donations, and a large network for wider fund-raising activities.

The Rover P6C Club meeting at Nuffield Place in 2007

 Fundraising appeals directed at the general public could address several areas of interest.  The house and its time-capsule contents will appeal to many, as will its association with manufacturing success, a benevolent employer and a philanthropist.  The colossal scope and extent of Nuffield’s benevolence should enable the engagement of several prominent personalities, representing motoring interests, medical research and delivery, the armed services and historic buildings and gardens.

6          The Friends of Nuffield Place : Registered Charity 298552

The Friends of Nuffield Place (FNP) was set up in November 1987 with the object “to work for the preservation of Nuffield Place , including the contents and possessions of Lord and Lady Nuffield”.  Its powers include providing public access, education, research, raising funds and development of the facilities.

The FNP have successfully managed the day to day maintenance of the house and garden, and all public and educational access to the property.  Its board and staff have an unparalleled knowledge of the house and its contents, and how to present them effectively to visitors.  They run the website   www.nuffield-place.com

The 11 Trustees of the charity include a very broad range of skills and experience, from business management, a museum director, publicist, historian and representatives of car enthusiast groups. Board members are extremely well networked at a local level.  In addition the board has received many offers of help from individuals influential at regional and national levels, and advisors with detailed local planning knowledge and considerable fundraising experience, including major HLF and LTCS grants. 

For further information please contact

Joanna Gamester, Nuffield Place , Huntercombe, Henley-on-Thames , RG9 5RY

Dr Stephen Head   shead@stephenmhead.com  tel 07923 473907