Sir Fortescue Flannery
Born in Liverpool in 1851 he studied at the Liverpool School of Science and later founded the Messrs Flannery, Baggallay and Johnson, Ltd, probably the largest consulting engineering firm of its time.
He was knighted in 1899 and created a baronet in 1904. In the General Election of 1895 he became Conservative and Unionist MP for the Shipley Division of Yorkshire. He probably saw Wethersfield Manor as a suitable base from which to contest the Maldon Division, which he won in 1910. Speak to villagers today and he comes over as an autocrat and not too free with his money when it came to maintaining the many tenanted properties on the Manor estate. But he did fight for old age pensions, safety of industrial workers and welfare of the police force during his time in Parliament so perhaps his heart was in the right place.
In reporting Lady Flannery’s death in 1936 the Essex Weekly News referred to “her sweet sympathy, charitable acts and unfailing courtesy which won her the affectionate regard of everyone. To the poor people of Wethersfield she was ‘ Our gracious lady’. They will miss her visits to their humble dwellings and her Ladyship’s generosity more than can be expressed, but kindness and helping those around her were her nature.” Lady Flannery was passionately fond of flowers and gave quantities away to the sick and people she visited. She supported many women’s organisations and the church and chapel indiscriminately.
SIR Fortescue lived the squire’s life to the full. The courtyard stables were well populated and the hunt met in the Manor grounds. Shoots were held regularly and the gamekeeper and his assistant reared pheasants under broody hens.
When he saw a rather charming Lodge gate to someone else’s estate on his travels Sir Fortescue came home and immediately ordered
Lady Flannery
The garage had one of the first motor cars, a dark green Bentall, made at Maldon, with its doors adorned with Sir Fortescue’s crest of a cat standing under a tree. Two Armstrong Siddeleys came later and a model of the Scottish wild-cat which occupied a glass case in the Manor hall was made to go on a car bonnet. It was too heavy and broke the radiator so a less solid model was contrived. Cats were a love of Lady Flannery too and she took Tim and Tabitha, her two grey Persians with her when she visited the Flannery’s London home. But life was not without its sorrows for the Flannerys...
Dining Room at the Manor
The South Lodge
Sir Fortescue during an election
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