Chancing the odds with Benjamin Wood, MP for Southwark and resident at Eltham Lodge

Eltham Lodge, 1909

I am back in Eltham Lodge that fine 17th century mansion just a little along from Court Yard.

It is a place I am increasingly drawn to and especially as I uncover more about Benjamin and Anna Wood who moved there in 1838, and set about restoring some of its features.

The house was set in 144 acres which included the 48 acres of Front or North Park, the 74 acres of South Park along with three large ponds, “pleasure gardens, assorted out buildings, smaller gardens and part of the Park Icehouse.”*

Their particular contribution was to uncover the 17th century tapestries which had suffered from the change of taste sometime perhaps in the early 19th century.

Tapestries in the house, 1909

These they had discovered on their first visit to the property hidden behind patterned wall paper in the billiard room and once uncovered were to remain a feature of the house throughout the rest of their occupancy.

So much so that “the aged Mrs Wood during the closing years of her life”, would sit in the room with the old tapestries “call to attention them, long, long after she herself had ceased to be able to see them.”**

And she long out lived her husband who had died in 1845 leaving her to remain in the house until her own death in 1889.

Now my interest in Benjamin and Anna is not only because of their love for Eltham Lodge but because along the way I discovered Mr Wood was an MP and a man who had challenged the odds by working his way up from humble beginnings.  His father was a serge maker and Mr Wood’s once remarked “that he had left Tiverton [Devon] a poor boy, and that he owed all his wealth to the industry which he learnt from the good example set by his parents who were poor but honest people.”***

And his business career seems to bear this out, having for many years “followed the business of a hop-merchant, and by that occupation managed a large property, [was also a large shareholder in many companies, and was a very magnificent contributor to all charitable institutions.”****

So I doubt that we should be surprised that he left £80,000 to his wife, along with a £1,000 to his brother, two nephews and Gordon Whitbread a further £100 in annuities to one of his sisters and legacies and bequests to other family members.

He was then a man of property and as such was involved in the politics of Southwark where he had lived since 1810, first as a commissioner of police and then as an MP.

The carved staircase, 1909

He was a radical although some of his political opponents as well as the electorate questioned the degree of his commitment to change.

Now at present I have just the reports of the 1840 by election which are as you might expect pretty partisan.

Still it is a start and with a bit more digging I suspect there will be plenty more about Benjamin’s politics but for the present I shall just record that he was successful and in his first year attended 188 of the 256 divisions which ranked him in the top eight.

Next; the Southwark election of 1840 and a closer look at Mrs Wood.







Pictures; Eltham Lodge, 1909,   from The story of Royal Eltham, R.R.C. Gregory, 1909 and published on The story of Royal Eltham, by Roy Ayers, http://www.gregory.elthamhistory.org.uk/bookpages/i001.htm

*Tithe Schedule for Eltham, 1839
**R.R.C. Gregory, the Story of Royal Eltham, 1909

***The Observer, Sept 21 1845, courtesy of Trevena

****The Observer, Aug 17th 1845, courtesy of Trevena