Watnall Hall, Upstairs and Downstairs – Some of the servant’s tales…

Mr. Fred Justice with the first car he drove

The Rolleston’s chauffeur, Mr. Fred Justice, was born in 1880 and had been driving cars since 1906, at which date he obtained a 5/- driving licence from the Shire Hall, Bedford, and after a few lessons started his duties for a Mr. Howard Spensley of Westoning Manor. Motoring was in its infancy in those days and Mr. Spensley had bought a second-hand 1903 8.11 h.p. chain-drive Panhard le Vassia from a London owner.

Mr. Justice with the Rolleston’s Sunbeam car

At the outbreak of the 1914-18 war Mr. Spensley laid up the car and in the early part of the following year Mr. Justice volunteered for the Army. He was drafted to a motor transport section, and his four and a half years' service included six months with the Occupation Forces in Germany. After demobilisation he became chauffeur to Sir Lancelot Rolleston at Watnall Hall, and later to Lady Maud for the rest of his career, living in a house, which still exists, behind Chain Cottages, close to back drive of the Hall. The Rolleston's Sunbeam car he drove became a well-known sight in the village and the area around. Mr. Justice's duties were many and varied. In addition to chauffeuring, he was also expected to row Sir Lancelot out to his yacht on the Trent, a duty which Mr. Justice hated (although he never said so), as he was unable to swim.

Mr. Justice rowing Sir Lancelot
on the Trent.

During WW2 petrol was almost impossible to obtain, so Mr. Justice looked after Sir Lancelot's bees (another job he didn't like) until 1945, then drove again until his retirement in 1948. He died in May 1955 aged 75, leaving two daughters and six grandchildren. His wife had died the year before.

Sir Lancelot Rolleston en route
for a County Council meeting

Another servant at the Hall was Mrs. Leaper, who was interviewed in her old age in May 1980 at 9, Cloverlands, Watnall. Before her marriage she was Emma Smith, born at Owthorpe in 1893. Her father was a farm labourer and her mother was in service, so it was natural, one supposes, that she was inclined in that direction. A sickly child, she was very anaemic and spent some time in a sanatorium. She and her mother came to Watnall, perhaps on the death of her father. She lived in a cottage with her mother and got a job as a light gardener two or three days a week at Watnall Hall. 

About the time of the Great War, her luck changed when the butler "got into trouble with a parlour maid" and they were sacked so Emma Smith applied for the job as joint butler and house parlour-maid and got it. She trained for a month before starting her new duties, but it surely was unusual for outside staff to become inside staff, and with such an important job too. One of her duties was to go to the Bee House and watch it while Sir Lancelot had his lunch. She also said that the hedges on the cock-fighting pit were as high as a room, but not used in her day. They were trimmed down to a more normal level after 1945. She remembered well the shoots and meeting of hounds at the Hall. It was her job at shooting parties to lay the food out for the gentry and the chauffeur, Mr. Fred Justice laid out the food for the beaters - only sandwiches were provided for them. 

Rev. Robert Holden of
Nuthall Temple

The cook was Mrs. Hesp, who lived to be 93. Mrs. Leaper also remembered that beef was given to the old people of Watnall at Christmas. Mr. Holden, the squire of Nuthall Temple, came to visit the Rollestons every Sunday afternoon with two big brown dogs. She, in turn, became a friend of Miss Shorthose, the Housekeeper at the Temple, and took tea with her. She found she wasn't allowed to speak to the lower maids at the Temple and was reprimanded for so doing. She was married at the age of 40, on July 15th, 1933, to Ernest Leaper. They had the reception at Watnall Hall, and Lady Maud supplied the wedding dress. Ham was served as part of the wedding breakfast - two slices to each guest. 

She remained at the hall after her marriage and served at least until the end of WW2 when the RAF used Watnall Hall and the grounds as area operations and air traffic control HQ. A large staff of female WAAFs were based at the hall and worked on the large plotting tables familiar from WW2 films to scramble fighter planes. Sir Lancelot died in 1941 and Lady Maud, now in her 80s, kept a much reduced staff and lived in a small section of the hall with the WAAFs occupying the rest. Mrs. Leaper remembers that the young Pilot Officers used to come to the hall from RAF Hucknall for parties with the WAAFs. I'm sure Lady Maud kept a close eye on them! 

When she retired, Mrs Leaper had progressed all the way through the ranks to become the butler at the hall. Quite unusual for a woman. She died in the early 1970s and is buried in Kimberley cemetery.

Source : Watnall Hall and the Rolleston Family 2000 RA Horton

Pics: Mr. Fred Justice with the first car he drove; Mr. Justice with the Rolleston’s Sunbeam car; Sir Lancelot Rolleston en route for a County Council meeting; Mr. Justice rowing Sir Lancelot on the Trent.