Clevedon Hall – a glimpse into its past

This majestic mansion was built in 1853 as a family home for Conrad William Finzel, a German-born businessman.

Conrad was born in 1793, to a farming family in a small village near Frankfurt. At that time Napoleon was occupying large parts of Europe in an attempt to create an empire under French rule. Like many of his countrymen Conrad detested the idea and fled to England to escape conscription.

He found work in a sugar refinery and quickly became skilled, moving from London to Bristol, which was then a major centre for the sugar trade. In 1836 he set up his own refinery in Counterslip, Bath Street, Bristol, in partnership with a local grocer. He used his own patented processes and became a wealthy man of great philanthropy.

A grand mansion

Conrad called his mansion Frankfurt Hall, after the town near his birthplace. It was designed by Foster and Wood, a firm of Bristol architects who later designed other city landmarks including the Grammar School Hall, the conversion of the White Lion and White Hart into the Grand Hotel and Arley Chapel.

It is constructed in Mendip and other local stones with some impressive carvings and pierced-stone ballustrading. It has Dutch gables, a very large orangery and conservatory. It also has a 19th Century French tower. When you visit, make sure you look up to this tower with its large windows. It is rumoured that Conrad used to watch from there for traders sailing up the Bristol Channel. It’s likely he used his boat to meet them in the waters and trade with them before they reached his competitors in Bristol!

The grounds are luscious and verdant, originally laid out by Messrs Garraway and Co of Bristol. There are many different varieties of shrubs and trees and some (often playful) wildlife, including red deer, pheasants, foxes, squirrels and ducks. There’s also a resident heron which spends much of its time gazing into the lake hoping to catch lunch.

Closer to the mansion you’ll see a terracotta statue of Hebe, Greek cup-bearer to the gods, which is said to have come from the Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace in 1851.

Inside, the mansion is equally impressive. Many original features survive, including a great number of Victorian fireplaces, carved and panelled oak and a grand staircase leading to a gallery which runs right around the Great Hall. Meanwhile, the Grand Library’s high ceilings and oak pillars give it a rather majestic feel. See if you can detect the entrance to the secret underground vault…

Conrad only enjoyed his beautiful estate for six years as he died in 1859, aged 66. His widow continued to live at the Hall before it eventually passed to their son, also called Conrad. In 1876 Conrad Jnr’s sugar business partnership failed, and he was forced to sell Frankfurt Hall.

Charles Hill, who owned the Albion Shipyard in Bristol, bought the Hall in 1877 as a family home, and promptly changed its name to Clevedon Hall.

A new chapter for Clevedon Hall

You can imagine the hustle and bustle of family life in Clevedon Hall. The 1881 census shows the occupants as Charles Hill, his wife Elizabeth, their two sons and two daughters, and a staff of nine. They are reputed to have held many fine functions and balls in the mansion.

Charles died in 1902 and Clevedon Hall remained occupied for some years. There are brief references in local periodicals to a number of people who lived temporarily in the Hall but it was not until about 1918 that the next significant period in its history began.

It was by then in the ownership of the Reverend Harold Nelson Burden and his wife Katherine. In 1919 Katherine died and the Reverend married Rosa Gladys Williams. Rosa took a very keen interest in mental health and its research, and was the first superintendent of Stoke Park Colony, a hospital for patients with mental illness. After her husband died in 1930 Rosa founded the Burden Neuropathic Institute – famous in Bristol’s medical history – and was later made a dame.

The history books are sketchy for a period but it appears that Rosa Burden bequeathed the mansion to the Burden Institute, in whose ownership it remained until 1945. We believe that during World War II parts of the mansion were used by Bristol Aeroplane Company (BAC) and that children were evacuated here from Bristol schools.

St Brandon’s School

By the end of the war The Burden Institute no longer required Clevedon Hall. A trustee of the Institute, the Bishop of Bristol, was also Chair of the Governors of St Brandon’s Clergy Daughters School for Girls, and it was to the school that the mansion passed into ownership in August 1945.

The school had originally been founded as the Clergy Daughters School in 1830 by another Reverend – Rev Holmes, minister of Christ Church in Gloucester, and a Miss Abraham. The aim of the school was to provide an appropriate and sound education for daughters of Anglican clergymen, who were often otherwise too poor to educate their female offspring.

Renamed after St Brandon’s Hill in Bristol, one of its former locations, the school remained at Clevedon Hall until 1991. During this time many new features were added or adapted around Clevedon Hall Estate, including a domestic science room, laboratories, a swimming pool, sports facilities and a music block. By late 1990 the school faced severe financial difficulties, however, and although several efforts were made to save it, the senior school closed in July 1991. A co-educational junior school was established in the lower grounds of the estate the following year.

Back in business

It was not long before Clevedon Hall and its estate were put to good use, however. A consortium led by the Telecom Potential Group purchased the main house, grounds and buildings. Many projects were undertaken to restore parts of the buildings and grounds, including the restoration of the lake with its three islands. Clevedon Hall and several of the estate buildings became home to what later grew into a highly successful customer communications business, and the largest employer in Clevedon.

2010: a brand new era

In February 2010 the magnificent Clevedon Hall was, for the first time in its 150-year history, opened for private events. Now it will be enjoyed by businesses for conferences and seminars and its upper floors as supported office accommodation. It has also been opened up to private parties for weddings and celebrations, and is considered among the top venues in the south west region.

We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.