1901 census: Living at the following address 34 Castle Bar Rd Earling Middlesex were Thomas 66yrs, still working at Royal Court of Justice London, Matilda Jane aged 64yrs, Thomas's cousin Frederick Wallace Ford a solicitor's clerk,  now been with the family 15yrs (born Horsley Gls) and Caroline Ann Isaac a 19yr old neice is employed as a ladies companion domestic (born Bristol Somerset).

The Royal Courts of Justice is the building in London which houses the Court of Appeal of England and Wales and the High Court of Justice of England and Wales.

Thomas Hort worked here from 1861.

Baptism certificate of Thomas Hort 1834

5. SARAH Alice Hort (1) was baptised on the 28^th of July 1836 and died as a year-old infant on the 31st August 1837 Great Badminton, and was buried an Anglican at St Michael’s.

6. Sarah Alice Hort (2nd) was baptised on the 29^th of May 1839 at Hawkesbury Gloucestershire; she was obviously named after her deceased younger sister. It was very common when a couple lost a child that they would give another child the same name.

!881 UK Census: Sarah was now 41yrs old  living with her father John, still living at Ragged Castle. see census photo below. Sarah lived to be 74yrs dying at Great Badminton and buried at St Michael's.

7. William Edmund Hort was born about 1845 at Hawkesbury Upton Gloucestershire..

Married: William married Sophia Ann  ? a school mistress, born c.1850 Shefflelis High Green Yorkshire .

1851 census: William aged 4 living with his parents and siblings Thomas, Sarah & Ann.

1881 census: William aged 36yrs occupation Waiter (Domestic Servant), Sophia 31yrs School mistress, children Minnie Sophia 6yrs, Walter John 4yrs & Henry Joseph 1yr. Place of residence Theddingworth Leicestershire.

1891 census: William was now a Coal Agent aged 46yrs living with his wife Sophia at the school house at Hinton in the Hedges Nth Hampshire. On the census night Sophia is noted as away visiting at the "Duke of Cumberlands Head' Inn The inn keeper was John Keen and his wife Susan and family Edward J., Sarah, William & Ellen.

At home with William on census night were his five sons,  Walter John now a clerk to his father aged 14yrs, and Henry, George, Arthur, Francis,& Charles.

Death of Sophia: Sophia was only 47yrs old when she died at Derby in March 1897

1901 census: William was now a widow and employed as a Photo Canvasser. He was living as a boarder at the home of George Henry Barnett a painter and his wife Sarah Jane and their five children; at 3A Spring Gardens, Bradshaw Street Derbyshire.

Williams sons Charles and Frank were boarding at The School of Handycrafts in Chertsey Surry in 1901, Frank is noted as a pupil Handsewn - Bootmaker and Charles as a pupil. Son Arthur was now 17yrs and a servant/driver working for Mrs Mary Richardson a widowed farmer and her four daughters. This farm was located at Alleshew, St Edmund, Markeaton Road The Hollies in Derbyshire. Son Walter J. now 24yrs was working at the Windsor Hotel in London Road St Peter Derbyshire as Hotel Boots Domestic Servant..

Children:

1. Minnie Sophia Hort b.c.1875 Brookland Kent d. Kirky in Ashfield, Notts abt 1951 aged c.80yrs. Minnie married  GEORGE DAVID DAVIES

Family:

Son ? Davies b. Derby in 1905 

2. Walter John Hort b.c.1877 Hunstanworth Durham

3. Henry Joseph Hort b.c. 1880 Theddingworth Leicester

4. George Alfred Hort b.c. 1883 Stapleford Abbotts Essex

5. Arthur Tuos? Hort b.c. 1885 b.c. 1885 Clifton Oxfordshire

6. Frances Edmund Hort b.c. 1886 Clifton Oxfordshire d. 1973. Married Elizabeth Brooks

     [Information on Edmund and his family provided by his great grandson Jason Hort  of Walderslade kent Eng. in 2009]

Frances Edmund was living in Lee, London when his son Frank Arthur George Hort was born in 1911.

He was in the Royal Army Medical Corps throughout his military career as a trained pharmacist, masseur and medical orderly.

Posted to Bermuda during WWI, in charge of health inspection of visiting ships until 1921 when returned to UK.

Posted to India from 1927 to 1931

Tried to re-enlist in army when WWII broke out but was rejected as over age. Got in at second attempt as experience in India was

considered useful. Arrived in Singapore just before it fell to the Japanese and was captured. Marched to Burma and worked on the railway.

Survived but never wanted to talk about it. We know he was seen as the 'father' of the camp, looking after the others as best he could

from another survivor who lived in the same village as him (Dunton Green, Kent). They met by chance in POW camp.

After the war he moved to Aylesford, Kent and worked as a doorman at the paper mill there. Then went to work at Fort Halstead near

Dunton Green where research and development of atomic weapons was being done.

He retired and lived in Aylesford until his death. He was a parish councillor there. I don't remember him as he died not long after I was

born - I've heard it said that he hung on to see the next generation of Horts arrive!

    Family of Edmund Hort & Elizabeth nee Brooks

        1. Frank Arthur George Hort b.18.8.1911 d.1998. Married Johanna Gertrude Jones (b.5.2.1912 d.2008) 1937

Born in Lee, London and moved to Bermuda with parents.

Did not go with them to India - was sent to Army Cadet School in Chelmsford then Chepstow. Hated it.

Joined Kent police force in 1932 living in Dunton Green

Enlisted in Army December 1939 (Royal Engineers). Posted to 48th Division, sent to France in January 1940. Transferred to Military Police

in March 1940. Evacuated from Dunkerque by HMS Javelin May 1940. Sent to Belgium 1944 liaising with Belgian resistance Ghent/Antwerp.

Became a Captain.

Returned to Kent Police in December 1945, posted to Sevenoaks, promoted to Sergeant 7 years at Westerham. Area of responsibility

included Churchill's home at Chartwell so he was often there. Apparently there is a slice of Churchill's birthday cake somewhere in the family

but I have never seen it myself!

Moved to Canterbury as an Inspector and retired in 1963. Worked as a lecturer at University there until 1978.

                         Family of Frank Arthur G. Hort & Johanna G. nee Jones

                         1.    Marion Johan Hort m. Robert Coles, 2 children John Robert & Debra.

                         2. Geoffrey Herbert Hort m. Sheila June Wield, 2 sons Jason Richard & Justin Geoffrey.

The family originally lived in Edenbridge but moved to Larkfield shortly after 1972. Geoffrey was a policeman and now a coach driver. Sheila runs her own secretariel business. Son Jason is a Financial Controller for a Shipping Company.

        2. Marjorie Hort b.1920 d.2009. Married Alan Chambers

 

7. Charles Percy Hort b.c. 1887 Clifton Oxfordshire

1851 census William was 6yrs and a scholar, living with parents John & Ann and siblings Thomas, Sarah & Ann at Ragged Castle Badminton Gloucestershire.

1861 census William still living with parents John & Ann and sister Ann at Ragged Castle Badminton Gls.

1871 census William aged 26yrs, was employed as a Butler to George Guy & Ann Eleanor (nee Charteris) Greville the Earl of Brooke & 4th Earl & Countess of Warwick at St James Palace, St Martin in the Field, Westminster London.

1881 census William's occupation now given as a waiter, domestic servant, his wife Sophia Ann aged 31 years is a schoolmistress, their children Minnie Sophia 6years,  Walter John age 4years, and 1year old Henry Joseph,  their address at this time was Theddingworth Leicestershire.

1891 census William's  occupation now a Coal Agent, his children Walter John 14yrs clerk to his father, Henry Joseph 11yrs scholar, George Alfred 8yrs, Arthur 6yrs, Frances Edmund 5yrs, Charles Percy 4yrs. Their address is now the School House Hinton, Parish of Hinton in The Hedges, Nth Hamptonshire: Wife Sophie Ann was away at the time of the census and visiting John & Susan Keen and their four children at the "Duke of Cumberland Head Inn" Clifton Parish of Deddington Oxfordshire. William and Shopie's eldest child Minnie "Sophie' was working as a servant to Charles P Douglas a Farmer and his aunt Mary A Douglas at Chipping Warden Nth Hamptonshire. 

1901 census William Edmund now a Photo Canvasser aged 56yrs and a  widower, (Sophie having died some time in the past 10yrs). William was boarding at 3A Spring Gardens, Bradshaw Street Castle Derbyshire, with the Barnett family George Henry 32yrs, wife Sarah Jane 31yrs, and children Ethel Selina 10, George Henry 8, John Cyrus 6, Alfred 4 & William 1mth.

8. Ann Hort was the last child born to John and Ann Hort in 1850 at Hawkesbury Upton

Married: Ann was 27yrs when she married 25yr old William George Isaac at Hawkesbury Gloucestershire on 17th October 1877.

 Children:

1. Caroline Ann Isaac b.c. 1882 Bristol Somerset. In 1901 Caroline was living with her uncle and auntie Thomas & Matilda Hort at 34 Castle Bar Rd Earling Middlesex

 

History of Ragged Castle built c.1748

 

Update: Email from Jill Martin 5 April 2008:

We refer to it [Ragged Castle] in our "Hawkesbury Chronicles" (I'm one of the authors/compilers) along the lines of the following: It was built around the same time as Worcester Lodge (Badminton Park) c.1746. "According to one legend it was built from superfluous stone from the construction of Worcester Lodge; another is that it came about when the seven-mile wall around part of the Badminton estate was being discussed, and the question of whether the local quarry would yield sufficient stone. The Duke (of Beaufort) had no doubt that it would, and wagered that there would ot only be enough to build the wall but to build a castle as well".

 

English Heritage Register of buildings at risk 2007

Ragged Castle or Keeper's Lodge - Badminton Park, Hawkesbury - C (C)
Listed Grade II*, Registered Park and Garden Grade I - Poor. Vacant - Private
Folly Castle. Set on motte at end of a main drive from Badminton House. Circa 1750 by Thomas Wright of Durham. Largely hidden by trees, ruinous and dilapidated. No roof and floors collapsed. Established ivy/vegetation on walls.
Sarah Ball 0117 975 0666 South Gloucestershire (UA)
Link to English Heritage Register.

http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:QeY8O0HRIYsJ:www.english-heritage.org.uk/upload/pdf/BAR_South_West_2007.pdf+Badminton+House+Ragged+Castle&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=7&client=safari
 

Historic Parks & Gardens in South Gloucestershire

English Heritage Register Grade I.

Great Badminton and Little Badminton Conservations Areas.

Landscape park and pleasure grounds late C17 and C18: remains of extensive formal park with avenues and cross rides including work by George London and Henry Wise, Charles Bridgeman late C17 early C18. William Kent c1746. Thomas Wright c1747-50. ‘Capability’ Brown c1760s with flower gardens and pleasure grounds C19, and recently, for the Dukes of Beaufort. Includes Italianate orange garden; walled kitchen garden; numerous garden buildings; avenues, woodland walks, specimen trees, clumps.

House (LBII) 1660s-90s, 1730s-50s by Francis and William Smith of Warwick, Kent, with pavilions by James Gibbs; c1810 by Wyatville; 1838-51 and later by T H Wyatt and D Brandon. Swangrove House (LBI), a maison de plaisance, c1703 by William Killigrew of Bath; bath house, orangery, almshouse c1714, Worcester lodge (LBI) c1740 by kent; root-house (LBII*) 1747 by Wright; Castle Barn (LBII) 1748 by Wright. Ragged Castle (LBII*), cottages ornees (LNII*), castellated barn, Deer House (LBII*), 2 Gothic ‘Slait Lodges’

(LBII*) all c1750 by Wright; Church (LBI) 1785 attributed Charles Evans, probably Wright; Bath Lodge (LBII) early C19; dovecotes; numerous other listed features including estate cottages, houses and shops, farmhouses, farm buildings, ice houses, bridges, walls, gates and railings, etc.

Ruins of Ragged Castle in 2003

Photo's  compliments

of

Roy Beckett

It's sad to compare these photos of Ragged Castle to the home it was in its hay day.

Ragged Castle

Update 4/2/2007: Ragged Castle

The newspaper article below dated  Thursday December 11th 1958 was received from Al Hort who visited our ancestors home in 2005. The article gives a wonderful description of the castle and its interior which probably hadn't change from when our ancestors occupied the castle some 117yrs previously.

"Lonely little Woman in a Lamp-Lit Castle"

Links

  Samuel & Caroline Hort & Family 6th Generation