Preface

Whenever I think of Lathom . . . I am standing by a stone wall in that sunny breeze-swept aspect that falls away to the North, from the site of Lathom House, in the late afternoon of a summer’s day in 1985 watching the deer grazing idly in the dappled light of the former kitchen garden.

My family has wandered away and I turn to stare at the stark black and grey remains of the house. It could be a scene from a Gothic nightmare but it intrigues rather than frightens. What family inhabited such a place? Why is it now a gaunt and empty shell? Where have the people that inhabited it gone?

I move amongst the rubble looking out between the piles of masonry and timber across sweeping parkland, ancient chapel and scattered dwellings, Ellerbrook Valley, the town of Burscough, and the marshlands of Martin Mere and Hoscar Moss. From this moment I am hooked. I want to know more.

Later my father-in-law, who worked in Lathom Park in the 1980s, talks about the time he looked after the deer there amongst the remains of the Lathom House of Thomas Bootle and the Bootle-Wilbrahams and what happened in the Park during his time there.

I read as much as I can about the history of Lathom but it consists largely of romanticised views of the Civil War siege of the first Lathom House defended so boldly by the wife of the Earl of Derby, Charlotte de la Trémoille.

Then a series of discoveries combine with my long-held fascination for the playwright, composer, actor, wit and 1920s icon, Noël Coward . . . four discoveries that make me realise that there is something here that simply has to be researched and written.

Firstly a memory, recounted to my family, of a small child who stood in wonder in Blythe Lane in the early 1920s. She skipped and played opposite Blythe Hall gates and saw the 3rd Earl of Lathom, Ivor Novello and Noel Coward bouncing on pogo sticks down the lane and into the Hall leaving trails of sweet perfume in their wake. Her mother, she said, made her come indoors immediately!

Then I read Ernest Rosbottom’s book Burscough - The Story of an Agricultural Village. Thirdly I find a photocopy of an out-of-print booklet A Short History Of Lathom and finally I meet local historian Pam Nanson and gardener and florist John Hayton.

The connection between the Lancashire peer and my personal literary hero Noël Coward, is made and the quest begins. . . click on the tabs above for more.

In Rosbottom I learn about the extensive 1920’s development of Blythe Hall - the Dower house to Lathom House - where the 3rd Earl lived after his ancestral home had been all but demolished. It is here I get the first hint of the excitement that must have been created by the Earl’s lavish spending and the parties of well-known theatrical guests. In A Short History Of Lathom the Coward connection is explored and recalled with a programme from the January shows put on by the 3rd Earl with his theatre friends. Pam Nanson selflessly shares the resources she gathered together for an event held in the previous year to mark the setting up of The Lathom Park Trust and John Hayton opens a treasure chest of experience and knowledge of Lathom House and its gardens.

It is clear that something eccentric and thoroughly engrossing had taken place at Lathom in those years between the wars.

It is the stuff of modern legend - 'The Bright Young Things' from The Ivy in London –'‘camping it up' in West Lancashire. Weekend parties packed with theatrical stars and celebrities; cocktail hours amongst the pillars of a Romano-Greek swimming pool; fairylands of light from glass balusters sparkling across an entrance hall heavy with the smell of expensive perfume seeping from heated metal spoons held by welcoming servants; hallways and bedrooms full of vases of tall gladioli in front of long, lit, mirrors. London’s glitterati has found a bucolic haven!

So what became a quest to discover the truth about the 3rd Earl, his family and friends provides a first and therefore unique published view of this often misunderstood and much maligned figure. He was the last peer of an earldom that in its 50 years of life went from the heights of influence, wealth and power to total oblivion. The wider story of his ancestral family and especially his grandfather merit much closer attention in other volumes. So for my purpose I include only as much of his ancestral past as is needed to understand the life of the 3rd Earl. Although the three Earls had very different ideals, passions and aspirations their families shared a love of music and theatre and a strong - occasionally eccentric - sense of style and humour.

The story of the aristocracy’s relationship with the English theatre also runs here. At every generation it plays an essential part in the lives of the family. The grand private theatricals organised by Alice, Lady Skelmersdale wife of the 1st Earl, viewed both privately in the drawing rooms of stately homes and publicly in local halls when respectful journalists gave grand reviews in the local press. Wilma, Countess of Lathom, wife of the 2nd Earl relished the fancy dress dinners and bolder theatricals at the heart of their country weekends where guests enjoyed the shooting and tours of the gardens and pleasure grounds. The 3rd Earl witnessed much of this theatrical pageant and became stage-struck at an early age. His obsessive passion for the theatre became his estate’s eventual undoing.

The Earldom lived in a time of dramatic changes with growing pressure for social emancipation and universal franchise, a world where the British Empire and the aristocracy’s unshakeable institutions began to rattle and unravel.

The careers of the 3rd Earl and Noel Coward run through the story and illustrate the stark irony of contrasting fortunes.

However much he tried the 3rd Earl, rich in background, wealth and influence, failed to find acclaim in the one area where he desperately wanted success, as a playwright. In 1930 with all his wealth spent, he died tragically young of tuberculosis.

Coward started life in genteel poverty and established himself through self-invention, drive and not least, talent, to become the most successful playwright of that vibrant period between the wars. In 1930 he was judged to be the wealthiest playwright in the world.

Previously unpublished correspondence sheds light on the relationship between members of the families of the Lords Skelmersdale/Lathom and Radnor and those of the Royal families of Victoria, her son Edward VII and her grandson George V. We discover the importance and significance of the 1st Earl of Lathom’s role as Lord-in-Waiting and Lord Chamberlain to the Queen at the height of her popularity as a monarch during the age of her Golden and Diamond Jubilees and the power, wealth and influence of the Earl and his family in that Jubilee year of 1897 that ended so tragically with his wife’s violent death and his own almost a year to the day later.

The 3rd Earl’s own correspondence to those from the dazzling and decadent world of 1920’s glitterati reveals the 3rd Earl's salvation from the deadly trenches of the 1st World War to indulge in the brittle extravagances of the a post war period when nations were in denial and the rich flourished as Europe struggled. He defines the Bright Young Things and recklessly spends his family fortune on his passion for the theatre and its rising stars.

To many this is a story with a tragic ending, of a family first led by a widely respected and influential aristocrat, the 1st Earl of Lathom who was succeeded by the short-lived 2nd Earl and finally by the spendthrift 3rd Earl who died a bankrupt at the age of 34. This book tells the story of that journey how the different personalities fashioned the activities of the Lathom household and led to the demise of the estate and the title.

It tells as much as is known about Ned, a sensitive and intelligent man with a flair for design and a passion for theatre. He befriended most of the glitterati of the day and introduced a generation of hopefuls and rising stars to each other at numerous parties in London and Lancashire. His indulgences helped create the iconic world of the twenties flappers and shaped the world of post-Edwardian theatre when the dominance of the safe, staid and stagey theatre families was replaced with the risky vitality of American influenced rapid-paced drama.