The Schröder family of Englefield Green
The Schröders who lived at the Manor House at Dell Park, Englefield Green, were an elite family originally from Hamburg, now part of Germany. They were granted the right to the continued use of the honorific ‘Baron’ and ‘Baroness’ while residing in Great Britain as a result of this. The first of the Schröder dynasty to reside in Englefield Green was Baron John Henry William Schröder, who was born in 1825.
He settled in England in 1864 and continued to run his family’s bank. This firm still exists as ‘Schroder’s PLC’ and now functions as an asset management company.
The main manor house seems to predate the Schröder family, as there is a record of an Archibald Campbell Douglas Hawkesley residing there in 1863. Unfortunately, Hawkesley ended up before the Court of Bankruptcy in 1863 after incurring serious debt. He sold his house to pay his debts, possibly to the Schröders.
Baron John Henry William Schröder later bought more land from the Castle Hill Estate and constructed a tree lined ‘allee’ between Dell House and neighbouring Heath Lodge, purchased by his nephew Bruno Schröder in 1899. The two estates were combined after the death of John Henry William, without children, in 1910. Baron Bruno Schröder rebuilt and enlarged Heath Lodge but the First World War war delayed him taking occupancy which led to an MP asking in Parliament in June 1915: “why Heath Lodge, Englefield, a new house recently completed, belonging to Baron von Schröder, which has accommodation for at least 120 beds, and is equipped with ten bathrooms, should not be used for this purpose [as a military hospital], seeing that the baron is living at a large house close by….”
It was not until the Second World War that the house, under its new name of Dell Park, was in fact used as a Red Cross military hospital from 1942-45.
Baron Bruno’s daughter, Marga Schröder, resided at ‘The Dell’ estate until her death in 1977. Her sister, Helene Dorothee Eveline Emma Schröder also lived locally for her entire life. She was involved in many local societies, including the Egham-by Runnymede Historical Society.
The house was sold in 1980 to a religious group, Subud, for use as an international and conference centre, plus hotel, renamed Anugraha..
Since then it has changed hands several times, undergoing remodelling into the Savill Park, the Savill Court Hotel and most recently the Fairmont Windsor Park which opened in summer 2021.
Katie Smith and Margaret Stewart
References
‘Baroness H.D.E.E. Schroder’, Staines and Ashford News, 10th April 1986,p.24,< https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002452/19860410/165/0026> [accessed 15th March 2021].
‘Bruno Schroder’, 1901 Census, Ancestry, <https://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi bin/sse.dll?db=uki1901&indiv=try&h=228677> [accessed 21st March 2021].
‘EPW053907 ENGLAND (1937). Dell Park and garden, Englefield Green, 1937’,Britain From Above,< https://britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EPW053907> [accessed 10th March 2021].
‘Savill Court Hotel- A Brief History’, Englefield Green Village Residents Association, < https://www.englefieldgreen.org.uk/scr/histlist.php?locid=&bid=69> [accessed 21st March 2021].
‘Schröder, Baroness Marga Marie Hilda and Baroness Heinrich Schröder, née Baroness Dorothée Eveline Emma Schröder’, 1908, Philip de László, The De Laszlo Archive Trust,< https://www.delaszlocatalogueraisonne.com/catalogue/highlights> [accessed 21st March 2021].