INSTITUTE - Key Persons

Lord Rothschild had previously, in 1878, purchased from Mrs. Elizabeth Ayres her farm, comprising the farmhouse and a cottage fronting on the High Street, with farmyard and outbuildings accessed by a covered way that still exists, with its guard stones either side to protect the walls of the adjacent buildings from damage by wagon wheels. Lord Rothschild, decided to demolish the farm cottage and replace it with both the present Institute building and a new adjacent cottage. It is unclear what part the cottage played in the first decade of the Institute's existence, but in 1902 the Trustees were able to lease it from the Rothschilds for a nominal rent as the Caretaker's Residence and then were able to buy it outright in 1928, when the Rothschilds sold the farm back to the Ayres family and the cottage to the Institute's Trustees, subject to its being held on suitable Trusts in connection with the Institute.