“The Nelson Stair” Case. ...So far!

by Rosemary Jewers née Brereton - Pictures by Tony Jewers, 27 May 2008.

Click on the pictures to see larger versions

Download a pdf file of this page for printing or saving - here (updated November 2008)

Index to sections of the article on this page

1. Burnham Thorpe Parsonage - Nelson's birthplace
2. Brinton Hall visit
3. Suckling connections
4. Seppings connections
5. October Update - Briningham House
6. Recap
7. November update - Merton Place - Nelson's house in Surrey
8. Nelson memorabilia at Burnham Thorpe

The Parsonage at Burnham Thorpe in Norfolk was the childhood home of Admiral Lord Nelson. In 1802 three years before his death, the house was demolished. However, the staircase in the house would have been a significant feature and was probably saved. It is quite likely that this staircase was moved and installed in another house, if so where is it now?

Below is an account of my attempts to establish the actual whereabouts of the Nelson staircase, before all the historical memories are lost forever. But as my research progressed I found that this story revealed more ups and downs and twists and turns than any staircase I have ever climbed!

While investigating this it became clear that the staircase was most likely to be in one of two significant Norfolk houses, Brinton Hall and nearby Briningham House and the owners of both properties claim to have compelling reasons to think that the Nelson staircase may be in their home.

My childhood memories of stories of the Nelson staircase were rekindled when my cousin Michael Sandford, his wife, my husband and I went to Brinton Hall, Norfolk on one of the rare ‘open days’ in April 2008.

Michael and I were keen to visit because our great great grandfather the Rev. Charles David Brereton had been born at Brinton Hall in 1790. He took Holy Orders and held the living in other parishes before eventually becoming Rector of Little Massingham in 1820.

Briningham, the other house, was built by Shovell Brereton. He was the younger brother of my great great grandfather. It was because of the close proximity of Brinton and Briningham that I used to hear my parents talking about a ‘Nelson staircase', being in one of these houses.

From that time onwards, because of Charles David Brereton’s connection with Brinton, the Breretons of Little Massingham saw Brinton Hall as a prominent former family home. Unfortunately, my sisters and I were to be the last of the Breretons to be brought up at Little Massingham.

When we arrived at Brinton Hall we were anxious to view the house where our forbears had once lived. Greeting us were the present owners Jeremy and Esme Bagnall-Oakeley who were most welcoming and keen to show us their newly restored home.

Since John and Anna Margaretta Brereton, my great great great grandparents had once occupied the house, I presented Esme with a photograph I had of two silhouette pictures of John and Anna. Written on the back of John's silhouette was 'taken July 6th 1813 aged 61 years' and on Anna Margaretta's 'taken 6th July 1813 aged 57 years'.

Standing in the large hall awaiting the start of our tour, we couldn’t help but to notice the beautiful wooden staircase. I mentioned to Esme that I had heard family stories about it.

She asked, ‘What did you hear?’

I replied, ‘I was told it was something to do with a Nelson house.’

‘That’s what friends have told me,’ Esme said.

As we climbed this lovely highly polished staircase, Esme told us that sliding down the banisters was not allowed due to their age and fragility. The first flight rose to a wide inlaid wooden landing, from here a lovely arched window overlooked the courtyard area at the rear of the house. The staircase then continued at a right angle to rise to the top spacious landing with the family bedrooms leading off.

Looking down the staircase I wondered if the stories I had been told from childhood were true, and perhaps Nelson and his brothers had slid down these very banisters.

We continued the tour of the house, entering the huge bedroom where my great great great grandmother Anna Margaretta spent hundreds of hours sewing her famous bed-hangings. When completed, they would have adorned her four poster bed. I tried to imagine where the bed would have been in relation to the fireplace and the large windows that overlooked the gardens. These very same bed-hangings are such a unique example of early 19^th Century patchwork that they are now kept at Strangers Hall in Norwich and regularly displayed for the public to admire.

Later we ventured outside into rather uncertain weather. High up on the house wall we tried to decipher some dated bricks. The dates indicated when the incumbents of the house did any major remodelling. Jeremy produced some binoculars and photographs were taken for later computer enhancing and enlarging.

We made our way to the neatly kept and well-maintained walled garden and as the rain began to fall more heavily we made a dash for the church.

Here part of the history of the Hall started to fall into place. Names and dates on plaques in the church were discussed and it occurred to me that the initials and dates we had seen on the bricks on the wall of Brinton Hall could be identified.

The date bricks had clearly shown a letter at the top of each brick. This letter indicated the family name. The initials underneath were for the first names of the married couple living at the Hall at the time, and the date was that of major reconstruction work done by them.

Michael referred to a family tree he had brought with him and said it looked as if this was indeed the case. It was an afternoon of many discoveries.

We finished our visit with afternoon tea in the magnificent dinning room and Michael and I tried to picture being entertained by our forefathers in this room.

Later that afternoon we visited my sister, who lived nearby. We talked about all the things that we had seen and discussed during our visit to Brinton Hall.

I asked her what she remembered about the staircase. Unfortunately being younger than me, she didn’t remember very much, but as we talked I began to remember more clearly what my parents had said. The staircase had been saved from Nelson’s boyhood home when it had been demolished, due to its very bad state of repair. I remembered Brinton Hall and Briningham House being mentioned at the time. Perhaps my further research would reveal something positive later.

When I returned home I emailed Esme with this remembered information. I said we could check with our cousin Wendy who had a close connection with Briningham and perhaps we could get to the bottom of the story once and for all. But as it turned out, it was not to be as simple as that.

I later telephoned Wendy and I asked her if she knew about the staircase and the connection to Nelson.

Wendy confirmed that it came from the Parsonage at Burnham Thorpe when it was demolished. She said the staircase had been put into Briningham House, because of a family connection between the Breretons and the Suckling family. She couldn’t remember the details but knew that Nelson’s mother was a Suckling. She thought that somewhere in Briningham churchyard on the Brereton memorial - which has the family crest of a muzzled bear’s head on it - there was something written about the Sucklings! This was an unexpected and fascinating twist. I emailed Esme with this news.

The mystery here is, if Wendy is correct and the staircase was put into Briningham House, the house was not built until 1838, thirty six years after the demolition! So if the staircase had been installed when Briningham House was built, it must have been stored somewhere for over three and half decades! A long time and where could it have been?

It is possible that an enterprising businessman bought the staircase as an investment and it was forgotten until Shovell Brereton decided he needed a staircase for his new home at Briningham House. If the Briningham claim is true, we will never know if the staircase was stored or if it had another home after being removed from Burnham.

On the other hand, Brinton Hall was constantly being remodelled from 1660 and Esme has said there are clear indications that the staircase at Brinton shows signs of alterations either to fit into Brinton Hall or perhaps at sometime after it had been installed.

Sometime during this flurry of phone calls and emails, I contacted Michael Sandford and asked if he could investigate the Brereton / Suckling connection. He wrote back to say that in his family trees and searches of the Internet he could not find any mention of a Brereton and Suckling connection.

However, I am speculating that it is possible that if there was a family connection, there could have been a Brereton marriage between a Suckling, or with a family associated with the Sucklings. Nelson’s mother, Catherine Suckling, was connected to many prominent Norfolk families and her grandmother was the sister of the first British Prime Minister, Robert Walpole. Through social connections, this distant Brereton relative could have communicated with other Breretons about a fine staircase being available and possibly they instigated the recycling of it.

If this was the case, maybe Shovell Brereton, being descended from the Brinton dynasty could have had access to this staircase, but this still does not solve the missing thirty six years between the demolition and the building of Briningham House.

I am still looking for a Suckling or associated family connection with the Breretons, as Michael’s family trees may tend to concentrate on a direct line or lines of Brereton family interest, rather than a wider range which could be needed for this particular possibility.

Esme wrote in an email after trying to find a Suckling reference...

‘I have been to the churchyard at Briningham but had no luck finding names on the huge triangular monolithic monument with a bear’s head covered in straps. However, at some point in time 2 gravestones have been removed from Brinton and propped up against the monument. One is to Cicely Cooke - heiress of Brinton (1660-1752) She died aged 92. The other was to John Brereton aged 85, her husband; originally from Shotesham. I couldn’t read the date’.

She also checked the burial and baptism records from 1813. Esme’s email continued…

‘Tomorrow I am going to see the Briningham staircase for myself! I will hopefully be allowed to get some pictures. At the moment there is no clear indication of the true provenance of the Nelson staircase but its great fun trying to find out!’

Later I received more news. - Another twist! - Another email to Esme…

‘Since I wrote to you, my brother-in-law visited Briningham. He found on the Briningham bear memorial just two words tucked away somewhere on one side. Brereton and Seppings. Not Suckling!’

As I had not come across the name Seppings before, I sent a further email to Michael Sandford for a Seppings connection.

Michael sent copies of information of a Seppings and Brereton marriage and family tree, but it left me with even more puzzlement. Why would the name Seppings, be inscribed on the Brereton memorial at Briningham and what, if anything had it to do with the staircase?

Again I turned to the Internet to see if I could find a Seppings / Nelson reference and all I could find was the following that I forwarded to Michael.

“SIR ROBERT SEPPINGS (1767-1840), English naval architect, was born at Fakenham, Norfolk, in 1767, and in 1782 was apprenticed in Plymouth dockyard. He received a knighthood in 1819, was appointed surveyor of the navy in 1813, and held that office till his retirement in 1832. He died at Taunton on the 25th of September 1840.”

Michael replied…

‘Seppings did indeed marry Mary Brereton but we know very little about him - I believe his first name was Thomas. The marriage was at Brinton 17 September 1801. They had no children. I suppose Robert could have been an older brother or an Uncle. It would be interesting if we can make a connection, but a Seppings family tree has so far eluded me.’

Michael also did a very quick google search for a Suckling and a Colwell name - another connection with the Breretons - without success. At the same time he was also busy doing his own investigations into other details and history of Brinton Hall.

I decided to contact numerous members of my family but unfortunately I was not able to find anyone else apart from Wendy who knew the story.

In one of my Internet searches I had come across a picture of the original Parsonage at Burnham Thorpe. I sent that link to Esme.

I also discovered that Esme had received a copy of a book about the Brinton estate that had been researched and written by David and Sylvia Yates, but there was no mention of the staircase or any useful information for my research.

On the 30th April 2008 Esme wrote…

‘Well, this week has been a lot of fun with four of us visiting each other’s houses in quick succession!’

‘We had to have witnesses or adjudicators in case we came to blows! Julia and I ride out together and she was brought up at Briningham... She grew up with the story of the Staircase, as did Jeremy’s mother, who had a print of the Rectory at Burnham Thorpe hanging in the study! We had hung our picture of Burnham Thorpe Rectory in our bathroom with a group of some other hand - tinted prints without realising the significance of the picture.’

‘The staircase at Briningham is totally different. I haven’t taken any photos as they have had soot damage and the chandelier was wrapped up which made it very dark. It has an extra turn and flight, as the house is taller. Both upstairs and down, the height from floor to ceiling is much greater. The banisters are a barley twist design and the decoration at the side you see from the ground is much more complicated, The treads and half landings are plain boards. At some time the whole staircase has been blackened or stained which makes it look both dull and dark.’

With this information, I again looked at a print of Nelson’s childhood home. The house was built L shaped and did not look a particularly tall building. The picture does indicate a third storey though, because of a small attic window at the gable end. This could have been servants' quaters and access to these would have been by small stairs rather than the main staircase.

I heard more news from Esme on the 2nd of May. She had asked their architect Tom Nash to look at both staircases. When he phoned he told Esme that if these staircases were in good condition they would be a valuable items,and worth as much as a horse or a wife! He did not indicate which took priority! But it might have something to do with the age and strength of the horse... or the age and beauty of the wife! He also happened to mention that he was also a Brereton descendant!

It is now late May 2008, the architect still has to inspect the two staircases and I await his comments with more than a little interest. Will I find a few more twists and turns to this tale?

My research continues, and I am hopeful that some more information will come my way.

   October 2008 up-date…

During the last few months and hundreds of hours of research, I have attempted to find a connection that might indicate how the Brereton family might have acquired the Nelson parsonage staircase.

I have searched for clues in historical papers and web sites relating to, Nelson, Brereton, Seppings and associated families. In most cases I was diverted to further family information but although interesting it was irrelevant to my quest. Perhaps some of this interesting information could find a space in its own section on the Brereton web page.

Now for the good news! Thanks to Nick and Miranda Richards, the present owners of Briningham House we now have pictures of their staircase. (See below).

We are still waiting for historical architects to visit and inspect both staircases.

Briningham House staircase

   Recap

When I first started to write the story about the Nelson staircase, as told to me by my parents, all I had planned was to record it so that it could be passed on to future generations.

As you may have noticed, I soon I realised that this tale was rather more fascinating than I had imagined. The more I discovered, the more intriguing the story became. The further I progressed the more I wanted to discover.

   November 08 Update

In the last few days of October more tantalising information started to come my way when I attended a dinner in the village of Morston, Norfolk. This annual dinner was to commemorate the 301st anniversary of the death of Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell who had been born in the neighbouring village of Cockthorpe. After the death of Cloudesley’s father his mother remarried and became my 7th times great grandmother.

On arrival I was delighted to see that Jock the organiser had displayed a copy of this Nelson staircase web page for all to see. I was hopeful that this might bring more information.

Jock told me that he had spoken to a Suckling friend of his who had offered to look up his vast collection of family trees and tables and it was possible he might find a Suckling and Brereton connection. This was very encouraging news.

Later that evening I couldn’t believe my luck, when I talked to someone who was a member of the Nelson Society. I gave him details of the web page and what I was trying to do: I am keeping my fingers crossed that perhaps this might lead to me finding out more details of the whereabouts of Nelson’s staircase!

The next day I decided to investigate the original site of the parsonage at Burnham Thorpe. My cousin Michael had suggested that if we could determine the size of the foundations we might be able to gauge if one of the staircases at Brinton or Briningham could have come from the parsonage.

I walked up the lane until I came to the sign that pointed to where the parsonage had been situated, some 20 yards back from the road. The area I guessed would have been directly ahead of us, approximately in the vicinity of some tall trees.

Having looked at the area from the road I thought the best approach would be to write to the people who owned the site and see if they had any plans of the original building or if we could investigate the actual site its self.

The following week I followed up further leads, talking to people who had knowledge of Norfolk country houses. One suggested I research the Norfolk Record Office as they had copies and plans of old diocesan buildings and rectories.

I contacted the NRO and discovered they did not have the plans for the demolished building but they did have further information for me to investigate on my next visit to Norwich.

The next interesting news came from the Nelson Society contact that I had made. Uncrossing my fingers, I read that he had shown the article to one or two colleagues of the society, as they were knowledgeable about Nelson matters. Unfortunately for me they took the view that the staircase was too grand to have come from a humble parsonage. There was hope in the later part of the email. It was really interesting:

‘However, you may know that Nelson bought a rather grand house in Merton, Surrey which was later demolished. The contents of the house were auctioned off.’

Image of Merton Place from
Merton Council Website:-

I read on to find that a friend of his had a catalogue of the sale and he thought the staircase was in one of the lots. Even better, he offered to look up the contents.

Having concentrated on Burnham Thorpe for so long I was rather dismayed to think that the staircase at either Brinton or Briningham was considered too grand to have come from Burnham.

If this was the case why had this narrative been passed down from our great grandparents to our grandparents onto our parents and on to me!

I also wondered why some people said that the house at Burnham Thorpe would have been so modest. I had read that it was possibly extended and enlarged to be a reasonable size.

I decided to keep an open mind as I explored the Internet. I wrote to Michael and told him about Merton Place and that it had been demolished in 1823. I mentioned that this might fit in with Brinton Hall as the photo I had of their dated wall bricks indicated that house was having work done in 1822! This was all becoming very intriguing.

Michael emailed on the 31st October about a chance conversation he had with Malcolm Harrison the author of ‘Unravelling the threads: The Wilsons of Stenson’ this conversation produced a fascinating possibility. Michael wrote:

‘Malcolm asked after you, and I mentioned your progress with the Merton connection as a possible origin of the Nelson Staircase. He immediately said that the house was sold to Emma Hamilton by the Greaves of Nether Worton.

If you read the extract I sent you yesterday morning about the house history you will see that it was Charles Greaves’ widow who sold it to Horatio Nelson and Emma Hamilton for £9000 in 1802/3.’

Michael went on to say that, on the 17 July 1817 Charles Greaves’ son Richard married Sophia Elizabeth Wilson at Nether Worton. Sophia was a second cousin of our great, great grandmother Frances Wilson and she would have seen the staircase when installed at Brinton Hall. He thought that through the Wilson family grapevine this Frances could have alerted her brother-in-law as to where to find a splendid staircase when he was remodelling Brinton Hall.

Later Michael emailed further thoughts:

‘I have realised that there could be an alternative route through the Wilson Mafia and it might be as follows:

Joseph Wilson of Highbury our great, great, great grandfather would doubtless have had his finger on the pulse of things going on in the Worton branch. Joseph Wilson had a longstanding relation with John Brereton of Brinton. Perhaps he could have informed his elderly friend of the upcoming sale, having heard that his son was planning alterations!

Either way I feel sure the Brereton-Wilson connections would have brought the news of the sale to Norfolk.

Of course it could all crumble to dust if either staircase does not turn out to have come from Merton.’

More like dry rot I thought as I finished reading the email! I now have another dilemma; it seems there was also a connection to Merton Place via the Wilson and Brereton families.

If the staircase did come from Merton Place it does not make any difference. It would still be from a Nelson home. It is crucial to remember that Nelson was the important link not the name of the house. It is not unreasonable to assume that as time went on it was thought it came form Burnham Thorpe, as it was so close to the Norfolk houses claiming to have it.

Yet another twist looms. Could it be that both homes claiming to have a Nelson staircase do indeed have one! One could have come from Burnham Thorpe and one could have come from Merton Place!

As I wait to see if the Merton Place catalogue of sale holds any further clues I am left pondering… I now have to investigate two demolished Nelson houses and their staircases and two Norfolk country houses, both of which have lovely staircases.

I wonder where this story of the staircase will lead me. Hopefully with enough evidence to be able to say that in all probability the Nelson staircase/s could be at…

This is as far as I can go at the moment and my thought’s progress to the end of the story. Wouldn’t it be very satisfying for me if at the end of all this, I could say that I have achieved a Nelson staircase victory!

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As for Nelson, his memory lives on in Burnham Thorpe and in the church, Nelson memorabilia and more interesting information can be seen: