Sheila Woolfe writes……
Few Warwickshire communities can lay claim to being the birthplace of one who, being elected Premier of New South Wales no less than five times, “steered a fractious country to nationhood, championed women’s rights, established secular state education and set a standard for honest governance”. Such a man was Sir Henry Parkes, the subject of the Coventry Society’s February 2023 meeting.
Henry was born in 1815 at Moat House Cottage in Canley, now part of Coventry but then part of the Stoneleigh Estate, owned by the Leigh family of Stoneleigh Abbey. For at least a century the Parkes family had been tenant farmers on the estate, but when Henry was two the family moved to Gibbet Hill Farmhouse, also on the estate.
At that time the farm was known as Tocil Farm (not to be confused with Tocil House Farm). However, in 1822 Parkes’ father Thomas fell foul of a dramatic drop in crop prices following the ending of the Napoleonic wars. Rents, however, continued to rise, and when Thomas was incapacitated by an accident which left him on crutches, he was even less able to run his farm at a profit and a year later, in 1823, he was removed from his farm, heavily in debt.
Young Henry had received a rudimentary education at Stoneleigh School, but this now came to a sudden halt. The family left the area and for a time Thomas Parkes was imprisoned for debt. Education must have seemed important to Henry and when the family moved to Birmingham he joined the Birmingham Mechanics’ Institute. By the age of sixteen he was fired by an enthusiasm for radical politics, the Chartist Movement then being at its height.
Adversity in youth made him look towards new beginnings, and in 1839 he and his young wife Clarinda set off for New South Wales, Australia, a child being born to them on board ship, just two days before arrival in Sydney. Henry set about finding employment, (he was a skilled bone and ivory turner) but eventually turned to journalism, and founded a newspaper, The Empire, in 1850.
His life in politics began when he was elected to the Legislative Council and, an ambitious young man, he quickly rose to prominence. His particular interests were in education, and he did much to improve the lives of the young and destitute. Ultimately five times Premier of New South Wales, he was knighted by Queen Victoria. He was keen to encourage the franchise for women, and felt that Australia would benefit from its states becoming a Federation.
In 1882 Sir Henry Parkes returned for the final time to his native village, after dining with the Prime Minister, Gladstone, and attending a State Ball at Buckingham Palace. First, on April 3rd he paid a private visit to see the school where he received his early education. The school logbook carries an entry written by him, to record the event.
Three weeks later, in April, he stayed at Stoneleigh Abbey with Lord Leigh, who made a short speech of congratulation to an “old Stoneleigh boy” who now held such a distinguished position. Sir Henry’s speech in response remarked upon his vivid and affectionate recollections of the village. During this visit he and his host drove to Canley Moat House and to Gibbet Hill Farm and Lord Leigh promised to keep the farmhouses in good repair.
Parkes died in 1896, a few years before his dream of Federation came true. He is still known as “the Father of Federation”. Thirty thousand people lined the streets for his funeral. Since then he has been commemorated in Australia in various ways: on currency, in statues, museums and parks, and in the naming of the town of Parkes, which is twinned with Coventry. His private life had been chaotic and his financial affairs in disarray, but his political legacy was assured. A recent biography by Stephen Dando-Collins is called “The Australian Colossus”.
2015 saw the bicentenary of his birth, and there were events to commemorate this both in Coventry and Stoneleigh, where a memorial plaque was unveiled in the church by Parkes’ great-great-grandson, who had travelled from Sydney to do so. In Coventry he has been remembered to a lesser extent, (although most people know of Sir Henry Parkes Road!) and in recent months it was feared that Gibbet Hill Farmhouse, now owned by the University of Warwick, might be at risk, as an application for a Certificate of Immunity from Listing had been put forward. After a lengthy protest supported by a petition and submissions from many civic groups (including the Coventry Society) the university has now given assurances that there is no intention to demolish the building – rather, they are seeking the best use for it. The house and surrounding agricultural buildings are used principally by the Estates Office but there are rooms which could easily be used by community groups. At present it looks as though the building’s future is secure.