We are grateful to Charles Mayhew and the Rutland History & Record Society for allowing us to reproduce these articles.
As a postscript to the records of the Revd T K B Nevinson, Mr Harry Betts, who was baptised by Mr Nevinson in 1906 and lived in the village until he died in 1997 at the age of 90, had clear recollections of the estate before the First World War. His father had come to Lyndon as coachman in 1903. He himself later became chauffeur, spending the last 40 years of his life in the gardener's cottage.
He remembered that a few years before the war there was a staff of ten at the Hall. Each Sunday morning they would go to church, the women wearing black bonnets tied under the chin, and would sit in the pews in the south aisle.
On the estate there was a cowman and shepherd who lived in a cottage in Post Office Lane. He was responsible for the dairy and for supplying butter to the Hall. There were also a coachman and groom, and three gardeners. The groom and the two single gardeners lived in the room over the apple store. This three storey building was just inside the entrance to the Old Rectory (now demolished). Under the apple store was the stable for the gardener's horse. The groom and the two single gardeners ate in the Bothy where a woman would come and cook for them.
He remembers that the estate bricklayer and mason came from Hambleton on a tricycle and had his workshop in the end part of the head gardener's cottage. The estate carpenter lived in the Lodge, and his housekeeper was responsible for opening the Hall gates for anyone calling at the Hall.