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In the early 18th century, the estate was owned by Jacob Tonson, publisher of Alexander Pope and a keen gardener, whose friend Lord Peter-borough introduced the first tulip tree to England in 1688. It may even have been Tonson who planted the fine tulip tree that still graces the garden at Haffield House.The present Haffield estate was created in 1813 by John Biddulph and the main house, designed by eminent architect Sir Robert Smirke as an ‘unpretentious Greek Revival house’, was built in 1819.The house, built for Sir William Gordon, a British Army Major-General. Haffield estate was created in 1813, when John Biddulph of Ledbury Park purchased a portion ofthe Hazle estate, owned by William Baker, and conveyed it to his nephew, William Gordon.176 Prior to this, at least part of this estate appears to have been a vineyard, which was in existence from the medieval period, as evidenced by a surviving series of terraced rectangular enclosures.177 Following the death of Sir William Gordon in 1826, the estate was purchased by Dr William Charles Henry, who resided at Haffield until his death in 1892. 178 The estate passed to Colonel Thomas Allen Henry, who resided by 1913.179 Colonel Henry sold the Haffield estate in 1921, at which time it comprised a mansion house and 142 a. of land. 180 By 1934, John Robert Wharton, a lighthouse engineer, had purchased Haffield House, and resided there until his death in 1950.181 The estate was owned by the Cadbury family from 1954 until 2016,182 when it was sold to interior designer Rebecca Coady, who renovated the property and placed it for sale once more in 2019.

Haffield house was built by Sir Robert Smirke in 1818, using locally quarried breccia stone.184 The house comprises seven bays and two storeys, and is painted white and stuccoed,185 with a chunky Doric porch and six-columned portico on the garden front.186 There are large pane sash windows on the ground floor and glazing bar sashes on the first floor, all with outer blind boxes.187 To the rear of the house is a low, single storey service wing, leading to a painted brick stable block. Across the yard is a brick coach house with a hipped slate roof.188 By 1921, Haffield house had at least nine bedrooms and servants’ quarters, along with a library and domestic offices.189 In 2022, the Grade II listed property had 10 bedrooms, and includes a swimming pool, with cellarage and stabling.

Much of the house was built from Haffield breccia stone which was quarried on site. It was designed as an 'unpretentious Greek Revival house' and features a chunky Doric porch and a six columned portico on the southern aspect, much of which is reflected in Smirke's earlier works.

The ‘unpretentious Greek Revival house’ theme can be seen all the way through the property with reaching columns and intricate stonework.  

Country house. 1817-18 by R Smirke. Painted stucco; hipped slate roof behind moulded cornice and blocking course in a severe neo-classical style. 2 storeys. Garden elevation of 1:5:1 bays, the end bays are slightly advanced. Projecting portico to centre of 6 attenuated Doric columns with plain entablature and blocking course. Large pane sash windows on ground floor and glazing bar sashes on first, all with outer blind boxes; plain band under first floor windows. Set-back 2 bay wing at left. Entrance elevation of 3 bays: the outer ones are advanced with later C19 canted bays. Central panelled door and projecting porch with Doric columns in antis. To the rear of the house low, single storey service wings lead to a stable block which is of painted brick and has 5 segmental headed glazing bar sash windows and a central segmental headed archway (a later open lean-to extends across the whole façade). Across the yard is a coach house ofbrick with 2 tall doorways, under a hipped slate roof; garage lean-to at left and shed at right. Interior: of the house has plain plasterwork and marble fireplaces all in a minimal Greek Revival style; staircase with cast iron balustrade and anthemion decoration; in the library is a mid-C18 fireplace from Bowood, Wilts, carved wood with a richly foliated centre tablet set in an acanthus frieze and under an elaborate cornice, supporting pilasters ornamented with husk drops - inserted in 1950's (N Pevsner, The Buildings of England, Herefordshire, 1963).

William Charles Henry was the son of William Henry, MD, FRS (1774-1836) and grandson of Thomas Henry FRS, (c.1734-1816). Both his father and grandfather were prominent scientists in Manchester, Lancashire, at the end of the 18th century and early years of the 19th century, laying the foundations of modern chemistry, including Henry’s Law of the Solubility of Gases. (1) His grandfather Thomas had been born in Wrexham, Wales, the son of a schoolmaster, who came from Antrim, Ireland. Thomas became a surgeonapothecary, trained by the apprenticeship method, whilst his son William, having studied at Edinburgh, gained his MD and worked as a physician at Manchester Infirmary, but due to his poor health, gave up medicine, following his father’s death, to concentrate on the family’s lucrative soda-water business,originally started by his father, and his chemistry experiments.

Thomas had also invented and patented ‘Henry’s Calcined Magnesia’, an antacid medicine first introduced in 1772, which was manufactured in Manchester until the end of 1907, after which Phillips Magnesia, a similar product, invented by English pharmacist Charles Henry Phillips, took over This product is still on sale today, under the name ‘Milk of Magnesia’. William Charles, like his father studied medicine at Edinburgh. He married Margaret Allan at Cramond, Midlothian, Scotland on 3 November 1832 and returned to work at Manchester Infirmary, as his father had. He was also carrying out research on nerve action and its relation to muscle contraction. In 1836 his father shot himself and his mother died the following year, seemingly the cause of the move to Haffield, Donnington, for the Henry family. The profits from the production and sale of Henry’s Magnesia enabled William Charles to buy Haffield and for the family to live well for the rest of their lives. William Charles and his wife Margaret had 11 children, eight daughters and three sons, of whom son Charles died at only ten months of age in 1840 and two daughters, Harriet and Juliet, both died in their teens. At the 1851 census William Charles Henry stated his occupation as ‘Magistrate, MD. Edinburgh - not practising’, all ten surviving children are listed, including Emily, the last born, just six weeks old. There were no less than ten servants Haffield House listed in the household; and no doubt numerous others in the surrounding gardens and cottages. In the 1860s, daughters Margaret, Mary and Caroline all married, The 1871 census found William Charles and Margaret staying in Eaton Place, Knightsbridge, London, together with Lucy now 20 and Emily 19 and no less than eight servants.

It is not known if the girls were ‘coming out’ that season or if this visit was because their father had just been made a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS), like his father and grandfather before him. Daughter Emily married in 1873 but sadly died in 1884. The 1881 census found William Charles with daughter Frances and granddaughter at Haffield, but there were still seven servants in the house. In 1891 William was now a widower, aged 84, Margaret having died the previous year, aged 80. Daughters Lucy 43, and Frances, 41, both unmarried, were living with their father, together with granddaughter Beatrice Vivian, now 20, and a local visitor Louisa Lander; there were still seven servants in the household. William died the following year, 1892, aged 87, leaving more than £110,000 to his children, probate being granted to his sons, who both went to Oxford, before joining the military: Thomas Allan Henry, a LieutenantColonel in the Leicestershire Yeomanry, and Francis Henry, a LieutenantColonel in the Gloucestershire Yeomanry. (2) Thomas had married Isabella Jane Matilda Key in Cirencester, Gloucestershire in the summer of 1869, and Francis had married Clare Evelyn McKenzie in Henley, Oxfordshire in 1866. Both sons became J.P.s like their father on leaving military service. The 1901 census found George Albright and his family living at Haffield. He was another man who had made his fortune from chemicals, now retired at the age of only 45. In 1904 the Albrights moved to nearby Bromsberrow Place. George’s father Arthur, a trained chemist, had in partnership with another Quaker, John Edward Wilson, founded the chemical empire Albright & Wilson. By the 1911 census Haffield was occupied by Thomas Allan Henry, living alone though with six servants to care for him. He had never worked since retiring from the army and marrying in 1869. His wife seems to have left him during the 1880’s. Thomas died at Haffield on 11 June 1920 aged 78 years. Probate revealed he left £91,940.