Mount Grace House, Church Road, Potters Bar, Hertfordshire
Truefitt's client, Roger Fenton, was born at Crimble Hall, Heywood, Lancashire, in March 1819, and studied at University College, London. In 1851 he was called to the Bar by the Inner Temple, London, before studying painting in Paris. After seeing examples of the new technology of photography at the Great Exhibition in 1851, he became keenly interested in this new technique. Within a year, he began exhibiting his own photographs.
Roger Fenton is regarded as a towering figure in the history of photography, the most celebrated and influential photographer in England during the medium’s “golden age” of the 1850s. He travelled to Russia in 1852 and photographed the landmarks of Kiev and Moscow; founded the Photographic Society (later designated the Royal Photographic Society) in 1853; was appointed the first official photographer of the British Museum in 1854. In 1855 Fenton was commissioned by the Manchester art dealers Thomas Agnew & Sons to travel to the Crimea and document the war there, achieving widespread recognition for his photographs. In 1862, after a final series of photographs—a remarkable group of lush still lives—Fenton sold his equipment and negatives, resigned from the Royal Photographic Society, and returned to the bar.
Fenton’s decision to give up photography coincided with the commencement of work on his new house at Potters Bar. In May 1863 tenders were obtained, that of Patrick in the sum of £1833 proving successful. Previously the family had been living at Alberty Terrace, Primrose Hill (now sporting a blue plaque). However, it is clear that he wanted to exodus the city and from 1859 gradually he amassed 29 acres of land (originally part of the Denhams Estate) at Potters Bar, some half-hour by train from central London. Here he built Mount Grace House. In 1843 he had married Grace Elizabeth Maynard of Harlsey Hall, East Harlsey near Northallerton in North Yorkshire. The name of the house in Potters Bar owes something to the name of his wife and to the nearby Mount Grace Priory which lies within the parish of East Harlsey.
In 1887 the estate was offered for sale and it would appear that subsequent owners had more than doubled the size of the Mount Grace estate from Roger Fenton’s original purchases of 29 acres in 1863. The advertisement ran:
POTTERS BAR. MIDDLESEX - on the borders of Hertfordshire. A valuable Freehold Estate, known as Mount Grace, situate about half a mile from the Potters Bar Railway Station and only 13 miles from the metropolis. It comprises a most substantial residence commanding extensive views, approached by a carriage drive containing ample accommodation for a family, with detached offices and stabling for three horses, double coach-house, harness-room, yard, laundry, etc., beautiful grounds laid out in lawns and flower beds and adorned with choice shrubs and specimen trees, large walled kitchen garden, vinery, tool house, etc., farmery, two cottages and ornamentally-timbered meadow land, the whole extending over about 61 acres. A large portion of the meadow land could be sold away from the residence without in the least diminishing its privacy. The building land has extensive frontages to good roads, is of undulating character, high, dry and commands extensive views over the most beautiful part of Hertfordshire. Gas and water are supplied by the Barnet District Company. In addition to its residential attractions, the property offers, if wished, an unusual opportunity for profitable sub-division. [Times 30 July 1887 page 19]
About 1939 the house was converted into a children’s home and in the early 1950s it was demolished to make way for Mount Chapel School, opened in 1952.
Roger Fenton died in 1869 and was buried in St. John's churchyard Potters Bar. (now the site of the War Memorial Garden). His wife, Elizabeth died in 1880, and though the gravestone was destroyed when St.John's Church and churchyard was demolished in 1969, the memorial was transcribed, as follows: God is love. / Roger Fenton born March 28th, 1819 /died August 8th, 1869 /and his wife Grace Elizabeth died July 14th, 1880.
Reference Bee Hive 23 May 1863 page 5 – tenders
Reference Builder 23 May 1863 page 378 – tenders
Reference Building News 22 August 1902 page 252 Truefitt obituary
