Partner Valerie Curtis
Queer Places:
Sunnycroft, Holyhead Road,
Wellington, Telford, Shropshire
Joan Margaret Lander (1916 - April 23, 1997) and her companion Valerie Curtis were the last owners of Sunnycroft, a Victorian suburban villa, located in Wellington, Shropshire. Sunnycroft is a suburban red brick villa, with Jacobean staircase, built for J. G. Wackrill, the founder of the Shropshire Brewery in Watling Street in 1880, and bought and extended in the 1890s by Mary Jane Slaney, widow of a successful wine and spirits merchant. In 1912 it was bought by her brother-in-law, a solicitor called J. V. T. Lander (1855–1943) and lived in by three generations of Landers until it was bequeathed by Joan Lander, founder of the needlework business, Joan Lander Designs. As well as being a Red Cross nurse in the Second World War, Joan was also an exceptional embroiderer, and was one of just 12 women who worked together to do the gold embroidery on Queen Elizabeth’s coronation robe.
Located in the market town of Wellington, Shropshire, England, and owned by the National Trust as one of their more unusual properties. Suburban villas were almost 'country estates in miniature' that attempted to emulate upper class mansions on a middle class budget. Many have either been modernised, renovated or refurbished out of recognition over the last 60 years or so or have been demolished and replaced with later housing, converted into offices or residential care homes, or have been broken up into flats and smaller residences.
Sunnycroft remains intact, complete with the original interior fixtures and fittings, many of which are still in place and therefore has a unique character and intimacy that is often lacking from larger properties but very evocative of its time and place. It is located close to the town centre in Wellington, on the B5061 Holyhead Road, originally the Shrewsbury to London road, and formerly part of Watling Street the Roman road from London to Wroxeter. Sunnycroft was built in 1880, and extended in 1899. Uniquely the house remained in the same family from its completion in 1899, until it was bequeathed to the National Trust in 1997.
The time capsule, which is furnished with original wallpapers, Maw’s tiles and gold medal winning fireplaces, transports you back to the pre-First World War ‘country house’ lifestyle. Packed full with everyday items belonging to the families who lived here, you are sure to feel the familiarity and comfort of this home despite all the features of a grander house, such as the Billiard Room, Drawing Room and impressive Staircase Hall.
The 5 acres of garden is complete with glass houses, conservatory, kennels, pigsties and stables and is perfect for a wander or a game of croquet.
Sunnycroft was built in two parts. The first part was completed in 1880 for John Wackrill who founded a brewery in Shropshire, the rooms from the original part of the house are relatively modest in size. When the Wackrill family moved to Essex following the death of John Wackrill, Sunnycroft was put on the market and bought by Mary Jane Slaney, the widow of a wine and spirit merchant. With a passion for entertaining, she extended the house in 1899, adding the Billiard Room, Dining Room, Staircase Hall and the new entrance. Mary died in 1910 and Sunnycroft was owned by her son Jack, who later died in World War One, before John Lander (Mary’s brother-in-law) took ownership in 1912. John Lander founded a solicitors firm in Wellington and lived in the house with his wife Mary Hammersley Slaney (sister-in-law of Mary Jane Slaney) and their children Thomas, Dorothy and Gwendoline. Thomas bought the house following his father’s death in 1942 and lived there with his wife Muriel and their two daughters; Rachel and Joan. Thomas started his own iron works business in Coalbrookdale called the Sinclair Iron Works (later Allied Iron Foundry) and lived at Sunnycroft until his death in 1973. His daughter Rachel had married a wealthy man and on her father’s death, inherited the family holiday home on the island of Anglesey. Joan inherited Sunnycroft and led a much more interesting life. During the Second World War, Joan became a Red Cross Nurse (nursing being the only respectable job for an upper-middle class female), later working as a radiographer. After the end of the war, in 1947 Joan enrolled at the Royal School of Needlework, a two-year course she completed in 1949. Due to her great talent for needlework, Joan was one of twelve women chosen to embroider the gold thread work on Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation robe. Joan later held embroidery classes in the Dining Room at Sunnycroft, using the billiard table in the Billiard Room as a place to store materials. I was informed by the room steward that when the National Trust took ownership of Sunnycroft, it took them a considerable amount of time to clear the materials from the billiard table. In her later years, Joan became aware of the importance of keeping the house in its current state, for the nation, and so she bequeathed the house to the National Trust in 1997 following her death at the age of 80.
My published books: