The Allcroft Family: From Worcester to Stokesay
The foundational family study behind The House of Allcroft
An early genealogical and documentary reconstruction of the Allcroft family and Stokesay Court.
Published in 2016, this large family study traces the Allcrofts from Worcester and commercial success through public life, property and the creation of Stokesay Court. It also records personal and family connections with the house that later became important evidence in my more mature interpretation of the subject.
Why I wrote this book
The Allcroft story was always unusually close to me because I grew up at Stokesay Court, where my father worked as head gardener and chauffeur. The 2016 book was my first attempt to bring together the family’s genealogy, commercial background, public life and association with the estate in a single substantial record.
At that stage my priority was accumulation and preservation. I wanted the surviving names, dates, relationships, offices, properties and memories in one place before attempting a more interpretive history.
Personal evidence and documentary research
The book is distinctive within my early genealogy because the documentary record sits alongside lived memory. My father’s work at Stokesay Court, my childhood experience of the house and memories of Sir Philip Magnus-Allcroft gave the project a personal dimension that cannot be supplied by public records alone. Those memories are evidence of a particular period and are treated as such rather than as substitutes for the archive.
How the work later developed
A decade later I returned to this research for The House of Allcroft: Power, Paternalism, and Decline at Stokesay Court. The later book substantially reconceived the material. Instead of asking principally who the family were, it asks how commercial wealth became landed authority, how paternalism operated, and why the social world surrounding the country house declined.
For that reason I now regard this earlier book as a documentary foundation. It remains useful in its own right, but the later volume represents the mature historical interpretation of the same long-running research.
Sources and method
The study draws on genealogical records, census returns, civil registration, newspapers, wills, public-service records, property history, family photographs and personal recollection. Its breadth reflects the research method I was using at the time: preserve first, interpret more fully later.
Publication details
- Author: Antony David Davies
- Published: 2016
- Formats: Kindle and paperback
For the later study, see The House of Allcroft.