Colin Jones

Jones family history

Colin Jones (1909-1983) (uncle)

Colin, second son, was born on 21 June 1909. He also went to Jesus College, Cambridge. He was engaged by the National Trust as a Land Agent just before WWII, when he joined the staff of the War Department’s Land Agents’ Department. Afterwards, under the Trust’s new system of regional management he took responsibility for the Midlands. The office was stationed in Worksop but he moved it to Ross on Wye, to be closer to home in Weston under Penyard, Herefordshire. His area was called the Severn Region but it “reached up the Welsh Marches to the Mersey across to the Humber and down to the Wash!” ⁱ

When his cousin Tommy wanted to move from Langstone, after Louisa Jones had died in 1952, Colin bought the house and five meadows in front of it: “ALL THAT messuage and land known as Langstone Court situate in the Parish of Llangarren in the County of Hereford containing 39.334 acres or thereabouts” etc, by a conveyance dated 30 January 1954, for £5,500.

He moved into Langstone on 2 February 1954 with his mother Helen. His diary says: “Moved to Langstone – first van. Snow on the ground and freezing all day as well as at night. Saving grace was that it was dry over head and so frozen on the ground that dirt was not carried into house”.

From 1959 he was helped by another agent called Ivor Blomfield. “Blomfield and Jones had to manage the agricultural estate, the commons and the woodlands and to look after the repairs, maintenance and staffing of the historic buildings and gardens – no mean assignment when so many new properties were being acquired and there were meetings of local management committees to attend in the evenings.”ⁱⁱ

A history of The National Trust and its Benefactors says: “If Mrs Heelis's idea of a Land Agent was something of a caricature, several of the Trust's agents seemed determined to conform to the stereotype. Some rode to hounds regularly, most shot with varying degrees of enthusiasm, and others – the younger sons of landed families – managed their own farms. Colin Jones, who had an empire stretching from Bristol to Manchester, was often absent from National Trust activities for much of July and August, because he was harvesting.” ⁱⁱⁱ He also kept Hereford cattle, which were his pride and joy: also daily hard work.

As indicated on the History and Architecture pages, he did some major work to prevent the collapse of the house. He sought Government grants to help but didn't have the necessary matching funding. He was also very averse to allowing public access to the house despite, or perhaps because of, his work for the National Trust. He wanted to keep Langstone as he found it and wouldn't move furniture or carpets around.

He died on 25 November 1983 and his ashes were buried in his mother's grave at Llangarron. He left Langstone to my father and through him to me. His will dated 24 December 1982 says: “AND I EXPRESS THE DESIRE but without imposing any trust or legal obligation that my said brother will not sell my property known as Langstone Court and my farmland adjoining but will retain it in his possession and in due course pass it to his son RICHARD JONES of Eccleston Paddocks aforesaid” etc. My father sometimes joked that he was my caretaker.

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     i     Gaze, J., Figures in a Landscape: A History of the National Trust, Barrie & Jenkins, 1988, page 140 (return to text)
     ii     Jenkins, J. & James, P., From Acorn to Oak Tree: The growth of the National Trust 1895-1994, Macmillan, 1994, page 285 (return to text)
     iii     Waterson, M., A Noble Thing: The National Trust and its Benefactors, Scala Publishers Ltd, London, 2011, page 70 (return to text)