Newland Park in Chalfont St Peter was once a grand country estate built in the neo-classical style around 1770 and visited by George III.

It is currently being developed into luxury homes after being occupied by educational institutes for many years.

But at the start of the 20th century, it was the home of radical social reformers and hosted left-wing politicians and leading intellectuals, such as playwright George Bernard Shaw and writer H G Wells.

On one famous occasion police surrounded Newland Park hoping to arrest some of Britain’s most infamous criminals: militant suffragettes.

Luckily the household had been warned of the imminent raid and the fugitives, who were indeed sheltering in the house, were hidden inside rolls of linoleum stacked in the cellar.

After the fruitless police search the women were smuggled across the park to Chorleywood.

One of the house’s most notorious visitors is acknowledged in the naming of part of the new development – the Pankhurst Apartments!

A Radical Marriage

The owners of Newland Park were barrister Henry Harben and his wife, Agnes, staunch supporters of the Women’s Suffrage Movement.

Henry Devenish Harben was born in Primrose Hill but also spent time at the family’s country house in Horsham, West Sussex, the home of his grandfather, the founder of the Prudential Insurance Company.

As was traditional for such a wealthy family, Henry was educated at Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford and soon joined the Conservative Party, standing unsuccessfully as a candidate in the 1900 General Election.

Gradually moving to the left, he joined the Liberal Party, and then the Labour Party in protest over the Liberal government’s lack of support for women’s suffrage and force-feeding of women prisoners.

Henry married Agnes Bostock, the daughter of a doctor from Horsham in 1899, and the couple initially lived in Primrose Hill and Rowledge near Farnham, where five of their children were born.

Their last daughter, Eve, was born at Newland Park.

Agnes shared Henry’s views on social reform and with him joined the Fabian Society.

However, Henry could not join Agnes as a member of Emmeline Pankhurst’s militant Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) as this organisation did not permit male membership.

This led to Henry forming the Men’s League for Women’s Suffrage and later joining the Men’s Political Union when this was formed as a militant male counterpart to the WSPU.

Sanctuary

Through Agnes, Henry became closely involved with the Pankhursts, in particular Sylvia, who also shared his socialist beliefs.

The country estate became a refuge for any suffragettes who were on the run or needed somewhere to recover after the ordeal of being force-fed in prison.

Emmeline Pankhurst and her close associates Annie Kenney and Flora Drummond were nursed back to health here.

Henry presented Emmeline Pankhurst with a bed jacket during her stay.

One of the Harbens’ friends, Cyril Joad, described this radical household: “Suffragettes, let out of prison under the Cat and Mouse Act, used to go to Newlands to recuperate, before returning to prison for a fresh bout of torture. When the county called, as the county still did, it was embarrassed to find haggard-looking young women in dressing gowns and djibbahs reclining on sofas in the Newlands drawing room talking unashamedly about their prison experiences.

This social clash of county and criminals at Newlands was an early example of the mixing of different social strata which the war was soon to make a familiar event in national life.

At that time it was considered startling enough, and it required all the tact of Harben and his socially very competent wife to oil the wheels of tea-table intercourse, and to fill the embarrassed pauses which punctuated any attempt at conversation.”

After seeing first-hand the results of the Government’s treatment of the imprisoned suffragettes and caring for those emaciated, frail women in his home, Henry became increasingly militant.

In February 1913 he was evicted from the House of Commons for causing a disturbance by loudly demanding better treatment for women prisoners.

In June he accompanied Agnes as a delegate to the International Suffrage Alliance in Budapest and in February 1914 he was arrested with the writers Laurence Houseman and Henry Nevinson for holding a protest meeting against force-feeding outside the House of Commons.

United Suffragists

In 1914 Agnes Harben was one of founding members of the United Suffragists with Louisa Garrett Anderson, the Pethick-Lawrences, Louise Jopling Rowe and other disillusioned former members of the WSPU.

In contrast to the WSPU, it admitted men because according to their newspaper Votes for Women “it seemed desirable for men and women to work together for political equality”.

It was the first suffrage society in which men and women sat in equal numbers on the executive committee.

Unlike many other suffrage groups, it was pacifist and continued to actively campaign for women’s enfranchisement during WWI.

Founded by the Harbens, Amersham and Chesham Bois had a particularly active group based round Sophie Colenso’s house, Elangeni.

Local groups with Agnes organised the Bucks Suffrage Week in July 1914, with events planned all over the district culminating in a grand procession and fete at Newland Park.

The Harbens’ circle meant that United Suffragist meetings in the district attracted prominent suffrage speakers. Sylvia Pankhurst must have been a real star attraction when she spoke in Chorleywood in February 1914, followed by MP George Lansbury in Amersham in May.

The group continued to campaign until 1918, when it disbanded following the introduction of women’s suffrage.

During WWI, the Harbens bought the Hotel Majestic in Paris and converted it into a hospital for injured soldiers.

They spent the war travelling between Paris, London and Chalfont St Peter, dividing their time between commitments to the Red Cross and the United Suffragists.

The Harbens retained their friendship with Sylvia Pankhurst, and paid for her son Richard’s university education at the London School of Economics.