Goddards House and Garden

House

Goddards was the last major project of Walter Brierley who died in 1926 whilst the house was still under construction. His own home (Bishopsbarns), in St George's Place, York, was in the same street that Noel and Kathleen Terry lived in and 0.6 miles (1 km) from Goddards. One of the notable architectural features of the house is the vaulted ceiling in the drawing room which is similar to Brierley’s own home with the plasterwork in both houses attributed to George Bankart, probably George P Bankart at Bishopsbarns and his son George E Bankart at Goddards, who together wrote books about their craft. The National Heritage List for England describes Goddards as “the finest surviving example of the work of Walter Brierley, the Lutyens of the north”, and it still retains many of the original fixtures including its Arts and Crafts wallpapers and panelling and the staircase with its oak carving. The exterior of the house features handmade locally produced bricks arranged in geometric patterns and decorative chimney stacks typical of a Brierley building.

Garden

In-keeping with the Arts and Crafts style of the house the garden designer George Dillistone, who worked with Lutyens at Castle Drogo, divided the four acre garden at Goddards into several distinct areas, including a terrace and a series of rooms separated by shrubs, hedges and a herbaceous border. These enclosures included a tennis court (restored in 2016) and a bowling green used as a croquet lawn. The garden slopes downwards from the terrace to York Racecourse, (Knavesmire) across which it was possible to walk to where, in 1926, Terry's had built their factory, with its distinctive clock tower visible from the garden. Typical of this style of garden the landscaping becomes less formal further from the house with paths leading down through a rock garden at the far end of the garden. The layout of the garden with its rooms, use of topography and structural features such as the terrace are all elements which illustrate the Arts and Crafts nature of the garden. The wildlife in the garden includes a colony of midwife toads and it was once home to a number of exotic pets including axolotls and green lizards. In 2016 the National Trust revealed plans to recreate the original planting schemes drawn up by Dillistone almost ninety years earlier.

Carriage entrance

Brierley was also the architect for the gatehouse at the entrance to Goddards, a red brick structure with staircase turrets which incorporates a flat roofed motor house. It was the home of the Terry's chauffeur.

The Terry Family at Goddards

Noel had married Kathleen Leetham in 1915 but he was soon sent to France due to the First World War and in 1916 was wounded at the Battle of the Somme whilst serving with the 5th West Yorkshire Regiment. After he returned home they started a family together and by the end of 1925 had two sons, Peter and Kenneth, and a daughter, Betty, and plans to move to a larger house. From 1927 Goddards would become the family home of the Terry's and their children - with their youngest son Richard being born the following year. The name of the house came from Noel Terry's middle name, which was that of his grandmother, Frances Goddard, first wife of Joseph Terry.

By the 1930s Noel had become a managing director at Terry’s and it was at this time that the company introduced two of their most famous products – Terry's All Gold and the Chocolate Orange. When production was interrupted by the Second World War Noel became a Controller with the Royal Observer Corps. His son Kenneth served in the RAF and was awarded the DFC in 1942. He died in 1944 and is commemorated on the local war memorial (also by Brierley). Noel continued to work at Terry's until 1970, and his son Peter, who had joined Terry's in 1945, became deputy managing director.

Although the house was built in the Arts and Crafts style it would become furnished with a large assortment of Georgian furniture and clocks which Noel Terry collected throughout his life. His interest in history also led to his involvement with York Civic Trust, of which he was honorary treasurer for many years. After Noel and Kathleen died in 1980 Noel’s collection was put on display at Fairfax House, in York, a Georgian house museum renovated by the Civic Trust.

Family connections

Kathleen's sister Constance Leetham Terry was one of the first women to be admitted to The Physiological Society in 1915. She was married to Noel's brother J. E. Harold Terry, a novelist and playwright. Noel's sister Kathleen Betsy married Air Marshal Jack Baldwin

National Trust era

When the National Trust took over Goddards it was initially only for use as regional offices rather than a visitor attraction, however the garden was opened to the public in 2006 and the house in 2012. The rooms contain period furniture which is used to recreate the atmosphere of the 1930s when the house was at its busiest and the family business at its zenith. As well as owning a chocolate factory Terry's also had its own tearoom and shop in York, whose cakes are the inspiration for food now served in the dining room at Goddards. Exhibits at Goddards include decorative packaging from Terry's chocolates and a scale model of the Terry's factory. In 2014 and 2015 Goddards was listed as a finalist in the 'Visitor Attraction of the Year (Under 50,000 Visitors)' category of the VisitYork Tourism Awards. In 2016 the National Trust put forward plans to expand the catering facilities and use more of the house to display its collection of chocolate memorabilia, citing the increase in visitor numbers between 2011 (5,608), before the house opened, and 2015/16 (24,500) as a reason for the proposed change.