Ralph Sneyd (1793–1870) was an English landowner in Staffordshire, now best known for the rebuilding of Keele Hall. He was also an ironmaster, coalowner and railway developer, and was High Sheriff of Staffordshire in 1844.[1]
Mr. Sneyd had been a great courtier when he was a boy at Eton. His parents lived at Windsor when his father was attached to the court. George III. had given him a Latin Grammar, and he was quite an ardent admirer of that Monarch.[5]
We had a good deal of literary conversation, as Mr Sneyd has a very pretty smattering of literary topics and a good deal of taste, though a little affected [...][7]
Sneyd arms, used decoratively on buildings in Keele, on a panel from 1829 at Keele Hall
Sneyd inherited the Keele Hall estate from his father in 1829. Walter Sneyd had brought down a heavy burden of encumbering debt on the land from the beginning of the 19th century.[14] Ralph brought in Edward Blore to work on buildings that are now part of Keele University, in 1830–1833.[15] He developed the garden from about 1830, planting on a large scale, and was noted particularly for his use of crosses of Rhododendron arboreum.[16][17] He brought in William Sawrey Gilpin from the start to advise on his gardens, as he wrote to Agar-Ellis in September 1829.[18]
Keele Lodge, 2015 photograph, showing the RS monograph of Ralph Sneyd on one gable, and the Sneyd arms just visible on the right-hand gableKeele University Lodge, with the Sneyd arms on the left side of the gable
Buying further land, Sneyd had purchased over 2,000 acres (810 ha) by 1848, taking on debt.[20] The land of the village of Keele was all in his hands by 1841, and he embarked there on building, displaying a monogram RS on works.[21] He went into business mining coal, but without financial success.[22] The death in 1848 of his agent Samuel Peake revealed poor administration of the coal company, which supplied Sneyd's ironworks at Knutton Heath, and a fresh start was made for the Silverdale Colliery.[23]
In 1848 Sneyd on the recommendation of Charles Arbuthnot hired Andrew Thompson to run his estate, who over the following 21 years introduced improved farming methods.[24] Mid-century, he spent on "seeding down" — the process of investing in turf better for cattle grazing — by providing seeds to his tenants.[25] In 1850 he hired William Hill as head gardener, on the advice of George Fleming of Trentham Hall, the Sutherland property some 5.5 miles (8.9 km) away.[26] He also backed out of active management of business, as an ironmaster.[27] In 1848 he leased to Francis Stanier the older (died 1856), a solicitor of Newcastle-under-Lyme, his coal mines and ironworks. Stanier went on to develop them at Apedale, Knutton and Silverdale.[28] Sneyd as landlord built a private railway line from Silverdale to Newcastle, in 1849. Then in 1852 the North Staffordshire Railway built a line that made a junction with Sneyd's at Knutton.[29]
Sneyd had Anthony Salvin remodel Keele Hall over the period 1854–1860, a well-regarded conversion in line with Sneyd's bachelor tastes.[30] In 1858 he recommended Wheatstone's House Telegraph to a friend.[31]
The Virgin and Child Enthroned, with Four Angels by Quinten Massys, now in the National Gallery, London, came from the Sneyd family collection, and its acquisition is tentatively dated to a journey by Sneyd in France and the Netherlands in 1828[35]
The Keele Hall library was put up for auction in 1903, as Walter Sneyd's collection of illuminated manuscripts and early printed books. Many of the manuscripts passed to Charles Fairfax Murray.[39][40] The Johnson's Dictionary came up for sale in 1927.[41]
