Hope End, Ledbury, Herefordshire, England

A new house was designed and built after 1809 by J.C. Loudon for Edward Moulton-Barrett, the father of Elizabeth Barrett Browning who spent her childhood there.

Loudon laid out a picturesque garden around the house of drives, walks and incidental features.

Moulton-Barrett's financial failure led to the sale of the property to Thomas Heywood in 1832.

He then sold it to C.A. Hewitt in 1867. The house was demolished and the present one built in a different place.

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

The Hope End estate was purchased by Edward Moulton-Barrett (who later assumed the surname Browning) from Sir Henry Vane Tempest in 1809. The Moulton-Barretts had been resident in Jamaica where they possessed extensive sugar plantations since 1655, living there in `opulent tropical splendour',(Country Life 1968) at Cinnamon Hill. Among Moulton-Barrett's children was the later Elizabeth Barrett Browning; she briefly described the setting of her childhood home in `The Lost Bower'. Less than twenty years after rebuilding Hope End financial difficulties brought about by the slave situation in Jamaica led to Moulton-Barrett's mortgage being foreclosed and the estate sold. The purchaser was the antiquary Thomas Heywood, who in 1867 sold it to C A Hewitt. The family of the present owners bought the property in 1947.