by Lindsay Dane (with thanks to Gail Sprake for help with the research).
I have attended quite a few Southdown AGMs over the years, and seen a lot of trophies presented. The Miller Hallett trophy is presented for the best ewe lambs in the Flock Competition, and there is a second Miller Hallett trophy (the Perpetual Challenge Cup) originally given for the best group of four sheep at the Royal Show and nowadays awarded at the National Show. The name of the donor must have stuck in my mind as it rang a bell when I came across it in entirely different circumstances.
I was born and brought up in Orpington, a place in Kent which is nowadays the outermost of the south east London suburbs. My parents bought their house, a new built semi, in 1954 and lived there for the rest of their lives. I am co-executor of my late mother’s estate and in the course of selling the house we had to confirm that we have not breached covenants in a conveyance from 1930. When we located the Abstract of Title documents I noticed that it started in 1892 with the sale of an estate of over 300 acres of farmland with a large house, entrance lodges, gardens and parkland. The vendor in 1930 was Alexander Miller Hallett. (Incidentally the covenant was to not sell alcohol, nor operate as a public house or a club, so we had no difficulty confirming that we complied.)
My curiosity was aroused, so I rang Gail to see whether she had information about the Miller Hallett who donated the trophies. A quick scan of old Flock Books revealed that Mr A Miller Hallett founded the Goddington flock in 1895. As it was the Goddington estate being sold in our document I was sure that they were one and the same and decided to find out more about him.
Alexander was obviously a major figure in the Southdown world. His flock, number 179, was in existence from 1895 to 1939, initially at Goddington and later at Havant and at Funtingdon in Sussex. Around 200 ewes were put to the tup each year. He served as President of the Society twice, in 1923 and 1934, and served for many years on the Advertising and Trade Marking Committee including a spell as Chairman. In those days the Society had enough business to require several committees in addition to the Council.
But it was his private life that was fascinating. He was born plain Alexander Miller in London in 1856, the son of a physician. He married in 1882 and had four children. At some point in his early adult life he was befriended by Emily Hallett, a wealthy spinster with no living relatives. The nature of their relationship is not at all clear, but essentially she agreed to give him her entire fortune if he changed his surname to Miller Hallett. He did so at some time before his marriage, as his surname is Miller-Hallett in the 1881 census. (The hyphen seems to come and go in different documents.) In 1881 he was living with his parents in Kensington and working as an antimony refiner. Part of the gift from Emily was her share in Hallett and Fry, a partnership running an antimony refining business in Rotherhithe, London. It is not clear whether they met through his work at her firm but it seems likely. The partnership with Mr Fry continued until it was dissolved in 1911 and Alexander became sole owner of the business.
The Goddington estate was transferred from Emily to Alexander in 1892. We have an extract of the conveyance which describes the circumstances as “the said E C Hallett adopted the said A Miller Hallett as her nephew and she entertained a very strong affection for him.” Her lawyers were obviously doubtful about the wisdom of the transaction as the conveyance goes on to say that as no money was changing hands she had been advised to reserve the power to revoke the transfer, but had chosen to make it irrevocable “in consideration of her affection for the said A M Hallett and for diverse other good causes and considerations”.
Goddington did not remain an agricultural estate for long. The relentless march of the suburbs made it prime development land. The estate was severed in the 1920s by the sale of land to Kent County Council for the Orpington By Pass (now the A224), which opened up the area for development. Alexander sold Goddington House and 326 acres of land in 1930 for £50,000, and housebuilding continued until the 1950s. Goddington House was converted into flats in the 1930s and is now a listed building. The park was sold to the local Council. We played there as children and could creep through the boundary hedge to view the house and grounds.
It appears that Alexander did not live and farm at Goddington for very long. The Flock Books up to 1924 show his address as Goddington, but for the next 10 years he gives his business address in Rotherhithe. From 1936 he lived at 1 Richmond Terrace in Brighton, a grand Victorian house which is now a Listed Building. In 1925 the flock had been moved to Havant in Hampshire, but in 1930 it was at Funtingdon, Sussex, initially at Rookery Farm and later at Lynch Farm. The flock was dispersed in 1939 and Alexander died in Brighton in 1953.
The Southdown Society was not the only beneficiary of Alexander’s desire to keep the Miller Hallett name alive. The third trophy bearing his name is in the sport of fencing. He was described as a stalwart of the Epée Club and in 1928 he presented a cup for an international competition. The London International Open, better known as the Miller-Hallett, was held for the 85th time in 2022.
Although the family name died out with Alexander’s children, the Miller Hallett name lives on in two different worlds.
