How It All Began

The English Courtyard Association was the brainchild of Noel Shuttleworth. Born in Leeds in 1933, the son of a Church of England clergyman, he was educated at Haileybury College and the Royal Academy Sandhurst. Following his commission into the Scots Guards, he served in Germany, Canada, Kenya and London.  On leaving the Army with the rank of Major he began a career in marketing with Courtaulds. He subsequently went into business producing a special gold coin issue for the Kenya Government in conjunction with Spink and Sons and then moved into the fashion and tailoring industries before joining a major public relations and marketing consultancy in 1968. 

Three years later, he suffered a major car accident which left him quite severely disabled and unable to work for eighteen months. Coincidental with this period of enforced leisure – and thus good thinking time, came the problems which his mother, by now widowed, was encountering in trying to find a suitable home near to her son. As a result he returned to active life in 1973 determined to find a workable solution.

An opportunity arose when a neighbour, Major General Thuillier, asked him to assist with the Savernake Housing Association, which he had formed to provide accommodation and assistance for local retired elderly professional people. A property at Clements Meadows in Marlborough had been bought and plans drawn up by a local architect for its conversion. By mid 1974 it became apparent that charitable funding would not be forthcoming and despite attempts to raise private finance the Association had run up debts that needed to be paid and Clements Meadows was sold.

But the seed for the future had been sown. There was clearly a need and a market for the Clements Meadows idea, but funded not by charitable - but by private - finance. Answers to advertisements in the Personal columns of the Times and the Daily Telegraph made it clear that there were many people who wanted this type of accommodation and who were only too prepared to pay for it themselves. They did not need charity – just the right accommodation, good management – and a fair deal.

In conjunction with Paul Greenwood of John D Wood, who provided Noel Shuttleworth with an office in Newbury, and architect Paul Gibson of the Sidell Gibson Partnership, the goal was pursued. After three years of intensive research and several false starts Paul Greenwood introduced Noel to Christopher Thornhill, an estate agent and property developer of London flat conversions, who was financed by and in partnership with the Bonas Group, a leading firm of international diamond brokers. Together they formed the English Courtyard Association, a non profit making company limited by guarantee dedicated to providing specialized housing for elderly and retired people.

The concept of the Association was based on the need for comfortable, spacious living accommodation in a pleasant setting, near shops and other facilities; the need to take into account the problems of advancing age and the need to protect fixed income and capital against inflation.

To achieve this, the Association provides properties especially designed to meet the needs of elderly professional people and built to a very high standard by private developers. The buildings, which are traditional in style, surround a courtyard and echo the feel of an Oxford or Cambridge college and the garden of an English country house.

Noel’s mother died in 1979, but lived long enough to see Manor Court being built in Pewsey and to decide on the particular property which she intended to purchase. A sun dial in her memory stands in the grounds of the Courtyard.

Based on an article by travel writer David Crawford