Richard Sheepshanks sadly and suddenly passed away on Saturday 28th November 2009.   Richard had worked at Eastnor Castle for the past 14years.  

Eulogy

It will not surprise you to know that when I last saw Richard, just a few hours before he tragically and prematurely died just over two weeks ago, he was asking his Eastnor work colleagues with genuine interest what they were doing at the weekend. Typically, Richard was more interested in others than himself. We didn’t ask him what he was doing at the weekend because we already knew. He was working. Like so many other evenings and weekends he was doing a job that he did so well and enjoyed so much: Looking after other people.

Richard was on great form. He seemed happy with life and in the thirteen years that I had the privilege to work with him, he had never seemed so relaxed and content. As tragic as this is, I believe Richard died a happy man.

Richard James Sheepshanks was born in Leeds on 8th April 1949, the son of John and Margaret and brother of Joanna and Felicity.  His early years were spent in Harrogate but as his father was in the Army, family life involved numerous postings, including Germany, London, Catterick and finally Cyprus.

Richard attended the Dragon School in Oxford between 1957 and 1962 where he particularly enjoyed playing Rugby, Hockey, Cricket and Golf. It was during a hockey match, aged 9 and a half, that Richard was hit on the knee by a ball. This injury led to a lifetime of problems with his knee although during his school career he managed to continue with his beloved sport, in between operations and plaster casts.

During school holidays he visited the family in Cyprus, where he learnt to sail in Firefly dinghies and this started a passion for sailing.  Later John and Margaret bought a 30’ wooden yacht and Richard would often join them for happy sailing holidays at home and abroad. Although sailing is a somewhat difficult hobby to pursue when you live in the Midlands, we often talked about sailing together as I too share this passion and was brought up in Chichester, where Richard often sailed.

From the Dragon School Richard graduated to Cheltenham College, chosen mainly for its convenient location, near to Oxford, where he continued to have further operations on his knee. Richard left school at 18 and proudly told me many times that he chose his further education in the ‘University of Life’ rather than an academic institution.

He was selected as a trainee manager for British Home Stores where he worked successfully for 5 years and acquired a great knowledge and interest in food. From there he moved to Dorothy Perkins and set up a number of major retail stores including Brussels and Paris. Richard was very proud of the fact that he had a successful career in women’s underwear!

He moved to Argos and whilst on a management training course, was headhunted by the Burton Group. His work for Burtons involved endless tiring journeys from one end of the country to the other and it was then that he decided to give up his retailing career in London and move to rural Worcestershire and run his own business. Richard and Pat ran the post office and shop in Upper Welland for ten years and made it much more than a village shop. Richard’s knowledge of food and retailing coupled with his extraordinary customer service skills meant that they quickly built up a huge local following. People came from far and wide not only for its renowned delicatessen and groceries but also because of Richard’s affable and warm personality.

After ten years of working 364 days a year and 5am newspaper rounds, Richard came to Eastnor Castle in 1996 as our House Manager. Richard made the job his own and quickly built a reputation as a master of his trade, with customers from all walks of life. He loved his job and worked conscientiously and tirelessly to ensure that every detail of an event was as perfect as possible. Typically modest, Richard often joked that he simply got paid to go to other people’s parties!

Richard, like all of us, would get irritated and despondent from time to time. But he only ever did so through frustration when, for whatever reason, he was unable to deliver the highest standards of customer care.

He was a terrific mentor to other staff, including me on occasions, and took great interest in other people’s work, always offering help and advice whenever he could. He particularly enjoyed helping young students who came to Eastnor in the summer holidays to sell ice cream or work in the shop and he took great pride in seeing their career plans develop.

Richard is irreplaceable in so many ways and none more so than at home where he lived very happily in recent years with Christine, Camilla and Nicola. I know that he was immensely proud of Camilla and Nicola and in many ways regarded Chris’s daughters as his own. He had not previously had an interest in horses, yet he loved helping the girls with theirs and watching them take part in the Hunt and numerous other equestrian events.

The sheer number of people here today, whose lives were in some way touched by Richard, is testament to his enormous personality. Whether you are family, friend, work colleague or customer, your life, like mine, will have been enriched by knowing Richard Sheepshanks: A good man with a genuine interest in other people who always put others before himself.                  

Simon Foster  16th December 2009�

This is the rather surprising name of an old keeper’s cottage, which is up against the southern boundary of  New’s Wood , a Site of Special Scientific Interest on the edge of the Eastnor Park, close to the Worcestershire Way, Midsummer Hill and the Obelisk in the Park itself.  I am not sure what the origin of the name is, but the cottage was let to a number of tenants after the last keeper left it.  My father used to remark that any children who lived there and had to walk over a mile to Eastnor School had very good complexions.

After several years standing empty, the cottage has been converted into a three- bedroom, two-bathroom furnished holiday cottage. We have maintained the original exterior, but transformed the interior with a new kitchen with open dining area at the front of the house. There is a twin room downstairs and two doubles upstairs.  We fitted a second bathroom on the landing between the two upstairs rooms.  New heating and hot water systems, with a high level of insulation, guarantee comfort in all seasons. When the final touches have been applied, it will be Four-Star rated.

Peacock Villa has a fantastic location.  You wind up a steep road along the side of Midsummer Hill, the summit of which, the site of an Iron Age Camp, is owned by the National Trust, and then drop down towards the site of Gullet Quarry, before entering the Park, hugging the perimeter fence and finally arriving, a good half mile from the main road.  The cottage faces south and looks out across open parkland.  The occasional walker passes by, as do Land Rovers as they slowly emerge from one of their nearby test tracks. Otherwise it is haven of peace and quiet, and ideal as a base for exploring the footpaths of the Malvern Hills or attending one of our Park events.

For more information simply visit our website ….
Holiday Cottage Details
Cottage Photo Gallery
Cottage Tariff

Or call our office on 01531 633160

Come and try it ………………………     JH-B    23rd Dec 2009

We often get letters or emails sent to us about past visits - here is one to share sent in by Diana Jaggard;

I want to share with you one unforgettable weekend I had with my school adventure group - the Young Explorers to Malvern one Autumn in the 1970s as told by one of our parent leaders. “The weekend was the first time most of the children had been hostelling, and our leader Diana Jaggard had arranged for the whole party to be given a guided tour of Eastnor Castle by the owners on the Sunday morning.

Eastnor Castle, by the way, is ‘in the Norman style’ a castle built early 19th century standing in magnificent grounds with deer in the park etc.  We arrived at the Castle at the appointed time to find that we could make no-one hear us.

After a while Diana decided to find the rear entrance in the hope of finding someone while the rest of the party waited at the front entrance.  Five minutes passed and suddenly a figure appeared at a second floor window calling “come round to the side door”! �
In single file we trekked through various family rooms, even the dining room with the remains of breakfast and Sunday papers still on the table.  When we reached Diana she told us that everywhere was unlocked but not a soul about.
So it was decided that we would have a quick tour while we were there.  Just imagine it, Fathers and 20odd eleven year olds, all in dripping cagouls and muddy boots looking round the Great Hall etc.  Inevitably one child wanted the loo and lo and behold Diana found that some of the wall panelling was false and led to the toilets! �
I personally breathed a sigh of relief as we left to have our packed lunch in the deer park. The final irony was the following week when Diana received a letter from the owners of the Castle most apologetic for forgetting the appointment and returning the children’s admission money !”