3:47pm Tuesday 9th February 2010
By Claire Hack
AS Valentines Mansion prepares to offer visitors the chance to meet some of its Victorian inhabitants over the weekend, CLAIRE HACK finds out more about one of its most famous residents.
After her mother died, Sarah Ingleby, nee Oakes, moved to the mansion, aged about 14, with her uncle, Charles Thomas Holcombe and his wife, Margaret.
Born in 1823, she lived at the mansion for a total of about 58 years, leaving it following her marriage in 1850 when she settled with her husband, Clement Ingleby, in Edgbaston, near Birmingham.
Mr Ingleby, a solicitor, followed his father's wish to work in the family firm until he died in 1859 and returned with his wife and four children to Valentines Mansion in 1860.
Following the death of her aunt, Mrs Ingleby cared for her aging uncle until his death in 1870, when he left the mansion to her.
She opened the renowned gardens to Sunday schools, garden parties and fund-raising events for various charities.
A devout Christian, Mrs Ingleby worked for a number of philanthropic causes, but much of her charity work was done quietly.
The president of the Ilford Philanthropic Society, she was not a figurehead but was known to take an interest in the problems of her less fortunate neighbours.
She was also known to extend her hospitality to everyone, irrespective of political or religious affiliation, and started a school in Beehive Lane for about 120 children.
She paid for a nurse for the area, who eventually treated her during her final illness.
With the spread of London's urban sprawl, she sold about 48 acres of the grounds for the creation of Central Park in 1890.
Mrs Ingleby at the mansion died in 1906 after catching influenza.
She left the mansion to her eldest son, Holcombe, who sold it to the council in 1912, and in 1957, donated 19 paintings associated with the family.
These were transferred to the Redbridge Museum in the 1990s and an exhibition will be on display at the mansion from February 21, looking at the restoration of four of the eight paintings now hanging there.
Mrs Ingleby was also recently the subject of a series of talks at the mansion, by local historian Georgina Green.
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