WOLFORD LODGE

The family returned to Wolford in 1796 due to Simcoe’s poor health. The return to England was marked, as was their departure, by the involvement of the king, to whom Elizabeth presented some of her Canadian paintings, which are still in the British Museum.

During this period, Wolford really did become the centre of social life in the south west. At this time and during the Canadian period, Elizabeth’s aunts Henrietta and Sophia lived at Whitchurch to where she resumed her periodic visits with her children. She was inspired by its natural beauty and sketched many places including Whitchurch and St Dubricius where eventually her aunts were buried. From that time, the Old Court, its estate and farms were tenanted out.