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105-107 Bath Road (formerly 178 Bath Road & Sandford Lawn) Fort William, 1828
Until 1922 Sandford Lawn belonged to Rosa Frances Swiney, the widow of Major General John Swiney of the Madras Army. He was born at Fort William, Calcutta, in 1832, on the eastern banks of the Hooghly River, the major distributary of the River Ganges. One of the original pupils to be educated at Cheltenham College, John Swiney was a son of General George Swiney of the Bengal Horse Artillery. In 1841 they lived at Newick House in Bath Road and his father and uncle were two of the first directors of the college. By 1846 the family had moved to 5 Sandford Place, which later (with no. 6) became known as Sandford Lawn.
John Swiney entered the service of the East India Company in 1849 and during the Indian Mutiny of 1857 he was captured by the Rajah of Pattanah but later released. He rose through the ranks of the Indian army and was appointed a Major General in 1890. Dying at Sandford Lawn in 1918, he was buried at St Peter's church in Leckhampton. By 1881 Rosa Frances Swiney, who was born in Bombay of a military family, was living in Cheltenham with their children, whilst her husband was serving in the army. They moved to his family home at Sandford Lawn in the late 1880s and by 1891 they lived here with the children, some of whom had been born in India and some in Cheltenham. In 1892 it was reported that a boarding house for the sons of Jewish parents at Cheltenham College was to be set up at Sandford Lawn, perhaps reflecting the large size of the property and the close association of the Swineys with the college.
 1918
Rosa seems to have been a very capable and independently-minded person. She was very active in the National Women's Suffrage Society and served as the President of the Cheltenham branch in 1907, supported by her husband. She often corresponded in the local newspapers about the suffrage movement, wrote articles about the emancipation of women in various countries and hosted conferences and garden fetes at her home. Soon after John Swiney died, in 1918, she established a private nursing home for invalid ladies at Sandford Lawn. She died in May 1922 and was buried alongside her husband. The house and contents came up for sale within a few weeks.
In June 1923 Sandford Lawn became the home of the Irving Academy of Dancing and Dramatic Art, which was founded and managed by Madame Ethel Irving. She was born in 1885 into a Gloucester family of modest means, the daughter of Joseph Collett, a greengrocer, and his wife Emily. In 1909, as Miss Ethel Collett, she was described in the local newspapers as an 'elocutionist' and was an assistant elocution teacher, much acclaimed for her public dramatic recitations. In her obituary it was reported that as a young woman she briefly became an actress, performing in London with, amongst others, the famous Henry Irving. A recent survey of the national newspapers of the time has not revealed any evidence to support this assertion.
 Cheltenham Looker-On, 1916
Before the First World War Ethel Collett became a suffragette, in 1911 performing dramatic monologues at local suffrage meetings. In her obituary it was claimed that in the company of Sylvia Pankhurst she once chained herself to the railings of Hyde Park and spent a while in Holloway Prison, however it has not been possible to find any contemporary newspaper reports of the event. By 1914 she had become an elocution teacher in Cheltenham and in 1916 she married Mr Charles Grahame Irving of Dumfries, who was the chief cashier at the Gloucester branch of Lloyds bank. In the same year Madame Ethel Irving advertised her 'studio of elocution' at Dale, Forty & Co., Ltd. in Cheltenham Promenade.
In 1923, possibly through her association with the late Rosa Frances Swiney, Ethel and Charles Irving acquired Sandford Lawn and in 1924 advertised to buy an ex-army hut, which they then converted into the "Little Theatre". It could seat 200 and many shows were given there by the pupils of the Academy, which developed a national reputation. Included in the curriculum at various times were elocution, dramatic art, fencing, pianoforte, violin, singing, french conversation, gymnastics and dancing.
On the wider stage, Madame Ethel Irving was appointed a director of the Royal Academy of Music and ran the Gloucestershire branch of the British Institute of Drama from here. She has been described as an extrovert with a passion for popular and worthy causes, for example protesting against capital punishment by joining a picket at Gloucester prison, and imbued her values into her children. Her husband was altogether quieter but a competent businessman, who died in 1935. Madame Irving retired from the Academy in 1937 but it continued as the Sandford Lawn School and Studio, under new management.  1943
In 1938 Ethel Irving opened the Irving Hotel at Sandford Lawn, taking on her younger son Charles (1923-95) as the manager in 1943. He had already gained some valuable experience working in hotels in London, having left school at the age of 14. Throughout the 1940s the hotel prospered and hosted many events and groups visiting the town.
 Charles Irving
Charles G. Irving became managing director of Irving Hotels Ltd. in 1949, having developed the business into a group. He was very active in local life and was a dynamic businessman, managing other businesses, including the Irving Engineering Company at Woodchester and the Irving Crane Company. He was elected to Cheltenham Borough Council at the age of 24 in 1947, serving for almost 50 years, and to Gloucestershire County Council in 1948. He served twice as local mayor, in 1957 and 1971, and as a tribute to his mother chose her to be his Mayoress during his first term. She sadly died later in 1957, having suffered a prolonged period of ill-health.
 Photo courtesy of Nik Thomas
Charles Irving went on to become Conservative MP for Cheltenham from 1974-1992. In parliament he was Chairman of the Select Committee on Catering and a member of the All Party Mental Health Committee from 1979–1992. A committed campaigner for the improvement of conditions in prison, he was knighted in 1990 and died in 1995. Every day that Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister he arranged for her to be sent fresh flowers, which endeared him to her, although they did not always agree politically. His final request was that his and his twin sister's ashes be spread over Cheltenham from a light aircraft. Sir Charles Irving will be long remembered in Cheltenham for his support for many liberal organisations and for his charitable trust which has awarded considerable sums to local good causes.
Today 105-107 is the home of Cotswold Physiotherapy, which has been here since 1994 and occupies the former ballroom of the Irving Hotel. The clinic is run by partners Anne Hackett and Chris Johnson, with a team of fourteen part time physiotherapists and five clerical staff. Researcher: Stuart Manton (Jan 2021)
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