George Robert Marmaduke Stanbury Taylor was the only son of the Taylor family who lived in Baysgarth House. He was born in 1895 and educated at Eton and Cambridge. He joined the Army in 1915, spending time in Ireland and with the B.E.F in France, from where he was posted to the Front in March 1917 as a Lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery, 295 Brigade. Stanbury wrote home frequently and Baysgarth was often mentioned, also how life was in the trenches, although the reality was probably masked to spare his family. Several of his letters used a simple code to inform his Father of his position, breaking strict censorship rules! In the early hours of 30th September 1917 a gas shell hit his dugout in the battle for high ground near Passchendaele, and although his respirator was damaged he managed to help rescue others. He returned to the dugout after the battle but later succumbed to the effects of the gas. Stanbury died at 7pm the same day, and was buried at Mendingham British Cemetery. The story of the Taylor Family is an interesting and also a very sad one, the story of a Family with high aspirations, which, after Stanbury’s death, were sadly never realised. Stanbury’s sister Ermyntrude had married well, and when both her parents had died she bequeathed, in 1930, the House and this lovely Parkland to the people of Barton.
There is ample car parking at both ends of the Park, and whilst you are here you may also wish to visit the nearby Leisure Centre. The Baysgarth House Museum, which has a variety of interesting exhibits, is open on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays from 12noon until 4pm..