Max Wenner

The main body of Batchcott Hall was built in the 17th century, with later additions and extensions added to accommodate the larger cleared areas being farmed. The landscape of the surrounding area (in particular the lakes and ponds) was sculpted by one of the Hall’s more intriguing owners: Max Wenner.

Max Wenner was of Swiss and Austrian descent – his father was Swiss Italian and his mother was Austrian, and they lived in Manchester where they were wealthy industrialists. Max Wenner bought Batchcott Hall after the First World War in which he fought on the Iron Front as a lieutenant pilot in the RAF. He spent many years at Batchcott Hall before meeting an untimely death in January 1937 when he “fell” 3,000 feet from an airliner flying from Cologne to Croydon.

Max Wenner was Lord of the Manor of Stretton-on-the-Dale and Ratlinghope, and one of three owners of Long Mynd (now owned by the National Trust). He used dams to create the lakes around Batchcott Hall, harnessing hydro-electric power for the Hall and its farm. He was described in his obituary as “a fine shot and fisherman [who] did much to develop…sport on his Longmynd estate”. He was also highly acclaimed as a zoologist and as a bird photographer. As well as many still photographs acclaimed for their artistic merit, he pioneered with his “cine camera” and was the first to capture an adder striking with its fangs a Ring-Ouzel, and another snake swallowing a young Meadow-Pipit. He was also the first person to photograph the breeding of the Crossbill in Merionthshire, and of the Woodcock in Denbighshire.

Max Wenner was a frequent traveller to and from Germany and often hosted shooting parties from Germany and Austria at Batchcott Hall. Guests included the German Ambassador to Britain in the 1930s, von Ribbentrop, who flew to the gatherings in his Luftwaffe Junkers 88 transport plane which was either landed on Long Mynd on the site of the original Midland Gliding Club (closer to Batchcott Hall and not the current Asterton location) or on the lower fields below Batchcott Hall. The sport available was of great appeal at the time, Long Mynd being the best grouse shooting area in Britain outside Scotland. Max Wenner subsequently obtained an injunction to prevent the Midland Gliding Club flying over his grouse moors on Long Mynd and that caused them to make a second landing strip at their current location at Asterton. Max Wenner had connections to Nazis at the highest levels, and some have speculated that he had thereby deliberately caused two landing strips to be available for German invasion. Certainly, after war broke out in 1939, both landing strips were destroyed as they were seen as possible landing locations for the Luftwaffe.

Max Wenner’s tragic death followed many years of travel between Germany and Britain. Records show that he found himself frequently shadowed and possibly involved in espionage as the appeasement movement declined in influence. Swastika embossed fenigs were found throughout Batchcott Hall during its renovations in 2006, some of which appear in the library of the Hall today, together with press cuttings and estate agent’s particulars of the sale of the Hall following his death. There is also the suitcase with which Max Wenner was believed to have boarded the aircraft for his last flight in 1937 (kept by a local farmer and returned to the current owner in 2011). For press cuttings about Max Wenner and an article from the Malcolm Saville Society about the man thought to have inspired some of Malcolm Saville’s novels (in particular, Mystery at Witchend), please see the framed articles in the Hall’s library.