Coalbrook Manor

Coalbrookdale ~1863~ House of Stern

Coalbrook Manor - Family Seat

The manor is build on a rise that perches over the Coalbrookdale road, lying a few hundred feet south-west of the road itself, the house is screened from the road by a high hedge. An ancient arched stone gateway with wrought-iron gates and marked with the Stern coat of arms blocks access to those not invited.

History: 1715 to 1863

Residents

Coalbrook Manor serves as the seat of the Stern Family and as such hosts a dozen or so resident family members and an odd number of relatives who for various reasons are in residence for the interim.

• Kenneth Stern -- (1791 - ) -- The eldest, heir and patriarch of the Stern family, he had a long and distinguished career in the East India Company long before it fell into corruption and scandal. He is an old military bachelor with no heirs, although there are rumors of foreign bastards, and he has retired to Coalbrook Manor to ride out the last years of his life. He became heir to the family fortune after the death of the previous heir his younger brother Thornton Stern in 1860. He is called Raven by those close to him.

• Erskine Monte Stern -- (1793 - ) -- The second son, he also followed in his father's footsteps and entered the service of the noble East India Company. A stuffy old man who lives by a military discipline, he spends most of his time with his elder brother Kenneth hunting in the nearby woods, playing chess or working on his revision of the military histories of the British Empire. An odd man, he never seemed to have time for women, but maintains many correspondences with men from around the world. Like his elder brother, he has retired to the family seat to live out his last years and dotes upon the Stern family children.

• Todd Colin Stern -- (1800 - ) -- Son of Dyson Stern & Verna Alvey -- Resident in his mother's rooms over the five years since her death.

• Gabrielle Kimball Stern (1830 - ) -- The widow of her late husband Hollis Scot Stern who died in service to the East India Company during the Indian Rebellion of 1857. By friends and family she is called Julia and despite the death of her husband has become a fully adopted member of the Stern family. She and her four children have resided at Coalbrook Manor since the death of her husband in 1857. (Missing)
  • Jonathon Mayson Stern (1850 - ) -- A precocious thirteen-year old.
  • Alexa Sandie Stern (1852 - ) -- A pretty eleven-year old girl and a bit of a tom-boy.
  • Cletis Laird Stern (1854 - ) -- An nine-year old boy with a bright and curious mind. (Missing)
  • Wallace Aubrey Stern (1856 - ) -- A loving boy of just seven years who never met his father. (Missing)

Servants

Coalbrook Manor is was established as twenty-five room manor house in 1715, but over the last one-hundred and fifty-eight years, it has grown into a rambling Neo-Gothic mansion of over one-hundred rooms. And as such it requires an extensive crew of servants to even keep it clean, let alone repaired, thus there are at least twenty-five servants working around the mansion and grounds.

• Alger Hollands -- Head Butler

• Douglas Colbert -- Stable Master
  • Simon Irvine -- Lead Groom
    • Amery Smedley -- Coachman

• Lenora Wray -- First Maid
• Bonnie Ready -- The Cook

• Vaughn Adkins -- Kennel Master
  • Elodie Adkins -- The Kennel Master's daughter

• Elmer Beverley -- Gamekeeper

• Ken Cocks -- Gatekeeper

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