Episode 87. Shaw’s Corner in Hertfordshire
SYNOPSIS
George Bernard Shaw and his wife Charlotte Payne-Townshend rented a quiet country retreat, a former rectory, away from their London home in the Hertfordshire village of Ayot St Lawrence in 1906. By this time, the polymathic Shaw had established himself as a major pamphleteer for the Fabian Society, as an art, music and theatre critic and, after experimenting unsuccessfully with novel-writing, as a major satirical force on the London stage.
Shaw’s breakthrough had come with Arms and the Man in 1894, to which were added Major Barbara and Man and Superman, both first performed in 1905. Subsequent plays, including Pygmalion were written in the revolving hut that Shaw had installed in the garden. From 1920 the Shaws acquired the freehold of what was termed Shaw’s Corner, and he lived there until his death in 1950, aged ninety-four years.
The episode describes Shaw’s Dublin youth and his encounter with that city’s slums as a rent collector, and how this later influenced Shaw’s financial support for the Hertfordshire garden cities of Letchworth and Welwyn. His friendships, quiet philanthropy and generosity towards the ordinary people of the village are explored, as is his determination to bequeath his property to the National Trust to establish a legacy that continues to this day.
GUESTS
A librarian by profession, Philippa Parker leads the Letchworth Local History Research Group. She co-edited Industrial Letchworth: The first garden city, 1903-20, which was published by Hertfordshire Publications, an imprint of University of Hertfordshire Press in 2021. Philippa is also an acknowledged expert on George Bernard Shaw. She has volunteered at the National Trust’s Shaw’s Corner in the village of Ayot St Lawrence since 2009 and writes and researches for Shaw-related journals.
Simon’s interview with Philippa Parker was recorded at her Letchworth home on 6 July 2026.