John Corbett - 1817-1901 The Worcestershire Salt King Volume One
Written by John Richard Hodges
John Corbett (1817-1901) the ‘Worcestershire Salt King’ was a fine example of the entrepreneurs and generous philanthropists of the 19th Century. He was the son of a Delph canal boat carrier, leaving school at 11 years of age and through sheer determination and hard work he amassed a personal fortune of £24 million.
As well as taking over the Stoke Prior Salt Works and building his model village for his workers he also built a fine French Chateau in the English Countryside which even today in the 21st Century takes the breath away with its sheer splendour: Ralph Edwards in his brochure for his Chateau Impney Hotel in 1948 writes:
‘The story of Impney Mansion is virtually the story of Droitwich itself, from the Victorian Era onwards; its history as strange and fascinating as one of the classic novels of that period, the characters strutting its stage as wild and turbulent as any that peopled them.
The figure of John Corbett, Esq., MP, emerges, clear-cut and vigorous, virtually owning the town of Droitwich; a hard-headed Victorian, amassing wealth on a prestigious scale, and spending with equal lavishness in order to gratify the sentimental whim that was provide a chateau in England for his French bride’.
