George Baker (mayor)

[1] He was educated at the Friends' School, Ackworth, West Yorkshire, but started work at his father's blacking factory aged 15.

[1] Baker was a staunch Quaker and a life-long admirer of John Ruskin’s Utopian ideals.

In 1870 Baker acquired 381 acres of woodland in the Wyre Forest near Bewdley, Worcestershire from a sale of Crown property.

[3] Between 1875 and 1877 he commissioned the construction of Beaucastle, a major country house in the Arts and Crafts style near Bewdley.

The house features four stained-glass windows by Edward Burne-Jones, thought to have been made in William Morris's factory, although this cannot be verified.