So was Liz Taylor really born at a 1930s swingers’ party in the wealthy belt of Cheshire?

By
Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 5:03 PM on 30th March 2011

She certainly had a dramatic life worthy of a movie script which has been remembered in the days since her death.

But Elizabeth Taylor’s entry into this world may well have been just as dramatic as the rest of her life and it has emerged.

According to history books the actress was born at her parents home in Hampstead, North-West London.

Birth place: Elizabeth Taylor may have been born at a swingers party in Cheshire it has been claimed. Pictured here together in 1937

But in the wake of her death last week it has been claimed that her
mother actually gave birth to Elizabeth at a swingers’ party in Hartford,
Cheshire.

According to author and publisher Mark Bevan, Elizabeth’s mother Sara gave birth at the wild bash before racing back to London.

The
former editor of the Northwich Guardian newspaper said he believes
Liz’s parents, actress Sara and art dealer Francis travelled up to enjoy
weekend parties that he describes as the swingers of the 1930s.

Mark
said: ‘The story, and I have no reason to doubt its veracity, came from
the grandson of a Hartford woman who, especially during the 1920s and
30s, worked at some of the village’s large houses, many connected with
top ICI personnel who spent a good deal of their time in London. 

Elizabeth Taylor, aged seven, displaying clearly the double set of eyelashes that framed her eyes

‘Weekend parties in Hartford were well known and at one house the
guests occasionally included Francis and Sara Taylor, from London, who,
it was politely put to me, were swingers of their day engaged in what
were then illegal practices.  

‘The Taylors would travel to
Hartford by train, or arrive in a large Buick which the millionaire
Victor Cazalet had apparently bought for them.’

‘The story fits in as much as Liz’s birthday, 27 February 1932, was a Saturday.’

Sara retired from acting in 1926 when she married Elizabeth’s father

On
one such visit to Hartford, in 1932, Mrs Taylor was heavily pregnant
and, unexpectedly, gave birth during the night to a daughter.  

The
Taylors certainly didn’t want anyone to know where they were and so the
following morning they hastily returned to London where the birth of
the child, Elizabeth Taylor, was registered. 

Dramatic start to a dramatic life: Elizabeth Taylor life has been remembered in the days since her death

I was told that Elizabeth Taylor herself knew the truth.  After she became famous something came up about her birthplace she instantly responded Hartford, hastily added  Connecticut and then corrected it to London.

He added:  ‘When this came up I was astonished by it it’s an astonishing gem.
Sadly Mark does not know which house the star was born in but suspects it could have been in The Crescent.

Hartford was also the birth place for another screen icon, Ann Todd, in 1909, who went on to star in films from 1931 to 1979.  

Pat Hatfield, from Hartford Civic Society, said: I haven’t heard anything about Elizabeth Taylor being born in Hartford before but I’m fascinated and shall do some research.

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