Career
Neeld was one of five brothers born to Joseph Neeld (1754–1828), a solicitor and Mary (née Bond) (1765–1857). The family lived in Hendon. He seems to have qualified as a Barrister of the Inner Temple but it is known that he set out on a career in property management.
In 1821 he took a lease on land in Paddington owned by Westminster Abbey.
In 1828, he inherited a substantial amount from his great-uncle, Philip Rundell the silversmith, as reward for giving up a "lucrative profession" to take care of him for thirteen years. With this bequest, Neeld bought the Manor of Grittleton, about seven miles to the north of Chippenham.
lieutenant had been revealed that Neeld already had a daughter by a French woman, and accordingly at his death Neeld had no legitimate heirs. However, Neeld began the construction of Grittleton Manor in Victorian Gothic revival style, and set about furnishing it with an extensive collection of antiques and paintings.
He was also a philanthropist, donating about £12,000 for the construction of a Town Hall for Chippenham, and building houses in Grittleton for his tenants.
Another of his commissions was for the building of Street Margaret of Antioch Church in Leigh Delamere. His name is commemorated in the Neeld Hall in Chippenham, as well as a row of cottages in Hendon which was built in 1870. In Grittleton itself, his name lives on in the name of the village public, "The Neeld Arms", and in the east window of the church of Street Mary the Virgin, accompanied by a plaque stating the window to have been "erected and dedicated by his (18) Friends and Tenants (71)".
In Maida Hill, North Westminster, formerly the Borough of Paddington, there are also a Neeld Arms and Grittleton Road.
Grittleton Manor itself was bought in 1973 and is now Grittleton House School. Neeld"s collection of art was split up, some pieces now being in the National Portrait Gallery and some in the Victoria and Albert Museum.