Fetcham Park
Encyclopedia
Fetcham Park House is a Grade II listed, Queen Anne
mansion designed by the English architect William Talman
with internal murals by the renowned artist Louis Laguerre
and grounds originally landscaped by Capability Brown. It is located in the parish of Fetcham
in Surrey
.
Construction of the present mansion began in 1699 although a reference in the Domesday
survey suggests that there was already then a house at Fetcham Park.
, who inherited the estate from his father in 1697. He chose William Talman
, an established architect with a reputation for his mercurial temperament, who was a pupil of Sir Christopher Wren
and was in the service of King William III
at Hampton Court
. Before construction was complete, Vincent moved to Norfolk
and let Fetcham Park House to Arthur Moore M.P.
Fetcham Park House was sold to Moore for £8,250 in 1705. He invested a fortune on the house and grounds, commissioning the stairway murals and ceiling paintings by the celebrated French artist Louis Laguerre
, whose work can also be seen at Blenheim Palace
and Hampton Court. It was then too that Capability Brown advised on the garden design. Laguerre was born in Paris
in 1663 and came to England in 1684. His father had been in charge of the royal menagerie and Louis XIV
was his godfather. As well as Fetcham Park House and Chatsworth
, he worked at Burghley
, Blenheim
, Marlborough House
, Hampton Court and Buckingham House.
But Moore spent so extravagantly that after his death in 1730 there were insufficient funds to maintain the estate and it was sold in 1737 to Thomas Revell, Agent Victualler at Gibraltar
. Revell’s descendants sold the estate, then totalling 1326 acres (5.4 km²), to John Richardson in 1788.
It was soon re-sold to the London banker Thomas Hankey, whose family owned it for the next 138 years. Before his death in 1793 Thomas Hankey added two curved wings at the north and south ends of the house. By 1875 John Hankey inherited the property and commissioned a major refurbishment by the respected architect Edward I'Anson
. This was designed to alter the appearance of the house and brought French and Flemish
influences to the original Queen Anne design and the later Georgian
additions. I’Anson’s legacy includes the mansard roof
and typical Flemish turreted tower block on the west side, providing an entrance hall and two rooms above, and a two storey wing at the south end of the house.
Captain George Hankey was the last of the family to live in the house, dying there in October 1924. Many members of the Hankey family are buried in the graveyard adjoining Fetcham Park.
The house remained empty for two years until it was acquired by the Reverend James Wilkie, Rector of the Parish of Badingham
in Suffolk
. Land to the east and south was sold for a housing development but the Rev Wilkie turned the mansion into a boys’ boarding school called Badingham College. Internal alterations were made and new buildings were added in the grounds, now less than 30 acres (121,405.8 m²).
The school thrived until its founder died in 1965, when more land was sold, leaving the mansion with four and a quarter acres. The house was badly neglected in the next few years, being "argued over, fought about and discussed but not occupied" (Surrey Villages, Pitt and Shaw, 1971). In 1979 the then derelict building was sold for £775,000 to a company called United Trading Group, which spent around £4 million returning it to its former splendour. False walls concealing Laguerre’s stair and hall paintings were removed and his artwork sensitively restored after the ravages of Victorian over-embellishment, smoke damage from a fire and damp from a leaking roof.
The 1980–81 alterations included an extension to the second floor and the addition of catering facilities in the basement. Two of the rooms on the ground floor east side were panelled in oak and mahogany and the Shell Room, with its magnificent ceiling painting, was among those where the plasterwork, gilding and architectural details were painstakingly restored. The first and second floors were redecorated and adorned with mainly French antique furniture and some fine paintings. The grounds were replanted and ponds and illuminated fountains were created. During the renovation, the discovery of underground tunnels at the front of the house led to speculation about their history but they were later found to be Second World War air raid shelters
.
UTG House, as it was then known, was sold in 1986 and re-named Fetcham Park House before being sold, with its contents, to local property investors The Wilky Group Ltd in 1999.
Queen Anne Style architecture
The Queen Anne Style in Britain means either the English Baroque architectural style roughly of the reign of Queen Anne , or a revived form that was popular in the last quarter of the 19th century and the early decades of the 20th century...
mansion designed by the English architect William Talman
William Talman (architect)
William Talman was an English architect and landscape designer. A pupil of Sir Christopher Wren, in 1678 he and Thomas Apprice gained the office of King's Waiter in the Port of London...
with internal murals by the renowned artist Louis Laguerre
Louis Laguerre
Louis Laguerre , was a French decorative painter mainly working in England.Born in Versailles in 1663 and trained at the Paris Academy under Charles Le Brun, he came to England in 1683, where he first worked with Antonio Verrio, and then on his own...
and grounds originally landscaped by Capability Brown. It is located in the parish of Fetcham
Fetcham
Fetcham is a village in Surrey, England. It is west of Leatherhead, on the other side of the River Mole and Mill Pond springs and the associated nature reserve....
in Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
.
Construction of the present mansion began in 1699 although a reference in the Domesday
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
survey suggests that there was already then a house at Fetcham Park.
History
The mansion was commissioned by Henry VincentHenry Vincent
Henry Vincent was active in the formation of early Working Men's Associations in Britain, a popular Chartist leader, brilliant and gifted public orator, prospective but ultimately unsuccessful Victorian MP, and later an anti-slavery campaigner.- Early life :Henry Vincent was born in High Holborn,...
, who inherited the estate from his father in 1697. He chose William Talman
William Talman (architect)
William Talman was an English architect and landscape designer. A pupil of Sir Christopher Wren, in 1678 he and Thomas Apprice gained the office of King's Waiter in the Port of London...
, an established architect with a reputation for his mercurial temperament, who was a pupil of Sir Christopher Wren
Christopher Wren
Sir Christopher Wren FRS is one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history.He used to be accorded responsibility for rebuilding 51 churches in the City of London after the Great Fire in 1666, including his masterpiece, St. Paul's Cathedral, on Ludgate Hill, completed in 1710...
and was in the service of King William III
William III of England
William III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland...
at Hampton Court
Hampton Court Palace
Hampton Court Palace is a royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, Greater London; it has not been inhabited by the British royal family since the 18th century. The palace is located south west of Charing Cross and upstream of Central London on the River Thames...
. Before construction was complete, Vincent moved to Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
and let Fetcham Park House to Arthur Moore M.P.
Arthur Moore M.P.
Arthur Moore M.P. for Great Grimsby who represented the borough, for many years and during the reigns of several kings and queens. He was born in Ireland, but moved to England early. His brother was Colonel Sir Thomas Moore Arthur Moore's son was William Moore, M.P. for Banbury...
Fetcham Park House was sold to Moore for £8,250 in 1705. He invested a fortune on the house and grounds, commissioning the stairway murals and ceiling paintings by the celebrated French artist Louis Laguerre
Louis Laguerre
Louis Laguerre , was a French decorative painter mainly working in England.Born in Versailles in 1663 and trained at the Paris Academy under Charles Le Brun, he came to England in 1683, where he first worked with Antonio Verrio, and then on his own...
, whose work can also be seen at Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace is a monumental country house situated in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England, residence of the dukes of Marlborough. It is the only non-royal non-episcopal country house in England to hold the title of palace. The palace, one of England's largest houses, was built between...
and Hampton Court. It was then too that Capability Brown advised on the garden design. Laguerre was born in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1663 and came to England in 1684. His father had been in charge of the royal menagerie and Louis XIV
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...
was his godfather. As well as Fetcham Park House and Chatsworth
Chatsworth House
Chatsworth House is a stately home in North Derbyshire, England, northeast of Bakewell and west of Chesterfield . It is the seat of the Duke of Devonshire, and has been home to his family, the Cavendish family, since Bess of Hardwick settled at Chatsworth in 1549.Standing on the east bank of the...
, he worked at Burghley
Burghley House
Burghley House is a grand 16th-century country house near the town of Stamford, Lincolnshire, England...
, Blenheim
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace is a monumental country house situated in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England, residence of the dukes of Marlborough. It is the only non-royal non-episcopal country house in England to hold the title of palace. The palace, one of England's largest houses, was built between...
, Marlborough House
Marlborough House
Marlborough House is a mansion in Westminster, London, in Pall Mall just east of St James's Palace. It was built for Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, the favourite and confidante of Queen Anne. The Duchess wanted her new house to be "strong, plain and convenient and good"...
, Hampton Court and Buckingham House.
But Moore spent so extravagantly that after his death in 1730 there were insufficient funds to maintain the estate and it was sold in 1737 to Thomas Revell, Agent Victualler at Gibraltar
Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...
. Revell’s descendants sold the estate, then totalling 1326 acres (5.4 km²), to John Richardson in 1788.
It was soon re-sold to the London banker Thomas Hankey, whose family owned it for the next 138 years. Before his death in 1793 Thomas Hankey added two curved wings at the north and south ends of the house. By 1875 John Hankey inherited the property and commissioned a major refurbishment by the respected architect Edward I'Anson
Edward I'Anson
Edward I'Anson was an English architect whose works include buildings in London.-Life:I'Anson, born in St. Laurence Pountney Hill, London, 25 July 1812, was eldest son of Edward I'Anson , surveyor and architect in London...
. This was designed to alter the appearance of the house and brought French and Flemish
Flanders
Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...
influences to the original Queen Anne design and the later Georgian
Georgian architecture
Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1720 and 1840. It is eponymous for the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I of Great Britain, George II of Great Britain, George III of the United...
additions. I’Anson’s legacy includes the mansard roof
Mansard roof
A mansard or mansard roof is a four-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterized by two slopes on each of its sides with the lower slope at a steeper angle than the upper that is punctured by dormer windows. The roof creates an additional floor of habitable space, such as a garret...
and typical Flemish turreted tower block on the west side, providing an entrance hall and two rooms above, and a two storey wing at the south end of the house.
Captain George Hankey was the last of the family to live in the house, dying there in October 1924. Many members of the Hankey family are buried in the graveyard adjoining Fetcham Park.
The house remained empty for two years until it was acquired by the Reverend James Wilkie, Rector of the Parish of Badingham
Badingham
Badingham is a village and civil parish in the Suffolk Coastal district of Suffolk in eastern England. In 2007 it had an estimated population of 470....
in Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
. Land to the east and south was sold for a housing development but the Rev Wilkie turned the mansion into a boys’ boarding school called Badingham College. Internal alterations were made and new buildings were added in the grounds, now less than 30 acres (121,405.8 m²).
The school thrived until its founder died in 1965, when more land was sold, leaving the mansion with four and a quarter acres. The house was badly neglected in the next few years, being "argued over, fought about and discussed but not occupied" (Surrey Villages, Pitt and Shaw, 1971). In 1979 the then derelict building was sold for £775,000 to a company called United Trading Group, which spent around £4 million returning it to its former splendour. False walls concealing Laguerre’s stair and hall paintings were removed and his artwork sensitively restored after the ravages of Victorian over-embellishment, smoke damage from a fire and damp from a leaking roof.
The 1980–81 alterations included an extension to the second floor and the addition of catering facilities in the basement. Two of the rooms on the ground floor east side were panelled in oak and mahogany and the Shell Room, with its magnificent ceiling painting, was among those where the plasterwork, gilding and architectural details were painstakingly restored. The first and second floors were redecorated and adorned with mainly French antique furniture and some fine paintings. The grounds were replanted and ponds and illuminated fountains were created. During the renovation, the discovery of underground tunnels at the front of the house led to speculation about their history but they were later found to be Second World War air raid shelters
Air-raid shelter
Air-raid shelters, also known as bomb shelters, are structures for the protection of the civil population as well as military personnel against enemy attacks from the air...
.
UTG House, as it was then known, was sold in 1986 and re-named Fetcham Park House before being sold, with its contents, to local property investors The Wilky Group Ltd in 1999.