Woodcote Park

During the Roman occupation of Britain a section of the long-distance road known as Stane Street ran through the district extending from "Pebble Lane" in Ashtead as shown by John Lawrence on his map of 1638. A modern Ordnance Survey map has it passing north of Thirty Acre Barn and evidence has been found for continuation through Tudor Croft to Woodruff Stables (near the junction of Chalk Pit Road with Headley Road). A line may then be inferred to have crossed what is now Woodcote Park golf course to The Grove in Epsom. It is known then to have proceeded behind St Martin's parish church en route to Ewell.

The development of Ebbi's ham during Saxon times is considered in A Brief History Of Epsom And Ewell. In 727 Frithwald, subregulus of Surrey, and Bishop Erkenwald, are said to have granted to their newly founded abbey of Chertsey twenty mansas [a Latin word used as an alternative to the Anglo-Saxon 'hid' = archaic measurement of 'a hide', each of about 100-120 acres] of land in Epsom and this was confirmed by King Edgar in 967. Epsom is mentioned in the Domesday Survey among the possessions of Chertsey Abbey. Henry I granted the abbot leave to keep dogs on all his land inside the forest and outside, to catch foxes, hares, pheasants, and cats, and to inclose his park there and have all the deer he could catch, also to have all the wood he needed from the king's forests. Thus a hunting park came to be created in 1155 by enclosure of the south - western corner of the manor and the hamlet of Woodcote Green developed.

The Abbot's emparkment would have led to a need for the diversion of Stane Street. It was re-routed through Shepherds Walk, Ashtead, to Langley Vale before taking a turn to the north down what was called in 1871 Walnut Tree Road (later diverted to form Downs Road), Epsom. Stane Street became The Portway and these changes explain how a point east of Motshambles is mentioned as a bound in the 1495 itinerary around Epsom in a document from the Chertsey Cartulary. [see Appendix below.] A combination of the Abbot's Chalk or Marl Pit and the park pale could account for the dog-leg from Wilmerhatch Lane to Headley Road. [Link]. A linear earthwork may be traced on the ground from what was the Pleasure Pit to Nutshambles (NGR: TQ 20065787 to TQ 20105744). This bank and ditch surmounted by an ancient hedge is a fragment of the Epsom/Ashtead parish boundary from the Middle Ages. Although of large proportions (originally with an overall height of about 10 feet and width in the region of 35 feet), this is common to many boundary banks encountered elsewhere in Surrey.

In 1537, as part of the process of his suppression of lesser monasteries, Henry VIII "purchased" rather than confiscated the lands of Chertsey Abbey. Epsom was immediately granted to Sir Nicholas Carew, K.G., in tail male [meaning only sons could inherit], but in 1539, in consequence of his attainder, the manor returned to the Crown, and the next year was annexed to the honour of Hampton Court. In this period, a Tudor house appears to have been constructed within the former monastic deer-park. The capital messuage of Woodcote in Epsom, held of the sub-manor of Horton, then entered during the first half of the 16th century into the ownership of one John Ewell of Horton, and continued in his family until 1591, when it was the cause of litigation between Agnes Tyther, a descendant of John Ewell, and Roger Lamborde. This estate is reported to have come into the possession of John Mynne, lord of the manor of Horton, before 1597, and he settled it on his son William on his marriage.

A pedigree of Merston and Mynn in relation to the manor of Horton may be found in Manning and Bray's History of Surrey. The John Mynne, who had been holding the manor of Horton in 1564, died in 1595 leaving a son and heir William (born circa 1561), who was knighted 23 July 1603.

Sir William Mynne died in 1618 survived by nine children (John, born circa 1598, William the elder, Thomas, Nicholas, William the younger, Elizabeth, Frances, Dorothy and Jane). His will provided for the eldest son, John, to inherit his manors, tenements, hereditaments and lands but the estate was charged with various annuities for the younger children and substantial amounts to be paid as dowries when the daughters married.

Elizabeth described as a daughter of Sir William Minn of Woodcott, Surrey, and the widow of Sir Henry Berkeley of Wymondham, Leicestershire, became the second wife of Sir Hugh Wyndham, judge of common pleas, and Jane (born circa 1612) entered into a union with Thomas Hanson, citizen and grocer, at St Peter le Poer, London on 2 August 1631.

John Mynne himself married Alice daughter of William Hale and settled various lands and tenements on her, among them the manor house of Horton. During the first quarter of the 17th century the mansion at Woodcote Park passed from the Horton branch of the Mynne family to a kinsman, George. Futher, in order to pay his debts and with the consent of William Hale, John sold the remaining Horton estate to George Mynne "of Woodcote" during 1626.

George Mynne left two daughters, as co-heiresses Elizabeth who married Richard Evelyn and Anne married to Sir John Lewknor. On the division of his personal estate the manor of Horton fell to the share of Elizabeth who, having survived her husband and children, eventually left this manor, with Woodcote Park, to Charles Calvert, third Lord Baltimore, a great-grandson of Anne, daughter of George Mynne of Hertingfordbury, "a connexion of her family".

Epsom manor itself had descended to Edward Darcy who sold it to Mrs. Anne Mynne, widow of George Mynne of Horton Manor and daughter of Sir Robert Parkhurst: she left it by will to her daughter Elizabeth (as mentioned above) wife of Richard Evelyn, brother to John Evelyn the diarist. The Evelyns decided to reside at Woodcote and Richard commissioned the building of a new mansion there.

As already noted, Mrs. Evelyn bequeathed Woodcote to Charles Calvert, 3rd Lord Baltimore. He had held office as Governor of Maryland between 1661 & 1675, again in 1676, and from 1679 to 1684. Having been deprived of the province of Maryland in the Revolution of 1689, he was outlawed 1691/2. During 1694 named but not arrested in relation to the fabricated plot of Titus Oates and the Lancashire plot, he escaped arrest. Baron Baltimore then rose to the rank of Brigadier-General by 1696 and was promoted Major General in1704. He died 21 February 1714/5, aged 77, before being interred at St. Pancras.

Celia Fiennes provides a description from about 1712 of "Lord Baltimores in Woodcut Green encompassed with a wall at the entrance, a breast wall with pallisadoes, large courts one within the other, and a back way to the stables where there is a pretty horse pond; the house is old but low, though large run over much ground; as I drove by the side saw broad chimneys on the end and at due distance on the side on both ends the sides of a court which terminated in a building on which there is a lead with railes and barristers."

Woodcote Park descended with the title to Benedict Leonard Calvert, 4th Lord Baltimore, but his tenure was brief because he died less than two months later, 16 April 1715. Biographical details are available from the Dictionary of National Biography accessible through the Surrey Libraries website.

Charles Calvert, 5th Lord Baltimore, born 1699, (whose details may also be found in the DNB) succeeded. His brothers complained that he "pulled down everything" and "finished nothing" so that on 6 July 1724 Woodcote was found to be in disorder. Shortly before his death in 1751, Charles had gone on to engage John Vardy to design a stone-fronted Palladian range across the east front of the house. His son, Frederick, inherited the building whilst work was in progress before, according to Horace Walpole, spending a fortune making the interior 'tawdry' and 'ridiculous' in the 'French' style.

After Frederick Calvert, 6th and last Lord Baltimore, left England in 1771 Woodcote Park was sold with the manor of Horton to Mr. Monk who, during the following year, conveyed these estates to Mr. Nelson. In 1777, the properties were purchased by Arthur Cuthbert and he, after disposing of part of the park, re-sold the mansion and grounds ten years later to Lewis De Teissier (1736 - 1811), a merchant of London. De Tessier was responsible for the creation of a large ballroom by converting two rooms into one. Having died in the house, aged 75, of an "apoplectic fit" he was described as an "eminent French merchant of the old school said to have amassed nearly half a million pounds sterling". Mr. De Teissier's son (1794 - 1868), created by Louis XVIII the Baron de Teissier, was owner of the property at the beginning of the nineteenth century. He died in Brighton during 1868 aged 73.

We have a description of the house from 1828:

"The mansion is situated in a vale, at the foot of a well wooded eminence, which rises rather abruptly to the south. The east or entrance front is represented in the view given, as seen from the opposite eminence. The basement is cased with stone, and the remainder of the building is stuccoed. It consists of a centre with wings extending in a curvilinear form, and presents an extensive and very imposing frontage. A flight of steps, with balustrade, conducts to the hall which is of good dimensions, and is adorned with coupled Corinthian columns supporting a frieze. Amongst the principal apartments, of which five are en-suite, are two withdrawing-rooms; the walls of the smaller were decorated and painted, as also the ceiling, by foreign artists. The library is a very splendid room, being ornamented with a profusion of gilding on a blue ground. On the ceiling is painted Ganymede, by Verrio. An apartment, styled the painted room, has its walls covered with designs illustrative of the Greek romance of Daphnis and Chloe. At the west end of the building an apartment, formerly used as a chapel, has a painted ceiling representing the Resurrection, by Verrio. On the first floor is a room 40 feet by 28, and 18 feet high. The park lies about a mile south of the village of Epsom, and contiguous to the race-course; it contains about 350 acres."

In 1901, the large drawing room was said to have a ceiling also painted in part by Verrio, representing 'The Sacrifice to Diana', and another portion by Zucharelli entitled 'The Muses'. An altar from the third Lord Baltimore's Roman Catholic chapel had been removed to Ashtead parish church.

Baron de Teissier is reported to have re-decorated the mansion in Louis Quinze style before selling it during 1855 to Mr. Robert Brookes. The Illustrated London News for Saturday, July 15, 1882, provides additional information about this family: -

"The will (dated Feb. 17, 1871) of Mr. Robert Brooks, J. P., late of St. Peter's-chambers, Cornhill, and of Woodcote Park, Epsom, who died on the 5th ult., was proved on the 29th by Robert Alexander Brooks, Henry Brooks, and Herbert Brooks, the sons, the executors, the value of the personal estate amounting to upwards of £378,000. The testator leaves to his wife, Mrs. Hannah Brooks, his household furniture, jewellery, plate, pictures, books, horses, carriages, farming stock, and effects, £2000, and an annuity of £2500; she is also to have the use and enjoyment of his mansion house and estate, Woodcote Park, for life, but, if she elects so to do, she is to have instead an additional annuity of £500. On the termination of Mrs. Brooks's interest in the said estate, testator's and three sons are to have respectively, according to seniority, the option of purchasing it. To his grandson, Ernest Walter, the son of his deceased son Walter, he bequeaths £10,000; upon trust for his daughter, Mrs. May Browning, £10,000; and upon trust for his son, Arthur £8000. The residue of his real and personal estate he gives to his sons Robert Alexander, Henry, and Herbert. The deceased was the Conservative member of the House of Commons for Weymouth from 1859 to 1868."

After Mrs Hannah Brooks death was registered in Epsom for December Quarter 1885,Woodcote Park became the property of her son, Mr. Herbert Brookes, J.P., a Director of the Bank of England, from whom the estate was purchased by the Royal Automobile Club in 1913 for use as a country club.

Most of the historic rooms in the Vardy range were removed under instructions from the RAC. Advertisements for the sale of the important collection of architectural salvage appeared in the Connoisseur for 1914 and some fragments have ended up in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA.

The story of Woodcote Park Camp during the Great War is provided in a linked article.

In 1934, Woodcote Park was gutted by fire, but had been reconstructed by May 1936, only 21 months later. Outer pavilions of the building had survived together with the entrance steps, curved colonnades and balustrades. The facade was recreated, using some salvaged material, to resemble the original as far as possible. Other structures remain on the estate from the 18th century including farm buildings, a dovecote and the wellhouse.

During World War II Woodcote Park was used as a training centre with the grounds ploughed for agricultural purposes.

Brian Bouchard © 2009
Member of Leatherhead and District Local History Society