Woodcote Park
Encyclopedia
Woodcote Park is a stately home
in Surrey
, England
, currently owned by the Royal Automobile Club
. It was formerly the seat of a number of prominent English families, including the Calvert family, Barons Baltimore and Lords Proprietor of the colony
of Maryland
. The interior of the house once boasted a gilded library and number of fine murals by notable Italian artists including Antonio Verrio
, but most of the historic rooms were removed by the RAC, which had purchased the house in 1913, and what remained was destroyed by fire in 1934. The present appearance of the house dates from its restoration in 1936. However, one of the original drawing rooms, noted for its excellent carved wood panelling and other decorations in the style of Thomas Chippendale
, still survives in the Museum of Fine Arts at Boston, Massachusetts
.
the diarist, and is mentioned in the diary of Samuel Pepys
. The Evelyns left Woodcote to Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore
, proprietary governor of the colony
of Maryland
. Lord Baltimore, a Roman Catholic, lost control of the province of Maryland during the "Protestant Revolution" of 1689.
:
In 1715 the Third Lord Baltimore died, and Woodcote Park was inherited by Benedict Calvert, 4th Baron Baltimore
. However he died less than two months after his father, on 16 April 1715.
On Benedict's death Woodcote was inherited by the fifteen year old Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore
, born in 1699. Calvert made many changes to the house, including adding a Palladian facade by John Vardy
, though Lord Baltimore's brothers complained that he "pulled down everything" and "finished nothing".
On Charles's death in 1751, his son, Frederick Calvert, 6th Baron Baltimore
, inherited the estate. According to Horace Walpole, Frederick spent large sums of money making the interior of the house 'tawdry' and 'ridiculous' in the 'French' style.
Despite his enormous wealth, Frederick Calvert eventually found himself in financial difficulties, and, following his acquittal for rape at Kingston Assizes in 1768, he sold Woodcote Park, apparently to a wealthy Soho upholsterer.
, which had been seeking a country club with the potential for a golf course for its members. Most of the fine interiors commissioned by the Calverts were then removed by the RAC; the club instructed one Harold G. Lancaster of 55 Conduit St to remove the historic rooms and sell them at auction. During the Great War of 1914-18 Woodcote Park was taken over for military training.
In 1927 one of the mansion's drawing rooms, noted for its excellent carved wood paneling and other decorations in the style of Thomas Chippendale
(possibly originally designed for Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore
), was shipped to the United States and installed in the Museum of Fine Arts at Boston, Massachusetts
.
During World War II
, Woodcote Park was again taken over for military use, being pressed into service as a training centre. The ornamental gardens were ploughed up to grow food for the war effort. In the summer of 1940, during the height of the Battle of Britain
, a Hawker Hurricane
fighter aircraft was forced to land in the golf course of Woodcote Park. The pilot received medical assistance in the RAC clubhouse, having first proved that he was not an enemy airman by waving a packet of Players cigarettes
at nearby golfers.
; the other being in London
at 89-91 Pall Mall
.
Stately home
A stately home is a "great country house". It is thus a palatial great house or in some cases an updated castle, located in the British Isles, mostly built between the mid-16th century and the early part of the 20th century, as well as converted abbeys and other church property...
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...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, currently owned by the Royal Automobile Club
Royal Automobile Club
The Royal Automobile Club is a private club and is not to be confused with RAC plc, a motorists' organisation, which it formerly owned.It has two club houses, one in London at 89-91 Pall Mall, and the other in the countryside at Woodcote Park, Surrey, next to the City of London Freemen's School...
. It was formerly the seat of a number of prominent English families, including the Calvert family, Barons Baltimore and Lords Proprietor of the colony
Colony
In politics and history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their inception....
of Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
. The interior of the house once boasted a gilded library and number of fine murals by notable Italian artists including Antonio Verrio
Antonio Verrio
The Italian-born Antonio Verrio was responsible for introducing Baroque mural painting into England and served the Crown over a thirty year period.-Career:...
, but most of the historic rooms were removed by the RAC, which had purchased the house in 1913, and what remained was destroyed by fire in 1934. The present appearance of the house dates from its restoration in 1936. However, one of the original drawing rooms, noted for its excellent carved wood panelling and other decorations in the style of Thomas Chippendale
Thomas Chippendale
Thomas Chippendale was a London cabinet-maker and furniture designer in the mid-Georgian, English Rococo, and Neoclassical styles. In 1754 he published a book of his designs, titled The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker's Director...
, still survives in the Museum of Fine Arts at Boston, Massachusetts
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, is one of the largest museums in the United States, attracting over one million visitors a year. It contains over 450,000 works of art, making it one of the most comprehensive collections in the Americas...
.
Seventeenth Century
The present house was built in 1679 by Richard Evelyn, brother to John EvelynJohn Evelyn
John Evelyn was an English writer, gardener and diarist.Evelyn's diaries or Memoirs are largely contemporaneous with those of the other noted diarist of the time, Samuel Pepys, and cast considerable light on the art, culture and politics of the time John Evelyn (31 October 1620 – 27 February...
the diarist, and is mentioned in the diary of Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys FRS, MP, JP, was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is now most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man...
. The Evelyns left Woodcote to Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore
Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore
Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore, 2nd Proprietor and 6th and 9th Proprietary Governor of Maryland , inherited the colony in 1675 upon the death of his father, Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore. He had been his father's Deputy Governor since 1661 when he arrived in the colony at the age of 24...
, proprietary governor of the colony
Colony
In politics and history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their inception....
of Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
. Lord Baltimore, a Roman Catholic, lost control of the province of Maryland during the "Protestant Revolution" of 1689.
Eighteenth Century
In around 1712, Woodcote was described by Celia FiennesCelia Fiennes
Celia Fiennes was an English traveller. Born in Wiltshire, she was the daughter of an English Civil War Parliamentarian Colonel, who was in turn the second son of the William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele. Celia Fiennes died in Hackney in 1741.-Pioneering Female Traveller:Fiennes never married...
:
- "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."
In 1715 the Third Lord Baltimore died, and Woodcote Park was inherited by Benedict Calvert, 4th Baron Baltimore
Benedict Calvert, 4th Baron Baltimore
Benedict Leonard Calvert, 4th Baron Baltimore, 10th Proprietary Governor of Maryland was an English nobleman and politician. He was the second son of Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore by Jane Lowe. He became his father's heir upon the death of his elder brother, Cecil in 1681...
. However he died less than two months after his father, on 16 April 1715.
On Benedict's death Woodcote was inherited by the fifteen year old Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore
Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore
Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore, 3rd Proprietor and 17th Proprietary Governor of Maryland, FRS was a British nobleman and Proprietary Governor of the Province of Maryland...
, born in 1699. Calvert made many changes to the house, including adding a Palladian facade by John Vardy
John Vardy
John Vardy was an English architect attached to the Royal Office of Works from 1736. He was a close follower of the neo-Palladian architect William Kent....
, though Lord Baltimore's brothers complained that he "pulled down everything" and "finished nothing".
On Charles's death in 1751, his son, Frederick Calvert, 6th Baron Baltimore
Frederick Calvert, 6th Baron Baltimore
Frederick Calvert, 6th Baron Baltimore, 4th Proprietor of Maryland was an English nobleman and last in the line of Barons Baltimore...
, inherited the estate. According to Horace Walpole, Frederick spent large sums of money making the interior of the house 'tawdry' and 'ridiculous' in the 'French' style.
Despite his enormous wealth, Frederick Calvert eventually found himself in financial difficulties, and, following his acquittal for rape at Kingston Assizes in 1768, he sold Woodcote Park, apparently to a wealthy Soho upholsterer.
Nineteenth Century
In 1812 the house was described in the following terms:- "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 GanymedeGanymede (mythology)In Greek mythology, Ganymede is a divine hero whose homeland was Troy. Homer describes Ganymede as the most beautiful of mortals. In the best-known myth, he is abducted by Zeus, in the form of an eagle, to serve as cup-bearer in Olympus. Some interpretations of the myth treat it as an allegory of...
, by VerrioAntonio VerrioThe Italian-born Antonio Verrio was responsible for introducing Baroque mural painting into England and served the Crown over a thirty year period.-Career:...
. 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."
Twentieth Century
In 1913 the house was purchased by the Royal Automobile ClubRoyal Automobile Club
The Royal Automobile Club is a private club and is not to be confused with RAC plc, a motorists' organisation, which it formerly owned.It has two club houses, one in London at 89-91 Pall Mall, and the other in the countryside at Woodcote Park, Surrey, next to the City of London Freemen's School...
, which had been seeking a country club with the potential for a golf course for its members. Most of the fine interiors commissioned by the Calverts were then removed by the RAC; the club instructed one Harold G. Lancaster of 55 Conduit St to remove the historic rooms and sell them at auction. During the Great War of 1914-18 Woodcote Park was taken over for military training.
In 1927 one of the mansion's drawing rooms, noted for its excellent carved wood paneling and other decorations in the style of Thomas Chippendale
Thomas Chippendale
Thomas Chippendale was a London cabinet-maker and furniture designer in the mid-Georgian, English Rococo, and Neoclassical styles. In 1754 he published a book of his designs, titled The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker's Director...
(possibly originally designed for Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore
Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore
Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore, 3rd Proprietor and 17th Proprietary Governor of Maryland, FRS was a British nobleman and Proprietary Governor of the Province of Maryland...
), was shipped to the United States and installed in the Museum of Fine Arts at Boston, Massachusetts
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, is one of the largest museums in the United States, attracting over one million visitors a year. It contains over 450,000 works of art, making it one of the most comprehensive collections in the Americas...
.
Fire and Restoration
In 1934 the house was gutted by fire. Major restoration efforts were soon undertaken, and by May 1936 it had been largely reconstructed. Fortunately the outer pavilions of the house and many agricultural buildings remained intact, as well as the entrance steps, balustrades and colonnades. The facade of the house was restored as close to the original as was possible.WWII
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Woodcote Park was again taken over for military use, being pressed into service as a training centre. The ornamental gardens were ploughed up to grow food for the war effort. In the summer of 1940, during the height of the Battle of Britain
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain is the name given to the World War II air campaign waged by the German Air Force against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940...
, a Hawker Hurricane
Hawker Hurricane
The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd for the Royal Air Force...
fighter aircraft was forced to land in the golf course of Woodcote Park. The pilot received medical assistance in the RAC clubhouse, having first proved that he was not an enemy airman by waving a packet of Players cigarettes
John Player & Sons
John Player & Sons, known simply as Player's, was a tobacco and cigarette manufacturer based in Nottingham, England. It is today a part of the Imperial Tobacco Group.-History:...
at nearby golfers.
Woodcote Park today
Today Woodcote Park serves as one of two club houses of the RACRAC
-Companies:* Rent-A-Center, an American public furniture and electronics rent to own company* Royal Automobile Club, a private club in Pall Mall, London* RAC plc, a breakdown company in the United Kingdom...
; the other being in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
at 89-91 Pall Mall
Pall Mall, London
Pall Mall is a street in the City of Westminster, London, and parallel to The Mall, from St. James's Street across Waterloo Place to the Haymarket; while Pall Mall East continues into Trafalgar Square. The street is a major thoroughfare in the St James's area of London, and a section of the...
.
External links
- Epsom and Ewell History Explorer Retrieved August 31, 2010
- RAC official website Retrieved August 31, 2010