John Bradley – January 2020 – contact: bayleaf@waitrose.com
It has been stated in publications concerning the history of Hanworth that the present Hanworth Park House (HPH) was completed in 1802 as a replacement for Hanworth Palace, which was destroyed by fire in 1797.[1] There is, however, a growing amount of evidence to suggest that this is not the case and that the date of the HPH’s construction is much later, probably after 1828 by the then owner of the estate Henry Perkins. Below is a list of the evidence found to date:
· Pevsner and Cherry state that a new house was built c. 1800, subsequently demolished after a sale in 1873, and that the present HPH was probably built soon after the estate was acquired by Henry Perkins in 1828.[2] Unfortunately, Pevsner and Cherry do not give sources for the information in their book. Pevsner was, nevertheless, a highly regarded architectural historian and his statements ought not to be dismissed out of hand. Furthermore the recognition that there might be more than one house over a span of time between the destruction of Hanworth Palace in 1797 and the end of the nineteenth century requires some consideration. The following points may help in this regard.
· The Enclosure map of c. 1802 does not show any new house in the area of HPH.[3] It is possible that the map was surveyed while construction (allegedly 1798-1802) was being undertaken, but considering the detail of the map, necessary for the purposes of enclosure, the reason for its complete absence needs to be explained. What is shown is small building directly south of the church and east of the stable. Further east is a structure which, given is position, may be the remains of Hanworth Palace
· The small building shown close to the stables on a painting in the LMA Collage collection[4] (dated to 1801 by a description on the painting) would appear to be that referred to above.
· An advertisement in the Morning Chronicle dated 24th July 1801 has for sale a house described as Hanworth House. As it refers to extensive gardens and more particularly stables associated with the building this suggests that it is the building constructed in the immediate aftermath of the 1797 fire and shown in the LMA Collage painting. The only other contender for such a house is Hanworth Farm. However, Hanworth Farm is on the edge of the estate abutting the River Crane whereas the Hanworth House of the advertisement is described as being: ‘in the centre of Hanworth Park’; hence it is unlikely to be Hanworth Farm.
· An examination of the Land Tax Records a significant change in the year 1799. A tax liability is recorded in the sum of £8 12s 1d for a Mr Bodecker.[5] This is the first appearance of any figure close to this sum. Furthermore this liability is close to the figure for Hanworth Farm occupied by Mr Wyatt (i.e. £9 9s 7d) and therefore suggests that a substantial holding has been established a couple of years after the fire of 1797. Subsequent years show a number of short leases or holdings for the same sum of money in the names of Penny esq. (1800), Hornsby (1801) and finally from 1803 onwards Mr. Howe. This Howe is shown as being the possessor of Hanworth in Cary’s map of 1817 (which although far less detailed than Greenwood’s map of two years later nonetheless gives no indication of the present Hanworth Park House). Given the changes in occupation in the first years of the nineteenth century it is in all probability that this is the property that is advertised in the Morning Chronicle of 24th July 1801. This advertisement states that the property is: ‘about eight acres’ in extent. The Bailiff’s house mentioned in the auction of 1873 records, in addition to many features similar to that of the 1801 advertisement, that it is a little under eight acres in extent.[6]
· An indenture dated 14th August 1802[7] sets up a trust for the Duke’s properties in the area including “all that park or inclosed ground in Hanworth aforesaid or known by the name of Hanworth Park”. The trustees were: Sir Gilbert Heathcote, baronet; James Ramsay Cuthbert; Robert Snow and Edward Boodle, esquires who until 1810 were described as Lords of the Manor in the Court Book.[8] The indenture specifically mentions “also that the sale of the capital messuage or mansion house called Hanworth House lately burnt down and the messuage or tenement erected or built on the same site with all outhouses and appurts belonging thereto“. There is no mention of any property that might be the current Hanworth Park House; it therefore suggests that HPH did not exist in 1802.
· Brewer et al. in 1816 describe J. R. Cuthbert as having bought Hanworth Great Park with the ‘small park’ being retained by the Duke of St Albans.[9] It is probably around the time of this purchase that the distinction was made between Great and Little Parks. The Little Park equates with Hanworth Farm (as identified on the 1819 map by Greenwood). The house in Hanworth Great Park is described as being of ‘moderate proportions’[10] a description that better suits the image in the LMA Collage collection rather than the present HPH. Hanworth Park House, even without the later extensions could hardly be described as being of moderate proportions.
· Greenwood’s map of 1819 shows considerable changes to the estate from previous maps and thus can be held to be reasonably accurate. Although there are structures between the church and the stables which accord with there being a Hanworth House on the approximate site of the original Hanworth Palace there is no structure of any kind close to and south of the Longford River where HPH now is.
· An indenture made 18th July 1828 leasing the manor or lordship of Hanworth by F. J. Cuthbert to Henry Perkins refers to Hanworth House as a Manor House and Hanworth Park as the estate in general extending beyond the ‘Hampton River’ (presumably that now known as Longford River).[11] The ground where HPH is part of the lease, but HPH is not mentioned suggesting it is not built at this time.
· All the above reinforces rather than detracts from Pevsner’s and Historic England’s opinion that HPH was post-1828.
Finally, in the Sales Particulars of the estate drawn up for auction in 1873 following the death of Henry Perkins’ successor, Algernon Perkins, states that Hanworth Park House was built c. 1832 by Henry Perkins.[12] The same document records that there was, in addition to Hanworth Park House, a ‘Bailiff’s House’ of eight bedrooms close to the church. This property is referred to in the auction of 1874 (i.e. when the estate was substantially sold off in pieces) as ‘The Residence’.[13] It is this that is probably that shown on the enclosure map of c. 1802 and the painting of 1801.
To summarise there were three buildings:
Pre-1797 Hanworth Palace.
c. 1800 to post-1873 Hanworth House, built on the same site, but on a smaller scale to Hanworth Palace.
c. 1832 to present Hanworth Park House, the current extant house. Called Hanworth Park House to differentiate it from the then existing Hanworth House.
Bibliography.
Brewer, J.N., E.W. Brayley and J. Nightingale, 1801-1816. The Beauties of England and Wales: or, delineations / with engravings by John Britton and Edward Wedlake Brayley. Vol. 10, part 4 (1816). London. Vernor and Hood.
Cameron, A. 1979, The History of the Royal Manor of Hanworth.
Cary, J. 1817, Actual Survey of the Country Fifteen Miles Around London … London.
Greenwood, C. 1819, Map of the County of Middlesex, from an Actual Survey made in the Years 1818 & 1819. London.
Pevsner, N. and Cherry, B. 1991, The Buildings of England. London 3: North West. Harmondsworth.
Wright, J.E.B.C and Finnis, J.H.B. n.d., A Book of Hanworth. Lincoln.
[1] Cameron 1979: 22 states that construction of HPH commenced in 1798 and was completed in 1802. Wright and Fennis (n.d.): 18 repeats Cameron’s start and completion dates.
[2] Pevsner and Cherry 1991: 421-422.
[3] LMA/ACC/0871/002.
[4] LMA Collage nr 31641.
[5] Land Tax Records for the parish of Hanworth 1799 compared to pre-1799 assessments accessed by ancestry.co.uk.
[6] LMA/ACC/1023/383.
[7] In bundle of correspondence LMA/4245/04/011.
[8] LMA/ACC/0681/004.
[9] Brewer et al. 1816: 521.
[10] Brewer et al. 1816: 521.
[11] LMA/ACC/1023/012.
[12] LMA/ACC/1023/383.
[13]LMA/ACC/1023/398