Lost Heritage

Location		nr Whitchurch
Year demolished		1965
Reason		Partially reduced, then replaced by new house
See all images:		Gallery
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Throughout its history, Hurstbourne Park has witnessed many phases – monastic tenancy, gentlemanly ownership, aristocratic grandeur, wartime repurposing, and modern revival. Each era left its mark on the architecture and landscape. Today, while the original mansions are gone, the legacy of Hurstbourne Park endures in its historic parkland and remaining structures, offering a factual chronicle of an English country estate’s evolution over nearly a millennium.

Hurstbourne Park originated as the manor of Hurstbourne Priors in Hampshire, which was held by the Priory of St. Swithun (Winchester) in the Middle Ages. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 16th century, the estate passed into private hands. By the mid-1500s it was owned by the Oxenbridge family – Sir Robert Oxenbridge (d. 1574) served as Lord of the Manor and is commemorated in the local church. His grandson, another Sir Robert Oxenbridge (1595–1638), inherited Hurstbourne Priors but sold it in 1636 for £1,747 to Sir Henry Wallop of Farleigh Wallop. This sale brought Hurstbourne into the Wallop family, who would later be ennobled as the Earls of Portsmouth.

Sir Henry Wallop died around 1678 and was succeeded by his sons; ultimately his grandson John Wallop became Viscount Lymington and was created the 1st Earl of Portsmouth in 1743. The Wallop family would retain ownership for nearly three centuries, making Hurstbourne Park their principal seat.

The first mansion at Hurstbourne Priors (the original Hurstbourne Park house) was a substantial gentry house of the Tudor/Stuart period. King James I visited the manor in 1603, indicating the house’s prominence by the early 17th century. Little documentation survives of this first house’s architecture, but it likely had the character of an Elizabethan or Jacobean country manor. In the early 18th century, the 1st Earl commissioned architect Thomas Archer – one of the few English Baroque architects – to design an ambitious new residence and landscape for Hurstbourne. Archer drew up plans in 1712, but these plans were apparently not executed; two paintings by Jan Griffier the Younger show that the house that remained was much plainer than Archer’s grand design. One surviving structure from this era is the so-called Bee House, a brick garden pavilion (later converted to a dwelling) which may have been designed by Archer around 1712 as part of his scheme. The first mansion itself endured into the late 18th century, when it was either demolished or destroyed by fire to make way for a new house.

The 18th-Century Wyatt mansion (second house)

In the 1770s the estate was inherited by John Wallop, 2nd Earl of Portsmouth, who embarked on building a completely new mansion. From 1780 to 1785, a large Georgian country house was erected on the site, built by contractor John Meadows and designed by the renowned architect James Wyatt. Wyatt was a leading architect of the late Georgian era (a rival of Robert Adam), known for his neoclassical designs, and he gave Hurstbourne Park a fashionable new house in the taste of the period. The Wyatt-designed mansion (often referred to as the second house) was likely a grand symmetrical building of Neo-Classical character, befitting an 18th-century earl’s seat. It stood amidst extensive parkland improvements: notably, the famous landscape designer Lancelot “Capability” Brown had been employed earlier in the century (c.1740) to lay out the park and pleasure grounds in the naturalistic English landscape style. The estate featured a medieval deer park (dating to the 14th century) which was incorporated into Brown’s landscape design.

Under the Wallop family, Hurstbourne Park’s Wyatt mansion became a center of social life in Hampshire. Surviving letters of Jane Austen, for example, recount her attending a ball there in 1800. The 2nd Earl died in 1797, and his successors (including John Charles Wallop, 3rd Earl of Portsmouth, and later earls) kept the estate. A significant episode in the house’s history was the residency of the 3rd Earl, who was declared legally insane – he was kept under care at Hurstbourne Park for many years in the early 19th century, an episode which later became notorious in Georgian legal history (the subject of the book *The Trials of the King of Hampshire*). Despite such dramas within its walls, the Wyatt mansion stood for over a century as an imposing Georgian house.

By the late 19th century, however, this house’s fate met a dramatic end. In 1891, a catastrophic fire broke out and the entire Wyatt-built mansion was burned down. The incident proved fatal to the head of the family: Isaac Newton Wallop, 5th Earl of Portsmouth (a descendant who was then the owner) died just a few months after the fire, in 1891. With the ancestral home in ruins, his son Newton Wallop, 6th Earl of Portsmouth moved quickly to rebuild a new house on the same site - but it was also not to last.

Victorian rebuilding: the third house (1891–1894)

The 6th Earl commissioned a completely new mansion in the 1890s to replace the lost Wyatt house. The new house – the third on the site – was constructed between 1891 and 1894, designed by the architectural firm Beeston & Burmester. Plans for this rebuilding (now held by the Hampshire Record Office) show that the architects gave Hurstbourne Park a vast late-Victorian country house in a flamboyant eclectic style. In contrast to the restrained neoclassicism of Wyatt’s design, the 1890s mansion was a red-brick Elizabethan Revival style building, with gabled facades, tall chimneys, and elaborate terraced gardens – characteristic of late 19th-century tastes. The core of the house was completed by 1894, and further modifications or embellishments may have continued into the early 20th century. This third Hurstbourne Park house was built for the 6th Earl of Portsmouth and became the family’s residence into the 20th century. In terms of architecture, the 1890s house was massive and impressively appointed – it included features such as a great hall and a ballroom. The surrounding pleasure grounds were renovated as well, with formal terracing added near the house. The Victorian mansion at Hurstbourne Park remained the seat of the Wallop family (Earls of Portsmouth) into the early 20th century. However, changing fortunes in the 20th century eventually led the family to part with the estate.

20th century: decline, sale, and war-time use

By the 1930s, the Portsmouth family’s era at Hurstbourne Park was drawing to a close. In 1936, Gerard Wallop, 9th Baron Lymington (8th Earl of Portsmouth) sold the entire Hurstbourne Park estate – the house, park, and deer park – to Ossian Donner, a Finnish industrialist and diplomat, for £18,000. This marked the end of roughly 300 years of Wallop family ownership. Under the Donners, the estate saw a change in use during World War II: the huge country house was requisitioned for a time by the Bank of England. From 1940 to 1945, the Bank used Hurstbourne Park as a safe-site for wartime operations, taking advantage of its secluded location.

After the war, Ossian Donner’s son Sir Patrick Donner regained possession and resumed private ownership in 1947. By the 1960s, the upkeep of such a large Victorian mansion was becoming unsustainable. In 1965 Sir Patrick undertook a major reduction of the house: much of Hurstbourne Park (including the enormous ballroom wing) was demolished, reducing the building to just under half its original size. Essentially, the grand 1890s mansion was partially razed, leaving a smaller residence formed from the remaining sections. This partial demolition in 1965 effectively marked the end of Hurstbourne Park as one of Hampshire’s great houses. The estate’s ancillary structures, however, survived. Notably, the 19th-century stable block (a Georgian brick stable courtyard from the earlier house) remained intact and was later converted into cottages. Likewise, the old Bee House pavilion, as mentioned earlier, still stood on the grounds (it is now a Grade II\* listed building). The landscaped park itself, with its deer park and gardens, also survived and was recognized for its historic importance – it is listed Grade II on the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.

Recent developments (21st century)

The Donner family owned Hurstbourne Park into the late 20th century. Finally, in December 2000, they sold the 1,200-acre estate to a prominent banking family. At that time, what remained of the main house was the fragmented portion of the 1890s structure, which was not a protected building (the house itself was never listed). In 2001 the new owners announced plans to demolish the derelict remnants of the 19th-century house and to construct an entirely new country house on its footprint. The proposal included preserving the listed 19th-century walled garden, the Victorian pump house, and the stable block, integrating these historic elements into the revived estate. The idea was to create a modern country house and return Hurstbourne Park to use as a private family shooting estate, while respecting the heritage landscape and remaining structures.

After some delays in the planning process, including objections from various heritage organistaions, the project proceeded in the 2000s. By the late 2000s, the estate had been reorganized as intended: a new-built manor house now stands at Hurstbourne Park (architecturally echoing the traditional style), and the surrounding parkland is maintained for sporting and conservation uses. The historic legacy of Hurstbourne Park thus continues, albeit with a new house in place of the old. Importantly, the lineage of the estate – from monastic lands to Tudor manor, Georgian splendor, Victorian reimagining, and modern revival – is well documented. Today the parkland, garden terraces, and surviving structures like the Bee House and stables serve as tangible reminders of Hurstbourne Park’s long and layered history.

Ownership timeline (notable owners and residents)

• Priory of St. Swithun, Winchester (Medieval period – 1530s): Original lord of the manor (monastic grange) until the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
• Sir Robert Oxenbridge (16th century): Acquired the manor after Dissolution; his family built the first mansion. Sir Robert (d.1574) and his descendants held Hurstbourne Priors through the late 1500s.
• Sir Robert Oxenbridge (d.1616) & Sir Robert Oxenbridge (d.1638): Grandson and great-grandson of the above; the younger Sir Robert sold the estate in 1636 to the Wallops. King James I’s visit in 1603 occurred during Oxenbridge ownership.
• Sir Henry Wallop of Farleigh Wallop (1636–1670s): Purchased Hurstbourne Priors in 1636. Died c.1678, passing it to his sons.
• John Wallop, 1st Earl of Portsmouth (1690–1762): Inherited via his father John Wallop (Sir Henry’s son) in the late 17th century. As Viscount Lymington and then Earl, he commissioned Thomas Archer’s plans (1712) and possibly improvements to the first house.
• John Wallop, 2nd Earl of Portsmouth (1742–1797): Grandson of the 1st Earl. Inherited in 1762 and built the new Wyatt-designed mansion (1780–85).
• John Charles Wallop, 3rd Earl (1767–1853): Son of the 2nd Earl. Remembered for his mental incapacity, he was confined at Hurstbourne under care. The estate was managed by trustees during his lifetime.
• Earls of Portsmouth (4th–8th Earls, 1850s–1930s): The title passed through distant relatives (e.g. the 4th Earl was Newton Wallop, a cousin). Isaac Newton Wallop, 5th Earl (1825–1891) was owner when the Wyatt house burned in 1891. His son Newton Wallop, 6th Earl (1856–1917) built the 1891–94 house. The 7th Earl, Oliver Wallop (1873–1943), and Gerard Wallop, 8th Earl (1898–1984, then Lord Lymington) owned it up to the sale in 1936.
• Ossian Donner and the Donner family (1936–2000): Bought the estate in 1936. Ossian’s son Sir Patrick Donner occupied the house post-WWII, and dramatically downsized it in 1965. The Donners held the estate until 2000.
• A prominent banking family (2000–present): Purchased the estate in 2000. Initiated the reconstruction of a new house and currently maintain the estate as a private residence and sporting estate.