Hatchlands Park is a red-brick, Grade I listed building with surrounding gardens covering 170 hectares in East Clandon, just outside of Guildford. The Georgian mansion filled with historic keyboard instruments, set in rolling Repton parkland is a fantastic family attraction with walks, tours, concerts, plays and other such events held round the calendar.
The estates at Hatchlands were purchased in the 1750s by British naval hero Admiral Edward Boscawen and his independent and intelligent wife Frances (Fanny). The old house was demolished, but both Edward and Fanny showed enormous interest in the design of the new house and landscaped the grounds. Unfortunately, the Admiral died of typhoid in January 1761 and Fanny was left to sell the property to the Sumner family of the East India Trading Company in 1770.
Both father and son made further alterations to the property. Father and later, Sheriff of Surrey, William Brightwell Sumner commissioned Benjamin Armitage to make alterations. His son, George Holme Sumner took over the estate after his father’s death in 1796 and asked Humphry Repton to redesign the park and gardens. Towards the end of the century, Joseph Bonomi was commissioned to draw up plans to extend and improve the house, alter several rooms and to make a new entrance on the west front in 1797.
Although the house stayed in the Sumner family for four generations, Arthur Holme Sumner was forced to sell Hatchlands due to mounting debts in 1888 to Stuart Rendel. Lord Rendel made many changes to the house and gardens, constructing a new entrance on the east side and converting what had originally been Admiral Boscawen’s bedroom and dressing room into a dining room and entrance hall.
At the turn of the century, Randel asked influential garden designer Gertrude Jekyll to submit designs for a formal garden that contained a parterre, which you can still see today. Then, in 1902, he commissioned the prolific, British architect, Sir Reginald Blomfield to design and build a music room.
Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendel or ‘Hal’ inherited Hatchlands Park from his grandfather in 1913, making few, notable changes, but did add the stone temple to the garden before handing over the estate to the National Trust in 1945. ‘Hal’ stayed there until 1959, but Hatchlands has had various tenants since, including Francis Mathew, editor of The Times and then a Mr and Mrs Hargreaves who ran a school there until 1980.
In 1987 the house was leased to Mr and Mrs Alec Cobbe who brought to it their historic family collections of portraits, old master paintings, books, fine furniture and the famous collection of keyboard instruments. The Cobbe Collection is Europe’s largest collection of keyboard instruments associated with famous composers including JC Bach, Chopin, Elgar, Mozart, Beethoven and Bizet.
Hatchlands Park is a fine Georgian house with a magnificent array of art, furniture and historical instruments, with tranquil gardens and 400 acres of parkland. So head down with the family to experience the natural adventure area for children or to take a look around a fantastic piece of local history.
James Martin
Images sourced from: http://tinyurl.com/n3ks72v and http://tinyurl.com/ksy2qbq