Tolmers Park is amanor house inNewgate Street Village nearHatfield inHertfordshire,England.
The early history of the manor is obscure, but in a register of lands belonging to theBishop of Ely compiled in 1277, a certain Walter de Tolymer was tenant-in-chief of lands close toHatfield Great Park. It is likely that he is the origin of the Tolmers name. A famous lord of the manor wasRobert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester who held Tolmers from 1566 until his death without heirs in 1588, when his land reverted to the Crown. Legend has it that the young LadyArbella Stuart was detained there in the custody of the Earl. In 1608, Tolmers was granted to Sir Henry Goodere, a colourful character who was always short of money and given to writing poems to prominent figures in the Royal Household in the hope of advancement. In a petition of 1626 applying for a position at Court, he wrote that he "desired only meat, drink and lodging, with some dignity, in that place where I have spent most of my time and estate." He died in the following year.
In 1761, Tolmers Park was in the hands of Sir Frances Vincent, who replaced theTudor house with the present building in theclassical style with anIonian porch. TheNorthaw Inclosure Act 1803 (43 Geo. 3. c.11Pr.) allowed part ofNorthawCommon to be enclosed and planted with specimen trees to form Home Wood. The whole estate was sold at auction in 1834. It was bought by Samuel Mills, ofRussell Square, a textile and property magnate, who already owned adjoining land inCuffley. The estate then passed to his son, Thomas Mills, who wasMP forTotnes and then to his other son, John Remington Mills, also an MP (forWycombe).[1] In 1860, Tolmers was leased toThomas Bazley, aManchester cotton mill owner who had been aRoyal Commissioner for theGreat Exhibition and was MP for Manchester. He became 1st Baronet Bazley of Tolmers in 1869 (motto: Finem Respice).[2] The ownership of the estate eventually passed to Samuel Mills’ two great-granddaughters, one of whom was the novelistMary Cholmondeley. From 1910 to 1918 the eastern edge of the estate was busy with excavations for theHertford Loop railway line, one of the last great projects of the railway age.
InWorld War I the house was used as a military hospital and between the wars was a girls’ boarding school,[3] which had its ownGirl Guide Company (1st Tolmers). On anOrdnance Survey map dated 1921, part of Tolmers is shown as a golf course. In 1939, 50 acres (200,000 m2) of the estate south of Cuffley Brook was sold to theBoy Scouts Association for use as a campsite.Tolmers Scout Camp was opened on 11 May 1940 byLord Wigram.[4] On the outbreak ofWorld War II, Tolmers Girls School was evacuated, eventually to settle atBeechwood Park nearSt Albans. The house again became a military hospital, but later in the war the hospital was used for geriatric patients[5] and it continued in this role until the 1980s. When theHealth Service finally vacated Tolmers Park, the house (a Grade IIListed Building[6]) was refurbished. The estate remains as altered by Ray Franklin, the developer, converted into 16 luxury houses.
51°43′34″N0°07′03″W / 51.7261°N 0.1175°W /51.7261; -0.1175