Worcester Park House, built in 1607,[1] whose ruins are inSurrey, in theUnited Kingdom, was one of the residences of the4th Earl of Worcester, who was appointed Keeper of the Great Park of nearbyNonsuch Palace in 1606.
During theEnglish Commonwealth the park and house were bought by ColonelThomas Pride, ofPride's Purge fame. Pride died in the house in 1658.[2] In 1663 a long lease of the house and park was granted toSir Robert Long, 1st Baronet, byCharles II and a life was added to this lease in 1670.[3] The area known asWorcester Park was once part of a Great Park surrounding theNonsuch Palace ofHenry VIII, and was used extensively forhunting.Samuel Pepys visited Sir Robert Long at Worcester Park House, in November 1665, while the Exchequer was using Nonsuch during the plague.
It has been claimed that the first version of the paintingThe Light of the World (1851–3) by the EnglishPre-Raphaelite artistWilliam Holman Hunt (1827–1910) was painted at night in a makeshift hut at the house, the other claimant being the garden of theOxford University Press[4]
Worcester Park House burned down in a great fire in 1948.[5] The remaining walls and chimneys were gradually demolished by the youth of the area during the following ten years. Fruit from the abandoned trees of the old orchards was especially welcome in thepostwar years.
The lake also silted up during this period following improvements to the Hogsmill River. The ruins of a splendidornamental lake with a multi-arched bridge (atgrid referenceTQ211654) and balustrade were still visible in the woodland at the foot of the hill in "Parker's Field" (situated between Grafton Road and Old Malden Lane, and behind the still rather ramshackle stables in Grafton Road). The house was positioned so that it had a view of the arches and balustrade.
The house itself was not visible, even in the late 1950s, nor were there any obvious ruins apart from the lake and some mounds of brickwork to be found. The lake itself had drained into the riverHogsmill, but no source of incoming water was visible. To the northeast of the site is a small, often dry, stream[6] at the field boundary, running SE->NW, with some old and modernculverting and which drains into the Hogsmill.
There was an impressive kitchen garden with glasshouses and an inner walled garden. DuringWorld War II a local policeman "looked after" the walled garden and kept everyone else out.
Close to the bridge remnant, to the southwest of the bridge, was a ruined domed structure that resembled anice house. However, it was filled with soil and other débris which prevented any investigation in the 1950s, and has all but disappeared today.[7]
Locals presumed the house to be named "Worcester Park House", and have suggested that the former Blakesley School, was the original house,[8] while historical sources (below) suggest "Worcester House" as the name.[1] However the map of 1871[9] shows a building labelled "Worcester Park House" to be alongside the lake, to the west of it, on land that was, in the 1950s, overgrown with trees. The scant overgrown ruins in the photographs of the site fit with this map.
Exploration of the site in May 2006 reveals loss of the balustrades, the bridge and the lake, which has been filled and is now used for horses. The remainder of the site is heavily wooded and has dense undergrowth, with some contemporaryfly tipping ofrefuse.
51°22′29″N0°15′41″W / 51.37475°N 0.26151°W /51.37475; -0.26151