Wotton House, Dorking, England

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

In 1579 the Wotton estate was sold by its owner, Henry Owen, to George Evelyn (died 1603). He was succeeded by Richard Evelyn who died in 1640, leaving three sons: George (died 1699), who inherited Wotton House, John (1620-1706, the author of Sylva), who inherited Sayes Court; and Richard, who inherited Woodcote House. The gardens of Wotton were recorded in 1640 by George's brother, John, in two sketches (described in Victoria County History 1911). Early improvements were made to the gardens by John, who was influenced by the Italian Renaissance gardens he had seen on his tour of Italy in 1644-5. By 1649 George had constructed a temple in the garden, designed by his cousin, Captain George Evelyn, and in 1650, John returned to Wotton to advise his brother on further improvements, which included an artificially terraced mount, a fountain, and a parterre garden on the site of an earlier moat, which was filled in. The work was recorded in a sketch by John, dated 1653. John continued to make minor improvements to Wotton, including planting an evergreen grove in 1696/7, and in 1699 inherited the property on the death of his brother. His final improvement was the addition of an orangery on the east side of the south front of the house, built in 1704. He was succeeded by his grandson, John (1681-1763, created a baronet in 1713). Sir John Evelyn preserved the temple, fountain, and mount but laid out a more informal landscape around them. The kitchen garden was moved from its 17th-century location to the east of the gardens, to a site north-east of the House, and an informal river with a series of cascades was formed to the south-east of the gardens in the 1740s. In the mid- to late 18th century, the formal parterre and terrace to the south of the House were removed by Sir John (1st Baronet), or his son, also Sir John (2nd Baronet, owner 1763-7), or his son, the 3rd Baronet, Sir Frederick (died 1812), who inherited in 1767. Wotton passed in 1812 to Sir Frederick Evelyn's widow and then on her death in 1817, to John Evelyn (died 1827), of the Godstone branch of the family. John commissioned I Landsell to prepare a survey of the estate in 1818, which depicts the garden and landscape at this date. The main features of the formal landscape had been retained but much of the detail had been removed and replaced by informal planting. On his death, the property passed to his son George (died 1829), and then, after a minority of fourteen years, to George's eldest son, William John Evelyn (died 1908), in 1843.

William John Evelyn restored Wotton House in the 1860s and carried out extensive alterations to the gardens. These included the reinstatement of the terrace to the south of the House, which was extended to the east; new paths and planting around the fountain and temple; a formal approach across the Tillingbourne from the north; an Irish Garden to the north-east of the House; and various animal paddocks including a deer paddock and a kangaroo paddock (OS 1896). William John Evelyn died in 1908, but the property had been made over to his son, John Harcourt Chichester Evelyn, in about 1900. The House was used by the Canadian Army during the Second World War and in 1947 Mr C J A Evelyn leased it to the Home Office for use as a fire training centre. It became the national headquarters of the Fire Service College, and new buildings were erected around the service buildings on the north-west side of the House, including a hall and accommodation block with a car park in between. In 1981 the lease was assigned to British Telecom who remained at Wotton until 1986 when the lease was handed back to the Evelyn family. The property remains in private ownership. The property was leased to a hotel group in 1987 but refurbishment was delayed. The work commenced in 2001 and includes the demolition of the post-1945 buildings. It is due to open as a conference centre in 2002, run by Hayley Conference Centres Ltd.