Hatchlands, Guildford, England

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

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

In the Middle Ages Hatchlands, which had a moated capital messuage in 1307, belonged to Chertsey Abbey. At the Dissolution it passed to Sir Anthony Browne, remaining in his wife's family until sold in about 1700. In 1749 the property was bought by the naval hero Admiral the Hon. Edward Boscawen (1711-61), who moved here with his wife in 1751 to the old Tudor house where they were to live for the first ten years of their ownership, apparently beginning landscaping soon after they moved in. In 1756 they decided to have a new red brick house, employing Stiff Leadbetter and Robert Adam to build and decorate it. This is the present house. The Boscawens' enjoyment of their new house was but brief; in 1761 the Admiral died and in 1770 his widow sold Hatchlands to William Brightwell Sumner (died 1791), who had made a fortune in the East India Company. In his family's time minor alterations were made to the house by Joseph Bonomi and improvements made to the grounds by Humphry Repton who was commissioned in 1800. Most of his proposals for improvements to the landscape and house were modest, presumably reflecting his client's aspirations and purse, and were carried out, although not his suggestion to stucco the house. In 1888 Hatchlands was sold to Stuart Rendel (1834-1913), a wealthy industrialist and Liberal MP who was raised to the peerage as Lord Rendel of Hatchlands in 1895. In his time various changes were made both to the house and its surrounds, including the commissioning of new gardens from Gertrude Jekyll and the closure of the old London road which passed within 150 metres of the house and its replacement by the present A246. On his death in 1913 Hatchlands passed to his grandson, Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendel (1887-1959), architect and soldier. He gave Hatchlands to the National Trust in 1945, who retains ownership today (2007).