Broadlands, Romsey, England

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

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

Broadlands formed part of the abbey of Romsey in the 10th century. Surrendered to the Crown at the Dissolution in 1539, it was granted first to John Foster, a former steward to the abbey and then in 1544 to Sir Thomas Seymour, an uncle of Edward VI. He sold it in 1547 to Sir Francis Fleming whose granddaughter, Frances, married Edward St Barbe. It remained in the St Barbe family until the mid-17th century and Sir John Barbe, who succeeded in 1661, made considerable improvements to the house and laid out an elaborate formal garden which was described by the writer Celia Fiennes on her visit around 1696 (Morris 1947). Sir John died in 1723 and his cousin and heir, Humphrey Sydenham, sold Broadlands in 1736 to Henry Temple, first Viscount Palmerston, the estate around the house and gardens consisting at this time of only the central part of the present park. Lord Palmerston began the replanning of the gardens down to the river along more informal lines in 1738-9, for which he is reported to have employed William Kent (1685-1748), before his death in 1757 and the succession of his grandson. In 1767 the second Lord Palmerston commissioned Lancelot Brown (1716-83) to provide a comprehensive design for remodelling the house and surrounding grounds and for laying out and planting the parkland (Estate maps, 1785, 1787; Estate papers). Brown's son-in-law, the architect Henry Holland (1745-1806), further remodelled the house and two major garden buildings in 1788. The third Viscount Palmerston (1784-1865), who became Queen Victoria's Prime Minister in 1855, succeeded in 1802. He acquired further land to the west and south which allowed him to extend the park to its present boundaries and to continue with its improvement by replanting and adding to Brown's work and by new planting in Brown's style. Following Lord Palmerston's death, Broadlands passed first in 1865 to his younger step-son, William Cowper-Temple, Lord Mount Temple, for whom W E Nesfield (1835-88) designed a new formal garden with a pool on the south front. In 1917 Lord Palmerston's nephew, Evelyn Ashley, later created Lord Mount Temple of Lee (of the second creation), inherited. Broadlands then passed to his daughter, Edwina, who in 1922 married Lord Louis Mountbatten, later created Earl Mountbatten of Burma. The Romsey bypass was built along the northern edge of the park in the 1930s and after the Second World War, the Earl and Countess Mountbatten began planting commemorative trees in the park and simplified Nesfield’s work in the garden. Broadlands passed to Lord Louis' grandson in 1979 and during the 1990s, following severe storm damage, the parkland planting was restored to Brown's design. Broadlands remains (1998) in private hands.