History
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© Sue Streeter
The west face of Hatchlands Park set in the beautiful surrounding Park
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© Alec Cobbe Archive
Henry VIII first granted Hatchlands Park to Sir Anthony Brown in 1544
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© Hatchlands
This John Sellers map is the first recorded visual reference to Hatchlands
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© Hatchlands
A plan of the ground floor of Hatchlands, as built, dated 1757
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© Alec Cobbe Archive
The children of William Brightwell Sumner before they lived at Hatchlands
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© Hatchlands
Hatchlands east front during the time of Harry Goodhart-Rendel
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© Sue Streeter
The garden designed by Gertrude Jekyll in 1900
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© Alec Cobbe Archive
Hatchlands became a convent school, St Anne's college, during the war
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© Mrs Hargreaves
In the 60s and 70s Hatchlands Park became a finishing school for girls
Before the Boscawens
The Doomsday records first reference Hatchlands in 1086. Granted by Henry VIII to Sir Anthony Browne and his wife Lady Elizabeth Fitzgerald in 1544, the first visual record of Hatchlands is on a John Sellers map of 1693.
The families of Hatchlands Park
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The Boscawens
They bought the estate in 1750 and are probably most responsible for the way the house looks today.
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The Sumners
William Brightwell Sumner bought the estate in 1770 with a fortune made in the East India Company.
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The Rendels
Lord Rendel bought Hatchlands in 1888 and his grandson Harry gave it to us in 1945.
Hatchlands and us
Harry Goodhart-Rendel
© British Architectural Library
In 1945 Lord Rendel's grandson, Harry Goodhart-Rendel, gave Hatchlands to us. He stayed here until 1959.
From 1959 Hatchlands had various tenants including Francis Mathew, editor of The Times and then a Mr and Mrs Hargreaves who ran a school here until 1980.
In 1987 the house was leased to Mr and Mrs Alec Cobbe who brought to it their historic family collections of portraits, old master paintings, books, furniture and the collection of keyboard instruments.
Did you know?
- No one is really sure why the estate is named Hatchlands Park
- Humphrey Repton updated the grounds in one of his famous red books
- There is a 25 foot deep well at the bottom of the dell
- A flower garden designed by Gertrude Jekyll was commissioned in 1900
- The editor of The Times, Francis Mathew, lived here in the late 50s
- He turned the music room into a newsroom & installed a printing press
- Hatchlands was used as a school during the war....
- ....and then a finishing school in the 60s and 70s
- In total there are seven floor levels across the house