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Introduction
The name 'Mottisfont' is probably derived from the Old English motes funta, meaning 'spring near the confluence' or 'spring of the moot' or possibly 'spring of the stone' (from the Old English motere: sonte). There is a long, if disputed, tradition of an earlier Saxon building on the site where Saxon freemen may have held their village moots, or meetings. Plentiful water and fish, good communications and fertile land protected from the worst weather made this an ideal setting for the religious community which flourished here from 1201, providing hospitality for the pilgrims that its sacred relics attracted.
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From Priory to Abbey
The original building was a priory, founded by William Briwere in 1201. He was a trusted adviser to Richard the Lionheart, King John and Henry III, and he was one of the barons who signed the Magna Carta. At the dissolution of the Monasteries the priory was acquired by William Lord Sandys, who converted it to a house. Mottisfont passed in 1684 to Sir John Mill, nephew of the last Lord Sandys. Sir John's second son, Sir Richard, the 5th Baronet and an MP from 1721-1747, succeeded in 1706. It was he who transformed the Tudor house substantially to the form we see today, at least on the exterior.
Sir Richard was succeeded by his four sons. In 1835 the property was inherited by Sir John Barker-Mill, who added the fine stable block. In 1884, Mrs Vaudrey Barker-Mill leased the Mottisfont Estate to the Meinertzhagen family. Mrs Meinertzhagen was born into the Potter and her sister, Beatrice, married Sidney Webb, a renowned social reformer of the early 20th century. Mottisfont developed into something of a retreat for the Meinertzhagen’ London social circle. Visitors included George Bernard Shaw. Mrs Vaudrey Barker-Mill moved into the house in 1900 and renovated it and much of the estate from the proceeds of large property holdings in Southampton.
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A colourful change
After 400 years the family sold the estate in 1934 to Gilbert Russell, a descendent of William Briwere, and his wife Maude. Soon after the Russells bought the estate, they began making major changes to the garden. They were keen to introduce more colour and structure to the existing picturesque layout, asking the garden designer Norah Lindsay to plant a parterre in the form of a flower-filled knot garden on axis with the centre of the south front. In 1936 Geoffrey Jellicoe recast the area to the north of the house. He laid the paved walk parallel to the north front and designed the yew octagon at its west end, from which an avenue of pleached limes runs north along a bank above a rectangular croquet lawn. The beech circle was planted to the north-west of the stables in the early 1960s to replace a similar feature that once encircled the Ice House, which was gradually dying.
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Rex Whistler
In 1938 the Russells engaged Rex Whistler to transform the former entrance hall in the south-west wing into a Gothic drawing room in trompe l'oeil style. Like many country houses, Mottisfont was commandeered during the Second World War, becoming a hospital with 80 patients.
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Shrub roses
Mr Russell died in 1942 and in 1957 Mrs Russell gave the Abbey and Estate to the National Trust. In 1971 Mrs Russell decided to give up using the kitchen garden and in 1972 this became the home for the famous collection of historic shrub roses created by Graham Stuart Thomas. The collection has been registered as the National Collection of ancestral species and 19th-century rose cultivars by the National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens. Mrs Russell continued to live at Mottisfont until 1972.
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