Worcester Park House

Location map|Surrey
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caption = Map showing the location of Worcester Park House within Surrey.
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Worcester Park House, built in 1607 [ [http://www.cheamandworcesterpark.co.uk/history.htm Brief local history] ] , whose ruins are in Surrey, in the United Kingdom was one of the residences of the 4th Earl of Worcester, who was appointed Keeper of the Great Park in 1606. In 1670 a long lease of the house and park was granted to Sir Robert Long, 1st Baronet by Charles II. The area known as Worcester Park was once part of a Great Park surrounding the Nonsuch Palace of Henry VIII, and was used extensively for hunting.

Worcester Park House burned down in a great fire in 1948 [The fire is documented in an article by David Rymill, local historian, in the Cuddington residents' Association journal for Spring 2006, available only in print] . The remaining walls and chimneys were gradually demolished by the youth of the area during the following ten years. The lake also silted up during this period following improvements to the Hogsmill river. The ruins of a splendid ornamental lake with a multi-arched bridge (at Gbmapping|TQ211654) and balustrade were still visible in the woodland at the foot of the hill in "Parker's Field" (situated between Grafton Road and Old Malden Lane, and behind the still rather ramshackle stables in Grafton Road). The house was positioned so that it had a view of the arches and balustrade.

The house itself was not visible, even in the late 1950s, nor were there any obvious ruins apart from the lake and some mounds of brickwork to be found. The lake itself had drained into the river Hogsmill, but no source of incoming water was visible. To the northeast of the site is a small, often dry, stream [ [http://www.magic.gov.uk/website/magic/viewer.htm?startTopic=magcharareas&box=520178:165062:522122:165838 The stream is classified as a drain on the map] , and its position at the foot of the hill agrees with this] at the field boundary, running SE->NW, with some old and modern culverting and which drains into the Hogsmill.

There was an impressive kitchen garden with glass houses and an inner walled garden. During World War II a local policeman "looked after" the walled garden and kept everyone else out.

Close to the bridge remnant, to the southwest of the bridge, was a ruined domed structure that resembled an ice house. However it was filled with soil and other débris which prevented any investigation in the 1950s, and has all but disappeared today. [The ice house was reasonably complete in the late 1940s, though the roof had been broken open. By the late 1950's it was mostly filled with earth and rubble]

, was the original house [Blakesley School was at the top of the hill, Worcester Park House at the foot. They are not the same building] , while historical sources (below) suggest "Worcester House" as the name [ [http://www.cheamandworcesterpark.co.uk/history.htm Brief local history] ] . However the map of 1871 [ [http://www.old-maps.co.uk/oldmaps/index_external.jsp?easting=521150&northing=165450 The Map of 1871] ] shows a building labelled "Worcester Park House" to be alongside the lake, to the west of it, on land that was, in the 1950s, overgrown with trees. The scant overgrown ruins in the photographs of the site fit with this map.

Exploration of the site in May 2006 reveals loss of the balustrades, the bridge and the lake, which has been filled and is now used for horses. The remainder of the site is heavily wooded and has dense undergrowth, with some contemporary fly tipping of refuse.

References

Photographs of the site, May 2006