Charborough House
Encyclopedia
Sturminster Marshall
Sturminster Marshall is a village and civil parish in east Dorset in England, situated on the River Stour between Blandford Forum and Poole. The parish has a population of 1,895 , and includes the village of Almer west of Sturminster Marshall, near Winterborne Zelston and the hamlet of Henbury to...
and Bere Regis
Bere Regis
Bere Regis is a village in the Purbeck district of Dorset, England, situated north-west of Wareham.The village has one shop, a post office and two pubs, The Royal Oak and The Drax Arms. The parish church is St. John the Baptist Church...
in Dorset
Dorset
Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. The Deer Park and estate adjoins the villages of Winterborne Zelston
Winterborne Zelston
Winterborne Zelston is a village in north Dorset, England. It is situated in a winterbourne valley on the A31 road eight miles south of Blandford Forum and ten miles north west of Poole...
, Newton Peveril and Lytchett Matravers
Lytchett Matravers
Lytchett Matravers is a large village and civil parish in the District of Purbeck within Dorset, England. The village has a population of 3,309.-Location:...
. Charborough Park is surrounded by one of the longest brick walls in England built between 1841 and 1842 by the then owner of the park John Samuel Wanley Sawbridge-Erle-Drax who had successfully had the new Wimborne/Dorchester turnpike
Turnpike trust
Turnpike trusts in the United Kingdom were bodies set up by individual Acts of Parliament, with powers to collect road tolls for maintaining the principal highways in Britain from the 17th but especially during the 18th and 19th centuries...
moved further away from his house, a detour of over half a mile. More than 2 million bricks were used in the wall, but unfortunately for Sawbridge-Erle-Drax - who was also its chief promoter - the turnpike lost money, mainly because the railway between Wimborne and Dorchester opened shortly afterwards.
The wall runs alongside the A31 and is punctuated by 'The Stag Gate' at the northern extremity and the 'Lion Lodge' at the eastern most entrance, decorations created by Eleanor Coade
Eleanor Coade
Eleanor Coade was a devout Baptist and remained unmarried until her death on 16 November 1821 in Camberwell Grove, Camberwell, London. Her obituary notice was published in The Gentleman's Magazine which declared her ‘the sole inventor and proprietor of an art which deserves considerable notice’...
's 'Artificial Stone Manufactory' in Lithodipyra (Coade stone
Coade stone
Lithodipyra , or Coade stone, was ceramic stoneware that was often described as an artificial stone in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It was used for moulding Neoclassical statues, architectural decorations and garden ornaments that were both of the highest quality and remain virtually...
). The current house is in the centre of the park and incorporates parts of the house built by Sir Walter Erle (1586–1665), the Governor of Dorchester and commander of the Parliamentary forces which besieged Corfe Castle
Corfe Castle
Corfe Castle is a village and civil parish in the English county of Dorset. It is the site of a ruined castle of the same name. The village and castle stand over a gap in the Purbeck Hills on the route between Wareham and Swanage. The village lies in the gap below the castle, and is some eight...
in 1646, (stone and timber taken from Corfe Castle were used in the building).
Charborough House has been owned by the same family since Elizabethan times and their surname is now Plunkett-Ernle
Ernle
Ernle was the surname of an English gentry or landed family descended from the lords of the manor of Earnley in Sussex who derived their surname from the name of the place where their estates lay.-Onomastic:...
-Erle-Drax, the Earles/Erles having arrived in Dorset from east Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
circa 1500, and continued via several female lines. The current occupier is Richard Drax
Richard Drax
Richard Grosvenor Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax , known as Richard Drax, is a former Army officer and journalist, now Conservative Party politician and Member of Parliament for South Dorset....
, the Conservative Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for South Dorset.
In 1686, a group of conspirators met at Charborough House to plan the overthrow of "the tyrant race of Stuarts", this was hosted by Thomas Erle
Thomas Erle
Lieutenant-General Thomas Erle PC was an English army general and politician who sat in the House of Commons of England and of Great Britain from 1678 to 1718. He was Governor of Portsmouth and a Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance....
, MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for Wareham
Wareham, Dorset
Wareham is an historic market town and, under the name Wareham Town, a civil parish, in the English county of Dorset. The town is situated on the River Frome eight miles southwest of Poole.-Situation and geography:...
since 1678, and Deputy Lieutenant for Dorset since 1685. This meeting was effectively the start of the build up to the Invitation to William
Invitation to William
The Invitation to William was a letter sent by seven notable Englishmen, later named the Immortal Seven, to William III, Prince of Orange, received by him on 30 June 1688...
, signed by the Immortal Seven, which resulted in the Glorious Revolution
Glorious Revolution
The Glorious Revolution, also called the Revolution of 1688, is the overthrow of King James II of England by a union of English Parliamentarians with the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau...
, also called the Revolution of 1688, and the overthrow of James II of England
James II of England
James II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...
in 1688 by a union of Parliamentarians
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
and the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau
William III of England
William III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland...
, (William of Orange).
The church of St Mary at Charlborough was built by Thomas Erle Drax in 1775 and transformed in 1837 by John Sawbridge Erle Drax who had married Sarah Frances Erle-Drax, the heiress of Charborough, in 1826 and assumed her surname. It is now used only as the burial-place of the Drax family. Above the door of a small arched building nearby is an inscription, dated 1686, commemorating the meeting of the patriotic individuals, who concerted the plan of the Revolution in 1688.
Charborough House and its folly
Folly
In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but either suggesting by its appearance some other purpose, or merely so extravagant that it transcends the normal range of garden ornaments or other class of building to which it belongs...
tower at 50°46′38.75"N 2°6′7.09"W is the model for Welland House in the novel Two on a Tower
Two on a Tower
Two on a Tower is a novel by English author Thomas Hardy, classified by him as a romance and fantasy and now regarded as one of his minor works. The book is one of Hardy’s Wessex novels, set in a parallel version of late Victorian Dorset.-Epigraph:...
by Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy, OM was an English novelist and poet. While his works typically belong to the Naturalism movement, several poems display elements of the previous Romantic and Enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural.While he regarded himself primarily as a...
.
Charborough Park, the private grounds of Charborough House, are only open to the public once or twice a year, when the local villagers sell tea and cakes.
The Drax estate is thought to consist of nearly 7000 acres (28.3 km²). Although the stag on top of 'Stag Gate' appears to have five legs, the 'fifth leg' is actually a 'tree stump' originally incorporated into the sculpture to add strength. There are quite a few comments on-line and in publications that the stag has five legs so that it appears to have four when viewed from any angle, which is clearly imaginative but incorrect.
Thomas Erle
Thomas Erle c 1650-1720, Lieutenant-General was born in about 1650, the second son of Thomas Erle of Charborough, Dorset. In 1678 he became MP for WarehamWareham, Dorset
Wareham is an historic market town and, under the name Wareham Town, a civil parish, in the English county of Dorset. The town is situated on the River Frome eight miles southwest of Poole.-Situation and geography:...
, then on 27 May 1685 was made Deputy Lieutenant for Dorset. In 1686 he hosted group of conspirators who met at Charborough House to plan the overthrow of "the tyrant race of Stuarts", which resulted in the overthrow of James II of England
James II of England
James II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...
in 1688 by a union of Parliamentarians
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
and the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau
William III of England
William III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland...
, (William of Orange).
In his military career Thomas Erle became Colonel of a foot regiment and on 8 March 1689 was sent to Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
to fight the combined French
French Army
The French Army, officially the Armée de Terre , is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces.As of 2010, the army employs 123,100 regulars, 18,350 part-time reservists and 7,700 Legionnaires. All soldiers are professionals, following the suspension of conscription, voted in...
and Irish Army
Irish Army
The Irish Army, officially named simply the Army is the main branch of the Defence Forces of Ireland. Approximately 8,500 men and women serve in the Irish Army, divided into three infantry Brigades...
of the deposed King
Monarch
A monarch is the person who heads a monarchy. This is a form of government in which a state or polity is ruled or controlled by an individual who typically inherits the throne by birth and occasionally rules for life or until abdication...
James II of England
James II of England
James II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...
.
In 1690 he took part in the Battle of the Boyne
Battle of the Boyne
The Battle of the Boyne was fought in 1690 between two rival claimants of the English, Scottish and Irish thronesthe Catholic King James and the Protestant King William across the River Boyne near Drogheda on the east coast of Ireland...
and the Siege of Limerick,
In 1691 he took part in the Battle of Aughrim
Battle of Aughrim
The Battle of Aughrim was the decisive battle of the Williamite War in Ireland. It was fought between the Jacobites and the forces of William III on 12 July 1691 , near the village of Aughrim in County Galway....
.
In 1692 he took part in an expedition to Flanders
Flanders
Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...
and on 3 August was Colonel of Luttrell
Luttrell
-People:* Christopher Luttrell , Son of Sir Thomas* Erica Luttrell, voice-over actress* Geoffrey de Luterel * Geoffrey Luttrell * Heather Luttrell, musician* Henry Luttrell, several persons* Henry Luttrell -People:* Christopher Luttrell (?-died 1556), Son of Sir Thomas* Erica Luttrell, voice-over...
's Regiment at the Battle of Steenkerque
Battle of Steenkerque
The Battle of Steenkerque was fought on August 3, 1692, as a part of the Nine Years' War. It resulted in the victory of the French under Marshal François-Henri de Montmorency, duc de Luxembourg against a joint English-Scottish-Dutch-German army under Prince William of Orange...
.
On 22 March 1693 Thomas Erle was promoted to Brigadier-General, fighting in the Battle of Landen
Battle of Landen
The Battle of Landen , in the current Belgian province of Flemish Brabant, was a battle in the Nine Years' War, fought in present-day Belgium on 29 July 1693 between the French army of Marshal Luxembourg and the Allied army of King William III of England...
.
In 1694 Thomas Erle returned home as Governor of Portsmouth
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
, a position which he was to hold until 1712.
In June 1696 he was made a Major-General and in 1698 became MP for Portsmouth.
In 1699 he returned to Ireland as second in command to Lord Galway,
In 1700 he was both MP for Portsmouth once again and also Commander-in-Chief
Commander-in-Chief
A commander-in-chief is the commander of a nation's military forces or significant element of those forces. In the latter case, the force element may be defined as those forces within a particular region or those forces which are associated by function. As a practical term it refers to the military...
of Ireland.
In 1702 Erle was made a Lord Justice of Ireland and was MP for Wareham for a second time, then promoted to Lieutenant-General.
In 1703, he became MP for Cork
Cork (city)
Cork is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland's third most populous city. It is the principal city and administrative centre of County Cork and the largest city in the province of Munster. Cork has a population of 119,418, while the addition of the suburban...
in the Irish Parliament.
In 1705 Erle was made Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance
Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance
The Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance was a member of the British Board of Ordnance and the deputy of the Master-General of the Ordnance. The office was established in 1544, and the holder was appointed by the crown under letters patent...
(a post which he held until 1712).
In January 1707 he took part in an expedition to Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, fighting the Battle of Almanza on 23 April.
In 1708 he was sent on an expedition to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. He then returned home, serving as MP for Wareham once again.
In 1714 he became Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance for a second time and was also made Governor of Portsmouth, until 1718. Erle died on 23 July 1720 and was buried at Charborough.
Parliamentary representation
Family members who were Members of Parliament for Wareham1679-1698, 1701–1718, Thomas Erle
Thomas Erle
Lieutenant-General Thomas Erle PC was an English army general and politician who sat in the House of Commons of England and of Great Britain from 1678 to 1718. He was Governor of Portsmouth and a Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance....
(born circa 1650, died 23 July 1720)
1701, 1704, 1710, 1722 Sir Edward Ernle (born circa 1673, died 31 Jan 1729)
1718, 1734, 1751, Henry Drax (born circa 1693, died 24 May 1755)
1747, 1754, 1761, Thomas Erle Drax (born circa 1721, died December 1789)
1755, Edward Drax (born circa 1726, died April 1791)
1841, 1859, 1868, John Samuel Wanley Sawbridge Erle-Drax
John Samuel Wanley Sawbridge Erle-Drax
John Samuel Wanley Sawbridge Erle-Drax was a British Member of Parliament during the Victorian era.-Personal life:...
(born 6 October 1800, died 7 January 1887)
The current owner, Richard Grosvenor Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax
Richard Drax
Richard Grosvenor Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax , known as Richard Drax, is a former Army officer and journalist, now Conservative Party politician and Member of Parliament for South Dorset....
(born 29 January 1958), was elected Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for South Dorset in 2010.