Cowdray Park, West Sussex
Encyclopedia
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...
. The park lies in the South Downs
South Downs
The South Downs is a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen Valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, near Eastbourne, East Sussex, in the east. It is bounded on its northern side by a steep escarpment, from whose...
National Park. The estate belongs to Viscount Cowdray
Viscount Cowdray
Viscount Cowdray, of Cowdray in the County of West Sussex, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1917 for the industrialist Weetman Pearson, 1st Baron Cowdray, head of the Pearson conglomerate...
, whose family have owned it since 1908. It is probably best known for Cowdray Park Polo
Polo
Polo is a team sport played on horseback in which the objective is to score goals against an opposing team. Sometimes called, "The Sport of Kings", it was highly popularized by the British. Players score by driving a small white plastic or wooden ball into the opposing team's goal using a...
Club, which is one of the leading polo clubs in the United Kingdom and the sport has been played here for over 100 years. Over 450 polo matches are held at the park each season and the highlight of the polo season is the annual Veuve Clicquot
Veuve Clicquot
Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin is both a champagne house in Reims, France, and a brand of premium champagne. Founded in 1772 by Philippe Clicquot-Muiron, Veuve Clicquot played an important role in establishing champagne as a favored drink of haute bourgeoisie and nobility throughout Europe...
Gold Cup. It also offers many other leisure activities, such as a golf course, clay pigeon shooting and corporate activity days, as well as the more traditional activities of agriculture, forestry and property lets.
The estate also features the Cowdray Ruins
Cowdray House
Cowdray House consists of the ruins of one of England's great Tudor houses, architecturally comparable to many of the great palaces and country houses of that time. It is situated just east of Midhurst, West Sussex standing on the north bank of the River Rother...
- the former home of the Montague
Viscount Montagu
Viscount Montagu was a title in the Peerage of England. It was created on 2 September 1554 for Anthony Browne. It became extinct in 1797.The title Viscount Montagu was chosen from line of descent from John Neville, 1st Marquess of Montagu. His daughter Lucy Neville was the mother of Anthony Browne...
family, built in 1542 and largely destroyed by fire in 1793. In 2005 the Heritage Lottery Fund
Heritage Lottery Fund
The Heritage Lottery Fund is a fund established in the United Kingdom under the National Lottery etc. Act 1993. The Fund opened for applications in 1994. It uses money raised through the National Lottery to transform and sustain the UK’s heritage...
awarded a grant of £2.7m towards the cost of stabilising the ruins and they were opened to the public on 31 March 2007.
The house is not open to the public.
In May 2009 it was announced that Lord Cowdray is seeking a business partner to turn the house into a country house hotel, and will be moving to another family property at Fernhurst
Fernhurst
Fernhurst is a village and civil parish in the Chichester District of West Sussex, England. It is located on the A286 Guildford to Chichester road, three miles south of Haslemere...
.