Moor Park, Farnham

Farnham

Farnham is a town in Surrey, England, within the Borough of Waverley. The town is situated some 42 miles southwest of London in the extreme west of Surrey, adjacent to the border with Hampshire...

, Surrey

Surrey

Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...

, 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...

 is a Grade II listed house set in some 60 acres (242,811.6 m²) of grounds. It was formerly known as Compton Hall. The present house dates from 1630 but has been substantially altered, particularly in 1750 and 1800. The house is especially noted for its crinoline staircase dating from circa 1770.

Approaches to Moor Park

Access is possible by road, but walking is a more attractive way of reaching the house. A public footpath through the grounds passes the front of the house and leads to the nearby Moor Park Nature Reserve, Mother Ludlam's Cave

Mother Ludlam's Cave

Mother Ludlam's Cave, also known as Mother Ludlum's Cave or Mother Ludlum's Hole, is a small cave in the sandstone cliff of the Wey Valley at Moor Park, near Farnham, Surrey, England, the subject of local legends...

 and Waverley Abbey

Waverley Abbey

Waverley Abbey was the first Cistercian abbey in England, founded in 1128 by William Giffard, Bishop of Winchester. It is situated about one mile south of Farnham, Surrey, in a bend of the River Wey.-History:...

, whilst Moor Park Lane, a bridleway along the former carriage drive, links the house to the A31 road at the Shepherd and Flock pub, Farnham. From Moor Park Lane can be seen High Mill, one of several historic mills along this part of the river, and the partially hidden (and dry) remains of an artificial waterfall which featured on picture postcard

Postcard

A postcard or post card is a rectangular piece of thick paper or thin cardboard intended for writing and mailing without an envelope....

s in Victorian times.

Moor Park under the Westbroke family

A house has stood on the site, next to the River Wey

River Wey

The River Wey in Surrey, Hampshire and West Sussex is a tributary of the River Thames with two separate branches which join at Tilford. The source of the north branch is at Alton, Hampshire and of the south branch at both Blackdown south of Haslemere, and also close to Gibbet Hill, near Hindhead...

 at the hamlet of Compton, one mile (1.6 km) east of the centre of Farnham, since 1307. At that time it was called Compton Hall and was owned by Richard de Westbroke. The house remained in the Westbroke family, being owned by William Westbroke from 1516 to 1537 on whose death it passed to his nephew John Scarlett.

Sir William Temple and Jonathan Swift

The house was bought by its most notable owner, Sir William Temple from Sir Francis Clarke's family in the 1680s and it was he who renamed it Moor Park after the Hertfordshire mansion of that name

Moor Park (house)

Moor Park is a Grade I listed Palladian mansion set within several hundred acres of parkland in Hertfordshire, England. It is called Moor Park Mansion because it is in the old park of the Manor of More. The original house was built in 1678–9 for James, Duke of Monmouth, and inherited by his...

 which also influenced the magnificent 5 acres (20,234.3 m²) of formal gardens he laid out between the house and the river.

It was while at Moor Park that Temple employed Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift was an Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer , poet and cleric who became Dean of St...

 as his secretary, and it was here that Swift wrote "A Tale of a Tub

A Tale of a Tub

A Tale of a Tub was the first major work written by Jonathan Swift, composed between 1694 and 1697 and published in 1704. It is arguably his most difficult satire, and perhaps his most masterly...

" and "The Battle of the Books

The Battle of the Books

The Battle of the Books is the name of a short satire written by Jonathan Swift and published as part of the prolegomena to his A Tale of a Tub in 1704. It depicts a literal battle between books in the King's Library , as ideas and authors struggle for supremacy...

". Here also Swift met Esther Johnson

Esther Johnson

Esther Johnson was the English friend of Jonathan Swift, known as "Stella".Newfoundland-born author Trudy J. Morgan-Cole wrote a novel in 2006 detailing fictionalized portions of the Swift/Johnson friendship in The Violent Friendship of Esther Johnson...

, the fatherless daughter of one of the household servants. Swift acted as her tutor and mentor, giving her the nickname "Stella" and the two maintained a close relationship for the rest of Esther's life. Swift met many of Temple's distinguished guests during his time here: King William III

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...

, John Dryden

John Dryden

John Dryden was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden.Walter Scott called him "Glorious John." He was made Poet...

, Joseph Addison

Joseph Addison

Joseph Addison was an English essayist, poet, playwright and politician. He was a man of letters, eldest son of Lancelot Addison...

, Richard Steele

Richard Steele

Sir Richard Steele was an Irish writer and politician, remembered as co-founder, with his friend Joseph Addison, of the magazine The Spectator....

 and others. Following Temple's death in 1699 the house remained in his family until the mid-1930s.

Victorian times

Little is written of Moor Park in the intervening years but, by the mid-nineteenth century, whilst still under the ownership of Temple's relations, the house became a hydrotherapy

Hydrotherapy

Hydrotherapy, formerly called hydropathy, involves the use of water for pain-relief and treating illness. The term hydrotherapy itself is synonymous with the term water cure as it was originally marketed by practitioners and promoters in the 19th century...

 centre for some time. Here, Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin

Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...

 received hydropathic treatment in 1859 for his illness

Charles Darwin's illness

For much of his adult life, Charles Darwin's health was repeatedly compromised by an uncommon combination of symptoms, leaving him severely debilitated for long periods of time...

 from Doctor Edward Wickstead Lane. He wrote that he played billiards

Billiards

Cue sports , also known as billiard sports, are a wide variety of games of skill generally played with a cue stick which is used to strike billiard balls, moving them around a cloth-covered billiards table bounded by rubber .Historically, the umbrella term was billiards...

 here and said "I really think I shall make a point of coming here for a fortnight occasionally, as the country is very pleasant for walking". He wrote that "it is really quite astonishing & utterly unaccountable the good this one week has done me", but later became more ill and told his son that he was unable to climb more than halfway up the nearby Crooksbury Hill.

The Battle of Moor Park

One of Temple's descendents, Sir William Rose, informed Farnham Urban District Council in 1897 that he intended to close the lodge gates of Moor Park and "not allow any person to enter without written authority". The council informed Rose's solicitor that "they had no doubt as to the rights of way over Moor Park and were resolved at whatever cost to use all proper means to preserve such rights". Matters escalated quickly. Rose determined that he would go ahead with the closure and the council prepared to reopen the gates, by force if necessary. Rose employed former Metropolitan Police

Metropolitan police

Metropolitan Police is a generic title for the municipal police force for a major metropolitan area, and it may be part of the official title of the force...

men and others to secure the gates by force. The events of Sunday, 17 January 1897 were not in keeping with the traditional view of a Victorian gentleman's estate on the Sabbath - Rose's men closed the gates and secured them with chains. A crowd of some four to five hundred local men (and a few women) gathered outside, armed with sticks, crowbars

Crowbar (tool)

A crowbar, a wrecking bar, pry bar, or prybar, or sometimes a prise bar or prisebar, and more informally a jimmy, jimmy bar, jemmy or gooseneck is a tool consisting of a metal bar with a single curved end and flattened points, often with a small fissure on one or both ends for removing nails...

, sledgehammer

Sledgehammer

A sledgehammer is a tool consisting of a large, flat head attached to a lever . The head is typically made of metal. The sledgehammer can apply more impulse than other hammers, due to its large size. Along with the mallet, it shares the ability to distribute force over a wide area...

s and other tools or weapons. The council's men were cheered by the crowd as they forced open the gates using crowbars. The defenders were no match for the mob and the event is now recalled as the Moor Park Riot or the Battle of Moor Park.

Moor Park in the 20th century

In the 1930s Temple's relations sold the property and it ceased to be a private residence due to rising maintenance costs. For a short period, it became a country club

Country club

A country club is a private club, often with a closed membership, that typically offers a variety of recreational sports facilities and is located in city outskirts or rural areas. Activities may include, for example, any of golf, tennis, swimming or polo...

, "Swift's Club". During World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 the house was requisitioned by the army

British Army

The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

 who used it as a billet

Billet

A billet is a term for living quarters to which a soldier is assigned to sleep. Historically, it referred to a private dwelling that was required to accept the soldier....

 for Canadian troops. Moor Park became seriously dilapidated during this period and, in 1948, was bought by a developer for demolition. In the summer of that year Sir Harry Brittain

Harry Brittain

Sir Henry Ernest Brittain, KBE was a British journalist and Conservative politician.Harry Brittain, as he was known, was born at Ranmoor, Sheffield, and was the son of W. H. Brittain...

 wrote to The Times

The Times

The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

, appealing for the historic mansion to be saved. A Canon

Canon (priest)

A canon is a priest or minister who is a member of certain bodies of the Christian clergy subject to an ecclesiastical rule ....

 R. E. Parsons responded by using the house to set up a Christian

Christian

A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

 Adult Education

Adult education

Adult education is the practice of teaching and educating adults. Adult education takes place in the workplace, through 'extension' school or 'school of continuing education' . Other learning places include folk high schools, community colleges, and lifelong learning centers...

 centre, Moor Park College. At the end of 1949 Canon Parsons, his wife Hester, and their family came to live in the adjoining cottage. They devoted their energies, supported by financial gifts, volunteer help, and grants from Surrey County Council

Surrey County Council

Surrey County Council is the county council that governs the non-metropolitan county of Surrey in England. The council is composed of 80 elected councillors.The council is controlled by the Conservative party.The leader of the council is David Hodge....

, to the venture of restoring the house and setting up the college. In 1953 funds were exhausted and an emergency meeting was called but the Hesters, supported by a group, the Friends of Moor Park, survived the crisis and, the following year, a milestone was reached when an Educational Trust

Charitable trust

A charitable trust is an irrevocable trust established for charitable purposes, and is a more specific term than "charitable organization".-United States:...

 was established to run the college.

The top floor was used by "Oversea Service" as their headquarters and college from 1955 to 1959. This organisation, set up by The Rev Dr Harry Holland and supported by the Colonial Service

Colonial Service

The Colonial Service was the British government service which administered Britain's colonies and protectorates, under the authority of the Secretary of State for the Colonies and the Colonial Office in London....

, Barclays Bank and other businesses, provided international briefing conferences for persons about to embark on voluntary or business ventures abroad (particularly South-east Asia) in order that they could better understand the local cultures and etiquette. Oversea Service, under Holland's directorship, moved in 1959 to Farnham Castle

Farnham Castle

Farnham Castle is a castle in Farnham, Surrey, England .First built in 1138 by Henri de Blois, grandson of William the Conqueror, Bishop of Winchester, the castle was to become the home of the Bishops of Winchester for over 800 years. The original building was demolished by Henry II in 1155 after...

 where, by 1986, it was providing briefings to 30,000 people a year. The departure of Oversea Service enabled the vacant space to be used for Training for the Ministry for four years until the establishment of a dedicated theological college in Durham

Durham

Durham is a city in north east England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county...

.

In 1966 Canon Parsons handed-over ownership of the house and grounds to the college but, during the latter part of the 20th century the college vacated the premises which have since been used as a cookery school and a finishing school.

Recent developments

In 2007 the present owners, claiming that the building can only be financially viable by residential development, applied for planning and listed building consent from Waverley Borough Council

Waverley, Surrey

Waverley is a local government district with borough status in Surrey, England. The borough's headquarters are in the town of Godalming, with Farnham and Haslemere being the other large notable towns....

 for demolition of listed stables, addition of extensions, internal and external changes to the main house, and construction on the site of the formal gardens to provide 24 dwellings.

Moor Park Nature Reserve

The footpath through the grounds leads to a 19 acres (7.69 ha) Nature Reserve

Nature reserve

A nature reserve is a protected area of importance for wildlife, flora, fauna or features of geological or other special interest, which is reserved and managed for conservation and to provide special opportunities for study or research...

 on the north bank of the River Wey.

The reserve has been managed by the Surrey Wildlife Trust

Surrey Wildlife Trust

Surrey Wildlife Trust is a Wildlife Trust in Surrey, a county in South East England. The Trust's vision is for a living landscape in Surreythat is rich in wildlife and valued by all. It is the only organisation in Surrey that cares for all forms of wildlife in the county.Surrey Wildlife Trust is...

 since 1974. This area of wet woodland

Fen

A fen is a type of wetland fed by mineral-rich surface water or groundwater. Fens are characterised by their water chemistry, which is neutral or alkaline, with relatively high dissolved mineral levels but few other plant nutrients...

 is a Site of Special Scientific Interest

Site of Special Scientific Interest

A Site of Special Scientific Interest is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. SSSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in Great Britain are based upon...

 (SSSI). A nationally rare habitat, it is the only example of deep-water alder

Alder

Alder is the common name of a genus of flowering plants belonging to the birch family . The genus comprises about 30 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, few reaching large size, distributed throughout the North Temperate Zone and in the Americas along the Andes southwards to...

 swamp in Surrey and is mostly deep and inaccessible. A boardwalk and path runs around the reserve. In winter redpoll

Redpoll

The Redpolls are a group of small passerine birds in the finch family Fringillidae which have characteristic red markings on their heads. They were formerly placed into the genus Acanthis together with the linnets and the twite, but their closest relatives are actually the crossbills, that are...

, siskin

Eurasian Siskin

The Eurasian Siskin is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae. It is also called the European Siskin, Common Siskin or just Siskin. Other names include Black-headed Goldfinch, barley bird and aberdevine. It is very common throughout Europe and Asia...

s and mixed flocks of tits feed on the alder cones. Waterfowl seen here includes mallard

Mallard

The Mallard , or Wild Duck , is a dabbling duck which breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Europe, Asia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand and Australia....

, teal

Common Teal

The Eurasian Teal or Common Teal is a common and widespread duck which breeds in temperate Eurasia and migrates south in winter. The Eurasian Teal is often called simply the Teal due to being the only one of these small dabbling ducks in much of its range...

 and tufted duck

Tufted Duck

The Tufted Duck, Aythya fuligula, is a medium-sized diving duck with a population of close to one million birds.- Description :The adult male is all black except for white flanks and a blue-grey bill. It has an obvious head tuft that gives the species its name.The adult female is brown with paler...

, and in the spring, nesting mute swan

Mute Swan

The Mute Swan is a species of swan, and thus a member of the duck, goose and swan family Anatidae. It is native to much of Europe and Asia, and the far north of Africa. It is also an introduced species in North America, Australasia and southern Africa. The name 'mute' derives from it being less...

s. A variety of reeds

Reed bed

Reed beds are natural habitats found in floodplains, waterlogged depressions andestuaries. Reed beds are part of a succession from young reed colonising open water or wet ground through a gradation of increasingly dry ground...

 and sedges

Cyperaceae

Cyperaceae are a family of monocotyledonous graminoid flowering plants known as sedges, which superficially resemble grasses or rushes. The family is large, with some 5,500 species described in about 109 genera. These species are widely distributed, with the centers of diversity for the group...

 can be found, together with marsh violets, opposite-leaved golden saxifrage

Saxifrage

Saxifraga is the largest genus in the family Saxifragaceae, containing about 440 species of Holarctic perennial plants, known as saxifrages. The Latin word saxifraga means literally "stone-breaker", from Latin + ...

, hemlock

Conium

Conium is a genus of two species of highly poisonous perennial herbaceous flowering plants in the family Apiaceae, native to Europe and the Mediterranean region as Conium maculatum, and to southern Africa as Conium chaerophylloides....

 and water dropwort

Water dropwort

The water dropworts, Oenanthe , are a genus of plants in the family Apiaceae. Most of the species grow in damp ground, in marshes or in water....

. Warbler

Warbler

There are a number of Passeriformes called "warblers". They are not particularly closely related, but share some characteristics, such as being fairly small, vocal and insectivorous....

s nest here and water rail

Water Rail

The Water Rail is a bird of the rail family which breeds in well-vegetated wetlands across Europe, Asia and North Africa. Northern and eastern populations are migratory, but this species is a permanent resident in the warmer parts of its breeding range...

 may be heard. Kingfishers and grey heron

Grey Heron

The Grey Heron , is a wading bird of the heron family Ardeidae, native throughout temperate Europe and Asia and also parts of Africa. It is resident in the milder south and west, but many birds retreat in winter from the ice in colder regions...

s are frequent visitors.

This reserve is one of the last places that an otter was seen in Surrey in the 1970s when their population was at a low ebb. Active conservation measures have seen otters return to the River Wey at Godalming

Godalming

Godalming is a town and civil parish in the Waverley district of the county of Surrey, England, south of Guildford. It is built on the banks of the River Wey and is a prosperous part of the London commuter belt. Godalming shares a three-way twinning arrangement with the towns of Joigny in France...

, a few miles away, recently, so there is optimism that they may soon inhabit this stretch of river again.

• Surrey Wildlife Trust - Moor Park

The GHQ Line through Moor Park

The GHQ Line

GHQ Line

The GHQ Line was a defence line built in the United Kingdom during World War II to contain an expected German invasion.The British Army had abandoned most of its equipment in France after the Dunkirk evacuation...

 (General Headquarters Line) was a defence line built in the United Kingdom during World War II to contain an expected German invasion. Part of the GHQ Stop Line B runs through the area south and east of Farnham though the valley of the River Wey and was designed to prevent a German invasion force from using the Wey Valley to reach London. Many defences from this era - gun emplacement

British hardened field defences of World War II

British hardened field defences of World War II were small fortified structures constructed as a part of British anti-invasion preparations. They were popularly known as pillboxes by reference to their shape.-Design and development:...

s, pillboxes, "dragons' teeth

Dragon's teeth (fortification)

Dragon's teeth are square-pyramidal fortifications of reinforced concrete first used during the Second World War to impede the movement of tanks and mechanised infantry...

" and other anti-tank defences can be seen from the path leading through Moor Park from the house towards the caves and abbey or towards Farnham.