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Bagshot Park
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bagshot Park in Bagshot, Surrey is the current home of the Earl (Prince Edward) and Countess (Sophie) of Wessex. (Grid reference: SU 9164)
Prince Edward renovated Bagshot Park, a former royal residence at Bagshot, Surrey, as a residence for himself and (until he closed the business) as a base for his film production company, Ardent Productions.
Bagshot Park, 11 miles south of Windsor, is on Bagshot Heath, a 50 square mile tract of formerly open land in Surrey and Berkshire. It is only a few miles from Sunninghill Park, the former residence of the Duke of York.
The original Bagshot Lodge was built 1631-33 as one of a series of small lodges designed for King Charles I by Inigo Jones. It was altered in 1796 by Sir Hans Sloane for William Duke of Clarence (later King William IV), who lived there till 1816.
Bagshot Park was subsequently used by Prince William Frederick, Duke of Gloucester, nephew of King George III. The duke's widow, Princess Mary, daughter of King George III, continued to live there after his death until she moved out in 1847. The original house was demolished in 1860.
A new building was built from the 1860s. Completed in 1879, it has 120 rooms. This was the principal residence of the Duke of Connaught, son of Queen Victoria, from 1880. The duke had a long and successful military career, rising to become Inspector-General of the Forces. He was subsequently Governor-General of Canada 1911-1916. The Duke of Connaught died at Bagshot Park in 1942.
The house was thereafter the regimental Headquarters and depot of the Royal Army Chaplains' Department, who famously placed a notice by the pond reading "Do not walk on the water". They in turn vacated the building shortly before the Earl of Wessex took over the tenancy from the Crown.
Although the house was criticised by the architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner for being ugly[citation needed], Bagshot Park was the most adventurous royal house to be created since the death of the Prince Consort in 1861, and is a remarkable monument in the history of Indian taste in Britain. An Indian billiard room wing, which inspired the more famous Durbar Room at Osborne House, was added in the 1880s.
