.: Jack`s Restaurant & Bar Menu :. Hartham Park History

A visit to Hartham Park

A House and its History

The Hartham Park that you see today is the result of a unique history.

We can only ever know a fraction of the events that have unfolded here and only ever catch a glimpse of the people that have made it what it is, but the attempt to find out more has uncovered some interesting connections and has shed fascinating light on a distinctive past.

Hopefully during your visit you will get a sense of the history and the people that helped shape not just the story of this house but the world about them.

Lady Anne James

1795 is an important date in the history of Hartham Park and a good starting point for this brief history. Lady Anne James's (née Goddard) family had owned the estate at Hartham for over 400 years. She decided on the death of her husband, the Chairman of the East India Company Commodore William James, to move from their London home at Eltham. She commissioned the renowned architect James Wyatt to remove the farm house on the Estate and redevelop the property. The result, completed in 1795, is at the heart of the present building, although now largely obscured or altered as a result of later developments.

Lady James died before she could occupy the building and the property was subsequently leased. Sir Alexander Malet, who later went on to become Governor of Bombay, was born at Hartham Park in 1800.

Two Houses, two histories

Some time before 1816 the house was purchased from the Estate by Michael Joy. He was an exile from North America in the aftermath of the War of Independence due to his sympathies for the British Government. His son, Henry Hall Joy, brings us to an interesting confluence of Hartham Park, Hartham House, an adjacent property no longer in existence and a leading literary figure of the period.

Hartham House had been owned by the Duckett family for a comparable period to that of the Goddards and Hartham Park. The Ducketts, like the Goddards, were a notable North Wiltshire family but they too had relinquished their ownership of the property and during the first decade of the 19^th Century the property was owned by Sir Benjamin Hobhouse.

Sir Benjamin's son, John Cam Hobhouse and Henry Hall Joy were close friends who took the Grand Tour together when they visited Venice in 1815. There are diary records of repeated visits and meetings with Lord Byron there. John Cam Hobhouse went on to become the executor of Lord Byron's estate, as well as a vocal politician, ultimately ennobled as Lord Broughton of Gifford.

Early 19^th Century

In the 1830s Henry Hall Joy became the owner of Hartham House as well as Hartham Park in a land swap arrangement and he chose to knock down Hartham House.

Today there is very little indication that Hartham House ever existed, although The Garth, in the present Hartham Park courtyard, was the Farm House associated with the property and is the oldest building on the site. There is also a remaining ice house (subsequently turned into an air raid shelter during the Second World War) and the cast iron gates that mark the entrance to Hartham Park are crested by the Duckett coat of arms.Sir John had Hartham Park significantly remodelled during his ownership, and the house hosted a great many gatherings, including visits by the Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, the third son of Queen Victoria who was attracted by both the shooting and the golf locally.

Stické Tennis at Hartham Park

In 1904, the Stické Tennis Court was added in the grounds to the north west of the house. Stické Tennis began at about the same time as Lawn Tennis, the artillery building a closed court at the gunnery range at Shoeburyness, Essex in 1877. Subsequently courts were erected throughout the Empire, and thereafter as its popularity spread, in country house estates.

The First World War, however, changed the world order and following 1918 there was neither the enthusiasm nor the youth of the country to sustain the game.

Today there are only three courts playable throughout the World. The one here at Hartham Park, where there is an enthusiastic and active stické tennis club, at Knightshayes in Devon and a further court that is presently used for badminton in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh within the grounds of the then Viceroy of India's summer palace.

During the 1850's Hartham Park was bought from the Methuens, to whom it had been sold, by Thomas Henry Allen Poynder and passed by inheritance to his son, William Henry Poynder.

Sir John Poynder Dickson Poynder

On the death of WH Poynder the estate passed to a nephew, John Dickson Poynder. In 1884 he succeeded his uncle, Sir Alexander Collingwood Thomas Dickson, as sixth baronet and on succeeding to his maternal uncle's property he assumed by royal licence the additional surname of Poynder in 1888.

It was during the ownership of Sir John Poynder Dickson Poynder that the house became a focal point for political, social and recreational life in North Wiltshire.

Sir John became MP for Chippenham in 1892 and a Member of London County Council from 1898 to 1904. He also served in the Second Boer War as aide-de-campe to Lord Methuen, Commander in Chief, winning a DSO in 1900.

There are records of Winston Churchill having stayed at Hartham Park over the Christmas of 1896, during the summer of 1897 and again in 1899, and subsequent correspondence between the two men continued for much of their lives.

The grounds were landscaped by Harold Peto and a superb Dutch water gardens built (now, sadly, largely overbuilt as a result of 1960s development.)

Sir John Dickson Poynder was appointed Governor of New Zealand in 1910 and raised to the peerage as Lord Islington. After two years he returned to become first Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies and then Under Secretary of State for India.

The Second World War to the present day

Following his death in 1936 the Hartham Park estate was purchased by the Nicholson family of Gin fame, who resided here during the Second World War. The upper floors of the house, previously the servants quarters, became the billet for 100 WAAF personnel, A watch for 10 Group, RAF Fighter Command, during the Battle of Britain and for the remainder of the War. 10 Group Headquarters was at Rudloe Manor a mile and a half to the West.

From the 1960s onwards Hartham Park has been used for business, briefly becoming the headquarters of the Bath and Portland Stone Company, and since 1997 under the current owner, Jeffrey Thomas, has offered serviced office accommodation to some 40 companies.

In addition the house also now contains one of the best local restaurants in the area, Jack's Restaurant and Bar. Hopefully, this allows the house to be used and enjoyed very much in the spirit of hospitality for which Hartham Park has had a reputation for the past 225 years.

Hartham Park History