The park lies near Easebourne, West Sussex, in the South Downs National Park. The estate belongs to Viscount Cowdray, whose family have owned it since 1909. It has a golf course, and it offers clay pigeon shooting and corporate activity days, as well as the more traditional activities of agriculture, forestry and property lets.
The preserved ruins of Cowdray House an important Tudor era great house lie in the park and are open to visitors.
The estate was owned by the Bohun family from approximately 1185. [1] Sir David Owen, son of Owen Tudor,[ citation needed ] built Cowdray House in the 16th century. His son sold the estate to William FitzWilliam, 1st Earl of Southampton in 1529. His half-brother Sir Anthony Browne inherited the estate in 1542. Browne's son Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu inherited in 1548. The 7th Viscount employed Capability Brown to landscape the park in 1770. The park and gardens are Grade II* listed. [1] On 25 September 1793, a fire destroyed Cowdray House, reducing it to its present ruined state. [2] The ruins are Grade I listed. [3]
The 7th Viscount's daughter married William Stephen Poyntz. On his death in 1840, the estate was purchased by George Perceval, 6th Earl of Egmont. The present house was built by his son Charles Perceval, 7th Earl of Egmont in the 1870s. [2] It was purchased in 1909 by Weetman Pearson, later 1st Viscount Cowdray, who restored the house. [2] His heir and his twin Angela Pearson were born in 1910 and they and their three sisters were brought up here. [4] His heir made further alterations in 1927. [2]
During the Second World War it was occupied by the Royal Army Service Corps. After the war, architect Percy Wheeler made alterations for the 3rd Viscount. The house was refurbished by the 4th Viscount from 1995. It is Grade II listed. [2] Numerous other aspects of the estate are listed. [1]
In 2005 the Heritage Lottery Fund awarded a grant of £2.7m towards the cost of stabilising the ruins and they were opened to the public on 31 March 2007. [5] In May 2009 Lord Cowdray sought to turn the house into a country house hotel, but the project was abandoned when Cowdray failed to find a business partner. [6] Cowdray moved to another family property at Fernhurst. [7] The following year, in September 2010, the house was put on the market for £25 million, not including the rest of the estate. [6] [8] Michael Pearson, the fourth Viscount Cowdray, claimed that he did not want his son to inherit the burden of maintaining the house. [6]
The collection housed within Cowdray Park was auctioned in situ by Christie's over three days, between 13 and 15 September 2011. [9] Among the objects sold were furniture, silver, paintings, tapestries and porcelain, with a portrait previously identified as Queen Elizabeth I (but now considered more likely to be Catherine Howard, née Carey, Countess of Nottingham) achieving the highest auction price of £325,250. [10] In total, the auction raised £7.9 million. [10]
The estate is home to the Cowdray Park Polo Club, which describes itself as the "Home of British Polo". [11] The club was founded in 1910. The Cowdray Gold Cup tournament was inaugurated in 1956. [12]
Media related to Cowdray Park at Wikimedia Commons
Earl of Egmont was a title in the Peerage of Ireland, created in 1733 for John Perceval, 1st Viscount Perceval. It became extinct with the death of the twelfth earl in 2011.
Viscount Cowdray, of Cowdray in the County of 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. He had already been created a Baronet, of Paddockhurst, in the Parish of Worth, in the County of Sussex, and of Airlie Gardens, in the Parish of St Mary Abbots, Kensington, in the County of London, on 26 June 1894, and Baron Cowdray, of Midhurst in the County of Sussex, in 1910. His son, the second Viscount, sat as a Liberal Member of Parliament for Eye. His son, the third Viscount, after serving in World War II where he lost an arm, was Chairman of the family firm of Pearson Plc from 1954 to 1977. The titles are held by the latter's son, the fourth Viscount, who succeeded in 1995.
Midhurst is a market town, parish and civil parish in West Sussex, England. It lies on the River Rother 20 miles (32 km) inland from the English Channel, and 12 miles (19 km) north of the county town of Chichester.
John Perceval, 2nd Earl of Egmont was a British politician, political pamphleteer, and genealogist who served as First Lord of the Admiralty. Of Anglo-Irish background, he sat in both the Irish and British Parliaments. He was the father of the Regency Era Prime Minister Spencer Perceval.
Weetman Dickinson Pearson, 1st Viscount Cowdray,, known as Sir Weetman Pearson, Bt between 1894 and 1910, and as Lord Cowdray between 1910 and 1917, was a British engineer, oil industrialist, benefactor and Liberal politician. He was the owner of the Pearson conglomerate.
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 in the parish of Easebourne, just east of Midhurst, West Sussex standing on the north bank of the River Rother. It was largely destroyed by fire on 24 September 1793, but the ruins are Grade I listed for their historical importance.
George Samuel Browne, 8th Viscount Montagu was an English nobleman.
John Perceval, 1st Earl of Egmont, PC, FRS, known as Sir John Perceval, Bt, from 1691 to 1715, as The Lord Perceval from 1715 to 1722 and as The Viscount Perceval from 1722 to 1733, was an Anglo-Irish politician.
Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu, KB, PC was an English peer during the Tudor period. He was a staunch Roman Catholic, but unswervingly loyal to the Crown. Montagu was employed on diplomatic missions to the Pope in Rome and to Spain, and was 'highly esteemed for his prudence and wisdom' by Queen Elizabeth. In spite of his bold opposition to the Acts of Supremacy and Allegiance, which threatened the religious activities of the Roman Catholics, he never lost Queen Elizabeth's favour. He was one of the commissioners who tried Mary, Queen of Scots in 1587. In 1571 he was implicated in the Ridolfi Plot.
Sir Anthony Browne, KG of Battle Abbey and Cowdray Park, both in Sussex, England, was a Member of Parliament and a courtier who served as Master of the Horse to King Henry VIII.
Charles Torquil de Montalt Fraser was High Sheriff of West Sussex in 2006–07.
Admiral George James Perceval, 6th Earl of Egmont, known as the Lord Arden between 1840 and 1841, was a British naval commander and Tory politician.
Weetman Harold Miller Pearson, 2nd Viscount Cowdray,, styled The Honourable Harold Pearson between 1910 and 1927, was a British peer and Liberal Party politician.
Francis Browne, 3rd Viscount Montagu was the eldest son of Anthony-Maria Browne, 2nd Viscount Montagu and Jane Sackville, the daughter of Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset.
Anthony Browne was Sheriff of Surrey and of Kent in 1580. The heir to a great estate in Sussex, he predeceased his father by four months. Aside from his own progeny, his sister Mary married Henry Wriothesley, 2nd Earl of Southampton who gave birth to Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton.
Michael Orlando Weetman Pearson, 4th Viscount Cowdray, of Cowdray Park in West Sussex, is a landowner in West Sussex with 16,500 acres (6,700 ha) and is a major shareholder of the FTSE 100 company Pearson plc, the construction, now publishing, company founded by his ancestor in the 19th century.
Lt Col (Weetman) John Churchill Pearson, 3rd Viscount Cowdray was a British peer, businessman and polo player.
The Varsity Polo Match is an annual polo match between the Oxford University Polo Club and the Cambridge University Polo Club, played between teams of four players. Historically it was known as the inter-University Challenge Cup or inter-Varsity polo match. It is also known as the University Polo Match or by a title that includes the name of its current sponsor. Members of both teams are traditionally known as Blues, with Oxford in dark blue and Cambridge in light blue.
Henry Frederick Joseph James Perceval, 5th Earl of Egmont, styled Viscount Perceval from 1822 to 1835, was a British peer and politician. An alcoholic from an early age, he inherited estates heavily encumbered by debt; avoiding writs for debt shaped much of his life. He was briefly elected a Member of Parliament (MP), but may never have taken his seat, and spent much of his life either abroad or living under an alias. His solicitor took personal advantage of the Earl's incapacity for business, resulting in belated litigation with the next Earl in 1863.
Annie Pearson, Viscountess Cowdray, GBE was an English society hostess, suffragist and philanthropist. She was nicknamed the "Fairy Godmother of Nursing" due to her financial patronage of the Royal College of Nursing and her work to promote district nursing throughout England and Scotland. She served as the President of the Women's Liberal Federation from 1921 until 1923 and was also the Honorary Treasurer of the Liberal Women's Suffrage Union. She was the only woman to hold the office of High Steward of Colchester, serving from 1927 until her death in 1932.