History of the house
Huth built a new country house at Possingworth, designed by Matthew Digby Wyatt at a cost of £60,000, which was completed in 1866. Ornate neo-Gothic, and U-shaped, it is built of red brick and York stone, with a slate roof. As built, the new house had several oak-panelled reception rooms, including a large picture gallery for Huth's art collection, 42 bedrooms, and a conservatory. [1] Huth employed Robert Marnock to lay out the park and garden. [2]
Possingworth Park was used as a convalescent home for soldiers during the First World War. In the 1920s, it became the Possingworth Park Hotel, and in the Second World War was used by the Canadian Army. In 1944, two V-1 flying bombs landed in the grounds and the impact from one of them destroyed the conservatory, called the Winter Garden. [1]
Beginning in 1946, much of the grounds of the Possingworth Park Hotel were built on. In the 1950s the main house and its garden were bought by Augustinian monks for a training school for the priesthood. [1] In 1964 it was sold to House of Hospitality Ltd, for the use of the Benedictine Sisters of Grace and Compassion. They renamed the property as Holy Cross Priory and created a home for the elderly. [1] [3]
House of Hospitality Ltd was a charitable organization registered with the Charity Commissioners. Its stated objects were “to alleviate need and distress amongst persons of both sexes (especially Roman Catholics) by providing homes, nursing and medical treatment; and to establish, equip, staff and maintain schools for the education of persons of both sexes (especially Roman Catholics)”. [4]
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