Nutfield Priory

Last updated

Nutfield Priory
Nutfield Priory (geograph 1870761).jpg
View of the house from the gardens
Location Nutfield
Coordinates 51°14′09″N0°08′31″W / 51.2357°N 000.1420°W / 51.2357; -000.1420 Coordinates: 51°14′09″N0°08′31″W / 51.2357°N 000.1420°W / 51.2357; -000.1420
OS grid reference TQ2980850153
Area Surrey
Built1872-1874
Architect John Gibson
Architectural style(s) Neo-gothic
OwnerHand Picked Hotels
Listed Building – Grade II
Official nameNutfield Priory
Designated12 August 2011
Reference no. 1400998
Surrey UK location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location of Nutfield Priory in Surrey

Nutfield Priory is a Grade II listed country house in Nutfield, Surrey. It was constructed between 1872 and 1874 by John Gibson. [1] It is now a hotel and health spa. [2]

Contents

History

In the 13th century, Reigate Priory was founded on this site by William de Warenne, 5th Earl of Surrey. The land was taken by the Crown during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, but was subsequently given to William Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Effingham, uncle of Henry VIII's fifth wife Catherine Howard. [1]

In 1681, the estate was sold to the brewer John Parsons. It was divided into lots for sale in 1766; what became Nutfield Priory is a 93 acres (38 ha) site bought by John Fowler. The estate was inherited by John Fowler Wood and sold to H E Gurney, a Quaker, in 1854. [1]

In 1866, Gurney's firm Overend Gurney declared bankruptcy, owing £19 million. The estate was sold to the brewer James Watney, who in turn sold it to the member of parliament Joshua Fielden in 1869. [1] Fielden commissioned Gibson to design and build the present building, and held regular music recitals and events during his time there. He adhered to a rigid lifestyle, with guests not speaking to each other and following a predefined routine. [1] [3]

Following Fielden's death in 1887, ownership of the priory passed to his wife Ellen. She sold the house in 1920, where it remained a private residence before being sold again to O Picton Davis in 1930, who converted it into a luxury hotel with a nine-hole golf course. [4]

The priory was commandeered by the British Army during World War II. [1] It was subsequently used as a school for the deaf, installing closed circuit television to aid with teaching. [5] [6] It was renovated as a hotel in 1989, restoring much of the original architecture. [2] It was Grade II listed in 2011. [1]

Architecture

View of the priory's neo-Gothic design The neo-Gothic splendour of Nutfield Priory hotel (geograph 5915790).jpg
View of the priory's neo-Gothic design

Gibson designed the house in a neo-Gothic manner in the style of the Palace of Westminster. [4] The priory is built from Kentish ragstone rubble and dressed with Reigate Stone. [1] It is composed of two storeys and an attic, with a tiled roof. A six-storey tower hangs over the main entrance on the north side, while there is a three-storey projection to the west. [1]

Related Research Articles

Dorking Market town in Surrey, England

Dorking is a market town in Surrey in South East England, about 34 km (21 mi) south of London. It is in Mole Valley District and the council headquarters are to the east of the centre. The High Street runs roughly east–west, parallel to the Pipp Brook and along the northern face of an outcrop of Lower Greensand. The town is surrounded on three sides by the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and is close to Box Hill and Leith Hill.

Great Budworth Human settlement in England

Great Budworth is a village and civil parish in Cheshire, England, four miles (6.4 km) north of Northwich off the A559 road, east of Comberbach, northwest of Higher Marston and southeast of Budworth Heath. Until 1948, Great Budworth was part of the Arley Hall estate.

Reigate Town in Surrey, England

Reigate is a town in Surrey, England, around 19 mi (31 km) south of central London. The settlement is first recorded in Domesday Book in 1086 as Cherchefelle but first appears with its modern name in documents dating from the 1190s. The earliest archaeological evidence for human activity is from the Paleolithic and Neolithic, and during the Roman period, tile making took place to the north east of the modern centre.

Redhill, Surrey Town in Surrey, England

Redhill is a town in the borough of Reigate and Banstead within the county of Surrey, England. The town, which adjoins the town of Reigate to the west, is due south of Croydon in Greater London, and is part of the London commuter belt. The town is also the post town, entertainment and commercial area of three adjoining communities : Merstham, Earlswood and Whitebushes, as well as of two small rural villages to the east in the Tandridge District, Bletchingley and Nutfield.

Merstham Human settlement in England

Merstham is a town in the borough of Reigate and Banstead in Surrey, England. It is north of Redhill and is contiguous with it. Part of the North Downs Way runs along the northern boundary of the town. Merstham has community associations, an early medieval church and a football club.

Piercefield House Neo-classical country house

Piercefield House is a largely ruined neo-classical country house near St Arvans, Monmouthshire, Wales, about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north of the centre of Chepstow. The central block of the house was designed in the very late 18th century, by, or to the designs of, Sir John Soane. It is flanked by two pavilions, of slightly later date, by Joseph Bonomi the Elder. The house sits within Piercefield Park, a Grade I listed historic landscape, that was created in the 18th century as a notable Picturesque estate.

Bletchingley Human settlement in England

Bletchingley is a village in Surrey, England. It is on the A25 road to the east of Redhill and to the west of Godstone, has a conservation area with medieval buildings and is mostly on a wide escarpment of the Greensand Ridge, which is followed by the Greensand Way.

Nork, Surrey Human settlement in England

Nork is a residential area of the borough of Reigate and Banstead in Surrey and borders Greater London, England. Nork is separated from its post town Banstead only by the A217 dual carriageway, and the built-up area is also contiguous with similar parts of Tattenham Corner and Burgh Heath. A thin belt of more open land separates it from the communities to the north: Epsom, Ewell, Cheam and Belmont. There are two parades of shops, one called the Driftbridge and another at the north-eastern end of Nork Way, the street which runs centrally through the residential area. Nork lies on chalk near the top of the gentle north-facing slope of the North Downs, 175 m (575 ft) above sea level at its highest point.

Nutfield, Surrey Village in England

Nutfield is a village and civil parish in the Tandridge District of Surrey, England. It lies in the Weald immediately south of the Greensand Ridge and has a railway station at South Nutfield which is one stop from Redhill, on the Redhill to Tonbridge Line. It includes a watersports park and picnic destination, Mercers Country Park.

Norbury Park

Norbury Park is a swathe of mixed wooded and agricultural land associated with its Georgian manor house near Leatherhead and Dorking, Surrey, which appears in the Domesday Book of 1086. It occupies mostly prominent land reaching into a bend in the Mole in the parish of Mickleham.

Welcombe Hotel

Welcombe Hotel occupies a 19th-century former country mansion house near Stratford upon Avon, Warwickshire, which was previously known as Welcombe House. It is a Grade II* listed building.

Joshua Fielden JP of Stansfield Hall, Todmorden, was a British cotton manufacturer and Conservative politician.

Gatton, Surrey

Gatton is a former village and borough in Surrey, England, and an ancient parish. It survives as a sparsely populated, predominantly rural locality, which includes Gatton Park, no more than 12 houses, and two farms on the slopes of the North Downs near Reigate.

Dobroyd Castle

Dobroyd Castle is an important historic building above the town of Todmorden, West Yorkshire, England. It was built for John Fielden, local mill owner and son of Honest John Fielden the Social Reformer and MP.

Church of St John the Baptist, Outwood Church in Surrey, England

The Church of St John the Baptist, Outwood, is the parish church of Outwood, Surrey, England.

Sudbrook Park, Petersham

Sudbrook Park in Petersham was developed by John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll in the early 18th century. Sudbrook House, designed for Argyll by James Gibbs and now Grade I listed by Historic England, is considered a fine example of Palladian architecture. The house and is surrounding park have been the home of the Richmond Golf Club since 1891.

John Parsons (died 1717)

Sir John Parsons of The Priory, Reigate, Surrey, was an English brewer, Royal Navy victualler and Tory politician, who sat in the English and British House of Commons between 1685 and 1717. He was Lord Mayor of London in 1703.

Humphrey Parsons, of The Red Lion Brewery, Aldgate and the Priory, Reigate, Surrey, was a British brewer and Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1722 to 1741. He was twice Lord Mayor of London in 1730 and 1740.

Hitchin Priory

Hitchin Priory in Hitchin in Hertfordshire is today a hotel built in about 1700 on the site of a Carmelite friary founded in 1317, which was closed in the Dissolution of the Monasteries during the reign of Henry VIII. Parts of the original priory are incorporated in the existing building, which has been a Grade I listed building on the Register of Historic England since 1951.

Old Town Hall, Reigate Municipal building in Reigate, Surrey, England

The Old Town Hall is a municipal building in the High Street, Reigate, Surrey, England. It is a Grade II* listed building.

References

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Historic England. "Nutfield Priory, Nutfield (1400998)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 14 November 2019.
  2. 1 2 English 2011, p. 80.
  3. Ferguson 2001, p. 38.
  4. 1 2 "Nutfield Priory Hotel and Spa". Visit Surrey. Retrieved 30 September 2019.
  5. Mattingly 2012, p. 144.
  6. Jackson 1990, p. 302.

Sources