Holwood Park *

Site on The National Heritage List for England, Parks & Gardens, for Register Entry see https://www.historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list

The Holwood estate was conveyed in 1767 to Robert Burrow, who enlarged the estate by buying several lots of adjoining land including the area of common land between the old and new Westerham Road to the south-west of the site. He converted stretches of woodland to open pasture, ornamented these with ponds and shrubberies, and repaired the house. By 1784 John Randall, an eminent ship builder, had purchased the estate, which now covered 82.5 hectares. In 1785 he sold it to William Pitt the Younger, who had become Prime Minister in 1783 and who owned Holwood until 1803. During this time the house was enlarged for him by architect Sir John Soane (1753-1837) and in c.1790 he commissioned Humphry Repton (1752-1818) to advise on improvements to the landscape. Repton continued to be involved with Holwood until at least 1798. Pitt himself was actively involved in many of the improvements and is described (Letters, Public Record Office) as laying out new roads and drives, levelling and draining the park, and carrying out extensive planting in the gardens and park, including planting on the ancient monument. He was also responsible for making a pond to the north-east of the house, probably the large pond in Lake Wood. The earliest available plan, that by the Ordnance Survey (OS) dated 1798, shows the estate during Pitt's ownership, immediately after Repton's work, and includes the new drive and the pleasure grounds around the house. After he retired from politics, Pitt could no longer afford the upkeep of Holwood and in 1803 he sold the estate to George, later Sir George, Pocoke who owned it for twenty years.

The new owner in 1823 was John Ward, a wealthy London merchant who became a magistrate and Deputy Lieutenant for the County of Kent. He rebuilt the house, commissioning Decimus Burton as the architect, whose classical Georgian design was completed in 1827. The northern route of the old Westerham Road was used for a new drive, and a second new drive was made from the south-west corner of the site. Ward also made alterations to the water in Lake Wood, extending Pitt's single lake with a string of four new pools, and was responsible for planting many single specimen trees around the park. The estate map of Holwood dated 1832 and the OS map of 1869 record changes to Holwood during this period of ownership. Among those visiting Holwood at this time was Charles Darwin. 

In February 1852 Ward sold Holwood to the railway builder and engineer Thomas Brassy and over the next 24 years there were successive owners until 1876, when upon the death of the then owner Robert Alexander, the estate was purchased by Edward Henry, 15th Earl of Derby, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Prior to this his wife, Mary Catherine, Dowager Marchioness of Salisbury had rented the estate from Robert Alexander. The Earl of Derby made alterations to the landscape, including the ornamentation of Lake Wood and the walled garden, which were described in the Gardeners' Chronicle (1890). The estate remained with successive Earls of Derby until after WWII when the widow of the 18th Earl moved away and sold the house to a property syndicate in 1951. During the war Winston Churchill is known to have visited Holwood as the guest of Sibyl, daughter in law of the 17th Earl and wife of Lord Edward Stanley. In 1953 it was sold to Seismographic Services (England) Limited, who used it as their country headquarters and undertook considerable building development in the grounds near to the house. The company moved out in 1996 and the property became vacant. In 2002 it was purchased by a private owner; the house was restored and refurbished, and the gardens were also partially restored. A public footpath crosses the south-west corner of the site, which is otherwise private. 

The Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England was established in 1984 and was commonly called English Heritage. In April 2015 it split into 2 separate entities, Historic England (HE), which continues to champion and protect the historic environment, and the English Heritage Trust, whose role is to look after the 400+ historic sites and monuments owned by the state. HE manages the National Heritage List for England (NHLE) that includes over 400,000 items ranging from prehistoric monuments to office blocks, battlefields and parks, which benefit from legal protection.