Nonsuch Park *

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

Nonsuch Palace was built on the site of the former manor and church of the village of Cuddington, which were cleared for Henry VIII's new hunting lodge that was planned on a scale to exceed that of Hampton Court. The name it was given, 'None Such', referred to the fact that it was to be without equal. Unfinished at Henry's death in 1547, the palace was eventually completed by the 12th Earl of Arundel, who purchased the estate from the Crown in 1556. Elizabeth I later repossessed the estate in 1592, and it remained in royal ownership until 1670 when Charles II gave it to his mistress Barbara Villiers, who was created Baroness Nonsuch, Duchess of Cleveland. In order to pay her gambling debts she was granted permission to demolish the palace in 1682. Her grandson, 2nd Duke of Grafton inherited the estate, but also ran up huge debts, and by 1731 he had to sell off his estates. In 1750 The Great Park was purchased by William Taylor who set up the Malden Powder Mills. The Little Park was purchased by Joseph Thompson, and ownership then passed in 1743 to his nephew Joseph Whateley on condition he took holy orders. His brother Thomas lived at Nonsuch in the mid C18th, who wrote 'Observations on Modern Gardening', published 1770 and probably laid out the gardens here. Nothing remains of Nonsuch Palace, although the site was excavated in 1959-60 and the ground plan of the palace was revealed, as was the site of Cuddington Church. The finds were given to the Museum of London and the site was then filled in, and is now under grass.

The main building in the public park today, on the east side near Cheam Gate, is Nonsuch Mansion, a C17th house that was rebuilt in 1802-6 by architect Jeffry Wyatt, later known as Wyattville, in picturesque Gothic style. It was built for Samuel Farmer, who had purchased the Nonsuch Park Estate in 1799, following the death of Joseph Whateley in 1797. It is probably on the former site of the Keeper's Lodge in Little Park, attached to Nonsuch Palace. Parts of the present mansion date from the C18th but the greater part, including the south front and the state rooms, are Wyatt's; he also worked on alterations to Windsor Castle, for which he was knighted. Nonsuch Mansion has a castellated brick wall down one side and is laid out with a rose walk, sunken shrubbery, trees, grass area and flower beds. The gardens were partially those laid out by Thomas Whateley; greenhouses and hothouses were erected where orchids, azaleas and other exotic plants were grown, regularly winning horticultural prizes in the 1840s and '50s. A nursery garden provided fresh fruit and vegetables, and behind the Lodge where the Head Gardener lived was the Home Farm, which supplied the house with fresh produce. Also in the grounds was an ice-well.

The Farmer family continued to own the estate until 1937, when it was sold to the precursors of the two local authorities that continue to have joint ownership. During WWII the park was farmed by land girls and it was a base for the Home Guard; Canadian soldiers camped in the grounds just before D-Day. The extensive parkland around the house is largely in the Borough of Epsom and Ewell. Through the auspices of the active Friends of Nonsuch, established in 1991 to preserve the Nonsuch Park Estate as open space, the Service Wing of the mansion including the kitchen, larders, sculleries and laundries has been restored. It opened to the public in 1993 as The Service Wing Museum where there is an exhibition of rare English hand painted and antique European stained glass. In November 2011 a model of Nonsuch Palace was unveiled and is now on display in the Nonsuch Palace Gallery of the Service Wing Museum. Another group with an interest in the park's maintenance, focusing on wildlife within the park, is Nonsuch Watch.

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.