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{{short description|Park and mansion in Surrey, England}}
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[[File:NorburyPark-NewManorHouse-01.JPG|thumb|right|The current manor house, built in 1774.]]'''Norbury Park''' is a swathe of mixed wooded and agricultural land associated with its [[Georgian architecture|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 [[River Mole, Surrey|Mole]] and is divided between the parishes of [[Mickleham, Surrey|Mickleham]] and [[Westhumble]]. [[Box Hill, Surrey|Box Hill]], to the south-east, was once part of the estate.
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
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[[File:NorburyPark-NewManorHouse-01.JPG|thumb|right|The current manor house, built in 1774.]]'''Norbury Park''' is an area of mixed wooded and agricultural land surrounding a privately owned its [[Georgian architecture|Georgian]] [[manor house]] near [[Leatherhead]] and [[Dorking]], [[Surrey]]. On the west bank of the [[River Mole]], it is close to the village of [[Mickleham, Surrey|Mickleham]].


The park is Grade II listed on the [[Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of special historic interest in England|Register of Historic Parks and Gardens]].<ref name=NHLEpark>{{NHLE|num=1001252|desc=Norbury Park|access-date=22 March 2018|mode=cs2}}</ref> It is part of the [[Mole Gap to Reigate Escarpment]] [[Special Area of Conservation]]<ref name = sacmg>{{cite web |url= https://designatedsites.naturalengland.org.uk/SiteGeneralDetail.aspx?SiteCode=UK0012804&SiteName=&countyCode=41&responsiblePerson=&unitId=&SeaArea=&IFCAArea= |title= Designated Sites View: Mole Gap to Reigate Escarpment |series= Special Areas of Conservation |publisher= Natural England |access-date= 28 October 2018 |archive-date= 2018-11-30 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20181130071612/https://designatedsites.naturalengland.org.uk/SiteGeneralDetail.aspx?SiteCode=UK0012804&SiteName=&countyCode=41&responsiblePerson=&unitId=&SeaArea=&IFCAArea= |url-status= live }}</ref> and a [[Site of Special Scientific Interest]].<ref name=mg>{{cite web |url= https://designatedsites.naturalengland.org.uk/SiteDetail.aspx?SiteCode=S1000977&SiteName=&countyCode=41&responsiblePerson=&SeaArea=&IFCAArea= |title= Designated Sites View: Mole Gap to Reigate Escarpment |series= Sites of Special Scientific Interest |publisher= Natural England |access-date= 9 November 2018 |archive-date= 2018-11-30 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20181130071609/https://designatedsites.naturalengland.org.uk/SiteDetail.aspx?SiteCode=S1000977&SiteName=&countyCode=41&responsiblePerson=&SeaArea=&IFCAArea= |url-status= live }}</ref>
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A small Bronze Age hoard consisting of two [[palstave|palstave axes]] and a scabbard chape dating from around 1150-1000 BC was discovered in 2003 in woodland on the western side of the park.<ref>{{cite journal |author= Williams D |year= 2008 |title= A late Bronze Age hoard from Norbury Park, Mickleham |journal= Surrey Archaeological Collections |publisher= Surrey Archaeological Society |volume= 94 |pages= 293–301}}</ref> The park also contains, at '''Druids Grove''' marked on [[Ordnance Survey]] maps, an important grove of yew trees used by [[Druids]] for rituals and ceremony. They are some of the oldest trees of [[Great Britain]].
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The manor was also known as ''Northbury'' for some time.<ref name=Times1>{{cite journal |author= |date= 13 April 1934 |title= Norbury Park: Summer all the winter |journal= The Times (London)|publisher= |volume= |issue= |pages= p17 }}</ref>


==History==
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The Park was owned for two centuries by the Stydolf family and the diarist [[John Evelyn]] records a visit in August 1655 to both [[Box Hill, Surrey]] and Norbury Park, which was then owned by Sir Francis Stydolf. Sir Francis' son Richard, who was created a [[Stydolph Baronets|baronet]] by [[Charles II of England|Charles II]] subsequently inherited the estate and on his death it passed to his daughter, who married Thomas Tryon of [[Leatherhead]]. The estate remained in the Tryon family until 1766 when Charles Tryon (father of [[William Tryon]] the Governor of [[North Carolina]]) sold the estate to William Locke, a London art critic. Locke was responsible for the abandonment of the original site of the manor house on the floodplain of the [[River Mole]] and the construction of the current house, designed in 1774 by the architect [[Thomas Sandby]]. Locke commissioned the Irish landscape artist [[George Barrett Sr.]] to decorate one of the main reception rooms.<ref name=Times1/>
[[File:The Druid's Grove by W Monk RE, in the Art Journal page 39.jpg|thumb|right|''The Druid's Grove'' by [[William Monk (artist)|William Monk]] (1863-1937)]]
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A small [[Bronze Age Britain|Bronze Age]] [[hoard]] consisting of two [[palstave|palstave axes]] and a [[chape|scabbard chape]] dating from around 1150-1000 BC was discovered in 2003 in woodland on the western side of the park.<ref>{{cite journal |author= Williams D |year= 2008 |title= A late Bronze Age hoard from Norbury Park, Mickleham |journal= Surrey Archaeological Collections |publisher= Surrey Archaeological Society |volume= 94 |pages= 293–301}}</ref> The park also contains, at '''Druids Grove''' marked on [[Ordnance Survey]] maps, an important [[Grove (nature)|grove]] of [[Taxus baccata|yew]] trees apocryphally used by [[Druids]] for rituals and ceremony. They are some of the oldest trees of [[Great Britain]].
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The manor was also known as ''Northbury'' for some time.<ref name=Times1>{{cite newspaper The Times |date= 13 April 1934 |title= Norbury Park: Summer all the winter |issue= 46727 |page=17 }}</ref>


The estate is not named in [[Domesday Book]], however there are two entries for Mickleham and it is thought that the second of these relates to Norbury Park.<ref name=Benger_1954>{{cite journal |last1= Benger |first1= FB |year= 1954 |title= Pen sketches of old houses in this district: Norbury Park |url= https://leatherheadhistoryarchive.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/VOL_1_NO_8_1954.pdf |journal= Proceedings of the Leatherhead & District Local History Society |volume= 1 |issue= 5 |pages= 14–19 |access-date= 2 February 2021 }}</ref> In 1086, the land was held by Oswald as [[mesne lord]] to the [[tenant-in-chief]], [[Richard fitz Gilbert|Richard]] son of [[Gilbert, Count of Brionne|Gilbert]]. It included five ploughlands, {{convert|1|acre|ha|1|abbr=on}} of [[meadow]] and rendered £6 per year.<ref name=Mickleham_Domesday>{{cite web |url= https://opendomesday.org/place/TQ1653/mickleham/ |title= Mickleham |author= Powell-Smith A |year= 2011 |publisher= Open Domesday |access-date= 2 February 2021 |archive-date= 11 June 2020 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200611114612/https://opendomesday.org/place/TQ1653/mickleham/ |url-status= live }}</ref> The estate was one of several local manors comprising the [[English feudal barony|Honour of Clare]] that had been created for Richard fitz Gilbert by [[William the Conqueror|William I]] as a reward for his support during the [[Norman conquest of England|Norman Conquest]].<ref name=Benger_1954/> Oswald, the lesser tenant, was a 'conforming Saxon', who had held the land during the reign of [[Edward the Confessor]].<ref name=Benger_1954/>
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[[File:Bridge over the River Mole - geograph.org.uk - 198253.jpg|thumb|right|Grade II* listed Weir Bridge over the River Mole built in 1840.<ref name=Sheppard_Micklam>{{cite book |last=Shepperd |first=Ronald |title= Micklam the story of a parish |year= 1991 |publisher= Mickleham Publications |isbn= 0-9518305-0-3}}</ref>]]
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Locke died in 1810 and his family left Norbury Park in 1819.<ref name=Times1/> [[Ebenezer Maitland|Ebenezer Fuller Maitland]], the former MP for [[Wallingford (UK Parliament constituency)|Wallingford]] purchased the house in around 1822, exchanging it for [[Park Place, Berkshire|Park Place]], [[Remenham]], [[Berkshire]], with Henry Piper Sperling. Sperling remained at Norbury Park for 24 years and was responsible for developing the gardens around the House, including the building of Weir Bridge over the River Mole, which still stands today and is Grade II* listed.<ref name=Sheppard_Micklam/>


[[File:Norbury Park.png|thumb|right|upright|''Norbury Park'' (1775) by [[George Barret Sr.]] (1730-1784)]]
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The estate was purchased in 1850 by [[Thomas Grissell]]. It was home to [[Leopold Salomons|Leopold Salomons JP]] by 1911 &mdash; Salomans gave [[Box Hill, Surrey|Box Hill]] to the nation in 1914 and died on 23 September 1915.<ref name=Times6>{{cite journal |author= |date= 6 July 1916 |title= Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division |journal= The Times (London)|publisher= |volume= |issue= |pages=p4 }}</ref> The Norbury Park estate appears to have been partly broken up by the executors of Salomons' will. The House, stud farm and {{convert|634|acres|km2}} of parkland were purchased by Sir William Corry in September 1916.<ref name=Times4>{{cite journal |author= |date= 16 September 1916 |title= The Estate Market |journal= The Times (London)|publisher= |volume= |issue= |pages=p11 }}</ref> In August 1922 he sold the property to [[Sir Edward Mountain, 1st Baronet|Sir Edward Mountain]], the chairman and managing director of the [[Eagle Star Insurance|Eagle Star Insurance Company]].<ref name=Times5>{{cite journal |author= |date= 23 August 1922 |title= The Estate Market |journal= The Times (London)|publisher= |volume= |issue= |pages=p10 }}</ref>
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The Park was owned for two centuries by the Stydolf family and the diarist [[John Evelyn]] records a visit in August 1655 to both Box Hill, Surrey and Norbury Park, which was then owned by Sir Francis Stydolf. Sir Francis' son Richard, who was created a [[Stydolph Baronets|baronet]] by [[Charles II of England|Charles II]] subsequently inherited the estate and on his death it passed to his daughter, who married Thomas Tryon of Leatherhead. The estate remained in the Tryon family until 1766 when Charles Tryon (father of [[William Tryon]], then Governor of [[Province of North Carolina]]) sold the estate to William Locke, a London art critic. Locke was responsible for the abandonment of the original site of the manor house on the floodplain of the River Mole and the construction of the current house, designed in 1774 by the architect [[Thomas Sandby]].<ref name=Times1/> Locke also invited [[J. M. W. Turner]] to the estate to paint; a [[watercolor painting|watercolour]] entitled ''Beech Trees at Norbury Park'' (1797) is held by the [[National Gallery of Ireland]].<ref>{{cite news |last= Dunne |first= Aidan |date= 28 December 2019 |title= Art in Focus – Beech Trees at Norbury Park by JMW Turner (1775-1851) |url= https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/art-and-design/visual-art/art-in-focus-beech-trees-at-norbury-park-by-jmw-turner-1775-1851-1.4116702 |newspaper= The Irish Times |location= Dublin |access-date= 25 April 2021 |archive-date= 31 March 2021 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210331131051/https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/art-and-design/visual-art/art-in-focus-beech-trees-at-norbury-park-by-jmw-turner-1775-1851-1.4116702 |url-status= live }}</ref>


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[[File:Bridge over the River Mole - geograph.org.uk - 198253.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Grade II* listed Weir Bridge over the [[River Mole, Surrey|River Mole]] built in 1840.<ref name=Sheppard_Micklam>{{cite book |last=Shepperd |first=Ronald |title= Micklam the story of a parish |year= 1991 |publisher= Mickleham Publications |isbn= 0-9518305-0-3}}</ref>]]
[[Surrey County Council]] purchased {{convert|1340|acres|km2}} of Norbury Park in July 1930 for ({{Inflation|UK|85000|1930|fmt=c|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}) to protect the land from development.<ref name=Times3>{{cite journal |date= 30 July 1930 |title= Norbury Park |journal= The Times (London) |publisher= |volume= |issue= |pages= p14 }}</ref> The parkland remains the property of the council today and is managed on their behalf by the [[Surrey Wildlife Trust]].
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Locke died in 1810 and his family left Norbury Park in 1819.<ref name=Times1/> [[Ebenezer Maitland|Ebenezer Fuller Maitland]], the former MP for [[Wallingford (UK Parliament constituency)|Wallingford]], purchased the house in around 1822, and later exchanged it for [[Park Place, Berkshire|Park Place]], [[Remenham]], [[Berkshire]], with Henry Piper Sperling. Sperling remained at Norbury Park for 24 years and was responsible for developing the gardens around the House, including the building of Weir Bridge over the River Mole, which still stands today and is Grade II* listed.<ref name=Sheppard_Micklam/>


[[File:Mickeham Tunnel south portal (geograph 4735445).jpg|thumb|right|The south portal of Mickleham Tunnel]]
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[[Marie Stopes]], the British scientist and writer, lived at Norbury Park House from 1938 to 1958. She had been an active proponent of sexual education and birth control in the early twentieth century; her book ''Married Love'', published in 1918, was the first sexual manual written in language simple enough to be accessible to a wide public and in 1921 she opened the first birth control clinic in London. On her death in 1958 she bequeathed the Park to the [[Royal Society of Literature]], of which she was a member. The house was subsequently sold to Philip Spencer, an industrialist.<ref name=Times2>{{cite journal |author= |date= 2 May 1961 |title= Norbury Park Plaque to Marie Stopes |journal= The Times (London) |publisher= |volume= |issue= |pages=p7 }}</ref>
Norbury Park was purchased by [[Thomas Grissell]] in 1850. It was during his ownership that the [[Sutton and Mole Valley lines|railway line from Leatherhead to Dorking]] was built. Grissell insisted that the three viaducts over the River Mole be built with coloured brickwork with decorative [[cornice]]s and [[cast iron|cast-iron]] [[parapet]]s. Similarly, the {{convert|480|m|yd|adj=mid|-long|abbr=on}} Mickleham Tunnel was bored through the [[Chalk Group|chalk]] with no [[ventilation shaft|vertical ventilation shafts]].{{sfn|Jackson|1988|pp=26–29}} When the line opened in 1867, Grissell secured the right to stop on request any train passing through the [[Box Hill & Westhumble railway station|railway station at Westhumble]], a concession that was abolished by the [[Transport Act 1962]]. The station was designed by [[Charles Henry Driver]] in the [[Châteauesque]] style and included steeply pitched roofs with patterned tiles and an ornamental turret topped with a decorative grille and weather vane.{{sfn|Jackson|1988|pp=43-45}}

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[[Leopold Salomons]] purchased Norbury Park in 1890.<ref name=Benger_1954/> He is best known for his gift of Box Hill to the nation in 1914,<ref name=Times6>{{cite newspaper The Times |date= 6 July 1916 |title= Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division |issue= 41212 |page=4 }}</ref> but he also funded the addition of a [[sacristy|vestry]] to St Michael's Chapel in [[Westhumble]].{{sfn|Shepperd|1982|p=68}} He died on 23 September 1915.<ref name=Times6/> The Norbury Park estate appears to have been partly broken up by the executors of Salomons' [[will and testament|will]]. The house, [[stud farm]] and {{convert|634|acres|km2}} of parkland were purchased by Sir William Corry in September 1916.<ref>{{cite newspaper The Times |date= 16 September 1916 |title= The Estate Market |issue= 41274 |page=11 }}</ref> In August 1922 he sold the property to [[Sir Edward Mountain, 1st Baronet|Sir Edward Mountain]], the chairman and managing director of the [[Eagle Star Insurance|Eagle Star Insurance Company]].<ref>{{cite newspaper The Times |date= 23 August 1922 |title= The Estate Market |issue= 43117 |page=10 }}</ref>

At the urging of [[James Chuter Ede]],{{sfn|Hart|2021|p=59}} [[Surrey County Council]] bought {{convert|1340|acres|km2}} of Norbury Park in July 1930, for which the estate's total purchase price was £97,000 ({{Inflation|UK|97000|1930|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}), to protect the land from development.<ref>{{cite newspaper The Times |date= 30 July 1930 |title= Norbury Park |issue= 45578 |page=14 }}</ref> The council could find only part of the price, and a public appeal for more donations was unsuccessful, so the house was sold privately, while the parkland remained Council property, as it is today. Chuter Ede said he hoped the acquisition was one of the most pleasant and enduring memorials of his life's work.{{sfn|Hart|2021|p=122}} The parkland is managed on the council's behalf by the [[Surrey Wildlife Trust]].<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.surreywildlifetrust.org/nature-reserves/norbury-park |title= Norbury Park |publisher= Surrey Wildlife Trust |access-date= 18 October 2018 |archive-date= 24 October 2018 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20181024152526/https://www.surreywildlifetrust.org/nature-reserves/norbury-park |url-status= live }}</ref>

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[[Marie Stopes]], the British scientist and writer, lived at Norbury Park House from 1938 to 1958. She had been an active proponent of sexual education and birth control in the early twentieth century; her book ''[[Married Love]]'', published in 1918, was the first sexual manual written in language simple enough to be accessible to a wide public. In 1921 she opened the first [[birth control|birth control clinic]] in London. On her death in 1958 she bequeathed the Park to the [[Royal Society of Literature]], of which she was a member. The house was subsequently sold to Philip Spencer, an industrialist.<ref>{{cite newspaper The Times |date= 2 May 1961 |title= Norbury Park plaque to Marie Stopes |issue= 55070 |page=7 }}</ref>

==House==
Norbury Park House was designed in the [[Palladian architecture|Palladian style]] by Thomas Sandby for William Locke in 1774<ref name=Times1/><ref name=Benger_1954/> and was extended by the architect, [[Peter Frederick Robinson]], in 1820.<ref name=NHLE_house>{{NHLE |num= 1228829 |desc= Norbury Park |grade= II* |fewer-links= yes }}</ref>

The entrance front, which faces northeast, has five windows on the first floor. The projecting porch is supported on either side of the main door by a pair of [[Doric order|Doric]] columns.<ref name=NHLE_house/><ref name=Moxley>{{cite news |last= Moxley |first= Patricia |date= May 1975 |title= Norbury Park |work= Surrey : The county magazine |volume= 6 |issue= 2 |pages= xxii-xxiv }}</ref> The hall has a stone floor with a stone staircase, which has a mahogany handrail and iron balustrades. The oldest fireplace in the house is made from chalk and may have been taken from the previous manor house.<ref name=Moxley/>

The drawing room is decorated with the work of four artists, all commissioned by Locke: [[George Barrett Sr.]], to paint three landscapes on the walls; Benedetto Pastorini painted a representation of the sky on the ceiling; additional features were painted by [[Sawrey Gilpin]] and [[Giovanni Battista Cipriani|Giovani Cipriani]].<ref name=Times1/><ref name=Moxley/> In the evening, light enters the room from the window, shining in the same direction as the sunset depicted in the landscape on the western wall.<ref name=NHLE_house/>

==Rural industries==
The park has three tenanted farms: Norbury Park Farm (east of the house), Swanworth Farm (to the south) and [[Bocketts Farm]] to the north.<ref>{{cite web |title= Norbury Park |date= 4 May 2011 |publisher= Wildlife Trusts |url= https://data.wildlifetrusts.org/reserves/norbury-park |access-date= 11 January 2023 }}</ref> [[Norbury Blue]] cheese is named after the park.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.norburyblue.com/Norbury-Blue-Background.html |title=Norbury Blue Background |access-date=2008-09-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080829162037/http://www.norburyblue.com/Norbury-Blue-Background.html |archive-date=2008-08-29 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The [[blue cheese]] was made at the Dairy at Norbury Park farm until 2018, when production moved to Sherbourne Farm at [[Albury, Surrey|Albury]].<ref>{{cite news |last= Coakley |first= Hugh |date= 28 March 2019 |title= Norbury Park Farm Cheese - The 'only cheese maker in Surrey' |url= https://www.guildford-dragon.com/2019/03/28/norbury-park-farm-cheese-the-only-cheesemaker-in-surrey/ |work= The Guildford Dragon |access-date= 4 February 2021 |archive-date= 1 April 2019 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190401031022/https://www.guildford-dragon.com/2019/03/28/norbury-park-farm-cheese-the-only-cheesemaker-in-surrey/ |url-status= live }}</ref> Norbury Park Sawmill, around {{cvt|220|m|yd}} from the western side of the house, opened in the 1970s and closed in 2021.<ref name=NHLEpark/><ref>{{cite news |last= Armstrong |first= Julie |date= 19 February 2021 |title= 'Unsustainable' Norbury Park sawmill closing down after 40 years |work= Surrey Live |url= https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/unsustainable-norbury-park-sawmill-closing-19876066 |access-date= 11 January 2024 }}</ref>


==References==
==References==
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{{commons category|Norbury Park}}
{{Reflist}}
{{Reflist}}


==Bibliography==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book |last=Hart |first=Stephen |year= 2021 |title=James Chuter Ede: Humane Reformer and Politician |publisher=Pen & Sword |location= Barnsley |isbn= 978-1-52-678372-1}}
* {{cite book |title= Dorking's Railways |last= Jackson |first=AA |year= 1988 |publisher= Dorking Local History Group |location=Dorking |isbn=1-870912-01-2 }}
* {{cite book |title= The Manor of Wistomble in the Parish of Mickleham |last= Shepperd |first= R |year= 1982 |publisher= Westhumble Association|location= Westhumble }}
{{refend}}

==External links==
⚫
{{commons category|Norbury Park}}
* [https://www.surreywildlifetrust.org/nature-reserves/norbury-park Norbury Park] Surrey Wildlife Trust
* [https://www.surreycc.gov.uk/culture-and-leisure/countryside/sites/visitor-information/norbury-park Norbury Park visitor information] Surrey County Council

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{{coord|51.2707|-0.3388|type:landmark_region:GB-SRY|display=title}}
{{Surrey Hills AONB}}
{{Surrey Hills AONB}}
{{Mole Valley}}
{{Mole Valley}}
{{Surrey Wildlife Trust }}
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{{coord|51.2707|-0.3388|type:landmark_region:GB-SRY|display=title}}


[[Category:Surrey Wildlife Trust]]
[[Category:Mole Valley]]
[[Category:Mole Valley]]
[[Category:Grade II* listed buildings in Surrey]]
[[Category:Grade II* listed buildings in Surrey]]
[[Category:Grade II* listed houses]]
[[Category:Grade II listed parks and gardens in Surrey]]

Latest revision as of 21:04, 11 January 2024

The current manor house, built in 1774.

Norbury Park is an area of mixed wooded and agricultural land surrounding a privately owned its Georgian manor house near Leatherhead and Dorking, Surrey. On the west bank of the River Mole, it is close to the village of Mickleham.

The park is Grade II listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.[1] It is part of the Mole Gap to Reigate Escarpment Special Area of Conservation[2] and a Site of Special Scientific Interest.[3]

History

[edit]
The Druid's Grove by William Monk (1863-1937)

A small Bronze Age hoard consisting of two palstave axes and a scabbard chape dating from around 1150-1000 BC was discovered in 2003 in woodland on the western side of the park.[4] The park also contains, at Druids Grove marked on Ordnance Survey maps, an important grove of yew trees apocryphally used by Druids for rituals and ceremony. They are some of the oldest trees of Great Britain. The manor was also known as Northbury for some time.[5]

The estate is not named in Domesday Book, however there are two entries for Mickleham and it is thought that the second of these relates to Norbury Park.[6] In 1086, the land was held by Oswald as mesne lord to the tenant-in-chief, Richard son of Gilbert. It included five ploughlands, 1 acre (0.4 ha) of meadow and rendered £6 per year.[7] The estate was one of several local manors comprising the Honour of Clare that had been created for Richard fitz Gilbert by William I as a reward for his support during the Norman Conquest.[6] Oswald, the lesser tenant, was a 'conforming Saxon', who had held the land during the reign of Edward the Confessor.[6]

Norbury Park (1775) by George Barret Sr. (1730-1784)

The Park was owned for two centuries by the Stydolf family and the diarist John Evelyn records a visit in August 1655 to both Box Hill, Surrey and Norbury Park, which was then owned by Sir Francis Stydolf. Sir Francis' son Richard, who was created a baronet by Charles II subsequently inherited the estate and on his death it passed to his daughter, who married Thomas Tryon of Leatherhead. The estate remained in the Tryon family until 1766 when Charles Tryon (father of William Tryon, then Governor of Province of North Carolina) sold the estate to William Locke, a London art critic. Locke was responsible for the abandonment of the original site of the manor house on the floodplain of the River Mole and the construction of the current house, designed in 1774 by the architect Thomas Sandby.[5] Locke also invited J. M. W. Turner to the estate to paint; a watercolour entitled Beech Trees at Norbury Park (1797) is held by the National Gallery of Ireland.[8]

Grade II* listed Weir Bridge over the River Mole built in 1840.[9]

Locke died in 1810 and his family left Norbury Park in 1819.[5] Ebenezer Fuller Maitland, the former MP for Wallingford, purchased the house in around 1822, and later exchanged it for Park Place, Remenham, Berkshire, with Henry Piper Sperling. Sperling remained at Norbury Park for 24 years and was responsible for developing the gardens around the House, including the building of Weir Bridge over the River Mole, which still stands today and is Grade II* listed.[9]

The south portal of Mickleham Tunnel

Norbury Park was purchased by Thomas Grissell in 1850. It was during his ownership that the railway line from Leatherhead to Dorking was built. Grissell insisted that the three viaducts over the River Mole be built with coloured brickwork with decorative cornices and cast-iron parapets. Similarly, the 480 m-long (520 yd) Mickleham Tunnel was bored through the chalk with no vertical ventilation shafts.[10] When the line opened in 1867, Grissell secured the right to stop on request any train passing through the railway station at Westhumble, a concession that was abolished by the Transport Act 1962. The station was designed by Charles Henry Driver in the Châteauesque style and included steeply pitched roofs with patterned tiles and an ornamental turret topped with a decorative grille and weather vane.[11]

Leopold Salomons purchased Norbury Park in 1890.[6] He is best known for his gift of Box Hill to the nation in 1914,[12] but he also funded the addition of a vestry to St Michael's Chapel in Westhumble.[13] He died on 23 September 1915.[12] The Norbury Park estate appears to have been partly broken up by the executors of Salomons' will. The house, stud farm and 634 acres (2.57 km2) of parkland were purchased by Sir William Corry in September 1916.[14] In August 1922 he sold the property to Sir Edward Mountain, the chairman and managing director of the Eagle Star Insurance Company.[15]

At the urging of James Chuter Ede,[16] Surrey County Council bought 1,340 acres (5.4 km2) of Norbury Park in July 1930, for which the estate's total purchase price was £97,000 (equivalent to £7,746,129 in 2023), to protect the land from development.[17] The council could find only part of the price, and a public appeal for more donations was unsuccessful, so the house was sold privately, while the parkland remained Council property, as it is today. Chuter Ede said he hoped the acquisition was one of the most pleasant and enduring memorials of his life's work.[18] The parkland is managed on the council's behalf by the Surrey Wildlife Trust.[19]

Marie Stopes, the British scientist and writer, lived at Norbury Park House from 1938 to 1958. She had been an active proponent of sexual education and birth control in the early twentieth century; her book Married Love, published in 1918, was the first sexual manual written in language simple enough to be accessible to a wide public. In 1921 she opened the first birth control clinic in London. On her death in 1958 she bequeathed the Park to the Royal Society of Literature, of which she was a member. The house was subsequently sold to Philip Spencer, an industrialist.[20]

House

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Norbury Park House was designed in the Palladian style by Thomas Sandby for William Locke in 1774[5][6] and was extended by the architect, Peter Frederick Robinson, in 1820.[21]

The entrance front, which faces northeast, has five windows on the first floor. The projecting porch is supported on either side of the main door by a pair of Doric columns.[21][22] The hall has a stone floor with a stone staircase, which has a mahogany handrail and iron balustrades. The oldest fireplace in the house is made from chalk and may have been taken from the previous manor house.[22]

The drawing room is decorated with the work of four artists, all commissioned by Locke: George Barrett Sr., to paint three landscapes on the walls; Benedetto Pastorini painted a representation of the sky on the ceiling; additional features were painted by Sawrey Gilpin and Giovani Cipriani.[5][22] In the evening, light enters the room from the window, shining in the same direction as the sunset depicted in the landscape on the western wall.[21]

Rural industries

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The park has three tenanted farms: Norbury Park Farm (east of the house), Swanworth Farm (to the south) and Bocketts Farm to the north.[23] Norbury Blue cheese is named after the park.[24] The blue cheese was made at the Dairy at Norbury Park farm until 2018, when production moved to Sherbourne Farm at Albury.[25] Norbury Park Sawmill, around 220 m (240 yd) from the western side of the house, opened in the 1970s and closed in 2021.[1][26]

References

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  1. ^ a b Historic England, "Norbury Park (1001252)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 22 March 2018
  2. ^ "Designated Sites View: Mole Gap to Reigate Escarpment". Special Areas of Conservation. Natural England. Archived from the original on 30 November 2018. Retrieved 28 October 2018.
  3. ^ "Designated Sites View: Mole Gap to Reigate Escarpment". Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England. Archived from the original on 30 November 2018. Retrieved 9 November 2018.
  4. ^ Williams D (2008). "A late Bronze Age hoard from Norbury Park, Mickleham". Surrey Archaeological Collections. 94. Surrey Archaeological Society: 293–301.
  5. ^ a b c d e "Norbury Park: Summer all the winter". The Times. No. 46727. London. 13 April 1934. p. 17.
  6. ^ a b c d e Benger, FB (1954). "Pen sketches of old houses in this district: Norbury Park" (PDF). Proceedings of the Leatherhead & District Local History Society. 1 (5): 14–19. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
  7. ^ Powell-Smith A (2011). "Mickleham". Open Domesday. Archived from the original on 11 June 2020. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
  8. ^ Dunne, Aidan (28 December 2019). "Art in Focus – Beech Trees at Norbury Park by JMW Turner (1775-1851)". The Irish Times. Dublin. Archived from the original on 31 March 2021. Retrieved 25 April 2021.
  9. ^ a b Shepperd, Ronald (1991). Micklam the story of a parish. Mickleham Publications. ISBN 0-9518305-0-3.
  10. ^ Jackson 1988, pp. 26–29.
  11. ^ Jackson 1988, pp. 43–45.
  12. ^ a b "Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division". The Times. No. 41212. London. 6 July 1916. p. 4.
  13. ^ Shepperd 1982, p. 68.
  14. ^ "The Estate Market". The Times. No. 41274. London. 16 September 1916. p. 11.
  15. ^ "The Estate Market". The Times. No. 43117. London. 23 August 1922. p. 10.
  16. ^ Hart 2021, p. 59.
  17. ^ "Norbury Park". The Times. No. 45578. London. 30 July 1930. p. 14.
  18. ^ Hart 2021, p. 122.
  19. ^ "Norbury Park". Surrey Wildlife Trust. Archived from the original on 24 October 2018. Retrieved 18 October 2018.
  20. ^ "Norbury Park plaque to Marie Stopes". The Times. No. 55070. London. 2 May 1961. p. 7.
  21. ^ a b c Historic England. "Norbury Park (Grade II*) (1228829)". National Heritage List for England.
  22. ^ a b c Moxley, Patricia (May 1975). "Norbury Park". Surrey : The county magazine. Vol. 6, no. 2. pp. xxii–xxiv.
  23. ^ "Norbury Park". Wildlife Trusts. 4 May 2011. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
  24. ^ "Norbury Blue Background". Archived from the original on 29 August 2008. Retrieved 23 September 2008.
  25. ^ Coakley, Hugh (28 March 2019). "Norbury Park Farm Cheese - The 'only cheese maker in Surrey'". The Guildford Dragon. Archived from the original on 1 April 2019. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
  26. ^ Armstrong, Julie (19 February 2021). "'Unsustainable' Norbury Park sawmill closing down after 40 years". Surrey Live. Retrieved 11 January 2024.

Bibliography

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  • Hart, Stephen (2021). James Chuter Ede: Humane Reformer and Politician. Barnsley: Pen & Sword. ISBN 978-1-52-678372-1.
  • Jackson, AA (1988). Dorking's Railways. Dorking: Dorking Local History Group. ISBN 1-870912-01-2.
  • Shepperd, R (1982). The Manor of Wistomble in the Parish of Mickleham. Westhumble: Westhumble Association.
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