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 EARLY HISTORY

 Domesday Book records that in 1086 Chipstead Manor, of which Shabden’s land was a part, had about 700 acres of arable land. It is possible that at this time, as elsewhere in England, arable crops were grown in large open fields worked by peasants using strip farming.

As the Medieval period progressed England developed a profitable business in exporting large quantities of wool to Flanders. While the main areas of sheep rearing were in the West Country and Yorkshire, sheep were also kept on the North Downs where the chalk soils provided good grazing. It seems likely that sheep farming was important in Chipstead.  The 1253 Assize Roll records that Great Shabden and Little Shabden were two copyhold properties with Alured de Shepinden the tenant. In 1332 the Surrey Subsidy Rolls record that a house at Shabden was occupied by Walter de Shepeden. Both of these names suggest a link to sheep farming and indeed Shabden is thought to be derived from old English for ‘sheep hill’.

We know little of Shabden for the next four centuries but, in the late eighteenth century, maps start to be published which mark the house. The Map of Surrey drawn for Richard Onslow between 1753 and 1760 shows a house in the position of Shabden.

John Rocque’s map of 1768 names that house as Chipstead House. At this time the estate was most likely owned by James Blake or his brother John. Interestingly the road layout shown on the Rocque map is much the same as it is today with the High Road, White Hill, Castle Road and Hazelwood Lane all evident (although the names of these roads are probably more recent). Reases Farm (now Reeves Rest) and Purbeck Farm (now Fairdene) are also shown on the map.

 

THE BLAKES

The first known owner of Shabden is James Blake a Linen Draper, of Gracechurch Street, London. Linen drapers were wholesale and retail traders of linen, one of the most important commodities in eighteenth century England.

On James’ death ownership passed to his brother and heir, John Blake of Epping, Essex. John Blake sold the property to John Fanshawe in June 1780. In 1780 the estate was "by estimation" one hundred acres, including gardens and orchards^. The 1780 indenture is held by the Surrey History Centre in Woking but is very difficult to read.

It is possible that the original Georgian construction of Shabden Park was commissioned by the Blakes although much of it was probably built by Fanshawe. Manning and Bray report in their 1805 book that Fanshawe ‘greatly improved the house’.

 

 

THE FANSHAWES (1780 – 1819)

John Fanshawe, born in l738, was the eldest son of Rear Admiral Charles Fanshawe. John was clerk of the Board of Green Cloth, a court controlling the domestic affairs of George III.  John Fanshawe married Penelope Dredge, a talented amateur etcher. Either she or her daughter, were responsible for creating prints of St Margaret’s Church, Chipstead held by the British Museum.

John and Penelope had two sons, John and Robert, both of whom died in childhood, and three daughters, Catherine Maria, Penelope and Elizabeth.  The three sisters took after their mother and became accomplished artists, belonging to a small set of intellectuals and literati in London. Catherine was also a poetess who was said to be of “rare wit and genius.” Elizabeth was an artist who met Lord Byron through her family’s friendship with the Hopes of Deepdene near Dorking.

John Fanshawe died intestate in 1816 but letters of administration granted all his goods and chattels, rights and credits to his three daughters. He was buried in a tomb at St. Margaret’s Church alongside his wife who predeceased him in 1807. His epitaph reads: “His conduct through life was marked by the most scrupulous integrity towards man, and he bore the afflicting dispensation of a long and severe illness with unshaken submission to the will of the Almighty.”

The Surrey History Centre holds a copy of the particulars supporting the sale of Shabden at an auction due to take place at Garraway’s Coffee House in London in August 1817.  At this auction Archibald Little agreed to buy the property and the freehold was eventually sold to him in 1819.  The Surrey History Centre also has the conveyance documentation.

 

The estate

John Fanshawe is most likely to have built the fine Georgian house shown in the 1821 painting by John Hassell.

In 1780 the estate was about one hundred acres, including gardens and orchards. By the time it was sold in 1819 it was 449 acres (including 14 acres of leased land).During his lifetime John Fanshawe added considerably to the size of the estate by buying surrounding land, including Noke Farm. Fanshawe also undertook much landscaping, creating a number of large plantations including the Long Plantation, Poorfield Wood and Tickners Wood.

In addition to the main house a number of buildings are shown on the 1819 conveyance map including the Reeve’s premises, Keatley’s premises, Gorringe’s cottage (what is today Shepherd’s Lawn Cottage) and various barns around the farmyard. The 1817 auction particulars also list a house with a wheelwright and smith shop.

The map shows the main entrance to the estate being a carriageway passing the Reeve’s premises, continuing through the farmyard and then circling the house. There may have been a separate carriage entrance further south leading directly to the porticoed main doorway, but this is not clear from the map.

The gardens

During the Georgian period owners of large houses had their estates landscaped and architects such as Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown would plant trees and establish lakes to help their clients display their properties in fine settings. At this time orchards and vegetable gardens provided food for the house.

Landscaping took place at Shabden during this period. Fanshawe created a number of large plantations of beech and larch. Closer to the house, the 1819 map shows a long avenue of trees planted across the two pastures immediately south of the house (Gardener’s Lawn and Home Lawn). Looking from the house this would probably have appeared as being continuous because the dividing road (now White Hill) is slightly sunken at this point. A smaller avenue crosses Pound Field to the north.

The 1819 conveyance map also shows a perimeter plantation (later called The Belt) skirting the west side of the house and a shrubbery on the eastern edge shielding Shabden from view from the High Road. On the other side of the High Road there is woodland called the New Orchard alongside the wood known as The Grove.

An area of ‘garden’ is shown to the west of the house – broadly where the gardens were to be in later years. The 1817 auction particulars note the existence of walled gardens ‘well stocked with choice fruit trees’ and a forcing house and greenhouse.

 

 

THE LITTLES  (1819-1851)

Archibald Little was born in Scotland in 1760 and was living in Middlesex when he bought Shabden in 1819 at the age of 59. He was to live there until his death in 1844. He married Agnes Oliver in 1806 and they had eleven children one of whom became a general in the Hussars, fought in India and was knighted. After Archibald’s death in 1844 his wife Agnes lived on in Shabden until her death in 1848. The Little family continued to own Shabden until 1851 when Archibald’s son, William Little, sold the estate to John Cattley.

The house

There is a full description of the house, now called Shabden Mansion House, in the 1849 sale particulars in the London Archives. The house had:

• A stone Ionic portico opening into a large hall with an inner hall and staircase,
• A library with a handsome marble chimney piece,
• A dining room with three French windows,
• A drawing room with a highly enriched cornice and a beautifully carved chimney piece,
• Five principal bedrooms and two dressing rooms, and
• A’very capital’ newly built lofty kitchen.

 

The estate

The estate was not extended during Archibald Little’s ownership. The 1849 sale particulars show an estate of 450 acres (including 14 acres that were leased). Most of the fields were used for arable farming and only two were for pasture. There are ten ‘respectable’ cottages including two later to be 1 and 2 Shabden Cottages, a cottage in Pound Field (possibly what is now Shabden Farm) and, to the south, Gorringe’s Cottage (described as ‘a flint & tiled cottage in 2 tenements, yards, barn and hovel, lambing yard & sheds.’) and, further south, Ruffetts Cottage.

What did change in Archibald Little’s time was the entrance area. Reeves and Keatley’s premises, the buildings between the farmyard and the High Road, were demolished to allow for a new carriageway. At the new entrance, a lodge was built. This gave a longer approach to the house with a turning circle in front of the porticoed entrance. The enlarged lawn area in front of the house was planted with coniferous trees, which screened the drive from the High Road. Beyond the lodge a separate farmyard entrance was made skirting Pound Field and leading into the stable yard.

The stable yard is described in the 1849 sale particulars. On the west side there was a double coach house for four carriages and a large timber barn. Behind the barn were sundry cattle yards, a bullock house and piggeries. In the north was a range of buildings with a stone stable suitable for eight horses. To the east were buildings containing a boiling house, a wood house and a two stalled nag stable.

The gardens

By 1839 the New Orchard is called the New Orchard Garden, which suggests that it was possibly being used as a second kitchen garden. The avenue of trees to the south, between Home Lawn and Gardener’s Lawn, has gone.

 

To the west of the house pathways lead to the plantation between Home Lawn and Porter's Field (later known as The Belt).  John Fanshawe’s gardens do not seem to be in use although the building beside them is still in existence. By 1851 a walled kitchen garden is shown close to the farmyard.

 

THE CATTLEYS (1851- 1910)

John Cattley was born in north Yorkshire. He moved to London and formed Cattleys and Carr a trading company, which imported Russian tallow. His family had strong links with Russia, with several members living in St. Petersburg. John became a prominent London businessman and amassed a considerable fortune. He was chairman of the London Docks and a director of the East Indian Railway Company and Royal Exchange Assurance. He was married to Frances Garratt.

John Cattley acquired Shabden and about 450 acres of land for £17,500 in 1851. When John died in 1862 the estate passed to his son, John Garratt Cattley . John G Cattley commissioned the rebuilding of Shabden and its reconstruction took place between 1871 and 1875. Both father and son financed the restoration of St Margaret's Church and John G Cattley also built most of the Shabden Cottages on the east side of the High Road.

John G Cattley died in 1900 and the property passed to his nephew Wentworth E Cattley who owned it for a decade before leasing and then selling it to Horace Marshall.

The house

In 1870 John G Cattley commissioned the architect Professor Edward M Barry, to design the rebuilding of almost the entire house in the French Renaissance style, keeping only the kitchen, butler’s pantry and servants quarters of the Georgian house. Key features included:

• Two storeys with attic dormers in the roof,
• Hipped roof with dark red tiles and ridge chimneys,
• Concrete cavity walls faced with Kentish ragstone,
• Window dressings, and other details, in Bath and Portland stone, and
• A large central wooden porch across the entrance bays

The building work was undertaken by Holland & Hannen of Bloomsbury. Drawings of the property and its ground floor plan together with a description were included in the 9 August 1873 edition of ‘The Builder’ magazine.

_{Shabden was entered through a porched entrance leading to an outer hall and then a large inner hall. To the west of the hall were the library, a garden room and the drawing room. A grand oak staircase (with massive oak newels and balustrades) led off the hall to the east as did the dining room and billiard room.}

One side of the staircase was open to the upper landing. The opposite side had windows filled with grisaille glass by Clayton and Bell with coloured medallions representing country pursuits. The other two sides of the staircase were formed by open arches with oak screens and elaborate wrought-iron scroll work.

_{The first floor contained the family bedroom  suites with dressing room and toilets  attached. The upper storey contained one or two extra family rooms and servants bedrooms.}

_{These days it is hard to understand quite why Cattley would want to demolish such a handsome Georgian house. The answer may lie in a single word – ‘comfort’. One can imagine that the old house was damp, cold and drafty. The new Shabden was descibed as ‘a technologically ambitious house’. It had cavity walls, a damp course and concrete foundations. Furthermore it was provided with an elaborate hot-air heating and ventilation system.  Under the staircase there was an ultra ‘modern’ warming chamber full of hot water pipes specially designed by the architect. Fresh air was admitted to this chamber and passed around the hot water pipes before the heated air was distributed around the house by means of wrought-iron flues. All the flues were controlled by valves.} 

The estate

The estate was extended by the purchase of Elmore Pond Farm and 78 acres of land from the Mary Stephens Foundation in 1877 and Rumbolds Castle and the adjoining six acres of land from Lord Hylton in 1896.

Ordnance Survey Maps published in 1892 (surveyed in 1869) and 1896 (surveyed in 1885) show several new features especially in the gardens. Outbuildings include a barn and stabling surmounted by a clock and belfry.  The maps also show a well at the centre of the courtyard and an ice house in a hollow in Home Lawn.

A well is likely to predate the Cattley period of ownership - the older it is the more of a triumph of engineering it is. Given its depth assistance was needed to draw water up and a horse wheel was installed at some stage. The wheel and cover has since been moved to Greys Court, a National Trust property near Henley-on- Thames (see back cover).

By 1896 the stable yard has been hidden from the view of those approaching the house by the north drive with a dense planting of trees on the east side. The 1896 Ordnance Survey Map also shows that the drive has been modified. It now continues past the house through deciduous and coniferous trees to exit onto the High Road opposite the New Orchard and a second Lodge has been built at the southern end. Continuing beyond the lodge a tree-lined avenue runs the entire length of Home Lawn.

The gardens

The Ordnance Survey Maps reveal that big changes have been made to the gardens. In particular the main gardens seem to have returned to where they were in Fanshawe’s time and large green houses have been constructed.

With the abolition of glass and window tax in 1840 and improvements in the glassmaking process in the mid-nineteenth century, glasshouses were much more generally available. John Cattley clearly took advantage of this. In the walled garden there is a glasshouse covering the entire south facing wall while a north wall now encloses the walled garden with a long narrow glasshouse built on its south side possibly for growing grapes.

Walks are also in evidence. One leads west from the house in the direction of the walled kitchengarden. This path forks with one part continuing into the woods.

The Cattleys clearly had a passion for gardening. When Sir Horace Marshall initially leased Shabden in 1910 detailed instructions were given for the care of the estate grounds indicating a high standard of management being expected. For example: ‘That they will keep the lawns, gardens and garden ground comprised in this demise well cropped and manured and will manage the same according to the most approved method of gardening and will take all the usual precautions to preserve all the fruit trees or other trees which shall at any time during the said term be growing in the said gardens’.

 

LORD MARSHALL (1910 -1936)

Horace Brooks Marshall (1865 – 1936) was born in Streatham and educated at Dulwich College. After graduating from Trinity College Dublin he joined his father Horace's wholesale newspaper and book retailing business. This became Horace Marshall and Son which, after having sold its retail business to WH Smith, specialised in wholesaling.

In 1896, he succeeded his father on the City of London Council as member for Farringdon Without Ward and became Sheriff in 1902. He became Alderman for Vintry Ward in 1909 and was knighted in the 1911 Coronation Honours. He became Lord Mayor of London in 1918 and had the privilege of announcing victory over the Germans in WW1 at the Lord Mayor’s banquet and then to a vast crowd from the balcony of Mansion House.

As mayor, Marshall gained great prominence by presiding over numerous WWI victory celebrations and, during his mayoralty, installed the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Kent, American President Wilson, Lord Haig and French Marshal Foch as Freemen of the City of London. In return he received many foreign honours. The climax of the celebrations was when the King and Queen visited Guildhall. In honour of the occasion Marshall was appointed to the Privy Council. He was made a KCVO in 1920 and raised to the peerage in 1921 as Baron Marshall of Chipstead. Horace Marshall was the first sitting alderman of the City of London to be so honoured.

 

In 1889 Marshall married Laura Siggs and they had three children. Their only son died in infancy. Nellie married J Arthur Rank and Gwendoline (who became the Honourable Mrs Tilsey) lived in nearby Eyhurst Court). After Laura’s death in 1921 Horace donated a stained glass west window for St Margaret’s in her memory.  Horace died in 1936 - both he and Laura are buried at St Margaret's and commemorated with a pink granite tomb.

In 1910 Horace Marshall leased Shabden house and gardens (not the rest of the estate) from Wentworth Cattley. At this time he also leased the shooting rights over the whole estate. Two years later Marshall purchased the freehold of the whole estate for £30,000.

After WW1 Lord Marshall used Shabden extensively for entertainment purposes – especially hunting and shooting parties.  Guests at shooting parties included Edward, Albert, Henry and George (sons of George V) and various hunts would meet there. Lord Marshall hosted the Chipstead Flower Show in the grounds each year from 1922 to 1935 opening the grounds for everyone to enjoy and with swingboats, merry-go-rounds and side-shows in the adjoining Pound Field.

 

 

The gardens

While Lord Marshall maintained the same location for the vegetable garden and greenhouses he had made significant enhancements to the gardens. A feel for the beauty of the gardens is given by the annual reports of the Chipstead Flower Show published by The Surrey  Mirror and County Post.

Lord Marshall created an Ornamental Garden between the house and the walled vegetable garden. They were approached from the house either from a fork in the Long Walk or through an avenue of yew hedges leading down from The Courtyard. At their centre was the Sun Dial Garden and there was a pond at the western end. At some stage a decorative feature was added to the pond comprising a fountain of a boy holding a shell aloft.

 

The Long Walk was separated from the Ornamental Gardens by a holly hedge. With its gentle flights of steps, the walk led to The Belt and beyond it towards The Long Plantation. A water garden was first mentioned in the Surrey Mirror and County Post of 1924. This was located in The Belt in a cleared area just west of the Walled Kitchen Garden. The Water Garden was triangular in shape with a viewing platform made from York stone. There were two seats and two flights of steps down to a rill that carried the water which flowed from a spout in the wall to the seating area. The rill ended in a small circular pond with water lilies.

 

Alongside the Walled Kitchen Garden there were extensive greenhouses growing, amongst other things, gloxinias, Cape primroses (streptocarpus) and Muscat grapes. It seems that growing grapes at Shabden had been a tradition that went back many years.

 

 

SURREY COUNTY COUNCIL (1936-1976)

 

The house and gardens

After Lord Marshall’s death in 1936 it appears that the disposal of Shabden was quite difficult. After much discussion between London County Council (LCC) and Surrey County Council (SCC), in November 1936 SCC agreed to buy the Shabden estate for £65,000. This involved the mansion house, 561 acres of land and 26 villas and cottages. The primary purpose of the purchase was to protect the land under the new Green Belt Scheme and LCC contributed £16,793 towards the cost.

 

In January 1937 SCC decided to use the mansion house and 40 acres of the grounds as a temporary hospital and agreed to spend £2,795 on modifications and equipment. This land was therefore excluded from the Green Belt Scheme.

 

In March 1938 Shabden Park Hospital was opened as a temporary hospital for chronic sick persons. Drawings at the Surrey History Centre show that the eight main rooms on the ground and first floors were wards accommodating 48 beds in total. On the top floor there were bedrooms for nurses and maids.

 

In 1939 SCC directed the County Medical Officer to draw up plans for a new 300 bed sanitorium at Shabden for Tuberculosis sufferers. This work was deferred during WW2 during which the hospital was run by King’s College Hospital for the use of civilian and military war casualties.  In WW2 Shabden was also the base for a mobile Red Cross first aid unit.

 

In 1944 SCC decided to progress with its plans to build a TB sanitorium. There is documentation in the London Archives and flimsy drawings in the Surrey History Centre. that give an insight into the size of the project. These suggest that a large new hospital would be constructed in Pound Field along with a separate children’s unit and housing for officers. Several of Shabden Cottages were to be converted to contain chemical closets.  A complication was that an additional 5 acres of land were needed and these would need to be ‘released’ from the area classified as Green Belt. There was much local opposition to these plans and ultimately it did not progress, perhaps because of the absence of mains drainage at that time.

 

Instead Shabden was used as a geriatric hospital for up to 56 old ladies although it was ill suited for the task. Long-stay, chronically sick or senile old ladies were transferred to it from Epsom Hospital.  Most were bedridden. In 1975 South West Thames Regional Health Authority decided that Shabden was no longer fit for purpose and that its elderly patients should move to a place with modern fire and safety features. The hospital was closed the following year. The remaining 15 elderly ladies were transferred to West Park Hospital in Epsom.

 

During this period of public ownership the house and Lord Marshall’s magnificent gardens will have been neglected. The vegetable gardens were not used and, in 1960, the old greenhouses were demolished.  The great barn was allowed to collapse and the stable-block showed such signs of deterioration that, in 1963, the eminent Chipstead resident Vivien Rhys Davids attempted to get the building listed. This attempt was thwarted by the South West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board but Vivien did manage to have an official photograph taken of the stable-block with its belfry and clock for the benefit of posterity.

 

The estate

SCC acquired the estate (excluding the house and gardens) under the Green Belt Scheme. The farmland, including Home Lawn and Gardener's Lawn and the Belt was used for agriculture and SCC tenanted it to Tom Kent, and later to Peter Woodruffe and his son Simon Woodruffe and most recently to Mark Banham.

 

In the 1960s and 1970s, intensive farming took place and much of Shabden’s rich wildflower grassland was damaged. Over time SCC became increasingly environmentally conscious and, in 1995, much of Shabden’s land was entered into the Countryside Stewardship Scheme. Shabden Park was also designated a Historic Garden of local interest in 2001. Under this scheme there is a requirement to manage its parkland features including the maintenance of its ornamental trees.

Under the Countryside Stewardship Scheme sheep were kept at Shabden in order to restore it to chalk grassland. The short turf encourages plants such as thyme, marjoram, birdsfoot trefoil and native orchids. Residents of Chipstead were very supportive of these developments but, in 1995, became alarmed by a proposal to open-up the farm for educational purposes and to create a toll ride for horse riders between Rectory Lane and Outwood Lane. A public meeting was held in the Peter Aubertin Hall in February 1995. Many of the concerns expressed related to the traffic and parking issues resulting from the planned open days and school visits. In the light of these, and other problems identified, SCC decided not to progress with the plan.

DIVIDED OWNERSHIP (From 1976)

 

In 1976 the house was sold to a property developer and divided into seven leasehold properties (leases of 999 years). Four of the properties were in the main house, three were in the kitchen, butler’s pantry and servants’ quarters remaining from the Georgian house.  Units were marketed at prices in excess of £22,000 each but there was still work to be done. Individual buyers had responsibility for installing heating, re-wiring and re-plumbing their properties. Some of the residents built a swimming pool and a tennis court on the lawn west of North Lodge. The two lodges were also sold.

 

The four properties in the main house each had one or more of the original main rooms, namely:

• Number 1 - the billiard room, inner hall and staircase,
• Number 2 - the drawing room and garden entrance,
• Number 3 - the library and garden room, and
• Number 4 - the dining room and outer hall.

 

Externally the house seems to have little changed from when it was built in 1875. Internally while the division of the house and its modernization have led to many changes many of the original features have been retained.

In 1990 a new Conservation Area – The Chipstead High Road Conservation Area -was created which included Shabden.

 

The gardens
When the house was divided most of the surrounding grounds were also divided - to create seven individual gardens separated by hedges. Over time owners’ interest in gardening has varied and inevitably the nature of these gardens has diverged. Sadly, few of the main features of Lord Marshall’s gardens have survived.

 

Many trees were lost during the gale of 1987 but there are still a number of beautiful, mature specimens of beech, oak, pine, Atlantic cedar, sweet chestnut and horse chestnut and a particularly fine stand of copper beech. Indeed, some of the Cedars of Lebanon and Sweet Chestnuts are 200 years or more in age.

 

The land that made up Lord Marshall’s Ornamental Gardens is now largely within the garden of 1 Shabden. The path with the gentle flights of steps descending to the garden on the west side of the house is still in use.

 

The Yew trees surrounding The Sun Dial Garden remain but the gardens themselves have been grassed over. The pond with its ornamental fountain still exists, backed by the red brick wall which is all that remains of the kitchen garden’s east wall.

 

The area that was once the Walled Kitchen Garden is now woodland located within Shabden Farm. The glasshouses and all but one of kitchen garden walls have been demolished and Leyland Cypress planted in the growing plots. Only the boiler room and the footings of the grape house can be seen at ground level. The area is overgrown with nettles and at one stage there was Japanese knotweed that had to be removed.

 

To the south of the house Home Lawn is used for sheep and its hollow, where the ice house was, has been completely filled in with stones and builders’ rubble. Some bricks are still visible in the ground. Many of the trees in The Belt were destroyed in the gales of 1987. While no replanting has taken place, it has been allowed to regenerate.

The Water Garden has been over-grown with trees and undergrowth but the remains of some stone work is just visible.  The Long Walk itself is overgrown with nettles and brambles. The holly hedge, which divides it from the ornamental garden has grown to tree-size but the hedge line is very much in evidence.