Panshanger was a large country house located between the outer edge of Hertford and

Welwyn Garden City Welwyn Garden City ( ) is a town in Hertfordshire, England, north of London. It was the second garden city in England (founded 1920) and one of the first new towns (designated 1948). It is unique in being both a garden city and a new town and ...

in Hertfordshire, England.

History

Earl Cowper Earl Cowper ( ) was a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1718 by George I for William Cowper, 1st Baron Cowper, his first Lord Chancellor, with remainder in default of male issue of his own to his younger brother, Spencer ...

, who later became

Lord Chancellor The lord chancellor, formally the lord high chancellor of Great Britain, is the highest-ranking traditional minister among the Great Officers of State in Scotland and England in the United Kingdom, nominally outranking the prime minister. Th ...

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

, acquired the Cole Green estate c. 1700.Robinson, p. 157 He remodelled the estate in 1704 and made alterations to the house in 1711.Robinson, p. 158 The 5th Earl Cowper commissioned

Samuel Wyatt Samuel Wyatt (8 September 1737, Weeford, Staffs. – London, 8 February 1807) was an England, English architect and engineer. A member of the Wyatt family, which included several notable 18th- and 19th-century English architects, his work was prima ...

and then William Atkinson to design a new house in a slightly different location in Regency-Gothic style; construction work started on site in 1806. The park was landscaped with advice from

Humphry Repton Humphry Repton (21 April 1752 – 24 March 1818) was the last great English landscape designer of the eighteenth century, often regarded as the successor to Capability Brown; he also sowed the seeds of the more intricate and eclectic styles of ...

, starting in 1799. Following the death of the 7th Earl Cowper in 1905, the estate was inherited by

Ethel Grenfell, Baroness Desborough Ethel Anne Priscilla Grenfell, Baroness Desborough (née Fane; 27 June 1867 – 28 May 1952) was a British society hostess. Life Ethel (Ettie) Fane was born into an aristocratic family. However, at the age of three she was orphaned when her fat ...

and, after she died in 1952 with no heir, the estate was sold in lots by auction the following year, but there was no interest in the house itself and it was demolished between 1953 and 1954. A large portion of the outlying farms forming part of the estate had been sold by auction on 30 May 1919. Panshanger orangery

The park contains the largest maiden (not pollarded) oak in the country, with a circumference of 7.6 metres. It is believed to have been planted by

Queen Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". El ...

. Acorns from the tree have been used as seedlings for notable oaks in other parts of the country, such as the Prince Consort Oak in the

Forest of Dean The Forest of Dean is a geographical, historical and cultural region in the western part of the county of Gloucestershire, England. It forms a roughly triangular plateau bounded by the River Wye to the west and northwest, Herefordshire to ...

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...

planted a sapling from the tree in the park and the tree can still be seen in the grounds.

Panshanger Park and nature reserve

Panshanger Park is owned by Tarmac which extracts sand and gravel from the site. Although Panshanger House was demolished, the

orangery An orangery or orangerie was a room or a dedicated building on the grounds of fashionable residences of Northern Europe from the 17th to the 19th centuries where orange and other fruit trees were protected during the winter, as a very lar ...

, nursery garden wall, stables, and a number of cottages and estate buildings remain, all of which are

listed Listed may refer to: * Listed, Bornholm, a fishing village on the Danish island of Bornholm * Listed (MMM program), a television show on MuchMoreMusic * Endangered species in biology * Listed building, in architecture, designation of a historicall ...

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

. The eastern end has been open since 31 March 2014 as a 1,000 acre country park and nature reserve - with 200 acres open to the public. The park consists of wetlands, grasslands and reedbeds which serve as a home for a wide variety of

damselfly Damselflies are flying insects of the suborder Zygoptera in the order Odonata. They are similar to dragonflies, which constitute the other odonatan suborder, Anisoptera, but are smaller and have slimmer bodies. Most species fold the wings along ...

and dragonfly species. The park is also home to

kingfishers Kingfishers are a family, the Alcedinidae, of small to medium-sized, brightly colored birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, with most species found in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Oceania, ...

waterfowl Anseriformes is an order of birds also known as waterfowl that comprises about 180 living species of birds in three families: Anhimidae (three species of screamers), Anseranatidae (the magpie goose), and Anatidae, the largest family, which i ...

and

osprey The osprey (''Pandion haliaetus''), , also called sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor reaching more than in length and across the wings. It is brown o ...

. The rest of the site will be opened as gravel extraction is completed.

Panshanger district

The Panshanger district of Welwyn Garden City, and the nearby Panshanger Aerodrome, are named after the Panshanger estate. However, Panshanger Park does not lie within the Panshanger

ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

of Welwyn Garden City, nor indeed any part of Welwyn Garden City. It actually lies within the parishes of Hertford and

Hertingfordbury Hertingfordbury is a small village in Hertfordshire, England, close to the county town of Hertford. It was mentioned in the ''Domesday Book''. Hertingfordbury is also the name of a neighbouring civil parish, which does not contain the village. ...

References

Sources

*Robinson, John, ''Felling the Ancient Oaks'', Aurum Press, 2011, {{coord, 51.8023, -0.1305, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Country houses in Hertfordshire British country houses destroyed in the 20th century East Hertfordshire District Grade II* listed parks and gardens in Hertfordshire Gardens by Humphry Repton Gardens by Capability Brown