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Mells Park is a country estate of near Mells, Somerset, England. It originated as a 17th-century deer park, probably created by the Horner family, who had been the owners of

Mells Manor Mells Manor at Mells, Somerset, England, was built in the 16th century for Edward Horner, altered in the 17th century, partially demolished around 1780, and restored by Sir Edwin Lutyens in the 20th century. The house, along with the garden walls ...

from 1543. The Horners expanded the park and planted extensive woodlands, resulting in a large collection of mature trees, especially 18th-century plantings of oak, lime and beech. The park is Grade II listed in the

National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens #REDIRECT Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England #REDIRECT Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England {{R from move ...

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. It contains Park House, also known as Mells Park House, a Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

, built in 1925 in neoclassical style by the architect

Edwin Lutyens Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ( ; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memorials ...

, replacing an 18th-century house of the same name. It is c. west of Mells Manor House, which does not lie within the park.Foyle and Pevsner (2011), pp. 556–557. During 1987–90, Park House was used for secret negotiations between the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a political party in South Africa. It originated as a liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid and has governed the country since 1994, when the 1994 South African general election, fir ...

and the South African government. The estate is a venue for game shooting.

Enclosure and first Park House

The deer park was enclosed between 1604 and 1642, probably by Sir John Horner. In 1724 Thomas Strangways Horner commissioned

Nathaniel Ireson Nathaniel Ireson (1685 – 18 April 1769) was a potter, architect and mason best known for his work around Wincanton in Somerset, England. He was probably born in Ansley, Warwickshire. He rebuilt much of the centre of Wincanton following a fire i ...

to build the first Park House, and the family moved there from

House. His nephew Thomas Horner expanded the park and planted extensive woodlands, a work continued by his son Colonel Thomas Strangways Horner. The house is on high ground towards the northern end of the park, surrounded by river valleys. Further north, to the rear of the house, the park includes a lake fed by the Mells River. Pleasure grounds around the house and towards the lake were laid out by the landscape designer

William Sawrey Gilpin William Sawrey Gilpin (4 October 1762 – 4 April 1843) was an English artist and drawing master, and in later life a landscape designer. Biography Gilpin was born at Scaleby Castle, Cumbria on 4 October 1762, the son of the animal painter Saw ...

between 1825 and 1832. Future Prime Minister

H. H. Asquith Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith (12 September 1852 – 15 February 1928) was a British statesman and Liberal Party (UK), Liberal politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1908 to 1916. He was the last ...

and his wife

Margot Margot ( , ) is a feminine given name, a French language, French diminutive of Marguerite (given name), Marguerite that has long been used as an independent name. Variant spellings in use include Margo (given name), Margo and Margaux (name), Margaux ...

spent their honeymoon at Mells Park in 1894, as guests of Sir John Horner and his wife Lady Frances Horner, the daughter of Liberal MP and art patron William Graham. Finding Park House too expensive to inhabit,Brown (1996), pp. 109-110. in c. 1900 the Horners let it out and moved back into Mells Manor House. Park House burnt down in 1917, although an

arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated video, pinball, electro-mechanical, redemption, etc., game ** Arcade video game, a coin-operated video game ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade video game's hardware ** Arcad ...

d service court at the rear of the house survived. 18th-century outbuildings which survive as Grade II listed buildings include stables and a

coach house A ''carriage house'', also called a ''remise'' or ''coach house'', is a term used in North America to describe an outbuilding that was originally built to house horse-drawn carriages and their related tack. Carriage houses were often two st ...

to the north of the house, built c. 1761, probably by the architect John Wood the Younger, Lilley Batch Lodge, built c. 1790, and a

folly In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but suggesting through its appearance some other purpose, or of such extravagant appearance that it transcends the range of usual garden buildings. Eighteenth-cent ...

called the Duckery, also built c. 1790.

Second Park House

The architect

had known the Horners, and Mells Park, since 1896. In 1918 he unsuccessfully tried to persuade the Horners to rebuild Park House.Brown (1996), pp. 218–219. However,

Reginald McKenna Reginald McKenna (6 July 1863 – 6 September 1943) was a British banker and Liberal politician. His first Cabinet post under Henry Campbell-Bannerman was as President of the Board of Education, after which he served as First Lord of the Admira ...

, the chairman of

Midland Bank Midland Bank plc was one of the Big Four (banks)#United Kingdom, Big Four banking groups in the United Kingdom for most of the 20th century. It is now part of HSBC. The bank was founded as the Birmingham and Midland Bank in Union Street, Birming ...

, and formerly

Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, more commonly known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom and the head of the Home Office. The position is a Great Office of State, maki ...

and

Chancellor of the Exchequer The chancellor of the exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and the head of HM Treasury, His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, t ...

under Asquith, was married to Pamela Jekyll, the niece of Frances Horner. In 1924, the Horners agreed to let Mells Park to them for a nominal rent, on the understanding that the McKennas would rebuild the house. The McKennas had commissioned Lutyens before, in 1911, to build their

town house A townhouse, townhome, town house, or town home, is a type of terraced housing. A modern townhouse is often one with a small footprint on multiple floors. In a different British usage, the term originally referred to any type of city residen ...

Mulberry House Mulberry House, Number 36, Smith Square, is located in the City of Westminster, London. It was built in 1911 as a private house for Reginald McKenna, a politician and later Chairman of the Midland Bank. The architect was Edwin Lutyens. In 1930 th ...

, at 36

Smith Square Smith Square is a square in Westminster, London, 250 metres south-southwest of the Palace of Westminster. Most of its garden square, garden interior is filled by St John's, Smith Square, a English Baroque, Baroque surplus church, the inside of w ...

, London. Lutyens rebuilt Park House in neoclassical style in 1925. He built a two-storey,

hip-roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downward to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope, with variants including Tented roof, tented roofs and others. Thus, a hipped roof has no gables or other ve ...

ed house in

Bath stone Bath Stone is an oolitic limestone comprising granular fragments of calcium carbonate originally obtained from the Middle Jurassic aged Great Oolite Group of the Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines under Combe Down, Somerset, England. Its h ...

, on the outline of the previous building, and joined it onto the surviving arcaded service court. The new main range has seven

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

s along the south and north

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

s and four along each side, with Doric pilasters. Around 1926, Lutyens also designed gardens around the house, in collaboration with garden designer

Gertrude Jekyll Gertrude Jekyll ( ; 29 November 1843 – 8 December 1932) was a British Horticulture, horticulturist, garden designer, craftswoman, photographer, writer and artist. She created over 400 gardens in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United Sta ...

, who was another aunt of Pamela McKenna. The family sold Mells Park in 1939, following the death of Sir John Horner in 1927. The McKennas had already left Mells Park, for

Halnaker Halnaker ( ) is a hamlet in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England. It lies on the A285 road 3.5 miles (5.6 km) north-east of Chichester, where it follows the line of the Roman road to London called Stane Street. There is a pub, ' ...

, Sussex, where they commissioned Lutyens to build another country house. This was Halnaker Park, built in 1938.

South African negotiations

Mells Park was later owned by the South African mining company

Consolidated Gold Fields Consolidated Gold Fields was a British gold-mining company. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index until it was acquired by Hanson in 1988. History Consolidated Gold Fields of South Africa was fo ...

. In the late 1980s the company provided Park House as the venue for secret negotiations between

Thabo Mbeki Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki (; born 18 June 1942) is a South African politician who served as the 2nd democratic president of South Africa from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008, when he resigned at the request of his party, the African National Cong ...

of the

, who was later the

President of South Africa The president of South Africa is the head of state and head of government of the Republic of South Africa. The president directs the executive branch of the government and is the commander-in-chief of the South African National Defence F ...

, and representatives of the then-governing

National Party National Party or Nationalist Party may refer to: Active parties * National Party of Australia, commonly known as ''The Nationals'' * Bangladesh: ** Bangladesh Nationalist Party ** Jatiya Party (Ershad) a.k.a. ''National Party (Ershad)'' * Californ ...

. The talks, which lasted from 1987 till the time of

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela ( , ; born Rolihlahla Mandela; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist and politician who served as the first president of South Africa f ...

's release in 1990, were depicted in the 2009 film '' Endgame''.

In literature

Mells Park appears as "Falls Park" in

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Literary realism, Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry ...

's short story "The First Countess of Wessex", in the 1891 collection ''

A Group of Noble Dames ''A Group of Noble Dames'' is an 1891 collection of short stories written by English author Thomas Hardy. The stories are contained by a frame narrative in which ten members of a club each tell one story about a noble dame in the 17th or 18th cent ...

''. In 1983, Mells Park was used as the filming location for the

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: Television TV stations/networks/channels ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network and company, including: **ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network in the United Kingd ...

television series

Robin of Sherwood ''Robin of Sherwood'' is a British television series, based on the legend of Robin Hood. Created by Richard Carpenter, it was produced by HTV in association with Goldcrest, and ran from 28 April 1984 to 28 June 1986 on the ITV network. In th ...

. In the programme, it doubled for Loxley Village, where

Robin Robin most commonly refers to several species of passerine birds. Robin may also refer to: Animals * Australasian robins, red-breasted songbirds of the family Petroicidae * Many members of the subfamily Saxicolinae (Old World chats), inclu ...

originally came from.

Notes

References

* * * *

External links

Mells Park, House and HeritageMells Park Shoot
(commercial site)