Shabden Park is a nature reserve in Chipstead in

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

. It is owned by

Surrey County Council Surrey County Council is the county council for the non-metropolitan county of Surrey, England. The council is composed of 81 elected councillors, and in all but one election since 1974 the Conservative Party has held the majority. The leader ...

and managed by the

Surrey Wildlife Trust Surrey Wildlife Trust (SWT) was founded in 1959 as Surrey Naturalists' Trust and it is one of forty-six The Wildlife Trusts, wildlife trusts covering Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Great Britain, Northern Ireland, Isle of Man and Alderney. ...

and is part of the

Chipstead Downs Chipstead Downs is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest south-east of Banstead in Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, ...

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain, or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

. This is a working farm which has wildflower meadows on chalk grassland together with areas of woodland. It has a nationally scarce species of

mining bee The Andrenidae (commonly known as mining bees) are a large, nearly cosmopolitan distribution, cosmopolitan family of solitary, ground-nesting bees. Most of the family's diversity is located in temperate or arid areas (warm temperate xeric). It i ...

and other fauna include

Roesel's bush-cricket Roesel's bush-cricket, ''Roeseliana roeselii'' (synonym ''Metrioptera roeselii'') is a European bush-cricket, named after August Johann Rösel von Rosenhof, a German entomologist. Morphology Adult insects Adult Roesel's bush-crickets are mediu ...

and a variety of birds and butterflies. There is access to footpaths through the farm only.

History

The earliest records of Shabden Park are from 1263, when "Alured de Shepinden" is recorded as living there and the Surrey Subsidy Rolls of 1332 mention "Walter de Shependen" as a resident. The name "Shabden" is thought to mean "sheep hill", the "den" suffix having a similar derivation to the . During the late medieval period, the land is thought to have been divided between two

copyhold Copyhold was a form of customary land ownership common from the Late Middle Ages into modern times in England. The name for this type of land tenure is derived from the act of giving a copy of the relevant title deed that is recorded in the ...

tenancies. John Fanshawe, father of the poet, Catherine Maria Fanshawe, bought Shabden Park in the early 1760s. By this time, the estate covered around and the mansion was the largest house in Chipstead. Fanshawe was responsible for creating the Long Plantation, along the boundary with the neighbouring Eyhurst estate, and may also have planted Tickner's and Poorfield Woods. He is also thought to have commissioned the building of the house depicted in a painting by

John Hassell John Hassell ( – 1825) was an English watercolour landscape painter, engraver, illustrator, writer, publisher and drawing-master. He wrote a biography of fellow artist George Morland. Hassell first appeared as an exhibitor at the Royal ...

in 1821. On Fanshawe's death in 1816, Shabden Park was bought by Archibald Little. The 1841 census records six members of his family (two of whom were soldiers) living in the mansion, along with 14 servants. After Little's death in 1844, the estate was owned by John Cattley, a director of

Royal Exchange Assurance The Royal Exchange Assurance, founded in 1720, was a British insurance company. It took its name from the location of its offices at the Royal Exchange, London. Origins The Royal Exchange Assurance emerged from a joint stock insurance enterpri ...

. His son, John Garrett Cattley, who inherited Shabden in 1862, commissioned

Edward Middleton Barry Edward Middleton Barry RA (7 June 1830 – 27 January 1880) was an English architect of the 19th century. Biography Edward Barry was the third son of Sir Charles Barry, born in his father's house, 27 Foley Place, London. In infancy he was ...

to rebuild and enlarge the existing mansion house. The architectural critics,

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (195 ...

and

Ian Nairn Ian Douglas Nairn (24 August 1930 – 14 August 1983) was a British architectural critic who coined the word "Subtopia" to indicate drab suburbs that look identical through unimaginative town-planning. He published two strongly personalised cr ...

, describe Barry's house as being "very Victorian" and the style as being "uncompromising symmetrical French Renaissance", also noting the "elephantine timber porch". The final private owner was Horace Brooks Marshall, a newspaper publisher who served as

Lord Mayor of London The Lord Mayor of London is the Mayors in England, mayor of the City of London, England, and the Leader of the council, leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded Order of precedence, precedence over a ...

in 1918-19. Marshall developed shooting on the estate. After Marshall's death in 1936, the mansion and the surrounding of land were offered for sale. Surrey County Council bought Shabden Park for £65,000 that December, turning the mansion into a geriatric hospital for elderly ladies. Around half of the estate, comprising of agricultural land, was leased to

London County Council The London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today ...

. In the late 1970s, the geriatric hospital closed and Surrey County Council divided the house into apartments, which were each allocated a share of the grounds. Shabden_Park_horse_wheel_-_geograph

A horse wheel, originally installed at Shabden Park in the 1870s, was relocated to Greys Court in

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire ( ; abbreviated ''Oxon'') is a ceremonial county in South East England. The county is bordered by Northamptonshire and Warwickshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, and Wiltshire and Glouceste ...

in the early 1970s. A ceremony to mark the completion of the project to restore the wheel took place on 8 June 1975.

Notable residents

* Catherine Maria Fanshawe (1765–1834) poet – born at Shabden Park * Horace Brooks Marshall (1865–1936) newspaper publisher and

– lived at Shabden Park from 1910 until his death

References

Bibliography

* * *

External links

{{Surrey Wildlife Trust Surrey Wildlife Trust