Denbies

The mansion on the estate in about 1840, when it was owned by the Denison family

Denbies is a large estate to the northwest of Dorking in Surrey, England. A farmhouse originally owned by John Denby was converted into a weekend retreat by Jonathan Tyers, the proprietor of Vauxhall Gardens in London. The house he built appears to have been of little architectural significance, as very little is known of it, but the Gothic garden he developed in the grounds as a reminder of death became notorious, although short-lived.

The estate today is the site of Denbies Wine Estate.

History

A farmhouse, originally owned by John Denby in the mid-16th century and whose name the estate bears, stood at the heart of Denbies.^{[1][lower-alpha 1]} The lands were sold by William Wakefield (or Wakeford^[2]) to Jonathan Tyers in 1734,^{[3][lower-alpha 2]} to be developed as a weekend retreat.^[5] Tyers was the owner of Vauxhall Gardens – known at that time as New Spring Gardens^[6] – and was responsible for developing that venue into a "fashionable place of evening entertainment".^[3] A simple two-storey house in the Georgian style was built by converting some of the old farm steadings.^[1][7] Set on top of a hillside about two miles (3.2 km) northwest of Dorking, the house had views of the Surrey landscape^[8] and backed onto Ranmore Common.^[9] Tyers installed a well beside the house; a note in The Gentleman's Magazine of 1781 gives measurements recorded on 4 October 1764 as it being six feet (1.8 m) in diameter and reaching a depth of four hundred and thirty-eight feet (134 m).^[10] On that day it contained water to a depth of twenty-two feet (6.7 m) supplied from a spring.^[10] The front of the house had a pediment in the central wing decorated with a coat of arms; the rooms were not large but conveniently situated.^[11] The house was not architecturally significant and scant information is available about it; the garden established by Tyers, however, gained notoriety.^[12]

The Valley of the Shadow of Death

In contrast to the cheerful, merry revelries in the brightly lit atmosphere of Vauxhall, the garden Tyers developed at Denbies was of a more Gothic nature.^[3] Its theme was based on "momento mori (or 'reminders of death')",^[7] and the development was given the name of "The Valley of the Shadow of Death".^[13] Tyers continued to live in his house in the grounds of Vauxhall after purchasing Denbies, visiting the latter only on Sundays, which it has been suggested may go some way towards explaining the garden's rather sombre nature.^[12] David Coke and Alan Borg, authors of Vauxhall Gardens: A History (2012) have alternatively suggested that the mood of the garden may have been symptomatic of "some sort of psychological imbalance" within Tyers, perhaps even "a form of bipolar disorder".^[14]

The garden's main feature was a wooded area of about eight acres (3.2 ha), Il Penseroso, which was criss-crossed by a "labyrinth" of paths leading down to a small tributary of the River Mole.^{[12][lower-alpha 3]} Visitors were met at the entrance by the Latin inscription Procul este projani, which translates as "away all you who are unhallowed", a quotation from the sixth book of Virgil's Aeneid.^[12]

Other features included a walkway with two pillars with sculptures of two human skulls, one male and one female, situated at the end; carved underneath the skulls were two poems, rumoured to have been penned by Soame Jenyns.^[15] The woodland in that section of the garden occupied about eight acres (3.2 ha) and had a small temple at its centre.^[11] Named The Temple of Death,^[14] it had a thatched roof and fake stonework panels to form smaller internal enclosures.^[16] A poetry book about death was kept inside.^[7] Set to the left-hand side of the entrance was an effigy of a raven holding a notice in its beak;^[17] hidden out of sight on the opposite side was a clock that chimed every minute, "admonishing us that Time is fleeting, and even the least portion of it to be employed in reflections on Eternity."^[15][17]

Another structure close by contained an effigy representing Truth crushing a mask and pointing towards two life-sized statues that depicted a Christian and an Unbeliever as they died.^[11] These may have been the work of Francis Hayman,^[9] the Drury Lane scene painter who undertook a lot of work for Tyers at Vauxhall Gardens.^[3] According to antiquarian Nicholas Penny these were paintings by Hayman, as opposed to statues.^[16]

Following Tyers' death in 1767 the estate was sold to Lord King of Ockham.^[8] The macabre artefacts were removed,^[9] and the grounds extensively altered.^[11]

Subsequent history

Soon after Lord King's death,^{[lower-alpha 4]} the estate was sold in 1781 by his son to James White.^[11] On 6 October 1783, Catherine Hildyard, daughter of the High Sheriff of Yorkshire, Sir Robert Hildyard, was married to White.^[19] The estate remained in White's ownership for six years until around 1787 when it was purchased by Joseph Denison, a wealthy banker.^[20]

Denison family ownership

Denison had come from a simple background; his parents were of low ranking and little means in West Yorkshire.^[21] Definitive information is not available as to exactly how his fortune was made but seemingly he travelled to London where he became associated with the Heywood family of bankers, later becoming a partner in the company.^[20] Richard Vickerman Taylor described the immense wealth accumulated by Denison as being gained through "unabated industry and the most rigid frugality".^[22] Five years after purchasing Denbies, the Seamere estate, near Scarborough, Yorkshire, was added to his portfolio after he acquired it from the Duke of Leeds.^[20][23] Denison had a son, William Joseph, and two daughters, Elizabeth and Anna Maria, from his second wife.^[20] By the time of the Regency era the family were the personification of prosperity and social status.^[20] Denison senior died in 1806 and the estate and all other properties were inherited by his son,^[9] who added to the acreage of the estate by purchasing additional land from the Earl of Verulam and the Duke of Norfolk.^[24] A new driveway entering from the direction of Mickleham, accessed via some woodland, was installed replacing the previous steep roadway that came from Dorking.^[9][25] Writing in 1830 topographer Thomas Allen described the expansive well-designed gardens as being under the direction of a "scientific and experienced horticulturist".^[26] The lawns at the front of the mansion featured sprinklings of evergreens and shrubs together with formal low-level flower beds.^[26] Local people were permitted access to the estate grounds.^[1]

Like his father, Denison junior was a banker and became senior partner in his father's banking company, Denison, Heywood, and Kennard, of Lombard Street, London.^[27] He continued to add to the wealth inherited from his father and when he died a bachelor on 2 August 1849 he was likely one of the top ten richest British businessmen of that era.^[27] He left his fortune, estimated at around £2.3 million, to his nephew, Albert, with the stipulation he changed his surname from Conyngham to Denison.^[27] Albert was elevated to Baron Londesborough on 4 March 1850,^[28] and later that year he sold the 3,900-acre (16 km²) estate at Denbies to the master builder, Thomas Cubitt.^[29]

Cubbitt family ownership

Cubitt was originally a carpenter and, like Denison senior, had acquired his wealth through his own business acumen, building up a successful company and business empire.^[30] At the time he purchased Denbies, Cubitt was nearing completion of the work on Osborne House for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert on the Isle of Wight.^[31] Cubitt wanted a mansion of his own to emulate that of the neighbouring Georgian country house of Deepdene^[29] owned by the affluent Hope family of bankers and at that time in the possession of Henry Thomas Hope, a patron of the arts.^[32] For the practical purpose of continuing to reside in the existing house while building took place, the new mansion was constructed on a site slightly to the southwest of its predecessor,^[1] which was demolished once the new mansion was completed in 1854.^[33]

Constructed to Cubitt's own designs, the new mansion had a very similar style to that used at Osborne House and incorporated meticulous features.^[33] The architecture was Italianate using bricks made specifically for the purpose.^[33] Almost one hundred rooms^[29] made up the three storeys stretching across nine bays in a square formation.^[33] Cubitt contrived his own form of soundproofing by concealing seashells between levels.^[33] The flat roof was edged with a parapet embellished with balustrades.^[33] Gibbs surrounds were used on the windows on the ground floor whereas triangular pediments featured on the windows included on the three central canted bays of the first floor.^[33] Segmented pediments adorned all the remaining windows.^[33] The water supply was provided by the well installed by Tyers, which was positioned close to the southeast corner of the new mansion, via a corridor that spanned the entire outside of the mansion.^[34]

Prince Albert visited the estate in July 1851, planting two trees in front of the terrace to commemorate his visit.^[35] There was speculation that the mansion was to be used as a residence for Prince Albert's eldest son^[33] and newspapers carried reports that the commemorative trees were possibly "intended to grow up side by side with England's future monarch";^[36] Cubitt strongly refuted the suggestion^[33] and on 14 April 1855 he had a rejection of the rumour included in The Builder.^[37] The grounds had been well maintained by the Denisons,^[33] but Cubitt further enhanced and overhauled them:^[30] large plantations of hardwoods and conifers were added,^[33] and general improvements and development of the estate and farm were undertaken.^[1] Specimens of rare plants and shrubs were added, sourced through William Hooker, the Director of Kew Gardens, who was a friend of Cubbitt's.^[38]

Access routes to the estate were also added to and enhanced; there were three driveways giving approaches from the North Downs, Dorking and from the railway at the west.^[1] Cubitt covered the costs of building a siding on the north side of Dorking Town railway station.^[39]

When Cubitt died at Denbies on 20 December 1855, his assets were worth over £1 million.^[30] The estate passed to Cubitt's eldest son, George, who continued the development and expansion of the property and local area.^[1] George had lived at Denbies since his father purchased it and it remained his main residence until 1905 after the death of his wife, Laura, who he married in June 1853.^[40] He was a politician, first elected as a member of parliament in 1860, and was elevated to a peerage in 1892, becoming the first Lord Ashcombe.^[41] The couple had eight children, three sons and five daughters; two of the boys died as babies,^[1] only their youngest son, Henry, survived and would later inherit the estate after his father's death.^[42]

A period of expansion and prosperity took place under the ownership of the first Lord Ashcombe; he secured a further 2,000 acres of land and then gradually acquired other pockets of acreage in the area.^[43] The estate stretched as far as Birtley Court, near Bramley and Churt.^[43] As a landlord and employer – by that time he had about 400 workers on the estate – he was a benevolent master and ensured he fulfilled his obligations.^[43] He commissioned Sir George Gilbert Scott, who was a friend and regular guest at Denbies, to design an estate church on Ranmore Common.^[44] Completed in 1859, it was named after St. Barnabus.^{[44][lower-alpha 5]} The church had been built beside a school, also called St. Barnabus, which Lord Ashcombe had instructed Scott to construct the previous year in 1858.^[43] A section for infants was added in 1874^[43] and it was expanded again in 1909.^[44] Lord Ashcombe ensured the basic medical needs of his workers were attended to by having a cottage built that served as a dispensary and physicians from the nearby towns held surgeries there twice a week.^[43] The cottage was also the venue for a domestic training school where the daughters of his workers received a year of being educated in the rudiments of domestic service before either being employed in his household or those of other country houses.^[43] A donation of £1,000 was made towards the cost of a hospital building in Dorking in 1870.^[43] A small village was erected,^[1] which consisted of around thirty cottages at Ranmore.^[43]

Lord Ashcombe's son, Henry, married Maud, whose father was Colonel Archibald Motteaux Calvert, in 1890.^[42] The couple lived on the estate near Bramley^[42] and had six sons.^[45] Their three eldest sons were killed in the First World war while on active service.^[45] Like his father, Henry followed a political career, becoming Lord Lieutenant of Surrey in 1905;^[45] that year Henry moved to the mansion house after his father moved to London following the death of Henry's mother.^[42] He inherited the title and extensive estate after the death of his father in 1917.^[42] The payment of death duties and the upkeep of large estates during the war resulted in large parts of the estate being auctioned on 19 September 1921.^[46] A total of £30,400 was raised by the sale of sixty-nine lots – tallying around 232 acres – of land and property on the periphery of the estate just south of the railway line.^[47] Further land situated closer to Dorking town centre was sold for development in the 1930s.^[29] The break up of the estate continued after Henry's death on 27 October 1947^[45] when it was inherited by his fourth son Roland, who became the third Lord Ashcombe.^[48]

Roland was born on 26 January 1899 and initially followed a career in the army.^[49] He married Sonia Rosemary Keppel on 16 November 1920^[50] and they had three children: two sons, Henry and Jeremy (1927–1958); and a daughter, Rosalind.^{[49][51][lower-alpha 6]} His father had been involved with amalgamating the building firm founded by Thomas Cubitt with another large established construction company, creating Holland, Hannen & Cubitts; Roland was Chairman of the new joint enterprise.^[48] Death duties and the Second World war impacted greatly on the estate: staffing was a problem, maintenance and general repair costs were extortionate.^[52] The Home Guard requisitioned a section of the mansion as its headquarters and based a training school there.^[53] Hugh Pollock, husband of the author Enid Blyton, re-ignited his adulterous affair with Ida Crowe after arranging work there for her as a civilian secretary.^[54] Roland transformed the buildings that had previously been used as housing for the garden and stable staff into a Regency style house.^[52] Flooring and doors were stripped from the old mansion to be utilised in the new house, leaving just the basic structure of Cubitt's original mansion, which had been empty since 1947.^[52] Furniture was disposed of in a clearance sale at Dorking in mid-July 1952.^[55] Cubitt's mansion was within a designated preservation area causing the local council to refuse any suggestions that were put forward for the old mansion to be used for commercial purposes.^[52] Contractors were brought in to demolish the mansion in 1953; the company may have encountered money problems as the basement was not fully destroyed and left filled with rubble from the higher levels.^{[56][lower-alpha 7]}

Death duties were still outstanding and the Treasury received around 1,128 acres of land in 1959 as an alternative to payment.^[56] It passed the land on to the National Trust; at the end of 1963 an additional 245 acres from Denbies hillside was secured by the Trust via the same route.^[56]

Recent times

When what remained of the estate was marketed in May 1984, the selling agents, Savills, described it as around 635 acres.^[57] This figure included 312 acres attached to Bradley Farm together with the farmhouse, four cottages and some farm buildings.^[57] Denbies House – as the Regency style house conversion was named^[58] – had a lodge, a flat and two cottages, 45 acres of parkland, arable land covering 32 acres and 239 acres devoted to sporting and amenity woodland.^[57] The centrally heated, eight bedroomed mansion house featured six bathrooms and four reception rooms. There were also tennis courts, stables, garages and a heated swimming pool together with poolhouse.^[57] Biwater, a water-treatment company, purchased it^[59] during the 1980s.^[29] In 1986^[60] the company chairman Alan White established Denbies Wine Estate, using 268 acres (1.08 km²) on a south-facing piece of ground to plant vines.^[29]

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