Cranbury Park

Cranbury Park is a stately home and country estate situated in the parish of Hursley, Winchester, England.

It was formerly the home to Sir Isaac Newton and later to the Chamberlayne family, whose descendants continue to own and occupy the house and surrounding park and farmland in the 21st century.

[2] An incident is recorded of a dispute between Coram and Clarke regarding the rights of the tenants and the Lord of the Manor: "It seems that when the tenants were called on to perform work in hedging, reaping, or hay-making, upon the lands of the lord of the manor, in lieu of money rent he was bound to feed them through the day, and generally to conclude with a merry-making.

So, no doubt, it had been in the good old days of the bishops and the much loved and lamented John Bowland; but harder times had come with Sir Thomas Clarke, when it required the interference of Mr. Coram of Cranbury to secure them even an eatable meal.

"[2]Following the death of Coram, Sir Edward Richards held the property until the 1640s, when he let it to Dr John Young, dean of Winchester.

[1] Sir Charles, who (like Coram before him) was noted as "a zealous assertor of the tenants' rights",[1] was Member of Parliament for Southampton from 1679 to 1698 and for St Ives in Cornwall from 1698 to 1701.

[6] The sundial has been described thus: The gnomon is pierced with the letters I.C., and the arms of Mr. Conduitt, the owner, as granted to him in 1717, are engraved on the plate with his motto: "Cada uno es hijo de sus obras."

[5]Conduitt died in 1737, leaving a daughter, Catherine, whose guardians sold Cranbury Park to Thomas Lee Dummer,[1][5] who succeeded him as MP for Southampton, retaining that position for four years.

When his workmen arrived to dismantle the cross, they were prevented from doing so by the people of the city, who "organised a small riot"[8] and they were forced to abandon their task.

The agreement with the city was cancelled and Dummer erected a lath and plaster facsimile, which stood in the park for about sixty years before it was destroyed by the weather.

The rear of the gateway has been made into a keeper's cottage and is known to the village of Otterbourne as "the Castle"[9] and is marked as such on the Ordnance Survey map.

Dance-Holland died in 1811, but his wife survived him until 1825;[11] on her death, William Chamberlayne, MP for Southampton, came into the property under the terms of the will of Thomas Dummer.

[14] Tankerville Chamberlayne was also MP for Southampton from 1892 until 1896, when he was disqualified for electoral fraud in the 1895 General Election;[15] despite this he was returned to office in 1900 until he lost his seat in 1906.

[6] Of the interior, Nikolaus Pevsner wrote that it was an "unforgettable experience" to behold the hall with its coffered tunnel-vaults to the full height of the house and the beautiful ballroom.

Writing in 1898, John Keble described the house thus:"Cranbury Park is on a hill, intersected by various springs, and where the peaty ground soon gives way to gravel.

The house, a large red brick one, built round a court, so that it looks low in proportion to its width, is on the level ground at the top, flat as it fronts to the south, but in the rear descending rapidly.

[22] The house stands on a hill at 85 metres above sea level and from the extensive grounds beautiful views are obtained of Southampton Water and the Isle of Wight to the south.

[17] The folly known as "The Castle", built from material plundered from Netley Abbey, is situated in the southern corner of the park.