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Weald Country Park is a 700-year-old,[1] 500-acre (2 km²) country park in South Weald[2] in the borough of Brentwood in the English county of Essex. It is on the north-east fringe of Greater London.
The current layout is largely the result of landscaping carried out in the naturalistic manner of Capability Brown for Hugh Smith, lord of the manor from 1732 to 1745.[3] Weald Hall, parts of which dated to the 16th century.[4] In 1752, the estate was sold to Thomas Tower of Iver in Buckinghamshire, a lawyer and MP for Wareham in Dorset. Christopher Tower succeeded as the owner in 1778 and immediately commissioned Robert Adam to design a new dining room. On his death in 1810, his son, Christopher Thomas Tower, succeeded until 1867; he enlarged the estate and enclosed some commons as "waste". Weald Hall, with 800 acres in 1841, was let to farmers in the 19th century[5] sold by another C. T. Tower in 1946, when the estate was broken up though part of the park was retained for the Green Belt of London. Some remnants remain of the Hall, which was demolished in 1950–51[6] due to war damage, in particular some steps leading to what used to be a folly in the park. The 16th-century lodge miscalled "Queen Mary's Chapel" because it was locally rumoured to have been used by Queen Mary for quiet prayer and contemplation, which used to be enclosed within Weald Hall's walled kitchen garden, still remains at the edge of the park.
The park is now managed by Essex County Council.
2012 Olympic Games
The park was due to be the venue for the mountain biking events at the 2012 Summer Olympics. However, following a visit by inspectors from the International Cycling Union, the site was considered insufficiently challenging for international competition and a new venue was sought.[7] Hadleigh Castle was chosen as the replacement venue.[8]
References
- ^ The manor of Weald descended in the barony of Valognes until the 13th century, when the barony was divided among coheirs. ('North Weald Bassett: Manors', A History of the County of Essex: Volume 4: Ongar Hundred (1956), pp. 286-290 Accessed: 25 September 2008). South Weald belonged to the Abbey of Waltham Holy Cross, until the Dissolution of the Monasteries (in this case, 1540).
- ^ Weald (walda in Domesday) denotes forest land; by 1777 there was apparently no woodland left apart from Weald Hall Coppice, which still survived in 1954. ('North Weald Bassett: Introduction', A History of the County of Essex: Volume 4: Ongar Hundred (1956), pp. 284-286 Accessed: 25 September 2008
- ^ Hugh Smith was an ancestor of the Earls of Derby.
- ^ Sir Anthony Browne bought the manor in 1547 and died at Weald Hall in 1567 ('Parishes: South Weald', A History of the County of Essex: Volume 8 (1983), pp. 74-90. Accessed 25 September 2008).
- ^ Victoria County History, ibid.
- ^ Howard Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600-1840, 3rd ed. 1995, s.v. "Adam, Robert"; some interior fittings were salvged by Crowther of Syon Lodge: a doorcase was installed in the restoration of Tryon Palace, New Bern, North Carolina (John Harris, Moving Rooms: The Trade in Architectural Salvages (Yale University Press) 2007, Appendix 3.
- ^ Mountain bike course 'too easy', BBC Sport, Friday, 1 February 2008
- ^ BBC. (2008-06-06). Look East: Biking back on the agenda. Retrieved 2008-06-10.
