The gardens of Nonsuch Mansion

Image: © Marathon Taken: 21 Aug 2013

Nonsuch Palace was the first great Renaissance building in England. King Henry VIIIth had decided, at the time of the birth of Prince Edward in 1537, to build himself a palace but had not immediately identified a site. One day he was hunting on Banstead Downs and was so delighted with the district and the view of London in the distance that he decided on the village of Cuddington as the place for his palace. Cuddington village, the parish church and manor house were ruthlessly destroyed in 1538 to provide the site for Henry VIIIth's palace and home park at Nonsuch. Henry wanted the new palace to outshine the Renaissance palaces of his great rival, Francis I of France, and from the first he called it "None-such" because it was to be without peer or parallel. Stone was brought day after day from the demolished Merton Priory and by the time Henry died in 1547 it was more or less complete. It captured the imagination of its contemporaries but its very size was its undoing as it was far too big for normal use. Nonsuch passed out of Royal ownership in 1556, but was later sold back to Elizabeth I who came hunting in the park. It was severely damaged in the Civil War and Charles II gave it to Barbara Villiers (Baroness Nonsuch) in 1670 as a consolation prize for being passed over in favour of Nell Gwynne. Barbara Villiers soon decided that this semi-ruin would be the ruin of her as it was so expensive to repair and maintain, so she had it demolished in 1682 and sold the material for building. The stones from Merton Abbey were once more carted off, this time to build the great houses that were springing up at the time around the newly fashionable Epsom. Nonsuch Mansion was built between 1731 and 1743 by Joseph Thompson and later bought by Samuel Farmer in 1799. He employed Jeffry Wyattville to rebuild it in a Tudor Gothic style between 1802 and 1806 and it bears a resemblance in its design to the original design of Nonsuch Palace. It is some way east of the site of Nonsuch Palace. The end of the mansion can just be seen beyond the trees.

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