Category: Maresfield Park
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After the end of WW1, the UK government sold off the Maresfield Park estate which had been confiscated from Prince Münster. On 18th September 1924, the Public Trustee sold the 2,643 acres of the Maresfield Park estate to William Abbey of Uckfield House for £61,714 (£3.4M in 2026). Just one week later, on 25th September…
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Along with much of southern England, the great storm on the night of 15th October 1987 lead to significant damage and many trees being lost. Photographs of the Drive in Maresfield Park show many large trees down. Do you have more photos or memories of the 1987 storm? Let us know at mailto:history@maresfield.org
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Sir (Harold Arthur) Thomas Fairbanks was an Orthopaedic Surgeon, and a Captain with the Royal Army Medical Corps in World War 1. In 1914, he was with the 85th Field Ambulance of the Royal Army Medical Corps, who were stationed at Maresfield Park, before heading to Flanders and the horrors of Ypres. His photograph albums…
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The UK Government confiscated Maresfield Park Estate from the German born owner, Prince Münster at the outbreak of the Great War in 1914 and it was turned into an army camp. Nissen huts were erected on the open land. The guardroom was just to the right inside the archway at The Lodge, and sentries paraded…
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Maresfield Park evolved during the 18th century and belonged to John Newnham who lived at ‘Strethouse’ opposite the church (site of the present Lodge, and church car park). As there was little room for expansion there, he chose to build himself a mansion at the point where the tracks crossed in Maresfield Park and called…
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Born at Preston, Lancashire, in 1787, Frances Winckley was the only daughter of Thomas Winckley, a prosperous Preston attorney and descendant of the de Winkelmondeleys who in Saxon times had settled in a corner between the Ribble and Calder rivers. Industry had not begun and Preston was mainly an agricultural town of broad streets and…
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In the centre of the village is the Victorian gargoyle lodge with an archway diagonally set in the angle between the two roads. The Lodge (also known as “Lodge Gates”) has featured in dozens of photographs and postcards of Maresfield over the years. This lodge was built about 1847 by Sir John Villiers Shelley and…
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No, it’s not a dog! A property terrier is a detailed register or survey of land in an estate, recording ownership, boundaries, acreage, tenants, and rents. Maresfield Historical Society acquired this magnificent-looking leather-bound terrier book, which records the extent of the Maresfield Park Estate in 1906 in beautiful copperplate handwriting, with occasional pencil notes. To…