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Glasshayes House is a historic
country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...
in Lyndhurst, in The New Forest,
Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...
. Used in the 20th century as the ''Grand Hotel'', then the '' Lyndhurst Park Hotel'', it exists today in the form of a 1912 redesign by
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Hol ...
. The building and estate was purchased in 2014 by developers who sought to demolish it wholesale. A 2017 application to have the hotel listed may avert demolition


History


18th century

Glasshayes is first mentioned by name a conveyance document of 1728. At this stage in its history the land is mainly agricultural, with a cluster of smaller 17th and 18th century vernacular properties in the location of the current house. In 1763 the estate was purchased by
Arthur Phillip Admiral Arthur Phillip (11 October 1738 – 31 August 1814) was a British Royal Navy officer who served as the first governor of the Colony of New South Wales. Phillip was educated at Greenwich Hospital School from June 1751 until ...
, along with Black Acre and Vernalls, and he lived in the area with his first wife Charlotte, farming the land until 1769 when Phillip returned to service in Australia.Stratford Brice, "A Brief, Partial, and Fragmentary History of Glasshayes House, Formerly the Lyndhurst Park Hotel," Christopher Tower Reference Library, New Forest Museum (2016)


19th century

The present Glasshayes House was built sometime between 1806 and 1816 by George Buck (esquire), utilising material from the earlier buildings, as a countryside retreat for he and his wife (who died at the house in 1826, and supposedly still haunts it). In the 1840s Glasshayes "consisted of a house, offices, garden and pleasure ground on six acres and four acres of adjoining fields, three of which was pasture"; in 1846 it had become the English seat of
Richard Fitzgeorge de Stacpoole, 1st Duc de Stacpoole Richard Fitzgeorge de Stacpoole, 1st '' Duc'' de Stacpoole (16 August 1787 – 7 July 1848) was an Anglo-French Catholic aristocrat and member of the French peerage. The son of George Stacpoole, 1st '' Comte'' Stacpoole (created by letters pa ...
, who made considerable extensions to the house (though retained the "Gothick" aesthetic and octagonal tower of George Buck). From the house the Duc ran a local smuggling ring, and lived openly with his married mistress, Mrs Louisa Graves. He died there on the 7 July 1848, and according to local tradition his ghost can still be sighted. On the Duc's death the house was inherited by Louisa Graves, who later sold the house to a Mr and Mrs Fussell (who do not appear to have taken residence). The land was later purchased by a local grocer and draper, William Beale Bugden, who farmed the land but did not take residence at the house. During this period of dereliction the house was in regular use by smugglers. In 1862 Charles Castleman moved to Glasshayes with his third wife Isabel Swinburne, and whilst in residence gifted the clock to the clocktower of the newly built local St. Michael and All Angels church, in exchange for the closing of an insalubrious public road which ran directly behind the house. In 1874 the house became the seat of Colonel Alexander Caldcleugh Macleay, a local magistrate and commander of the
Seaforth Highlanders The Seaforth Highlanders (Ross-shire Buffs, The Duke of Albany's) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, mainly associated with large areas of the northern Highlands of Scotland. The regiment existed from 1881 to 1961, and saw service ...
, and was the childhood home of Sir James William Ronald Macleay and his sister Lina MacLeay (who would later marry Sir Robert Arbuthnot). Glasshayes was used as the original headquarters of the Lyndhurst Golf Club, established in 1889, and in 1893 a bazaar was held at the mansion to raise £1000 for a new roof at the local church.


20th century


Grand Hotel

In 1895 Glasshayes House was sold as the prospective "Grand Hotel," and by the 20th century this new venture had begun operation. Around 1905 the house had another floor added, and it is during this building work that sightings of the "Ghosts of Glasshayes" are first reported. Officers from local regiments used the hotel during both world wars, and numerous celebrity guests during later decades included Margaret Thatcher and the Beatles.


Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Hol ...
had, by the early 20th century, become a regular visitor to "the Grand." It was during a stay at the hotel in March 1912 that he sketched out designs for a third storey extension and altered front facade to the building. Work on the extension began in Autumn of that year, and the building as it survives today is a near perfect expression of Doyle's plans.


Lyndhurst Park Hotel

In 1970 the house was bought as an ongoing concern by Forestdale Hotels Ltd and renamed as the Lyndhurst Park Hotel, receiving multiple unsympathetic extensions throughout the 1970s and 1980s which developed it into a 60-bed hotel. In 2014 the hotel was purchased by the St James Hotel group, and later that year it was closed and bought by developers PegasusLife, who plan to demolish the property in order to build retirement flats on the land, despite local opposition. Prior to closure it employed 13 full-time staff and 8 casual workers.Hampshire-based Pegasus Life plans to knock down 60-bed Lyndhurst Park Hotel and replace with flats
Bournemouth Daily Echo, 30 Apr 2015


Folklore


The Ghosts of Glasshayes

According to local tradition, the building is haunted by a number of ghosts, known as the "Ghosts of Glasshayes." The most sighted is that of Richard Fitzgeorge de Stacpoole, the first Duc de Stacpoole. Sightings have been reported by builders working on extensions to the site, both at the beginning of the 20th century and in the 1970s, apparently berating and sometimes attacking them for disturbing his property. Supposedly, every year on the night of his death (July 7) strange music can be heard in certain rooms, and folklore has it that this is from a grand ball that the Duc holds annually for the dead. During the 1912 extensions, workers on the site added the seven "Glasshayes Devil Squares" over the entrance, each one signifying a separate ghost sighting during construction. Other ghost sightings have included that of Mrs Buck, for whom Glasshayes was built (and who died there in 1826) and of a chamber maid, who (according to legend) hanged herself after an affair with a cook. The reputation for hauntings is thought to what first attracted Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a committed Spiritualist who held seances in the hotel.


Smuggling

From its earliest incarnation Glasshayes has been notable for its eccentric "octagonal tower," built as an original feature by George Buck to serve as a lookout for local smuggling operations (common within the New Forest area). When the Duc de Stacpoole purchased the property he continued to run the area smuggling ring from the house, also using his yacht "the Gipsey Queen" to transport illicit goods. A raid was carried out by excise agents in 1847, during which the Duc barricaded himself into the octagonal tower with a military saber, and the siege was widely reported in national papers of the time. The house continued to be used for smuggling activities during its years of non-residence after the Duc's death, but seems to have ceased the association from Charles Castleman's tenure beginning 1862. Local tradition reports numerous smuggling caches and hollows throughout the original portion of the property (particularly in the floor and behind the wooden paneling of the surviving octagonal room). There are even stories of a sealed up network of old tunnels connecting the house with nearby pubs, for the easy transport of illegal liquor.


Development and demolition

In 2014 the hotel and estate was closed and bought by developers PegasusLife, who plan to demolish the house in order to build retirement flats on the land, despite local opposition. The proposed demolition has been refused twice, the first in February 2017 and the latest being in December 2017. In view of the recently discovered connection with novelist Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who designed the garden facade, a new application was made in 2017 to list the hotel


Famous associations


Notable residents

*
Arthur Phillip Admiral Arthur Phillip (11 October 1738 – 31 August 1814) was a British Royal Navy officer who served as the first governor of the Colony of New South Wales. Phillip was educated at Greenwich Hospital School from June 1751 until ...
*
Richard Fitzgeorge de Stacpoole, 1st Duc de Stacpoole Richard Fitzgeorge de Stacpoole, 1st '' Duc'' de Stacpoole (16 August 1787 – 7 July 1848) was an Anglo-French Catholic aristocrat and member of the French peerage. The son of George Stacpoole, 1st '' Comte'' Stacpoole (created by letters pa ...
* Charles Castleman * Sir James William Ronald Macleay * Lina Arbuthnot (née Macleay)


Notable visitors

*
Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany (Frederick Augustus; 16 August 1763 – 5 January 1827) was the second son of George III, King of the United Kingdom and Hanover, and his consort Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. A soldier by professi ...
* The Earls Howe *
Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton, (3 December 1830 – 25 January 1896), known as Sir Frederic Leighton between 1878 and 1896, was a British painter, draughtsman, and sculptor. His works depicted historical, biblical, and classical subjec ...
*
Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll a ...
* William White (architect) *
Alice Liddell Alice Pleasance Hargreaves (''née'' Liddell, ; 4 May 1852 – 16 November 1934), was an English woman who, in her childhood, was an acquaintance and photography subject of Lewis Carroll. One of the stories he told her during a boating trip bec ...
*
Sir Robert Arbuthnot, 4th Baronet Rear-Admiral Sir Robert Keith Arbuthnot, 4th Baronet, (23 March 1864 – 31 May 1916) was a British Royal Navy officer during World War I. He was killed at the Battle of Jutland, when the cruiser squadron he commanded came under heavy fir ...
* The Barons Montagu * The Earls of Carnarvon * Margaret Thatcher *
The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
* William Anthony Furness, 2nd Viscount Furness *
Hendrikus Colijn Hendrikus "Hendrik" Colijn (22 June 1869 – 18 September 1944) was a Dutch politician of the Anti-Revolutionary Party (ARP; now defunct and merged into the Christian Democratic Appeal or CDA). He served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from ...


References

{{Reflist Country houses in Hampshire History of Hampshire New Forest English folklore Hampshire folklore Hotels in Hampshire Hotels established in 1895 Hotels established in 1970 1895 establishments in England New Forest folklore