Hilfield Castle, also Hilfield Lodge, is a country estate and house about east of Watford and southwest of

Aldenham Aldenham is a village and civil parish in Hertfordshire, north-east of Watford and southwest of Radlett. It was mentioned in the Domesday Book and is one of Hertsmere's 14 conservation areas. The village has eight pre-19th-century listed build ...

, in Hertfordshire, on the outskirts of London in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. The estate contains two large reservoirs, one of which were built by French prisoners of war in the 1790s,. The grounds now form

Aldenham Country Park Aldenham Country Park is a parkland and woodland, including Aldenham Reservoir. It is now part of the Watling Chase Community Forest, near Elstree, Hertfordshire, England. Aldenham Reservoir was excavated by French prisoners of war in 1795 to ...

Elstree Aerodrome London Elstree Aerodrome is an operational general aviation aerodrome located in Elstree, situated east of Watford, Hertfordshire, England. Elstree Aerodrome has Civil Aviation Authority Ordinary Licence P486, which allows flights for the pu ...

is located just to the east and the

M1 motorway The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the country was the Preston By-pass, which lat ...

passes to the west. 200px, Aldenham reservoir, the southern of the two reservoirs.

History and description

The castle dates to 1798–99, when it was built by architect

Jeffry Wyatt Sir Jeffry Wyatville (3 August 1766 – 18 February 1840) was an English architect and garden designer. Born Jeffry Wyatt into an established dynasty of architects, in 1824 he was allowed by King George IV to change his surname to Wyatville ...

for Hon. George Villiers, brother of the earl of Clarendon. to replace Slys Castle. It is a picturesque Gothic design, and the estate includes numerous cottages, barns and a boathouse on the reservoir.

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...

notes that it is a "castellated, turreted, and cemented house with a gatehouse complete with

portcullis A portcullis (from Old French ''porte coleice'', "sliding gate") is a heavy vertically-closing gate typically found in medieval fortifications, consisting of a latticed grille made of wood, metal, or a combination of the two, which slides down gr ...

". He also notes that the entrance and south sides are symmetrical and that the conservatory is of "ecclesiastical appearance." The castle is built from brick with a 4-storey central tower "flanked by octagonal turrets to lower 4-storey bays with outer 2-storey bays with a later mansard attic." The turrets have slit windows, which are machicolated and crenellated. Of note is the "octagonal Breakfast Room with a vaulted ceiling and a Gothic conservatory." It became a

Grade II* listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

on 1 June 1984. It is owned by the Jefferis family as a private house and is not open to the public. It was sold in 1818 by Villiers to John Fam Timins. He had served in the British

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

, for whom he had captained several

East Indiamen East Indiaman was a general name for any sailing ship operating under charter or licence to any of the East India trading companies of the major European trading powers of the 17th through the 19th centuries. The term is used to refer to vesse ...

; he had most notably participated in the

Battle of Pulo Aura The Battle of Pulo Aura was a minor naval engagement of the Napoleonic Wars, fought on 14 February 1804, in which a large convoy of Honourable East India Company (HEIC) East Indiamen, well-armed merchant ships, intimidated, drove off and chased ...

. When he died in 1843, his son William Raikes Timins succeeded him. He died in 1866, and was succeeded by his nephew the Rev. Douglas Cartwright Timins, who died in 1872, when Hilfield passed to his son Douglas Theodore, who sold the house and park in 1906 to the late Lord Aldenham.

Reservoirs

The reservoir nearest to the house is called Hilfield reservoir and is owned by

Affinity Water Affinity Water is a UK supplier of drinking water to 3.8 million people in parts of London, eastern and south eastern England. The company is owned by a consortium of Allianz, HICL and DIF Tamblin. Affinity Water was established through the pur ...

. It is managed as a wildlife reserve by the

Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust manages over 40 nature reserves covering nearly north of London, in Hertfordshire and the historic county of Middlesex, part of which is divided between the London boroughs of Barnet, Enfield, Harrow and Hill ...

and is not open to the public except by appointment. It was built in 1953. The more southerly reservoir is called Aldenham reservoir and forms part of

. It is open to the public with trails and other attractions and hosts a sailing club. It was built by French prisoners of war during the

Napoleonic war The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

Film location

The castle has appeared in several TV series and films, including

Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, his films, almost all of which are adaptations of nove ...

's motion picture ''

Lolita ''Lolita'' is a 1955 novel written by Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov. The novel is notable for its controversial subject: the protagonist and unreliable narrator, a middle-aged literature professor under the pseudonym Humbert Humber ...

'' (1962) when it served as

Peter Sellers Peter Sellers (born Richard Henry Sellers; 8 September 1925 – 24 July 1980) was an English actor and comedian. He first came to prominence performing in the BBC Radio comedy series ''The Goon Show'', featured on a number of hit comic songs ...

's “Pavor Manor”,

George Pollock Field Marshal Sir George Pollock, 1st Baronet (4 June 1786 – 6 October 1872) was a British Indian Army officer. He first saw action at the Battle of Deeg and at the Siege of Bhurtpore during the Second Anglo-Maratha War before taking part i ...

's film ''

Murder at the Gallop ''Murder at the Gallop'' (1963) is the second of four Miss Marple films made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was based on the 1953 novel '' After the Funeral'' by Agatha Christie, and starred Margaret Rutherford as Miss Jane Marple, Charles "Bud" Ti ...

'' (1963), and an episode of ''

Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) ''Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)'' is a British private detective television series, starring Mike Pratt and Kenneth Cope respectively as the private detectives Jeff Randall and Marty Hopkirk. The series was created by Dennis Spooner and p ...

'' (" For the Girl Who Has Everything", 1969) when it was occupied by

Lois Maxwell Lois Ruth Maxwell (born Lois Ruth Hooker; 14 February 1927 – 29 September 2007) was a Canadian actress who portrayed Miss Moneypenny in the first fourteen Eon-produced ''James Bond'' films (1962–1985). She was the first actress to play the ...

External links

Aerial photographs from 1949. Britain from Above, Accessed Feb 2018

References

{{Listed buildings in Hertfordshire Country houses in Hertfordshire Castles in Hertfordshire Houses completed in 1799 Grade II* listed houses Grade II* listed buildings in Hertfordshire Gothic architecture in England