Hotham Park House is a grade II* listed 18th-century country house in

Bognor Regis Bognor Regis (), sometimes simply known as Bognor (), is a town and seaside resort in West Sussex on the south coast of England, south-west of London, west of Brighton, south-east of Chichester and east of Portsmouth. Other nearby towns i ...

, West Sussex. It stands in the 9 hectare (22 acres)

Hotham Park Hotham Park is a public park in the seaside town of Bognor Regis, West Sussex, England, in the United Kingdom. It was established by the founder of Bognor Sir Richard Hotham, who formerly resided at Hotham Park House (built 1792) which still stan ...

, now a public open space. The house, originally called Chapel House after a nearby chapel, was built in 1792 by Sir Richard Hotham, the founder of Bognor, as his main residence. After the chapel was demolished in the 1850s, the house was renamed Bersted Lodge, then Aldwick Manor and subsequently Hotham Lodge. It is built of stuccoed brick in two storeys with a six-bay (but 10 window) frontage.

History

Sir Richard Hotham, a London hatter, moved to the Bognor area in the late 18th century and laid the foundation stone of the town in 1787. He commissioned the building of the present house, with its own private chapel, in 1792, but died a few years later in 1799. In the early 1800s the house belonged to a Jamaican planter Thomas Smith who had married Susannah Mackworth-Praed. He died in 1825 but his widow continued to live in the house until her own death in 1856. Her brother-in-law,

John Bourke, 4th Earl of Mayo John Bourke, 4th Earl of Mayo, GCH, PC (Ire) (; ; 18 June 1766 – 23 May 1849) was an Irish peer and courtier, styled Lord Naas (; ) from 1792 to 1794, who served as Chairman of Committees in the Irish House of Lords until 1801. Career ...

, died there in 1849. John Ballett Fletcher bought the house in 1857 and had the chapel demolished, except for its tower. In 1899 the house, then called Bersted Lodge, passed to his eldest son William Holland Ballett Fletcher (1852–1941) who renamed it Aldwick Manor in honour of the fact that he had inherited the Lordship of the Manor of Aldwick. He improved the surrounding parkland by planting trees, shrubs and exotic plants in collaboration with

Kew Gardens Kew Gardens is a botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botanical and mycological collections in the world". Founded in 1840, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its living collections include some of the ...

. His only son was killed on active service in 1915 and when he himself died in 1941 the house was taken over by the Ministry of Pensions for the remainder of the Second World War. After the war the park was acquired by the then Bognor Regis Urban District Council and developed as an amenity for the people of Bognor. The house itself remained empty until 1977, at which time it was acquired and renovated by Abraham Singer and subsequently converted into luxury flats. Today the house is owned by Arun District Council, but leases the flats via a Head Lease.

References

External links

Hotham Park Heritage TrustBognor Local History
{{coord, 50.7866, -0.6672, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Grade II* listed buildings in West Sussex Country houses in West Sussex Bognor Regis Houses completed in 1792