Mells Park is a country estate of near Mells, Somerset, England. It originated as a 17th-century deer park, probably created by the Horner family, who had been the owners of

Mells Manor Mells Manor at Mells, Somerset, England, was built in the 16th century for Edward Horner, altered in the 17th century, partially demolished around 1780, and restored by Sir Edwin Lutyens in the 20th century. The house, along with the garden walls ...

from 1543. The Horners expanded the park and planted extensive woodlands, resulting in a large collection of mature trees, especially 18th-century plantings of oak, lime and beech. The park is Grade II listed in the

National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens The Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England provides a listing and classification system for historic parks and gardens similar to that used for listed buildings. The register is managed by Historic England ...

. It contains Park House, also known as Mells Park House, 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 ...

, built in 1925 in neoclassical style by the architect Edwin Lutyens, replacing an 18th-century house of the same name. It is c. west of Mells Manor House, which does not lie within the park.Foyle and Pevsner (2011), pp. 556–557. During 1987–90, Park House was used for secret negotiations between the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party in South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election install ...

and the South African government. The estate is a venue for game shooting.

Enclosure and first Park House

The deer park was enclosed between 1604 and 1642, probably by Sir John Horner. In 1724

Thomas Strangways Horner Thomas Strangways Horner ( Horner; 1688–1741), of Mells, Somerset and Melbury, Dorset, was a British landowner and Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1713 and 1741. Horner was baptized on 3 July 1688, the second, but eldes ...

commissioned

Nathaniel Ireson Nathaniel Ireson (1685– 18 April 1769) was a potter, architect and mason best known for his work around Wincanton in Somerset, England. He was probably born in Ansley, Warwickshire. He rebuilt much of the centre of Wincanton following a fire in ...

to build the first Park House, and the family moved there from

House. His nephew Thomas Horner expanded the park and planted extensive woodlands, a work continued by his son Colonel Thomas Strangways Horner. The house is on high ground towards the northern end of the park, surrounded by river valleys. Further north, to the rear of the house, the park includes a lake fed by the

Mells River The Mells River flows through the eastern Mendip Hills in Somerset, England. It rises at Gurney Slade and flows east joining the River Frome at Frome. The river forms one of the boundaries of Mells Park, a country house estate in Mells. A few ...

. Pleasure grounds around the house and towards the lake were laid out by the landscape designer

William Sawrey Gilpin William Sawrey Gilpin (4 October 1762 – 4 April 1843) was an English artist and drawing master, and in later life a landscape designer. Biography Gilpin was born at Scaleby Castle, Cumbria on 4 October 1762, the son of the animal painter Sa ...

between 1825 and 1832. Future Prime Minister

H. H. Asquith Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith, (12 September 1852 – 15 February 1928), generally known as H. H. Asquith, was a British statesman and Liberal Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom f ...

and his wife

Margot Margot (; ) is a feminine French given name, a variant of Marguerite. It is also occasionally a surname. Persons named Margot include the following: People with the given name Margot * Margot Asquith, countess of Oxford and Asquith * Marguerite ...

spent their honeymoon at Mells Park in 1894, as guests of Sir John Horner and his wife Lady Frances Horner, the daughter of Liberal MP and art patron William Graham. Finding Park House too expensive to inhabit,Brown (1996), pp. 109-110. in c. 1900 the Horners let it out and moved back into Mells Manor House. Park House burnt down in 1917, although an

arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware ** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board * Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games * ...

d service court at the rear of the house survived. 18th-century outbuildings which survive as Grade II listed buildings include stables and a

coach house Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coa ...

to the north of the house, built c. 1761, probably by the architect John Wood the Younger, Lilley Batch Lodge, built c. 1790, and a

folly In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but suggesting through its appearance some other purpose, or of such extravagant appearance that it transcends the range of usual garden buildings. Eighteenth-cent ...

called the Duckery, also built c. 1790.

Second Park House

The architect Edwin Lutyens had known the Horners, and Mells Park, since 1896. In 1918 he unsuccessfully tried to persuade the Horners to rebuild Park House.Brown (1996), pp. 218–219. However,

Reginald McKenna Reginald McKenna (6 July 1863 – 6 September 1943) was a British banker and Liberal politician. His first Cabinet post under Henry Campbell-Bannerman was as President of the Board of Education, after which he served as First Lord of the Admir ...

, the chairman of

Midland Bank Midland Bank Plc was one of the Big Four banking groups in the United Kingdom for most of the 20th century. It is now part of HSBC. The bank was founded as the Birmingham and Midland Bank in Union Street, Birmingham, England in August 1836. It ...

, and formerly

Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national s ...

and Chancellor of the Exchequer under Asquith, was married to Pamela Jekyll, the niece of Frances Horner. In 1924, the Horners agreed to let Mells Park to them for a nominal rent, on the understanding that the McKennas would rebuild the house. The McKennas had commissioned Lutyens before, in 1911, to build their

town house A townhouse, townhome, town house, or town home, is a type of terraced housing. A modern townhouse is often one with a small footprint on multiple floors. In a different British usage, the term originally referred to any type of city residence ...

at 36

Smith Square Smith Square is a square in Westminster, London, 250 metres south-southwest of the Palace of Westminster. Most of its garden interior is filled by St John's, Smith Square, a Baroque surplus church, which has inside converted to a concert hall ...

, London. Lutyens rebuilt Park House in neoclassical style in 1925. He built a two-storey,

hip-roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...

ed house in Bath stone, on the outline of the previous building, and joined it onto the surviving arcaded service court. The new main range has seven bays along the south and north

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Ver ...

s and four along each side, with

Doric Doric may refer to: * Doric, of or relating to the Dorians of ancient Greece ** Doric Greek, the dialects of the Dorians * Doric order, a style of ancient Greek architecture * Doric mode, a synonym of Dorian mode * Doric dialect (Scotland) * Doric ...

pilasters. Around 1926, Lutyens also designed gardens around the house, in collaboration with garden designer Gertrude Jekyll, who was another aunt of Pamela McKenna. The family sold Mells Park in 1939, following the death of Sir John Horner in 1927. The McKennas had already left Mells Park, for Halnaker, Sussex, where they commissioned Lutyens to build another country house. This was Halnaker Park, built in 1938.

South African negotiations

Mells Park was later owned by the South African mining company

Consolidated Gold Fields Consolidated Gold Fields was a British gold-mining company. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index until it was acquired by Hanson in 1988. History Consolidated Gold Fields of South Africa was fou ...

. In the late 1980s the company provided Park House as the venue for secret negotiations between

Thabo Mbeki Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki KStJ (; born 18 June 1942) is a South African politician who was the second president of South Africa from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008, when he resigned at the request of his party, the African National Congress (ANC ...

of the

, who was later the President of South Africa, and representatives of the then-governing National Party. The talks, which lasted from 1987 till the time of Nelson Mandela's release in 1990, were depicted in the 2009 film ''

Endgame Endgame, Endgames, End Game, End Games, or similar variations may refer to: Film * ''The End of the Game'' (1919 film) * ''The End of the Game'' (1975 film), short documentary U.S. film * ''Endgame'' (1983 film), 1983 Italian post-apocalyptic f ...

''.

In literature

Mells Park appears as "Falls Park" in Thomas Hardy's short story "The First Countess of Wessex", in the 1891 collection ''

A Group of Noble Dames ''A Group of Noble Dames'' is an 1891 collection of short stories written by English author Thomas Hardy. The stories are contained by a frame narrative in which ten members of a club each tell one story about a noble dame in the 17th or 18th cent ...

''. In 1983, Mells Park was used as the filming location for the ITV television series

Robin of Sherwood ''Robin of Sherwood'' is a British television series, based on the legend of Robin Hood. Created by Richard Carpenter, it was produced by HTV in association with Goldcrest, and ran from 28 April 1984 to 28 June 1986 on the ITV network. In th ...

. In the programme, it doubled for Loxley Village, where Robin originally came from.

Notes

References

* * * *

External links

Official website
{{coord, 51, 14, 12, N, 2, 24, 44, W, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Neoclassical architecture in England Grade II* listed buildings in Mendip District Grade II* listed houses in Somerset Country houses in Somerset Houses completed in 1925 Works of Edwin Lutyens in England Grade II listed parks and gardens in Somerset Gardens in Somerset Gardens by Gertrude Jekyll Mells, Somerset