He had already commissioned a new stable block and associated buildings as well as estate cottages from his friend the architect George Devey,(3) and appears to have added a tower and a new bay to the South East side of the existing house,(4) but it clearly left him dissatisfied, because he then commissioned an entirely new Elizabethan style mansion on a rise to the North of the old house.(5) He had also been improving and ornamenting his newly inherited estate with substantial tree planting around the new site – during which he unearthed human remains and reburied them under a stone pyramid (6) – so what was more logical than to consider other ways of enhancing the attractiveness of his property? having naturally fallen into a decayed state.”(2).įig 2 – An 1839 print of the building subsequently demolished.įig 3: The new St Albans Court occupied by George Devey in 1878 Since 1519, the Hammond family had lived at what appears to have always been known locally as St Albans, substantially adding to and changing the original fourteenth century hall house built for their tenants by the Abbey of St Albans in Hertfordshire, owners of the ancient Saxon estate since 1097.(1) William Oxenden Hammond – see Fig 1 – formerly a soldier and now a successful banker, in 1875 wrote in the diary called ‘ MSS Family Histories’ that he had consulted his brothers and “…decided to rebuild a new mansion (see Fig 3), the old one. (An edited version of this article is in Archaeologia Cantiana 138 2017 291-299) A PULHAM GARDEN REDISCOVERED IN NONINGTON, KENT. I am greatly indebted to Peter Hobbs, the current owner of St Albans Court, for permission to publish an article that he has written based on his research into the history of his gardens.
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