*Historical* This wonderful 300 year old orangery in the heart of Carshalton, was an outbuilding for a grand palace that was never built. An orangery was a place to grow exotic fruit trees.
The huge main house was planned for Carshalton Park. Paid for by Sir Thomas Scawen and designed by Venician-born architect Giacomo Leoni in 1723. The to-scale image above shows where the house would have been.
The orangery became stables for the smaller Carshalton Park House, shown below, which stood where the road called Brookside now is.
The orangery is currently offices, and in the 80s it was owned by movie star Oliver Reed. You can see the building for yourself. It’s situated on the corner of The Square and Brookside in Carshalton. It’s not clear whether Giacomo Leoni designed the orangery too, but he is attributed to the Leoni Bridge in The Grove.
🗝 Scawen got quite far with his house-building project before the money ran out – he created the main gates, a grotto, an orangery and a huge circular driveway.
A big iron ring! The little-known history of Carshalton’s Mill Lane
Re: The Orangery –
The following link seems to affirm that it was a part of the original ‘old’, ‘Carshalton House’, named ‘Mascalls’ as follows:
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1065628?section=official-list-entry
“It is not at present known what happened to the old house, Mascalls. A possibly new house, with a front of late C18 to early C19 date is shown in a print of 1819. Most of the estate has now been built over, and the iron gates illustrated in Starkie Gardner’s “Ironwork” have been removed to Planting Fields, Oyster Bay, Baltimore, now owned by New York University. The only features surviving apart from the landscape treatment of the Park are this grotto, the former orangery or garden temple in The Square, and sections of the Park Walls.”
The attached photo is of the original ornate frieze that was over the front porch of the orangery (credit:https://www.lazystuff.com/hollywood-legend-oliver-reed-and-the-famous-carshalton-pub-crawl/ )
This frieze can just about be see in the watercolour of Mascalls attached below by unknown artist or date
(credit: https://friendsofhoneywood.co.uk/painted-wandle.html )
It would help if a clearer picture of the frieze comes to light that may show whether or not there are any initials or other insignia in it that could provide clues to when it was built and by whom.
Thus far, the only evidence points to the existance of Mascalls before Sir Edmund Hoskins, Inner Temple, serjeant at law (son ofSir Thomas Hoskyns aka Hoskins: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Hoskyns-42 ), bought it in 1655.
• http://www.marinelives.org/wiki/MRP:_Sir_Edmund_(Edmond)_Hoskins
The following quote is from a really excellent document published in London Archaeologist journal 2004
• https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/library/browse/details.xhtml?recordId=3191142&recordType=Journal
“The early history of the manor and sub-manors of Carshalton is confused and the site of the Manor House has migrated at least once. The main manor of Carshalton is generally accepted to have been owned by the Carews during the 15th and 16th centuries; in 1580 it had been split into two halves or moieties by John St John, a grandson of
Sir Richard Carew, who sold one half to a leading Carshalton family, the Burtons, and the other to Walter Cole. ”
It goes on to say:
“One of the houses shown may have survived until 1724, when Thomas Scawen obtained “… a piece or parcel of land on part of which an old
house wherein two tenements now stand … and abuts east, north and west upon lands of the said Thomas Scawen called the Manor House” from his neighbour John Cator of Stone Court, who had the right to take away the materials of the old house within three months. In the mid-17th century the Arundel property was conveyed to Sir Edmund Hoskins, who in the Hearth Tax returns for Lady Day 1664 paid for 18
hearths, and had 8 other hearths in two empty houses for which he had not paid. Unfortunately it is not possible to differentiate between or
identify the particular houses. 7 Hoskins’ name is replaced by Francis Coventry between 1665 and 1675, who pays for 17 hearths and 6 hearths in two instalments. 8 In 1696 John Hoskins sold this house with his other property to Sir William Scawen for £7,600.”
And that seems to be as much as we can know for now. However, comparing the paintings of ‘Carshalton Park House’ with the photo above, you can see the vase shaped ornamentation on the roof of all three images, but “it is unclear whether this is a heavily modified Mascalls, or a new building, possibly on a slightly different site”
Further to previous post, see attached painting by John Hassell dated 1817, titled ‘Carshalton Park Surrey – Seat of Taylor Esq’. Although we can’t see the side of the house in the Hassell painting, the front is identical in both paintings as opposed to the Coleman house where all the windows are different at the front and at the side where there are bay windows. ‘Mascalls’, the old manor house, was referred to in ‘Natural History and Antiquities of the County of Surrey by John Aubrey originally published in 1719 as:
“a handsome old house …. with behind it a fine garden adorned with reservoirs of water, also a long and pleasant walk of orange and lime trees and a wilderness”.
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Aubrey
Here is more evidence that the original house dates to at least 15th c.
• https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/surrey/vol4/pp178-188#fnn127
“In 1497 Thomas Ellingbridge (son-in-law of Nicholas Gainsford) by his will bequeathed certain land in Nutfield to Carshalton Church for an obit and for alms. (fn. 125) His sister was Joan wife of Henry Burton, (fn. 126) who died in 1524. In 1543 Henry Burton died seised of a mansion called MASCALLS and some land belonging to it in Carshalton. (fn. 127) This messuage was held of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem as of the manor of Clerkenwell, but it is not known how that order obtained property in Carshalton. (fn. 128) Henry’s son Nicholas Burton, who died at the beginning of Elizabeth’s reign, left the property to his wife Ellen with reversion to his son Richard. (fn. 129) Mary Burton his daughter complained that her mother, who remarried with Ralph Hurlston, had not paid her the legacy to which she was entitled under her father’s will. (fn. 130) Richard Burton made settlement of Mascalls on himself and his wife Anne daughter of Barnard Hampton He died in 1589. (fn. 131) Of his son Sir Henry Burton or of one of his successors Mascalls was purchased by Sir Edmund Hoskins, by whose family in 1696 it was sold to Sir William Scawen, who left it to his nephew Thomas. (fn. 132) The house called Mascalls in Carshalton Park has been mentioned under that manor.” 2 of 2
Thank you for another fascinating article linked to the other that begs questions about whether or not there were two houses built upon this site and when? As for clues, and far as I’m aware, there are only two paintings of ‘Carshalton Park House’ that if they are accurate, indicate that the house may well have been rebuilt in a slightly different place, the first of which was named ‘Mascalls’ and seems to have perfectly aligned with ‘The Orangery’ along Brookside road and was joined to it by an avenue of trees, possibly orange and lemon. If so, it fits with a description of it in ‘London Archaeology’, “suggesting the manor house dated originally from the fourteenth century (ca. 1300-1350).” –
http://www.marinelives.org/wiki/MRP:_Carshalton.
The second or adapted house as described above, was situated nearer the high street. As it is not possible to attach more than one image at a time; I will do so in a second post so that you may compare the paintings with each other and then compare them both with the black and white photograph of the house where Jeremiah Colman was born (above). As you will see, in both paintings, the windows and porch at the front of the house are identical, whereas the photo above finds that although the porch is the same, the windows are not. 1 of 2
love these history spots .. so much to see on a walk round Carshalton Village if you know where to look
I agree, it’s such an historic place to enjoy. Thanks for your feedback.