Trafalgar Park was originally known as Standlynch Park when it was built for Sir Peter Vandeput in 1733 to designs by John James of Greenwich.
In 1766 wings were added to the house by John Wood the younger of Bath thereby creating a substantial residence.
The house was renamed 'Trafalgar' when the estate was acquired by Act of Parliament and given to the brother of Admiral Nelson after his death in 1805 to commemorate the great Battle and as a lasting tribute to his heirs.
Successive Earl Nelsons lived at Trafalgar Park until 1948 when the estate was sold. The house and parkland have now been transferred to the Trafalgar Park Trust and there are plans to restore the main house and wings combined with the idea of creating an auditorium with facilities that will help and sponser the next generation of professional musicians - Trafalgar will become a springboard for aspiring young professionals and also for the enjoyment of the regional community.
Whilst these plans are being formulated the house and parkland (including its stable block and small church built in 1677) make an ideal comprehensive location for filming and photography work.
The current owner, Michael Wade, acquired the property in 1995, by which time it was very jaded.
He has already made considerable inroads into the restoration, but there is much still to do. It is fascinating to visit an important house, such as Trafalgar Park, when it is in the process of restoration, to see what has been done and what plans there are for the future. This is a private house which is not open to the public.
THE NELSONS OF TRAFALGAR HOUSE
We now turn to the family of Viscount Horatio Nelson, the victor at the Battle of Trafalgar. He was killed during the battle which historians see as the climax of a long and successful campaign at sea to contain Napoleon and which his contemporaries saw as a triumphal reversal of years of humiliation at hands of the French dictator.
A year after the battle a grateful nation had endowed the Nelson family with £90,000, [late 1990's value: £2,000,000] used to buy Standlynch House and estate under another Act of 1814, and a perpetual pension of £5,000[£150,000p.a. today].
The Nelson Earldom passed to Thomas Bolton, the nephew of the first Earl, Nelson's elder brother William, and son of Nelson's sister Susannah.
Bolton changed his name to Nelson on succeeding. He was married to Frances Eyre who in turn was descended from Maurice Bockland and his wife, Joan Penruddock. The Nelsons, therefore, had family links with their new home that went back three and a half centuries.THE LONG CONNECTION ENDS
The Nelson family retained Trafalgar House and over 3,000 acres until the middle of the 20th century when they too left.
A snippet from the 1901 Census
A303 STONEHENGE IMPROVEMENTS INQUIRIES
held at
Cross Keys House
Salisbury
on
Tuesday, 30 March 2004
Before:
THE INSPECTOR
( Mr Michael Ellison MA (Oxford )
THE ASSISTANT INSPECTOR
( Mr Clive COCHRANE )
MR WARE: One of the objections I did respond to at page 41 at paragraph 4.1 of the Highways Agency document was the intrusion of tunnel portals. That is where I have introduced the bit about the Nile Clumps, so I can do that now or later on?
THE INSPECTOR: That is fine.
MR WARE: This is what I have written. Since writing AMS/1/2 additional evidence has come into my possession as the author of that. On the eastern side of the ridge, there were planted clumps of trees early in the nineteenth century to represent the position of the ships engaged in the 1798 battle at Abu-Kir Bay (the spelling is variable) with the tree line at the new King Barrows used to represent the Abu-kir peninsular in Bequire Island. These “ships” are clearly shown on both the Dodd map and the War Office Ordnance Survey Map of 1931 (both part of AMS1/3) and are also shown on a map by Benjamin Baker, who from information provided by the Devizes Museum was mapping Wiltshire from 1806 to 1811.
Although this is not overwhelming proof, there is strong evidence from a local amateur historian published as part of a personal history of Amesbury, also part of AMS/1/3, (the family refused to release the original manuscript) in which Captain Thomas Masterman Hardy supervised the location of these clumps. This is quite possible for (1) William, 4 th Duke of Queensbury, was an admiral in his own right and Hardy could well have been a house guest; (2) Emma, Lady Hamilton, was living in or near Winterslow while Nelson lived in the now called Trafalgar House -
THE INSPECTOR: Just bear with me for a second. Could you please speak more directly into the microphone.
MR WARE: Emma, Lady Hamilton, was living in or near Winterslow while Nelson lived in the now-called Trafalgar House about eight miles from Winterslow on the edge of the New Forest (presented by a grateful nation); as stated by the Maritime Museum, it would take somebody with a unique knowledge of this battle to be able accurately to position these clumps to correspond with the battle locations of the ships, including HMS Culloden being aground. It is further my understanding that the Duke of Queensbury paid the fare for Lady Hamilton and her daughter to move to Calais (where she died in 1815) after the death of Nelson to escape her creditors and almost certain incarceration in Newgate Prison. In fact, we have learnt afterwards from another book that her fare to Calais was paid by an Alderman Joshua Smith. The Duke took her into his house when she was bankrupt and in very poor health. So, that I am afraid is not quite accurate. So it is suggested that these clumps form a unique memorial to an extremely important part of modern history and in their own right are as important as that on the other side of the ridge. That is New King Barrow Ridge, of course. Over the years many of these ships have been sunk or more recently allowed to rot at their moorings and only a vestige of the fleets remain. If a large construction such as a tunnel mouth were to be constructed anywhere in this area it would be totally out of keeping with the character of these clumps and should not be allowed anywhere on the east side of the ridge. Instead, every effort should be made to complement the work of Mr Morrison when farming Countess Farm who worked for many years planting and replanting the clumps which now grace that farm and every effort should be made together with adequate funds to enable the other ships to be “refloated” in or as near as possible to their original positions.
Sir, that is what I should like to say about the Nile Clumps.
