Heroic restorations

Three fine country homes have had new life breathed into them by their determined owners

- Penny Churchill

WRITING in COUNTRY LIFE (May 11, 2000) of Grade I-listed Runnymede Park near Englefield Green, Surrey, the architectural historian John Martin Robinson commented: 'Although many fine country houses were demolished in the aftermath of the Second World War, it is remarkable how many others have been rescued from the brink of demolition or ruin by optimistic and determined owners. Runnymede Park in Surrey is a perfect example of such a heroic rescue.'

Known as Crippsfield in the Middle Ages when it was owned by Chertsey Abbey, Runnymede passed to the Crown at the Dissolution in 1538 and was later acquired by Edmund Hilles, who built a home on lower ground to the south of the present house and owned the estate from 1575 to 1633.

In 1760, John Jebb, Dean of Cashel in Co Tipperary, bought the old house and estate for £1,400. He died in 1787, leaving his property to his son, David, a prosperous flour miller who owned mills at Slane and Drogheda. He had the old house demolished and commissioned Samuel Wyatt to build the present one between 1789 and 1792 on a more elevated site to take advantage of the fine view south-east over Runnymede towards the River Thames and London. By a series of purchases and exchanges, including that of some Crown land in 1807, and the diversion of the nearby main road away from the house, he also established the boundaries of the park-still some 66 acres overall.

David Jebb would have known of the Wyatt brothers Samuel and his younger brother, James-through his Irish and milling connections. James designed Slane Castle for Jebb's Irish business partner, William Conyngham, and Samuel designed and built, in 1783-86, England's first steam-powered flour mill, Albion Mill at Blackfriars, London, a company with which Jebb was also involved.