Difference between revisions of "MRP: Carshalton"

Revision as of 23:56, December 5, 2011

Carshalton, Surrey

Editorial history

THIS ENTRY IS IN PREPARATION

Sir Edmund Hoskins in Carshalton

In 1655 Edmund Hoskins purchased a mansion or manor house in Carshalton, Surrey, called Mascalls. The mansion predated 1543, with a recent article in London Archaeology suggesting the manor house dated originally from the fourteenth centuy (ca. 1300-1350).^[1] However, the article was unable to determine whether there was building continuity between this late medieval building and the building acquired in 1655 by Edmond Hoskins. Other nineteenth century topographical sources state that Mascalls was later renamed Carshalton Park House. There is no surviving image of Mascalls from the sixteenth, seventeenth or eighteenth centuries. A watercolour of "Carshalton Park, seat of George Taylor, Esq." by John Hassell dated 1822 is in the Surrey History Centre archives, but it is unclear whether this is a heavily modified Mascalls, or a new building, possibly on a slightly different site. The ambitious building plans of Sir William Scawen, who had purchased Mascalls from Sir Edmund Hoskins’ son John Hoskins, did not come to fruition. Scawen himself had multiple buildings in Carshalton, and used Stone Court as his main residence, rather than the manor house.

An extensive review of textual, map and visual evidence of habitation on the mansion house site was published in the London Archaeologist,^[2] The review locates the site of the mansion house near the intersection of the modern North Street, running north-south, and the modern Mill Lane, running west-east. The review notes that the main manor of Carshalton is generally accepted to have been owned by the Carew family in the fifteenth and sixteenth century. The manor was divided into two moieties in 1580, with one sold to the Burton family and the other to Walter Cole. Walter Cole's holdings included the manor house, together with ten and a half acres of non-contiguous fields. The Cole holdings were sold to the Trustees of the Countess of Arundel, ca. (18 James I), and were sold on by the Arundel trustees in 1655 to Edmond Hoskins. The review authors note that Edmond Hoskins paid hearth taxes for eighteen hearths and had a further eight untaxed hearths in two additional houses in the Carshalton area. The authors suggest that Sir William Scawen and subsequent owners in the eighteenth century continued to amass land, with the building eventually being named Samuel Long's house. Interestingly, they assert that the building was demolished in 1822. They supply an engraving of 'the seat of Samuel Long Esq.' from the topographer James Edward (1790), stating that the building, together with a further building of a Mr. Andrews, had formerly belonged to Sir William Scawen.^[3] This engraving does not ressemble John Hassell's watercolour of 'Carshalton Park, seat of George Taylor, Esq.', which is dated 1822 in pencil.^[4]

The mansion house is identified as such on an estate map of 1790. To the north and east of the house were a series of fields - Hither Home Close, Further Home Close, Old Barn Field, Dog Kennel Field, Stack Field, Barr Field, New Field, Dewberry Field, Cornered Fields, Curds Close, and part of Sheppards Close.^[5]

By 1907 the estate associated with Mascalls was in the order of 150 acres according to the Home Counties magazine, writing of the house and land as it was in 1907.^[6]

Aubrey described the house of Sir William Scawen as it was in 1718. However, it is possible that this is not the building acquired from John Hoskins.

“Near the church stands a handsome old house belonging to Sir William Scawen, and behind it a fine garden, adorned with fish-ponds and reservoirs of water, also a long and pleasant walk of orange and lime trees, and a wilderness.”^[7]

Carshalton met the approval of John Evelyn, who recorded in his diary entry for September 27, 1658 his visit to Carshalton.

“excellently watered, and capable of being made a most delivious seate, being on the sweet downes, and a ‘champion’ about it, full planted with walnut and cherry trees, which afford a considerable rent.”^[8]

Daniel Defoe visited Carshalton some sixty-five years after Evelyn and found a prosperous county village with some distinctly upmarket homes

"...a county village situate amongst innumerable springs of water which all together form a river in the very street of the town...crowded by the houses of the citizens of London, some of which are built with such a profession of expense, that they look rather like seats of the nobility, than the county houses of citizens and merchants, particularly those of Sir William Scawen, lately deceased..."^[9]

An engraving by William Ellis, dated 1806, reproduced below, shows Carshalton ponds.^[10]

Elizabeth Dalyson wrote in a letter to her brother Sir George Oxenden that she had been invited by Elizabeth and Sir Edmund to spend a month at their Carshalton house with them.^[11]

1. ↑ London Archaeology (2004, Spring)
2. ↑ London Archaeology (2004, Spring)
3. ↑ James Edward, XXXX
4. ↑ Surrey History Centre, XXXX
5. ↑ This is the footnote text
6. ↑ Home Counties magazine, issue ? (XXXX, 1907, p. ?
7. ↑ John Aubrey, XXXX
8. ↑ John Evelyn, XXXX
9. ↑ Daniel Defoe, XXXX
10. ↑ William Ellis, XXXX
11. ↑ This is the footnote text