Category: History

  The most important surviving features of Wanstead Park’s eighteenth century landscape are its lakes. Extensive though they are – totalling some 43 acres in size – they are merely the remnant of a waterscape which was once considerably larger. Of the nine significant water bodies created between 1715 and 1745, only five now survive: […]

A MEDIAEVAL MANOR This is the first in a series of articles giving brief biographical sketches of the people who owned the Wanstead estate over 800 years. Articles about the history of the estate, its buildings and the gardens appear elsewhere on this site. The Domesday survey (c.1086) provides the name of the first identifiable […]

A ROYAL HUNTING PARK This is the second in a series of articles giving brief biographical sketches of the people who owned the Wanstead estate over 800 years. Links are given to sources of additional information on this site and elsewhere. Both Henry VII and his son and successor Henry VIII took a personal interest […]

THE RICH FAMILY This is the third in a series of articles giving brief biographical sketches of the people who owned the Wanstead estate over 800 years. Links are given to sources of additional information on this site and elsewhere. Henry VIII’s last keeper of Wanstead Park was Sir Richard (later Lord) Rich, who was […]

THE EARL AND COUNTESS OF LEICESTER This is the fourth in a series of articles giving brief biographical sketches of the people who owned the Wanstead estate over 800 years. Links are given to sources of additional information on this site and elsewhere. Robert Rich, 2nd Baron Rich (c.1537-1580) was the greatest landlord in Essex […]

THE EARL OF DEVONSHIRE This is the fifth in a series of articles giving brief biographical sketches of the people who owned the Wanstead estate over 800 years. Links are given to sources of additional information on this site and elsewhere. Lord Mountjoy, owner of Wanstead Park from 1598, was a kinsman, probably a cousin, […]

MOUNTJOY BLOUNT TO SIR ROBERT BROOKE This is the sixth in a series of articles giving brief biographical sketches of the people who owned the Wanstead estate over 800 years. Links are given to sources of additional information on this site and elsewhere. Before his death in 1606, the Earl of Devonshire settled the manors […]

  SIR JOSIAH CHILD This is the seventh in a series of articles giving brief biographical sketches of the people who owned the Wanstead estate over 800 years. Links are given to sources of additional information on this site and elsewhere. Sir Josiah Child (1630-1699), 1st Baronet (from 1678), was the second son of a […]

RICHARD, FIRST EARL TYLNEY OF CASTLEMAINE This is the eighth in a series of articles giving brief biographical sketches of the people who owned the Wanstead estate over 800 years. Links are given to sources of additional information on this site and elsewhere. The death of Sir Josiah Child in 1699, and the publication of […]