Ormeley Lodge - History

History

The house was built on the site of a former cottage in about 1715 by Thomas Hammond, son of a wealthy landowner from Teddington. At about the same time John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll began establishing the neighbouring Sudbrook Lodge and estate. Charles Townshend, second husband to Caroline, one of Campbell's four daughters, bought Ormeley Lodge in 1763 as a country retreat and they lived there until 1767, moving to Sudbrook Lodge on the death of the Dowager Duchess of Argyll.

A claim that the house was the honeymoon destination of George, Prince of Wales and Maria Fitzherbert on 15 December 1785, following their secret marriage, has not been substantiated.

Between 1814 and 1819 the house was one of the homes of Sir John Sinclair, President of the Board of Agriculture and whose fourth daughter, Catherine Sinclair, was a notable writer of children's fiction. In 1817 a footpath was built from the Petersham Road passing in front of the Lodge and leading to Ham Gate Lodge at the entrance to Richmond Park. Named Barnard's Footpath after its benefactor, it was known as Park Road by 1861 and was renamed Ham Gate Avenue in 1945.

The house was bought in 1893 by Charles Hanbury-Tracy, 4th Baron Sudeley and his wife, Ada, daughter of Frederick Tollemache, living there until Charles' death in 1922. Their youngest son, Felix, killed in action in 1914 is commemorated on a memorial in nearby St Andrew's Church, Ham. Their second son Algernon died in 1915 and is buried at St Peter's Church, Petersham.

The house's link to the Earls of Dysart, to whom Townshend, Sinclair and Hanbury-Tracy had all been connected by marriage, was broken in 1949 when the Tollemache family auctioned the Ham estates. Ormeley Lodge was purchased by antique dealer, Ronald Lee. Lee held a loan exhibition entitled Masterpieces of British Art and Craftsmanship in the house in 1954, which was attended by The Queen Mother. Later that year Lee sold the house to the Earl of Westmorland and in 1964 it was sold to Lord and Lady Howard de Walden.

Ormeley Lodge was subsequently purchased by Sir James Goldsmith in the mid-1970s, and, with Lady Annabel Goldsmith, it became home for their family of five children, the elder three from Annabel's first marriage; Rupert, Robin and India, Jemima and Zac, and a sixth, Ben, being born after the move.