Libraries and leisure

Panshanger Estate

The original Hertfordshire residence of the Cowper family was Cole Green Park near Hertingfordbury. It was built by Sir William Cowper, later 1st Earl Cowper in 1704 with further additions in c1711. It had magnificent interiors with ceilings painted by Louis Laguerre. This house was demolished by the 5th Earl Cowper about 1801. The photograph above shows the later house around 1910.

Panshanger just to the east of Cole Green was designed by William Atkinson and built by Peter Leopold the 5th Earl Cowper between 1806 and 1809, although he had already begun to improve the park with the help of Humphrey Repton. A fire in 1855 necessitated its rebuilding between 1855 and 1859. After the death of Ettie, Lady Desborough in 1952 it was put up for sale and finally demolished in 1954.

By the end of the nineteenth century the Panshanger estate covered some 662 acres in the parishes of Digswell, Tewin, Welwyn, Hertford, Wheathampstead, Datchworth and Hatfield in Hertfordshire as well as properties in London and elsewhere. In addition to Panshanger it included the mansions of Tewin Water, Marden Hill in Tewin, Digswell House, Hertingfordbury Park and Brocket Hall at Lemsford, Hertfordshire and Wrest Park near Silsoe in Bedfordshire. Francis the 7th Earl Cowper and his wife Katrine (shown above right) had no children. On Katrine’s death in 1913 Panshanger was inherited by her niece Ettie, wife of William Henry Grenfell, Baron Desborough of Taplow Court, Buckinghamshire. Much of the estate was let out to tenants but after the First World War a large part of it was sold including Tewin Water. A large area including Digswell House, and farms at Brickwall and Handside was sold to Ebenezer Howard’s company Second Garden City Ltd in 1919 for the development of Welwyn Garden City.

The image above shows one of Humphry Repton's plans for Panshanger in 1799 which is taken from a book of watercolours showing views of the estate, known as "The Red Book". Humphry Repton (1752 - 1818), was the last great English landscape designer of the eighteenth century, often regarded as the successor to Capability Brown. (Ref D/EP P21)

The Panshanger catalogue can be found under reference D/EP and on the Access to Archives website www.a2a.org.uk