Hatchlands Park is a Georgian country house at East Clandon, near Guildford in Surrey, built in 1756 for Admiral Edward Boscawen and decorated inside with Robert Adam’s earliest English interiors. Cared for by the National Trust, it is home to the Cobbe Collection of keyboard instruments played by famous composers and sits in more than 400 acres of parkland and woodland, with free parking off the A246.
- History of Hatchlands Park
- Visiting Hatchlands Park: Practical Information
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Nearby Chronicle Trails Guides
History of Hatchlands Park
Chertsey Abbey and the First Owners of Hatchlands
Chertsey Abbey, the Benedictine monastery, once owned the land on which Hatchlands Park stands, according to the National Trust. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s, the property passed to Sir Anthony Browne, a friend of Henry VIII, and his wife Lady Elizabeth Fitzgerald, who built a manor house probably close to the present building. The National Trust records that Elizabeth’s niece Douglas Fitzgerald inherited it in 1590, and that her descendants, the Aungier family, kept it as one of their English homes for the next century.
Historic England’s register entry for the park notes that a small park had been created around the house by 1693. The National Trust records that local politician Sir Richard Heath owned Hatchlands from 1704, that the brewer and MP John Raymond bought it in 1739, and that Raymond sold it to the Boscawen family a decade later.
Admiral Boscawen and the House of 1756
Admiral Edward Boscawen (1711–61) and his wife Frances built the present house in 1756, according to the National Trust; Historic England’s listing dates it to 1756–7. The architect Stiff Leadbetter replaced the old Tudor house with a fashionable red-brick mansion. Boscawen had won notable victories against the French in the Seven Years’ War, and Frances wrote that he built the house “at the expense of the enemies of his country”.
The National Trust also records a darker part of the household’s story. In 1748 an officer who served under Boscawen gave the couple an enslaved boy of about ten, whom they named Tom Pride. Frances mentions him in her letters, but what happened to him later is unknown. After the admiral died in 1761, Frances spent most of her time in London among the Blue-Stocking circle, and she sold Hatchlands in 1770.
Robert Adam’s First English Interiors at Hatchlands
Robert Adam designed the interiors at Hatchlands, which the National Trust describes as his earliest English interior commission. Historic England’s listing dates his work to 1759 and describes it as his earliest dated work. Adam did not design the house itself: its architect was Stiff Leadbetter, and Adam’s contribution was the decoration inside, including the ceilings and fireplaces the National Trust highlights today.
Humphry Repton and the Sumner Family
William Brightwell Sumner bought Hatchlands in 1770 with a fortune made in India, the National Trust records. He had worked for the East India Company and served as deputy to Robert Clive in Bengal, where he profited from large bribes, a fact Clive later made public. His son, the politician George Holme Sumner, commissioned Joseph Bonomi to improve the house; Historic England’s listing dates Bonomi’s alterations to the west front and staircase to 1797.
George Holme Sumner also brought in the landscape designer Humphry Repton. The National Trust says the parkland visitors see today is largely Repton’s creation, recorded in one of his Red Book proposals, which Historic England’s register dates to 1800. Repton recommended planting a screen of trees along the Epsom Road so the house would read as a gentleman’s residence set in its own park rather than a big red house beside a main road.
Lord Rendel, Gertrude Jekyll and the Music Room
Stuart Rendel, the industrialist and Liberal MP, bought Hatchlands in 1888 and was made Lord Rendel of Hatchlands in 1895, according to Historic England. His nephew Halsey Ricardo moved the main entrance to the east front and designed the stable block and service buildings. Historic England’s listing records that Sir Reginald Blomfield added the music room to the north end of the west front in 1903, and the National Trust notes that Gertrude Jekyll created a formal garden that partly survives on the south terrace.
Rendel’s grandson, the architect Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendel, inherited Hatchlands in 1913. The National Trust records that he was president of the Royal Institute of British Architects from 1937 to 1939, designed the two lodges at the park’s east entrance and modelled their wrought-iron gates on those at Clandon Park. He gave Hatchlands to the National Trust in 1945 and lived in the house until his death in 1959.
The Cobbe Collection at Hatchlands Park
The Cobbe Collection has been at Hatchlands since Alec and Isabel Cobbe came to live there with their family in 1987, the National Trust records. Alec Cobbe, an Irish designer, artist and collector, died in March 2026. The National Trust describes the collection’s more than 40 keyboard instruments as one of the largest groups of composer-related instruments in the world, with eighteen owned or played by figures including JC Bach, Mozart, Elgar and Chopin.
Two instruments stand out. The grand pianoforte in the saloon was built by Pleyel in 1848 for Chopin, who used it for his last performance in Paris that February and then brought it to London; the National Trust notes that he called it his own piano in his letters. Elgar’s 1845 Broadwood square piano is inscribed on its soundboard with the works he composed on it, and the National Trust records that the Enigma Variations were both begun and finished at its keys.
Visiting Hatchlands Park: Practical Information
Address: East Clandon, Guildford, Surrey, GU4 7RT.
Park walks and car park: 10:00–17:00 on open days. Last entry to the estate is 30 minutes before closing.
Café and bookshop: 10:00–16:30 on open days.
House: The six ground-floor rooms open from 1 March to 30 October, every day except Saturdays, 12:00–16:00. Over Christmas (28 November to 3 January, closed 24 and 25 December) the house opens 11:00–15:00.
Admission (whole property, without Gift Aid / with Gift Aid): Adult (18+) £14.00 / £15.40. Child (5–17) £7.00 / £7.70; under-5s free. Family (2 adults, up to 3 children) £35.00 / £38.50. One adult and up to 3 children £21.00 / £23.10.
National Trust members: Free.
Managing body: National Trust.
By car: On the A246 Epsom Road, about 4.5 miles from Guildford town centre. The postcode can send sat navs to the delivery entrance, so search for “National Trust Hatchlands Park” or use what3words ///dinner.shins.phones for the car park entrance.
Parking: Free, 275 yards from the house. Six electric vehicle chargers are available during opening hours; bring your own cable.
By train: Clandon station is about 2.5 miles away, roughly a 45-minute walk partly along a busy main road. Horsley station is about 4 miles away. Neither has a taxi rank.
By bus: Services 463, 478 and 479 stop on the A246 near the entrance. The road has no formal crossing points and a 50mph limit, so take care.
Accessibility: Eight Blue Badge spaces near visitor reception, a ramp to the house, an accessible toilet in the cobbled courtyard and a staff-driven buggy from the car park to the house. Tramper mobility scooters and all-terrain wheelchairs can be borrowed free; book ahead. The park is uneven in places, with hard-surfaced routes available.
Dogs: Welcome under close control in designated parkland areas, on a lead around livestock, and on leads in both cafés. Only assistance dogs are allowed in the house, formal gardens and children’s natural adventure area.
Livestock: Sheep and cattle graze the parkland from spring until autumn, often behind low-voltage electric fences.
Walks: The Long Walk is a 2.8-mile circuit around the edge of the park; the Wix Wood walk is a 1.8-mile circuit past the children’s adventure area.
Families: A natural play area in the woods with balance beams, stepping stones, willow domes and a tree house, plus resident donkeys.
Food: The Kitchen Café and Coach House café sit in the cobbled courtyard, alongside the Engine Room second-hand bookshop.
Don’t miss: The Georgian ice house (exterior only) and the 18th-century stone temple in the garden, which Historic England records was moved here from Busbridge Hall in 1953.
Prices last checked: October 2026
Opening hours last checked: October 2026
Full details are on the National Trust’s Hatchlands Park page.
Where to book: National Trust: Hatchlands Park prices and admission.
Frequently Asked Questions
The park walks and car park open 10:00–17:00 and the café 10:00–16:30, with last entry 30 minutes before closing. The house’s six ground-floor rooms open from 1 March to 30 October, every day except Saturdays, 12:00–16:00.
Adult admission is £14.00 without Gift Aid or £15.40 with it, and a child (5–17) costs £7.00 or £7.70. Under-5s and National Trust members go free, and there is no parking charge.
No, not the building itself. The house was designed by Stiff Leadbetter for Admiral Boscawen; Robert Adam designed its interiors, which Historic England describes as his earliest dated work.
Yes, there is a natural play area set in woodland, with balance beams, stepping stones, willow domes, a bug burrow and a tree house. The Wix Wood walk passes it.
Yes, well-behaved dogs under close control are welcome in designated parkland areas, on a lead around livestock. Only assistance dogs are allowed in the house, formal gardens and children’s natural adventure area.
The National Trust publishes two circular routes: the 2.8-mile Long Walk around the edge of the park and the 1.8-mile Wix Wood walk across the estate. Both pass through woodland and open parkland with views of the house.
Yes, the Kitchen Café and Coach House café in the cobbled courtyard serve drinks, cakes, snacks and light lunches. Dogs on leads are welcome in both.
Nearby Chronicle Trails Guides
For more of Surrey, Watts Gallery in Compton tells the story of a Victorian artists’ village, Winkworth Arboretum near Godalming blazes with colour every autumn, and Waverley Abbey near Farnham was Britain’s first Cistercian monastery. Browse more Castles & Historic Attractions guides or visit the England hub.
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