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Ponsbourne or rather Pumelsburne are two of the innumerable spellings first mentioned in a legal deed of 1229. It is the stream which is referred to, as the Ponsbourne drains Tylers Causeway and falls sharply before entering the park, to which it has given it's name, and joins the Cuffley Brook near the Railway Line.
In 1251 Robert Forester paid 7 shillings and 9 pence for 23¼ acres of land in Newgate Street. Documents of 1292 and 1293 show William, son of Robert de Forester as holding 40 acres of arable land, 2 of meadow, 3 of woodland and other property.
What happened to the manor between this date and its purchase by Sir John Fortescue in 1447 is far from clear.
Sir John Fortescue was knighted by Henry VI for his part in the War of the Roses. When Sir John died the estate was passed on to his son, John, who died at an early age in 1538. The estate then passed on to his infant son.
In 1538 Ponsbourne was sold to Sir Thomas Seymour.
Seymour married Catherine Parr, the widow of Henry VIII and took up residence at Ponsbourne in 1547.
Descendants of the Stode family held the manor from 1738 to 1761 when it was sold to Lawrence Sullivan for £13,590.
He pulled down the manor house as it was rapidly decaying and erected a second manor house on higher ground above the brook.
In 1811 William Busk purchased the manor. He sold it to his brother Jacob in 1819 and he then sold it to Wyn Ellis in 1836.Ellis sold Ponsbourne to William Carlile just before his death.
Carlile demolished the second house and erected the present house on old foundations. It appears that James Carlile decided to stay at Ponsbourne. In 1892 his first wife died and when he remarried he decided to build a dower house and was finished in 1897 and is now known as Ponsbourne Manor. In 1906 the estate was sold to his nephew Sir Hildred Carlile and James retired to the dower house, where he died in 1909.
In 1932, the manor was leased to the Roman Catholic Church as a Convent Church School, known as St. Dominics Priory.
In the mid 1960's it was sold again to be used a non-residential Country Club. In the 1970's it was sold to be used as a Country House Hotel until Tesco bought it in 1987 for use as a Management Training Centre run on the basis of a hotel. In 1990 a second bedroom block was built adjacent to the house.
The estate totals 203 acres with a mini golf course, tennis courts and swimming pool. It is set in some of the best wooded countryside in Hertfordshire. |
