The site before 1792 The land previously comprised part of a previous estate known as
The Bower, probably named after a family called Atte Boure, who are listed as paying tax to
Edward I in the 1290s, a substantial landholding which included parts of the parishes of
East Grinstead and
Hartfield. Sometime during the 1500s the owners, the Botting family, founded an
iron forge to the east of the ponds in the valley to the south of the current house (coordinates: ). The forge may have been in existence in 1558, when Hugh Botting left "two tons of yron" in his will; it was working in 1653 but ruined by 1664. The dam has been recorded as long. In 1693, a part of the woodland adjoining the
Ashdown Forest was felled to clear the grounds of the former house on the present site. The estate, which is thought to have been part of a
medieval deer park, later passed to other families and in 1766 the owner paid
window tax on forty-one windows, making the Bower the fifth largest out of the 150 taxable residences in East Grinstead. There existed a previous building on the site of what was to become Hammerwood Lodge; foundations and walls in the west of the central block of the current house have been dated to pre-1792, and it would seem likely that this was the principal dwelling of the Bower.
1790s: design and construction In late 1791 or early 1792, John Sperling (1763–1851) is recorded by
Christian Ignatius Latrobe as visiting architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe, his brother, in London.
Pevsner also observed that the columns were "patently inspired by the then very recent work of such men as
Ledoux and
Brongniart". There is some doubt over whether Hammerwood was finished by this point; it is possible that the Sperlings supervised its completion in Latrobe's absence. John Dorrien Magens sold Hammerwood to Oswald Augustus Smith (1826–1902; of
Smith's Bank, later part of
NatWest) in June 1864 for £37,250 (equating to approximately £3.3 million in 2021 pounds), of which £10,000 was for the timber. In 1865, the Smiths contracted
S. S. Teulon with the intention of remodelling the house to their taste. Amongst other more subtle changes to the building, this included raising the attic over the central block to create a low third floor, whilst preserving Latrobe's façade. Work began on 8 May 1865; scholars Snadon and Fazio comment that "Teulon integrated his additions so carefully with the existing fabric that it is difficult at first glance to discern them". The Rev. George Ferris Whidborne (1845–1910) purchased Hammerwood from Oswald Augustus shortly before the latter's death in 1902. The Whidbornes would live at Hammerwood from 1901 to 1921. His eldest son George Ferris Whidborne (1890-1915) was killed in the
First World War; all three sons were at different times awarded the
MC. In 1919, St Andrew's School, the prep school in Tunbridge Wells which the Whidborne children had attended before two of the boys went on to
Monkton Combe School, burned down. St Andrew's moved to Hammerwood whilst new premises were found in Forest Row. Old boys remembered playing cricket against Ashdown House, by now a prep school, on the lawn at Hammerwood. However, in 1918
death duties compelled Margaret Whidborne to sell 843 acres of the estate (almost half of the land). Three years later a further 1,300 acres of farms were sold, the house disposed of and the contents auctioned. Two floors of servants' quarters on the north-east service wing which had been added during the 19th century were demolished. Left with 320 acres of adjoining park and woodland, the name of the estate was changed to
Hammerwood Park; its place as a focal point of local life began to decline.
1921–1982: decline and dereliction In 1921, the remains of the estate – comprising the house and 329 acres of land – were taken up by
Lt. Col. Stephen Hungerford Pollen
CMG (1868–1935) after a career in the
British Army, having been
ADC to Lords
Lansdowne and
Elgin (respective
Viceroys of India), winning medals for service in that country and
South Africa, and serving in the
Tirah Expedition in 1897. His family were the first residents to enjoy an electricity supply and water from the mains. There remained a full complement of twelve indoor staff for the duration of the Pollens' time at Hammerwood, and he contributed the land, and a quarter of the costs, for the building of the Hammerwood and Holtye Hall. It is a strange coincidence that one of Lt. Col. Pollen's ancestors, Richard Pollen, brother of
Sir John Pollen, Bt., married the daughter of S. P. Cockerell, the architect under whom Latrobe studied. In 1973,
Led Zeppelin bought Hammerwood at auction, intending to turn it into a recording studio and flats. Although the house served as a location for
The Song Remains the Same, plans did not progress. Amidst significant vandalism, three tonnes of lead was removed from the roof, compromising it in fourteen places and allowing thousands of gallons of water to flow into the structure. The progression of the rot accelerated as rooves and ceilings collapsed. Hammerwood was boarded up in 1976, and put up for sale in 1978. won the Anne de Amodio award from the International Burgen Institute (now part of
Europa Nostra) in 1984, and a silver medal from the
Société d'Encouragement au Progrès in Paris in 1987. In his ''England's Thousand Best Houses'' (2003),
Simon Jenkins would describe Mr Pinnegar as 'one of those eccentrics without whom half the houses in England would have vanished'. In 1984, the house was given a rare copy of the
Parthenon Frieze made by D. Brucciani & Co., which is displayed in the old kitchens, now known as the
Elgin Room. The
Great Storm of 1987 caused considerable damage.
No. 656 Squadron AAC assisted in a delivery of new roof lead in 1988 using a
Westland Lynx helicopter, in an operation covered by
Blue Peter. Except for a modest contribution by
English Heritage and the
Department of the Environment, private ownership restricted access to heritage grants; the restoration was instead funded almost entirely from visitors, costing more than £140,000 between 1982 and 1989, making it the largest private restoration project in Europe at the time. Works continued into the new millennium and a programme of rolling restoration is ongoing. In 2024, Hammerwood passed to Edward Pinnegar (b. 1996), and his wife, Sophie. ==Hammerwood today==