Wokefield Park

Wokefield Park
Location within Berkshire
General information
Address	Goodboys Lane Mortimer Reading Berkshire RG7 3AE
Coordinates	51°23′10″N 1°2′0″W / 51.38611°N 1.03333°W / 51.38611; -1.03333
Design and construction
Architect	Sir John Soane

Wokefield Park, now branded as De Vere Wokefield Estate is an 18th-century country house, situated in the parish of Wokefield, near Mortimer, in the English county of Berkshire. It is currently run as an events venue.

Wokefield park was first mentioned in 1319 as a deer park.

The first house at Wokefield was built in the 1560s for Edmund Plowden; it is likely that the present vaulted cellars date from this time. At this time the house was alternatively known as Oakfield Park. The estate passed through the Powden family until Edmund's grandson Francis sold it to the Weaver family in 1627. Through marriage, the estate passed from the Weaver family to the Pearces (in the late 17th century) then to the Parry family (in the early 18th century). Charles Parry rebuilt the house in the 1720s in a similar design to that of Kinlet Hall in Shropshire. Parry's house is the current mansion.

Wokefield Park was sold in 1742 to Henry Paget, 1st Earl of Uxbridge. The Earl's grandson, Henry Paget, 2nd Earl of Uxbridge, inherited the estate before selling it to Bernard Brocas (of nearby Beaurepaire) before the latter's death in 1777. Around this time, John Rocque's map of Berkshire shows that the estate was landscaped with avenues, woodland and water.

At the request of the Brocas family, Sir John Soane made alterations in the early 19th century onwards. In 1839 the estate was put up for sale after the death of Bernard Brocas's grandson, also named Bernard. The house and grounds were purchased by Robert Allfrey (1809–75) who had inherited his fortune from his father's stake in the Meux and Reid Brewery in London. Upon Allfrey's death in 1875, his £400,000 estate (equivalent to £33,984,000 in 2015) passed through the family until it was sold at the turn of the century to Alfred Palmer of Huntley & Palmers. Palmer undertook a complete renovations of the house's interior, adding Adamesque plasterwork and a wooden staircase screened by Ionic columns.