Wrotham Park

Wrotham Park
Entrance to Wrotham Park
location within Hertfordshire
General information
Type	English country house
Architectural style	Neo-Palladian
Town or city	Hertsmere, Hertfordshire
Country	England
Completed	1754
Destroyed	1883 (fire)
Owner	Robert Byng
Grounds	2,500 acres
Design and construction
Architect	Isaac Ware
Other information
Number of rooms	18 bedrooms
Website
wrothampark.com

Wrotham Park (pronounced "Rootam") is a neo-Palladian English country house in Hertsmere, Hertfordshire, designed by Isaac Ware in 1754 for Admiral John Byng, the fourth son of Admiral Sir George Byng. It remains in the family at the heart of a 2,500-acre (10 km²) estate 17 miles (27 km) from Hyde Park Corner. It is one of the largest private houses inside the M25 motorway. Its distinctive exterior has been used over 60 times as a filming location.

Originally part of an estate known as Pinchbank (also Birchbank), first recorded in Middlesex in 1310 and owned in the 17th and early 18th centuries by the Howkins family, the property passed to Thomas Reynolds, a director of the South Sea Company, who renamed the estate Strangeways. His son, Francis, sold the property to Admiral John Byng who had the house rebuilt by Isaac Ware in 1754.

Admiral John Byng changed the name of the house to Wrotham Park in honour of the original family home in Wrotham, Kent. Byng never had an opportunity to live in retirement at Wrotham. Following his inadequately equipped expedition to relieve Minorca from the French during the Seven Years' War, he was court martialled and executed in 1757. This event was satirised by Voltaire in his novel Candide. In Portsmouth, Candide witnesses the execution of an officer by firing squad; and is told that "in this country, it is wise to kill an admiral from time to time to encourage the others" (pour encourager les autres).

The house was inherited by John Byng, 1st Earl of Strafford in 1847 and passed to his son, George Byng, 2nd Earl of Strafford, on the first earl's death in 1860. A disastrous fire in 1883 burned slowly enough to permit retrieval of the contents of the house, but gutted it. The house was rebuilt exactly as it was and still remains in the hands of the Byng family.