Talk:Polesden Lacey/Archive 1

Archive 1

Origins of the name

The origins of the name of this house are more complex and interesting than usually described.

In the earliest surviving records the Polesden name, in various spellings, is attached to a site to the west of the present village of West Humble (Westhumble) and a mile or so due east of the present house. The name probably indicating one of a number of clearings along Stane Street settled by a Saxon family named Pol, also in various spellings.

Around 1198 this site, by now a farm, passed to a Norman nobleman, known as Herbert de Polesden, one of a family shown hereafter holding several estates in the County including land around the present house, by then renamed Polesden, which they held from about 1200 until the early 1330's.

In 1202 the estate near Westhumble was gifted to the Prior and Convent of Merton, which held it until the ecclesiastical house was dissolved in 1538. The penultimate Prior was one, John Lacy, and it is following his death in 1530 that we find the Lacy suffix applied to that estate. The application of the suffix to the present estate in 1563 is an obvious error committed by a confused scribe, there being no other record of its use here for some 300 years either before or after that date.

Thus the two similarly named estates co-existed until the 1830's when the remnant of the estate near Westhumble was sold and incorporated into another property, the present estate being called either Bookham Polesden, or High Polesden to distinguish it during this period.

The Lacey suffix was only attached to the present estate following its purchase by Sir Walter Rockcliff Farquhar in 1853, possibly in mimicry of Camilla Lacey, the nearby home of Fanny Burney. 80.189.140.150 (talk) 14:10, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Dawkins

There is an inconsistency in the work of Dawkins: "who commissioned Ambrose Poynter, architect son of Sir Edward Poynter P.R.A., in 1906 to significantly extend Cubitt's work to create the present house. Sir Clinton, however died shortly after its completion." Dawkins had died in 1905 so could not have commissioned Poynter in 1906 and furthermore could not die shortly after the completion of a work that started a year after his death! Either Dawkins commissioned the work prior to 1905, or else Margaret Greville must have been the commissioner after 1906. Martin of Sheffield (talk) 22:18, 12 August 2018 (UTC)

According to the National Trust guide (1988 version - later editions may have more detail), Dawkins commissioned Poynter after acquiring the property in 1902, doesn't give an actual date. It says that Dawkins died before taking up residence, suggesting the work was at least underway by that time. I would suggest deleting the date for the time being. Murgatroyd49 (talk) 08:18, 13 August 2018 (UTC)