Stansted Park

Edwardian country house in Stoughton, England

Stansted Park (including Stansted House) is an Edwardian country house in the parish of Stoughton, West Sussex, England. It is near the city of Chichester, and also the village of Rowlands Castle to the west over the border in Hampshire. The house is set in the park, with woodland and open land grazed by deer. Stansted House has Carolean revival decor and is listed Grade II*. The surrounding area, Stansted Park, is also listed Grade II*. John, Lord Lumley built a house on the site which was visited by Queen Elizabeth on 23 August 1591. Robert Cecil described this house as "fayre, well builte without and not meanly furnished within, but want of water is a greate inconvenience." A new house was built on the present site, starting in 1686, for Richard Lumley, probably to a design by William Talman. The historic listing states that Richard laid out "formal gardens, radiating avenues and parkland on its east side. He probably also cut the central avenue through Stansted Forest to the west". In 1939, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, then the consort of George VI, spent one night here and in 1962, Anne, Princess Royal visited Stansted House and went for a swim.

The chapel was built by Lewis Way in 1812–16, as part of his mission to convert the Jews. It is Grade I listed. It was an inspiration to the poet John Keats when he was writing The Eve of St. Agnes. The church was restored by Harry Stuart Goodhart Rendel in 1926. The Park's web site adds some specifics: "It was consecrated on 25th January 1819 [and] contains a unique East window with Christian/Jewish iconography and Hebrew tablets of the Ten Commandments." During the 1926 restoration, the sanctuary was re decorated, with inspiration from Sainte Chapelle, in Paris. During WW II, the chapel was damaged but it was restored in 1947. For some months in 2020, the chapel was open for "a short service of Prayer", once a month; as of mid January 2021, this service was not being offered. The Park's Web site stated that restoration of the chapel had recently been completed, "supported by a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund", but does not specify the date.

The Stansted Park Light Railway is a 7.25in gauge miniature railway on the grounds of Stansted House. The railway opened on Easter 2005, and is designed to attract more visitors to the House, which is located in a forest near Havant. The railway uses locomotives and carriages designed and built by railway volunteers. The railway is rapidly expanding. The new extension is now complete, and incorporates a 12 foot span girder bridge. A new locomotive shed is also nearly finished.

In June 1741 a cricket between Slindon Cricket Club and Portsmouth Cricket Club was played in the park. It is the earliest report of a match involving the Slindon team. The team's patron Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond, wrote in a letter to his friend Thomas Pelham Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle, that "above 5,000 people" were present. This is the only time that Stansted Park is mentioned in surviving cricket records. The cricket club still plays fixtures during the summer months.