Serendipity The Dogmersfield 'Loop'

When Joseph Parker came to survey a route for the Basingstoke Canal it was not the contour lines that caused him to take the waterway in a great loop round Dogmersfield, but the owner of the prestigious Dogmersfield House which pre-dates the canal by 700 years. There was no question of cutting the canal through the park but to follow the northern perimeter. Mentioned in the Domesday Book in 1086, 'Doccemere feld' (Water lilies-in-the-lake) was the site of the original building, a medieval palace for the Bishops of Bath and Wells. It remained an ecclesiastical residence for 400 years until becoming a Crown property in the reign of Henry VIII. Henry's son Edward VI gave it to Lord Wriothsley, the first Earl of Southampton in the 16th century. The house was sold by the third Earl and passed through a number of different yeoman families.   In 1728, some 50 years before the canal was envisaged, the first Baronet St John built a new manor house. It was enlarged by his son, Sir Henry Mildmay, and remained in the family until 1933. During the second World War the house accommodated Dutch and Polish airmen. It became Reed's School for girls; a seminary for Spanish priests and finally Daneshill Preparatory School. 19th century engraving by Thomas Neale

In 1981 Dogmersfield House was destroyed by fire. Appropriately for the 20th century, an international computer company, Amdahl, rebuilt it.   The restored and extended house was re-opened by the Princess Royal in 1986. (based on an article in BC News 141, September 1988) BACK

Last updated June 2000