Woodhall Park
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| Woodhall Park | |
|---|---|
 West front of Heath Mount School | |
 Interactive map of the Woodhall Park area | |
| General information | |
| Architectural style | Palladian |
| Location | Watton-at-Stone, England |
Listed Building – Grade I | |
| Official name | Woodhall Park (Heath Mount School) |
| Designated | 1952 |
| Reference no. | 1031363[1] |
| Coordinates | 51°51′11″N 0°05′23″W / 51.85293°N 0.08984°W |
| Construction started | 1770s |
| Completed | 1780s and later extensions |
| Client | Thomas Rumbold |
| Technical details | |
| Structural system | brick; limited use of Coade stone and Portland stone |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Thomas Leverton |
Woodhall Park is a Grade I listed[1] country house near Watton-at-Stone, Hertfordshire, England. The 18th century neo-classical building is set in a walled park in the Beane valley. It has been the home of Heath Mount School since the 1930s.
Thomas Rumbold, who was later made a baronet, acquired the Woodhall estate using the fortune he had made in India. One of his partners at Chittagong, Harry Verelst helped with the financing.[2] The estate and its manor house were originally home to the Butler or Boteler family.[3]
The architect Thomas Leverton was commissioned by Rumbold to design a new house to replace the manor house on a nearby site.[3] Rumbold became Governor of Madras in 1778 and made arrangements for work to continue on the house in his absence, payments being made from his account at Goslings Bank.[4] Suffering from poor health, he returned to England in 1780. The East India Company, unhappy about the Second Anglo-Mysore War, dismissed him the following year. He continued to serve as a Member of Parliament until 1790.
When Rumbold died in 1791, he was, according to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, insolvent.[5] Under the terms of his will, the property was sold to benefit the children of his second marriage. It was acquired by Paul Benfield, who extended the house. His architect is not known.[4] Benfield, who has been described as "perhaps the most notorious of the nabobs",[6] went bankrupt. The estate was bought by Samuel Smith in 1801.
