Swallowfield Park

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Swallowfield Park is a stately home and estate in the English county of Berkshire. The house is situated near the village of Swallowfield, some 4 miles south of the town of Reading.

Swallowfield Park was the home of the Backhouse family from the late 16th century, living in a now demolished Tudor mansion. The most famous member of this family was of William Backhouse, the Rosicrucian philosopher. The present house at Swallowfield Park was erected in 1689 by Henry Hyde, 2nd Earl of Clarendon, when he acquired the estate on his marriage to William Bachouse's daughter Flower. The house was the childhood home of Edward Hyde, 3rd Earl of Clarendon.^[1]

In 1777, Thomas 'Diamond' Pitt, the Governor of Fort St. George, bought Swallowfield Park from Edward Hyde, reputedly using part of the proceeds of his sale of the Regent Diamond to Philippe II, Duke of Orléans. Pitt sold the property to John Dodd for £20,000, and it remained in this family till purchased in 1783 by Silvanus Bevan. The sale, at Christie's, lasted seven days and included a large number of magnificent pictures and objets d'art. After a quarrel with a neighbour about shooting rights Bevan sold the property in 1789. The Bevan crest, a griffin still remains over the stone carved mantelpiece in the Hall. By 1825 the house was owned by Sir Henry Russell, British Resident at the court of Hyderabad in India. In 1852 it was inherited by his son, Sir Charles Russell VC. Today the mansion has been converted into retirement apartments.^[1]

The architect of the present house was William Talman. He built an H-shaped house with short projections to the front and more extended ones to the rear. Internally little of his house remains as major changes were made by Sir Henry Russell. The installation of a new staircase during these changes resulted in the removal of a carved cornice made for the Earl of Clarendon by Grinling Gibbons.^[1]