46. Langtons House Timeline

Deborah Kirk and Lisa Campbell-Bannerman

A brief history of Langtons

• The current house is mainly a Georgian red brick mansion of three storeys & five bays -which is a typical style of house of the time-set in a pleasure garden with the adjoining Fielders sporting field & woodland.
•  In the 13th century the land was recorded as ‘Langedun’, An earlier building on the site known as Marchauntes, a medieval word for merchants, stood here in 1446.[i] From the late C16tha house called Langtons is recorded, mentioned in the 1593 will of Thomas Latham.[ii]An L shaped property called Langtons appears on the Chapman and André survey map of Essex 1777.
• The building and grounds were updated to a Georgian design at some point in the mid to late C18th. A date of 1760 is generally given for the rebuilding of Langtons, although recent research suggests that a later date is possible. The addition of the two-storey wings on either side, an Orangery & stable block (whilst the bath house is an early 19th century feature) and the remodelling of the grounds to a design attributed to the renowned landscape garden designer Humphry Repton have until recently been attributed to John Massu who purchased the house in 1797, but recent research by Deborah Kirk suggests that the work was carried out by the previous owner Richard Wyatt.[iii] We believe Repton’s design incorporated paths, walls, lake, gardeners’ bothies, a ‘mazy’ shrubbery, enclosed orchard & fine timber trees.
• Langtons was owned by the Wyatt family from 1785 until 1797, & Richard Barnard Wyatt- a keen sportsman- established the Langton Park cricket ground on what is now known as Fielders field. It was the Hornchurch Cricket Club’s home ground until 1889, with first class matches played there between 1785 & 1793, & is still used today.
• On 1st June 1929 Langtons House and gardens were gifted to the town of Hornchurch by Varco Williams and his daughter Mrs Elizabeth Parkes, including the proviso that the house should be maintained, and the gardens should be kept open to the public.[iv]
•  Langtons became the headquarters of the Hornchurch Urban District Council (and from 1965 offices for the London Borough of Havering) with the subsequent temporary additions of WW2 shelters, allotments, tennis courts & a pavilion. By 1959 the grounds were a showcase garden with 6 full-time staff. Langtons officiall became the Superintendent Registrar’s Office, & a wedding & function hall in 1976. A tea room was added in 2017.

The development of the wider Langtons estate:

Langtons house and gardens, now about 6 acres, used to sit in open parkland of approximately 90 acres, with paddocks and orchards. Some of the buildings that exist in between Langtons and the Billet lane(including Fairkytes), were known to be owned by the residents of the estate at different points of time. In 1876 Colonel Henry Holmes built Grey Towers House at the west side of the grounds (pictured below in 1920). It was used as a military hospital and army camp in WW1 & demolished & redeveloped for housing in 1931. In 1935 Towers Cinema was built & in 2017 it was replaced by a supermarket.

The boundaries of the current estate are outlined in red (maps 1920 to 1956, from Havering Libraries-Local Studies)

Frances Latham (1593-?)

John Ellison (c. 1567)

Susan Ellison (1567-?)

Catherine Gosfright, Then Sarah Mackrill (nee Gosfright) & John Mackrill (1746-1772)

John Mayor, M.P (1772-1785)

John Mackrill died in 1772 and was buried at St Andrew’s Church, and Sarah then sold the estate in order to settle his business debts.[x] The estate was purchased by the brewer John Mayor, M.P. for Abingdon, who also occupied Lacy’s Court in Abingdon and Hoppy Hall in Upminster.[xi] John appears to have been the brother of Mary Mayor of New Place, Upminster, whose husband James Esdaile was Lord Mayor of London in 1766.[xii]

The stable block was built in 1775 (we are not sure where this date comes from) and the orangery, described as a hot house when Langtons was auctioned in 1797, appears to have been constructed concurrently with the house and it is, but it is difficult to date accurately because it has been rebuilt many times. The stable block and cottage are now one building, but it originally consisted of a three-bedroom cottage at the West end, and at the East end; stables and coach house on the lower floor and servants’ quarters and dormitories on the first floor.[xv] These were reached by an outside wooden stairway at the back of the building (now used as a fire escape). There used to bea pump in the grounds with the date 1760 & the initials J.M; it could represent John Mackrill whose wife owned Langtons in 1760, or it mightbe the manufacturer’s initials rather than those of the owner & rebuild date.[xvi]

Langtons house was occupied by Richard Barnard Wyatt (Jr) while his father Richard Snr still lived at Fairkytes. His son was a former Eton pupil and keen sportsman, and he established the Langton Park cricket ground on the estate, where first-class matches were played from 1785 until 1793. On a related note -Langton Park was the home ground of the Hornchurch Cricket Club for most of the 19th century, and today it is known as Fielders Sports Ground and is still used by the club as a secondary location to Harrow Lodge Park.[xvii]

On 21st July 1797 Langtons was put up for auction by Richard Wyatt and the successful bidder was the London silk merchant John Massu, a French Huguenot refugee. The Massu Family have always been credited with undertaking the remodelling of the house and gardens, extending the house by adding the two-storey wings on either side and restyling the grounds in accordance with plans attributed to the renowned landscape garden designer Humphry Repton of Hare Street. This is because Themassu Name appears on Humphry Repton’s illustration ofLangtons from1805.However, recent research by Deborah Kirk endorsed by John Phibbs, suggests that the work was in fact commissioned by the Wyatt family. Repton approached his social contacts to ask for work improving their estates, and among his early known clients were friends and associates of the Wyatts such as Thomas Coke of Holkham Hall, Norfolk and Sir Peter Burrell of Langley Park, Kent (both of whom attended Eton with Richard Barnard Wyatt and participated in sports with him in later life); John Yeldham of Saling Grove near Braintree in Essex (from whom R B Wyatt leased land at Nelmes), and the Russell brothers of Stubbers, North Ockendon (with whom R B Wyatt played cricket).Among the selling points listed in the 1797 auction advertisement bearing Richard Wyatt’s name are an ‘orchard, pleasure ground, garden’ and‘a paddock of 32 acres, ornamented with fine timber-trees, and a sheet of water’which are all clearly illustrated on the 1812 survey map of Hornchurch.[xviii]The cricket ground was a feature favoured by Repton, and his own 1805 illustration of the house shows that the trees were well-established by that time.

Langtons gardens are considered by English Heritage to be a site of strong local historic significance as a designed ornamental landscape.  In 1805 the illustrated pocket appointment diary Peacock’s Polite Repository, produced by William Peacock, included an elegant engraving labelled Langtons, Essex, Seat of J. Massu Esq, in which a number of contemporary improvements are visible. For example, the lower, two-storey wings have been added on either side of the building, and the garden incorporates a serpentine pond with a cedar of Lebanon on the lawn: two features favoured by Humphry Repton. The engravings for The Polite Repository were created by John Peltro from tiny watercolour views that were painted by Humphry Repton, who was its illustrator from 1790 until 1809. Although no Repton ‘Red Book’ makeover images for Langtons gardens have survived, because of the style and features of the garden, and the view drawn by Repton; he is understood to have been its designer. Humphry Repton’s influence can be seen in:

•        Some key internal views

•        the serpentine lake- It is believed that the lake was originally fed from the workhouse pond at the bottom of Billet Lane

•        the majority of the path network

•        the boundary wall of Langtons Gardens

•        the gardeners’ Bothies

•        the stable block yard including pond

•        the ‘mazy’ shrubbery to the east of the house

•        the southern approach to the house

•        the reconfiguration of the Billet Lane entrance

•        the introduction of the enclosed orchard

•        some of the tree planting, including the multi-stemmed Cedar on the south west lawn, the planting of the horse chestnuts in the main driveway

•        and both the orangery and the bath house/gazebo (which fronts onto the landscaped garden and lake) are Grade II Listed Buildings that are also in keeping with the Repton style.[xix]The Orangery is believed to have been built concurrently with the existing house in the C18^th, but according to Dr Elizabeth Graham, the bath house, consisting of a plunge pool, is an early C19th structure. Both features are difficult to date, having been renovated numerous times over the years.

Additionally, a kitchen garden in the western part of the garden was started during this period

Henry Holmes (1891-1899)

Shrubberies have been planted to the west of the house.

In 1850 the property was acquired by the wealthy businessman John Wagener from Trendelburg in Germany, who had previously owned a sugar refinery in Mansell Street, London.[xxi] In 1863, John Wagener’s eldest daughter Emilie married Colonel Henry Holmes of the Essex Artillery Volunteers, who, during the course of his lifetime, was a ship-builder, bank director, magistrate, proprietor of the Old Hornchurch Brewery, member of the Essex County Council and leader of various charitable organizations.[xxii]

On a related note- In 1876 Holmes constructed Grey Towers house which stood on land at the west side of the Langtons estate. During the First World War Grey Towers was used as a military camp by the Sportsman’s Battalion, and from 1916 as a convalescent hospital for New Zealand troops. Grey Towers was demolished in 1931 and its site was developed for housing.

John Wagener died in 1884 leaving Langtons to his widow Helena Jane,who then died in 1891, and both are buried at St Andrews churchyard in a grave marked with a marble stone.

Following the death of his mother-in-law Helena Jane Wagener, Henry Holmes owned Langtons for a short time before selling it in 1899.[xxiii]

& his daughter Mrs Elizabeth Parkes (1899-1929)

The Williams family was responsible for remodelling Langtons early in the twentieth century by rebuilding the north front; opening up part of the ground floor into a staircase hall; adding a billiard room on the west side; and renovating the cottage/stable block.[xxiv]

Sometime during this period, the Cromer Road and Boscombe Avenue entrances were created.

1965

The interior of the Stableblock and cottages building has since been substantially remodelled, but as recently as the 1960s the original tiled walls and horse stalls were still visible on the lower floor stable area. Access for two carriages was provided through the large doors at the East end of the building, whilst access for horses was through the large stable door at the front into an area with three wooden stalls, still marked by the high-level windows which were above each one. The small front door (not authentic) was the original entrance to the stable and tack room (still wood panelled), and the larger front door to the West was the original front door of the self-contained cottage. The cottage had a front sitting room, a parlour, and a kitchen with butler sink and walk-in pantry. The upstairs consisted of three bedrooms which, even during the days of Hornchurch Urban District Council, were used as staff flats.

The house is now used on the ground floor as a registry office/civil marriage venue and the function hall for wedding receptions, events and meetings etc. The first floor is for registering births, deaths and marriages