J 



WESTWOOD PARK, 



DROITWICH 



THE SEAT OF 



MK. EDWARD PARTINGTON 



WHI IHI.R we regard Westvvoud Park Irom the 

 il. the personal, tlu- .ncliitfitiir.il, or tlu 

 dening point of view, we shall tind that it is 

 unusually intc rating pl.Ke. It has chaiac- 

 teristics that are not di-c.i\ered ID many great 

 J it has been associated with not a tew men of 

 eminence in the State and S>ciet> . I'lu- house lit-?, something 

 less than twomiles to the west ot l)ioit\vich. in Woicestershire. 

 n a very fine situation, upon an eminence commanding very 

 beautiful pn^jvctN, and it park KM-I> aN-ut j.- .vuh 



a fine lake in \ :<-\\ .it the man*ion n tin- <-a>t sidi-. llu- 

 ptfk K laid i>ut in " ra\ s of planting." aN ^hall pi.Mrntly 

 he described. Here, in ancient times, \\.i-. a small prmiy ..| 

 Benrdiciine nuns, subject to the Ablvy <( Fontevr.iud, tin- 

 site of which appeals to ha\i- Ivi-n upon the Nl"p t - ,.i the bank 

 above the present li-h-ponds. Alt r tiie hi.ssulution, the place 

 xvas granted by Henry Mil. t.. Sir J(.hn Pakin$>t"ii. .1 sergeant- 

 at-lau. \\lio was yiven many judicial ..ffices, chielly in Wales. 

 When the knight died he possessed some thirty manors, and 

 the greater part c,| his estatr passed to his nephew . Thorn. is 



Pakinutun, the son ,.i |u> brother Kolvrt, v\ ho had 

 murdered in London in i;?;. I he new i A. is 



knighted hy Queen Mar\ m i>5^. and died in 1571. 



It does nut appeal to tv knoui. with an> certamts that .1 

 mansion house e.Msied at Wistwood at the tune, and th. 

 central blo.k "t the existing structure dates trom the pi.s-,. S sion 

 ol Sir J"hn Pakin^ton. wh- ucceed. d on tlie death .t his 

 lather. Sir Thomas When Queen HIi/aNth \ isited Woro-siei 

 shire in August. IS/S. she seems to ha\e been attracted by the 

 u it and the handsome person of the sqmie, not yet Sir John, 

 who had reen educated at Chnsuhurch. Oxford, and had 

 studied the law at Lnuoln's Inn. The Queen united him to 

 Coiut, where he was u\e;\id with ^ie.n favour, and plunged 

 into the \ "Hi \ nt the fashionable life oi his time. Pakinuton 

 \\.is knight d in 1^87, but he appeal s to have outrun Ins means 

 and to have been enmeshed in financial difficulti< 



His j< v, erne was then at Hampton l."vett, but he seems 

 t'i lia\e com eived the ulea of building a kind ot banqueting- 

 house or pl.ue oi tesoit .u Westw.>J. To him the central 

 portion ot the house is due. but it did not K-come the residence 





THE ANCIENT GAlt-HOLSE. 



