Stately home's guests included Winston Churchill and William Harvey (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

Stately home's guests included Winston Churchill and William Harvey

4:50pm Wednesday 17th March 2010 in

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FOR centuries Rolls Park was known as Chigwell’s most famous building with a rich heritage among its former owners and visitors.

Built in the 17th century, the stately home was best known as the family seat of the Harvey family who owned it for many generations.

Among their famous members was Dr William Harvey who discovered the circulation of the blood in 1628.

Perhaps the most famous occupant of the home was Admiral Sir Eliab Harvey who fought alongside Admiral Nelson as one of the key figures in the Battle of Trafalgar.

During Sir Eliab’s time at Rolls Park the manor house was one of the most richly furnished in England and housed a collection of world-class paintings. Its rococo interior decoration was much heralded.

The music room at the mansion contained oval paintings of the seven brothers of the first generation of Harvey’s, and the portrait of William Harvey now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery.

Rolls Park’s last famous resident was Lieutenant General Sir Francis Lloyd who organised much of the defences and recruitment campaigns in London during the First World War.

During Sir Francis’s time at the estate, Winston Churchill was a visitor and the future prime minister stayed over during his 1924 election campaign for the Epping seat in parliament.

Rolls Park was requisitioned by the army during the Second World War, and its troops caused considerable damage to the interior. The building was also affected by blast damage from bombs dropped in its garden.

The house’s final owner Andrew Lloyd took the decision to demolish it in 1953. He described the £8,000 compensation offered to him by the government as not enough to repair one tenth of the damage caused to the building.

All that remains of the site today is the stables, a cottage and the orangery, which was rebuilt, although the area of the estate, near the end of Chigwell High Road, is still known as Rolls Park Corner.

Secretary of Loughton & District Historical Society Richard Morris has written several books about the occupants of Rolls Park.

He described the demolition of the manor house as “an absolute tragedy” adding: “It would never have been allowed today with English Heritage and the scheme for listed buildings”.

Rolls Park is also mentioned in historian Giles Worsley’s ‘England’s Lost Houses’ as one of the great stately homes to be demolished after the war.