GLORIOUS RUINS AND THE ‘CURSE OF COWDRAY’
The spectacular remains of what used to be a splendid early Tudor house can be found just to the east of Midhurst. The once magnificent architecture of Cowdray House compared with some of the finest palaces of the time. But the house caught fire in September 1793 when building works were taking place in readiness for a wedding between the 8th Viscount Montague and the daughter of the Countess of Guildford. Workmen in the North Gallery of the house had lit a fire, which they failed to extinguish properly before leaving that evening. A piece of smouldering charcoal tumbled onto a pile of wood shavings. Despite efforts to put out the resulting blaze, the house was little more than a blackened ruin by the following day, with only the Kitchen Tower remaining intact. Fortunately, Cowdray House was almost empty of people, save for the housekeeper and a few staff, the rest of the household having moved out due to the extent of the building work being undertaken. At the time of the fire, the 8th Viscount himself, George Samuel Browne, was travelling in Europe with a friend, Charles Sedley-Burdett. The two men
attempted to ride the falls of the Rhine in a small fishing boat, despite repeated warnings by locals of the foolhardy nature of such an act. Their boat overturned, casting both men into the turbulent water, along with their dog. The body of Viscount Montague was never recovered. He died before news of the blaze at Cowdray could reach him. Many believe that these two incidents occurred as a result of a curse which is claimed to have been placed on Cowdray. There are several accounts of how the curse was invoked, but one of the most popular involves Sir Anthony Browne, who held the estate between 1542-48. He demolished the church in Battle Abbey, which had been granted to him, along with much of its land, by Henry VIII, following the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The monk is claimed to have cursed Sir Anthony, with the words: “By fire and water, thy line shall come to an end.” After the 8th Viscount’s death, his title passed to a distant relative, who later died childless, which effectively ended Sir Anthony’s line. However, the story does not finish there. Elizabeth Browne, the 8th Viscount’s sister, inherited Cowdray following her brother’s death. In 1815, both her sons drowned in a boating accident off Bognor. Following a major restoration project, Cowdray was re-opened to the public in 2007. It is now in the care of the Cowdray Heritage Trust, an independent charity responsible for managing the site. The Cowdray Estate is also home to a remarkable walled garden, thought to have originally been a Tudor pleasure garden, visited by Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. It was discovered laying neglected and forgotten in 2001, and after a challenging restoration, it opened to the public in May 2005.
Polo tradition
The Cowdray estate is also home to one of the most important polo venues in the country. It was here that polo was largely re-established after the Second World War, and it hosts one of the most important high-level competitions in the British polo calendar, the King Power Gold Cup. Though competitive polo events were held in the grounds from 1910 through to the 1920s, play in the UK largely ceased during the Second World War. The 3rd Viscount Cowdray, Weetman John Churchill Pearson, who owned the estate, had been a keen polo player while at university at Oxford, captaining the team in 1932. Despite having his left arm amputated after fighting at Dunkirk, he continued to play, holding the reins with an artificial limb that ended in a hook. In the early post-war years, the Viscount kept a stable of 10-12 polo ponies, which he loaned out to friends in order to reignite enthusiasm for the sport. Gradually, interest increased, and games began to be played at other clubs around the country. In 1953, Cowdray Park hosted the Coronation Cup, the first international competition to take place in the UK since the war. It was attended by 10,000 people, including the newly crowned Queen Elizabeth II and HRH the Duke of Edinburgh, and marked a significant step in the recovery of the sport in the UK. Three years later, the inaugural Cowdray Park Gold Cup was held in the grounds in 1956, and it continues to be one of the most important polo competitions in Britain.