Alderbury & Whaddon

Local History Research Group

Trafalgar Park

The Trafalgar Park estate was acquired by Sir Peter Vandeput in 1725, for whom Trafalgar House was built by John James in 1733. There were additions in 1766 by John Wood the younger and Nicholas Revett.

The property replaced an earlier house by the river, Standlynch Manor, which Vandeput demolished. The park and house were renamed Trafalgar when they were given by the Treasury in 1814 to the heirs of Viscount Admiral Nelson in gratitude for his services to the nation. The south wing was gutted by fire in the 1860s and rebuilt by William Butterfield. The 4th Earl Nelson died without issue in 1947 and the Trafalgar Estates Act 1947 ended the pension, allowing the sale of house and land.

The house was sold to the Duke of Leeds in 1948, after which a serious outbreak of dry rot in the north-east wing rendered the section uninhabitable, a state in which it remains to this day, although the rot has been successfully arrested. In the mid 1990s, most of the estate’s 3,500 acres of park land was sold, and today the house is owned and run privately by the Trafalgar Park Trust. It is currently used as a business centre and arts venue, and has been used as a set by the film industry. The Music Room is of particular note, the walls and ceilings being covered with beautiful contemporary paintings by the Italian artist and engraver, Giovanni Battista Cipriani (1727-1785).

Village history

The post office

Inns & Alehouses

Village war memorial

Trafalgar House

St Mary’s Church

Historical walk

Views of Alderbury

The Cipriani Room

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The Cipriani Room