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The History of Piercefield House, Piercefield Park

The main part of the house most likely dates back to Tudor times, perhaps even earlier. While other additions attributed to William Talman, were made in the late 17th / early 18th century. The two pavilions to either side of the house are 18th century.

To the rear of the property are a service building, large stable block, coach-houses, cottage, barn and a walled kitchen garden. All of which are also in need or restoration.

The property has been neglected for approximately 80+ years now and all things considered, it has held up pretty well. Much to my annoyance, the American Forces, who were stationed nearby, apparently used the house for target practice?

The house is mostly the work of Sir John Soane.

References to the Piercefield date back to the early 14th century, where there is mentioned that George Walter of Peerefield – the name varies throughout the centuries. The name Walter continues to be linked to the property for 4 centuries. The family were influential throughout Monmouthshire and into Gloucestershire, supporting the church, education and upholding the law. Evidence of the Tudor house where generations of Walters lived still exists.

The property was extended around 1700 and the architectural detail, materials and building is attributed to William Talman (1650-1719) who is noted particularly for his involvement at Chatsworth. The house doesn’t appear to have been extensive, but was classical in design.

The original estate was approximately 300 acres and was sold to Thomas Rous for £3,366 in 1727. He dies 12 years later, leaving the property to his son who decided not to keep it.
The next owner was born in Antigua and was in the Military and had many sugar plantations on the island. Col. Valentine Morris purchased the property for £8,250 in 1740. Morris believed he was related to Walters by marriage in the 16th century.

Morris then died in 1743 leaving his estate in the hands of trustees and their skilful management allowed his son, also called Valentine, to inherit the estate. Morris then took great interest in the Park investing to landscape the grounds at Piercefield to the way they lay today.

It is believed that Morris was influenced with the landscaping by the Mordaunts, of which he married Mary Mordaunt of Somerset House, London.

Still maintaining his ties with the West Indies, he later became Governor of St Vincent when he spent most of his money defending the country from invasion by the Americans. When they surrendered to the Americans, Morris sold Piercefield to George Smith in 1784 for £26,700.

George didn’t hold on to Piercefield for long, however his time owning it had a great bearing on what you can see today. He commissioned Sir John Soane to provide drawings for the redesign of Piercefield.

In 1785 Soane started making plans for a much more elaborate house and by 1790 he believed to have finalised them, although a couple of years later Smith decided not to make as radical changed to the house and the result was a house which looks very similar to Shotesham in Norfolk which was also Soane’s work.

Although it has been mentioned that the pavilions have been attributed to Bonomi, there are references to east and west parlours and this suggests that the concept may have originated from Soane.

In December 1793 Smith’s investment in banking had failed and the property was once again for sale.

The house originally had:

Ground Floor
a hall (35’ x 19’), eating room (35’ x 25’), library (25’ x 17’), drawing room (34’ x 25’), breakfast room (25’ x 19’).

First Floor/Attic
Nine bedroom chambers or dressing rooms.

Second Floor
Nine bedrooms

Cellar
Arched cellar under the library and drawing room (under the east side of the house)

Soane’s involvement in with Piercefield came to an end in November 1794 when Sir Mark Wood bought the house. Wood approached Joseph Bonami who drew at least one further and fairly radical new scheme which would have involved demolishing the Talman building to the rear and building a complete cross wing with corridor and domestic offices. In addition to this, he suggested moving the two pavilions back 15 feet from their current position.

In 1802 Nathaniel Wells, the son of a sugar planter and merchant from St Kitts bought the Piercefield after visiting it a year previous. In 1818 he inherited his father’s wealth and pledged his allegiance to the king and became Sheriff of Monmouthshire. In 1819 he considered selling Piercefield, but didn’t. He later dies in 1852 and the Piercefield was leased for four years before it was purchased by John Russell.

Five years later it was sold to Henry Clay and the Clay family lived there until 1921 when Henry Clay died. At this time a racecourse already existed on the estate, but not in its current location. An 18 hole golf course was also added. Chepstow Racecourse Company purchased the property and the new racecourse opened in August 1926.

Most of the information in this page was sourced from the sales brochure supplied by Jackson-Stops & Staff. Thank you to Jackson-Stops & Staff for producing such an informative sales brochure.