Forty Hall, Forty Hill

This article by Stephen Gilbert was published in two parts by The Enfield Society in newsletters 226 (Summer 2022) and 227 (Autumn 2022).

1. Nicholas Rainton (1569–1646) was a rich London merchant who made his money by importing satin and taffeta from Florence and velvet from Genoa. A leading member of the Haberdashers Company, he became an Alderman of the City of London and Sheriff in 1621. He was elected Lord Mayor in 1632 and was knighted in 1633. He was President of St Bartholomew’s Hospital from 1634 to 1646.

In 1616 he had purchased the manor of Worcesters from Sir Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury. On part of the land was an early 17th century building, later to be known as the Dower House (see newsletter 198, Summer 2015). Between 1629 and 1632 he built Forty Hall, possibly to a design by Edward Carter, Chief Clerk to the King’s Works. Sir Nicholas was a Puritan and supporter of Parliament but in 1642, at the outbreak of the Civil War, he declined an offer of a place on the Committee of Safety and retired from his involvement in the City of London. He moved into Forty Hall where he died in 1646. [Image courtesy of Forty Hall Estate.]

2. The marble and alabaster Rainton family monument in St Andrew’s Church (see newsletter 189, Spring 2013) shows Sir Nicholas Rainton lying clad in armour and wearing the robes, collar and badge of the Lord Mayor of London. Below is his wife Rebecca, who he married in 1602 and who died in 1640. She is shown in a dress and ruff of the early 17th century and is reading the ten commandments. At the bottom, possibly added later, are his nephew Nicholas and his wife Rebecca, who was Lady Rainton’s niece, together with their children including Nicholas, who inherited Forty Hall in 1646 as his father had already died. [Image: Enfield Society Collection.]

3. Forty Hall is one of only two Grade I listed buildings in the Borough. Seen here from the north-east, it is a red brick square house with three symmetrical façades which have later rectangular windows. Two lower wings were added to the service west side of the house in 1636. There is banding between each of the three storeys and rusticated quoins on the corners. It has a slate covered hipped roof. The chimney stacks have been restored or rebuilt.

4. There are porches in the centre of the north, east and south sides added in about 1708. This porch on the east side has Ionic columns and pilasters and above is a segmented pediment with a cartouche (an ornamental panel).

5. Above the door is a semi-circular fanlight with wooden tracery.

6. To the left of the passage from the present entrance on the north side of the house is the Great Hall, which was originally used for receptions and formal occasions and was later a dining room. It is separated from the passage by a 17th century screen into which a later door has been inserted. The screen is divided into three pilaster flanked bays which have scallop shell designs. At the top of the tapered pilasters are semi-grotesque heads of men and women. The geometric prefabricated plaster ceiling has curving Dutch style patterned strapwork. [Image courtesy of Enfield Local Studies & Archive.]

7. The South East Drawing Room has 17th century, originally unpainted, panelling and a plaster ceiling with a geometrical design.

8. On the west side of the house were the service rooms. These included a servant’s hall, steward’s room, buttery, pantry and kitchen. This view shows how the kitchen might have looked in the 17th century. The area beyond is now an exhibition gallery. [Image courtesy of Forty Hall Estate.]

9. The panelled bedroom on the first floor is furnished in this view as it might have appeared in the 1640s with a four poster bed. The servants’ bedrooms would have been in the attics on the second floor. [Image courtesy of Forty Hall Estate.]

10. The 1630s Grade I listed brick gateway was restored in 1967. It has rusticated piers supporting obelisks and balls flanking an arch topped with a pedimented gable. It leads to a rectangular courtyard and a 17th century Grade II listed former stable and carriage block. After extensive rebuilding work in the 1960s this is now a cafeteria and a banqueting suite.

11. Part of this Grade II listed long narrow eight bayed building may date back to the late 15th century. It has had many different uses including as a farm cottage and as stables with a hay loft above. Partly timber framed and partly brick, it was restored in 1998 and together with the barn and other farm buildings is now leased to Capel Manor College (see newsletter 185, Spring 2012).

North of Forty Hall were the remains of Elsyng Palace, which was originally timber-framed but was rebuilt in brick in 1487. (See newsletter 198, Summer 2015). Soon after 1656 the Palace was demolished by its owner Sir Nicholas Rainton. He was the great- nephew of the Sir Nicholas Rainton who had built Forty Hall between 1629 and 1632 (see last newsletter). Like his great-uncle he enclosed common land in Enfield, despite local opposition.

In 1675 his daughter Mary married Sir John Wolstenholme, and on Sir Nicholas’s death in 1696 the estate passed to the couple. In 1698 it was given to their son who became Sir Nicholas Wolstenholme. In 1700 he repaired and modernised the house. He married Grace Waldoc who, after his death in 1716, married William Ferdinand Carey, Lord Hunsdon. He improved the estate which had fallen into debt. Grace died in 1729 and Forty Hall passed to Elizabeth and Mary, nieces of Sir Nicholas Wolstenholme. Elizabeth married Eliab Breton while Mary continued to live at Forty Hall until her death in 1763.

12. This decorative plasterwork in the former Steward’s Room, now the reception area, is thought to have been installed by Eliab Breton in the mid 18th century. [Image: Stephen Gilburt.]

13. The mid 18th century alterations also included replacing the wall between the passage and the south-west room with an open screen with two columns supporting an arch which extended up to the ceiling. It became known as the Rainton Room after the portrait over the fireplace. The portrait has subsequently been moved to an adjacent room known as the Parlour and this room is now the Forty Hall shop. [Image courtesy of Enfield Local Studies & Archive.]

14. This view shows how a room might have looked in late Georgian times. (It was created as part of an exhibition on Enfield and the Transatlantic slave trade in 2007.) [Image: Stphen Gilburt.]

15. In the 18th century Forty Hall farm was arable and the corn would have been stored in this Grade II listed large 18th century timber framed barn. The barn in the centre of the outer courtyard has part brick gable ends and is clad in timber weatherboarding and has clay peg roof tiles. Enlarged in the late 19th century, it was restored in 1998 and is now leased to Capel Manor College. (See newsletter 185, Spring 2012)

After Eliab Breton died in 1785, his widow Elizabeth sold Forty Hall in 1787 for £8,800 to Edmund Armstrong, a Fellow of the Society of Antiqueries. He spent £4,000 on repairs and alternations, including covering the external brick walls with white painted cement stucco. He died in 1797, leaving large debts and the estate was auctioned in 1799.

16. The Grade II listed entrance gates from Forty Hill date from around 1800. Stucco covered brick piers decorated with swags are on either side of the carriage entrance and the pedestrian side gates.

The gabled lodge to the side of the gates was designed by Sidney M. Cranfield in about 1903. He was also responsible for the 1904 Enfield Market House. (See newsletter 210, Summer 2018).

17. This print shows Forty Hall from the north-east in 1823. The entrance gates to the inner courtyard can be seen to the right. [Image courtesy of Enfield Local Studies & Archive.]

Forty Hall was bought by James Meyer for £11,940 in 1799. He was a wealthy London merchant with Dutch ancestry and was a local magistrate. He increased the size of the estate with land between Maiden’s Brook and the New River. When he died in 1826, Forty Hall was inherited by his brother Herman and then in 1832 by Herman’s nephew Christian Paul Meyer, who built Jesus Church nearby in 1835. (See newsletter 200, Winter 2015.) He married four times and in 1837 the estate passed to his son James, by his first wife.

18. James Meyer II was Chairman of the Board of Magistrates and Chairman of the Board of Health from 1850 until his death in 1894. He was also Chairman of the Governors of Enfield Grammar School, Chairman of the Trustees of Enfield Charities and parish overseer and churchwarden. In 1848 he built an Infants School north of Maiden’s Bridge. (See newsletter 201, Spring 2016.)

Among the servants listed on census returns between 1841 and 1891 were a cook and housekeeper, housemaids, children’s maid, kitchen maid, under housemaid, scullery maid, coachmen and grooms. Most of the servants would have slept in attic bedrooms on the second floor. [Image courtesy of Enfield Local Studies & Archive.]

19. This view shows how a Victorian dining room might have looked when decorated for Christmas at Forty Hall. [Image: Enfield Society Collection.]

20. This 1894 photograph shows Forty Hall from the north-east with two of James Meyer’s daughters in a boat on the lake. [Image courtesy of Enfield Local Studies & Archive.]

In 1895 Henry Carrington Bowles Bowles (sic) (1830–1918) of Myddelton House (see newsletter 183, Autumn 2011) bought Forty Hall for his eldest son Henry Ferryman Bowles and his wife. Considerable alterations and renovations were carried out in 1897 including the installation of a new main staircase, landing windows on the east front and a modern sanitation system. The stucco covering the external brickwork was removed at this time.

Up to the Second World War the indoor staff included a butler, footman, lady’s maid, three housemaids, cook-housekeeper, kitchen maid and scullery maid. Outdoor staff included a chauffeur, handyman, carpenters, painter, gardeners, cowman, farm hands and a gamekeeper. Although the farm had previously been arable, during the 1920s and 1930s there was a dairy herd and some sheep, pigs and chickens were also kept.

21. Col. Sir Henry Bowles ma Cantab (1858–1943) was a barrister in the Inner Temple and a Justice of the Peace. He served on Middlesex County Council from 1889 and was the Conservative mp for Enfield from 1889 to 1906 and from 1918 to 1922. He was created a baronet in 1926 and was High Sheriff for Middlesex in 1928. His wife, who he had married in 1889, died in 1935. They were both buried in the family vault at Jesus Church. [Image courtesy of Enfield Local Studies & Archive.]

In 1913 their daughter Wilma had married Eustace Parker who took the name of Bowles. The estate was inherited by Sir Henry Bowles’s grandson Derek Henry Parker Bowles who sold Forty Hall to Enfield Urban District Council in 1951 for £43,000.

22. This room is furnished as how it might have looked during the early 1940s as part of an exhibition on Enfield during the Second World War. [Photo: Stephen Gilburt.]

The house became a museum and the grounds were also opened to the public. Extensive repairs and alterations took place in the later 20th century and more recently some of the rooms have been restored and furnished to how they might looked at different periods in the past.

Forty Hall may be reached by buses 191 and 456 to the bottom of Forty Hill. There is also a car park and cafeteria at Forty Hall. Details of the current opening times and special events may be obtained by telephoning 020 8363 8196 or from the Forty Hall website, fortyhallestate.co.uk

For more information, plans and illustrations see Forty Hall, Enfield by Geoffrey Gillam, EAS 1997 and Buildings of England London 4: North by Bridget Cherry and Nikolaus Pevsner, Penguin 1998. These publications and pictures of Forty Hall may be consulted at Enfield Local Studies Library and Archive which is now located in the Civic Centre, Silver Street, Enfield. Access is by appointment only, e-mail local.history@enfield.gov.uk or telephone John Clark on 020 8132 1226. Opening hours are from 11am to 3pm on Tuesday, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

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