The Thames from Hampton Court to Sunbury Lock

sunbury court

Sunbury Place (now Sunbury Court) was built in 1723 and much altered in the 19th century. Its dining room has famous frescoes painted by Swedish artist Elias Martin (1739-1818) in 1768.

 

In 1860 it was bought by Jack Needham (1787-1880), the Lord Kilmorey, who built a tunnel under the road to his boathouse—the tunnel still exists and is in a weak state, which recently alarmed the highway engineers who never knew it existed. He seems to have liked tunnels, because he built one about 300 metres long from his house in Twickenham to his mausoleum.

 

Kilmorey was an interesting bloke. He lived in Cross Deep House, Twickenham, in the 1840s, plus Radnor House, then Orleans House. He bought part of the famous Montpelier Row, St Margaret’s House and Railshead/Gordon House in Isleworth.

 

Despite still being married (though separated from his wife) he had a mistress Priscilla Hoste, with whom he had a son. Priscilla was his ward (almost his adopted daughter), so it’s clear he was a cad to take advantage of her—his nicknames ‘Black Jack’ and ‘The Wicked Earl’ reflect this.

 

Priscilla died in 1854 so Kilmorey had a wonderful mausoleum built in an Egyptian style at Brompton Cemetery. In 1862 Kilmorey moved to Woburn Park, Chertsey, so obviously Priscilla and her mausoleum had to come too.

 

Then Kilmorey’s wife died in 1867 (they had been separated since 1835) so he re-married and moved back to Gordon House in Twickenham. And Priscilla came too, naturally. She’s still there today, and so is Kilmorey who died in 1880. His second wife died in 1908, but I don’t know where she is now. You can go and say hello to Priscilla and Kilmorey—the mausoleum is open one day a year.

 

Anyway, Sunbury Court has been owned by the Salvation Army since 1921 and is now a conference centre.

Sunbury Court, home to Black Jack Kilmorey