Hursley Park House Site 1413-1718

The 'Logge'

The history of buildings on the site of Hursley Park House seems to have a definite starting date of 1413. The Pipe Rolls for that year give an account for an expense of £8 0s 7d credited to a carpenter who ‘made a new building called a logge in the park’. The design of the logge was geared to hunting, and as such it lasted for over 100 years. Prior to 1552, the hunting activities must have dwindled, for in that year the bishop of Winchester, one John Poynet, surrendered to King Edward VI the Merdon estate and other lands around Winchester. The fact that an established deer park was part of the Merdon estate must have added enormously to its value.

A conjectured plan of this first building on the site of Hursley Park House surmises that it had two/three main rooms facing south, with a butchery and pantry/kitchens at one end under an extension of the thatched roof reaching down to the ground. Behind the three principal rooms would have been the stables, probably with open access to the north side, with an entrance through to the domestic quarters. The thatched roof over the whole building would have doubled as a hay loft and sleeping quarters for the farrier, groom, and any servants. A building larger than this would have exceeded the recorded building costs. The exact site of the logge is not completely certain. However, pictorial evidence and the position of a well suggest that it could have stood in the area of the present well house and bothy (a small cottage to house estate workers, T Block today).