Human settlement in England
The Wentworth Estate is a 1920s development village of houses, shops and restaurants on an area of 700 hectares (1750 acres) around the world famous Wentworth Club in Virginia Water, Surrey, England. It encompasses one of Europe's premier residential areas.[1]
The River Bourne runs through the area. The village lies within the census area Virginia Water which has a population of 5,895.[2]
The 19th century house the "Wentworths" (now the club house for the Wentworth Club) was the home for the brother-in-law of the Duke of Wellington. It was purchased in 1850 by exiled Spanish count Ramon Cabrera, who after his death his wife bought up the surrounding lands to make the full Wentworth Estate.[1]
In 1912, builder W.G. Tarrant had started developing St George's Hill, Weybridge - a development of houses based on minimum one acre plots based around a golf course. In 1922 Tarrant acquired the development rights for the Wentworth Estate, getting H.S. Colt to develop a golf course around the "Wentworth" house. Tarrant developed the large houses on the estate to a similar Surrey formula used at St George's Hill - tall chimneys, dormer windows, gables, leaded lights, tile-hung or half-timbered or a combination of both; most using hand-made bricks and tiles. Some houses had stonework round the front door and stone fireplaces, a few had a marble floor in the hall; and the rarest of which he was most proud have a stone tablet with his initials WGT.[2]
Development of Wentworth Estate ground to a halt due to depression in the late 1920s, and in 1931 when the banks asked for repayment of a large debenture, Tarrant was forced to declare bankruptcy. The ownership of the land passed to Wentworth Estates Ltd, which came under the control of Sir Lindsay Parkinson & Co Ltd. Construction picked up in the late 1930s, with many houses built by Tarrant Builders Ltd, with Tarrant's son Percy as one of the directors; but again stopped during World War Two when the need arose to build high-density housing close to Virginia Water railway station.[3]
Post WW2, developed picked up considerably, and by 1960 most of the available land was already utilised.
In 1962, a committee of residents and the company promoted a private act of Parliament, and on 31 July the Wentworth Estate Act was given Royal assent. The Act established the Wentworth Estate Roads Committee, which appoints its members on advice from the Wentworth Residents' Association.[4]
Today the Wentworth Estate covers 700 hectares (1750 acres), and encompasses one of Europe's premier residential areas. Within the estate borders are a mixture of both public and private roads, footpaths and open areas as well as the village shops, restaurants and other amenities.[5]
The estate hit the headlines in 1998 when General Augusto Pinochet was kept under house arrest in one of its houses prior to his extradition.[6][7]