Corfe Castle: Uvedale's House

Very close - a little too close for comfort - to the road climbing into Corfe from Wareham is Uvedale's House, the oldest surviving private house in the village. Its three-storied east wing can be seen on the left of this photo.

The house was built in 1575 for Henry and John Uvedale; the two must have been either brothers or father and son. Building in stone was - and still is - an expensive business: most houses here in Elizabethan times would have been built of timber and thatch. The size and layout of this building suggests that the Uvedales were wealthy merchants. Today's garden may well once have been the site of a merchant's yard, conveniently located at the end of the town and on the main road.


Sir Christopher Hatton was a favourite of Queen Elizabeth, who in 1571 gave him the lordship of the manor of Corfe. It was in the following year that - probably through Hatton's influence - Corfe started to send Members to Parliament. One of the two was a local man, Edmund Uvedale, whose father that year was Sheriff of the County of Dorset.

In 1582 John Uvedale became mayor of Corfe Castle borough. This will have been a prestigious and powerful appointment, given the town's influence in the English government. It is not known how closely related the owners of Uvedale's House were to Edmund or his father.


Postscripts

John Clavell, of Kimmeridge, was one of the town's MPs a decade after John Uveldale.

Hatton Garden, London's jewellery and diamond trading quarter, was named after the same Sir Christopher Hatton. And once more, it was a gift to him from his queen.

Until the Great Reform Act of 1832 Corfe Castle remained a "pocket borough" and continued to send two Members to the House of Commons. (To put this into perspective, Birmingham - powerhouse of the early industrial revolution - had no representation in Parliament until 1832.)