Catalogue description Deeds of Mellifount, Chailey

Mellifount and Mellifount Cottage were built by baroness Gwendolin May de Wolff on land purchased as lots 19 and 20 at the sale of the Beechland estate on 16 Mar 1920. The land formed part of Oxbottom Farm, which had been held on a yearly tenancy by John Newnham of Newick since 29 Sep 1905 at £35 and had formerly been leased to John Grover; notice to quit was served on 30 July 1920 (4)

A settlement on the marriage of Gwendolin May Foster (born 24 May 1889, daughter of Frederick William Foster and Emily Jane Denman), of The Old Farm House, Glynde, spinster, who was entitled to the Raydale Estate in the North Riding of Yorkshire, to land near Keighley and to the proceeds of the sale of the Glanbeuno estate in Carnarvonshire, with baron Vladimir de Wolff (born St Petersburg, 20 Apr 1887 old style, son of baron Arist von Wolff, Russian minister resident in Dresden), was executed on 1 June 1910 and a London marriage licence, naming the groom as of Ringmer, obtained the same day. On 21 July 1911 baroness de Wolff, then of The Elms, Ringmer, appointed a new trustee of her settlement (1-3)

The Beechland estate in Newick and Chailey was bequeathed by the will of Thomas St Leger Blaauw of Beechland esq, who died 11 Sep 1893, to his wife Fanny Alice Blaauw for life, with remainder to his eldest son Henry Thomas Gillman Blaauw. Mrs Blaauw died at Bournemouth on 20 Nov 1912 and on 16 Mar 1920 the estate was sold in 29 lots, a detailed description of each appears in the particulars. Included in the sale were Mitchelswood Farm, Oast House Cottage, a butcher's shop, Ketches Farm and House, Ridgeland Farm, Tilehouse Farm and cottages at Cornwell's Bank, Newick, and Tutts Farm, Oxbottom and Cronk's or Cinder Hill Farm, Chailey; lots 19 and 20, consisting of 28a 2r 16p, were sold to baroness de Wolff's mother for £1188 and conveyed to the trustees by H T G Blaauw of Townings Place Wivelsfield on 24 June 1920 (4-8)

Baroness de Wolff died 22 Nov 1943 and the property descended to her son baron Francis de Wolff, who on 19 Jan 1965 contracted to sell a plot of land on Station Road for the erection of "two high-class dwellings" to Mr & Mrs Frederick Charles Turnham. On 10 Aug 1965 the estate, a plan of which appears on the deed, was vested in the beneficial owner, baron Francis de Wolff, by his trustees (9-16)