Catalogue description Thellusson and Pole families: Title deeds and map of Wall Hall Estate, Aldenham, 1550-1923

This collection comprises the title deeds of the Wall Hall estate at Aldenham. The basis of the estate is the mansion house and surrounding land, which was acquired by the Thellusson family, together with the manor of Aldenham and the reputed manor of Wallhall, the rectory and other property in 1799. The manors and estate were formerly the property of the Duke of Newcastle, but were sold in 1754 to help meet his debts.

The Thellussons retained much of their property in Aldenham, but in 1812 sold the mansion and a certain amount of land to Admiral Sir Charles Morice Pole, who built ruins in the grounds, decorated the house in the gothic style and called it Aldenham Abbey, by which name it was known throughout most of the nineteenth century.

The estate passed from Pole to his son-in-law, William Stuart, and it remained in the Stuart family until the reversion was purchased in 1910 by John Pierpont Morgan for his wife. In 1926 he also acquired from Lord Rendlesham the neighbouring Edge Grove estate, which had been built up from small pieces of property in the eighteenth century, and had subsequently been purchased by the Thellusson trustees in 1808. Mrs. Morgan also purchased various other small properties as additions to the estate. The deeds referenced DE/Wh/T29-34 in this inventory represent these purchases.

The Hertfordshire County Council acquired the first option to purchase on the property in 1938 and bought it in 1946.

The whole of the estate lies in the parish of Aldenham and a small part of St Stephens (transferred to the modern Aldenham in 1937 by a County Council order of that date), apart from a small parcel of land in Watford (see DE/Wh/T2) and another in Bushey (see DE/Wh/T34)

Thellusson family Barons Rendlesham of Suffolk

Pole family of Aldenham, Hertfordshire

[Accession 66]

Deposited 1945