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Spye Park () is a 90.3 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Wiltshire, notified in 1951. The historic house which stood there, near the great Roman road from London to Bath, had been twice destroyed by fire, most recently in 1974. The new owner, as of 2005, was planning to rebuild a Palladian house. Spye Park is about two miles (3 km) to the north of Bromham village in Wiltshire. ==History of Spye Park House == The house was first known to be owned in the 16th century by Edward Bayntun (1517–1593) of Rowdon; he had previously been Battle Abbey Steward and had built Bromham Hall in 1538.〔() "In 1538 Bromham was purchased from the Crown by the Battle Abbey steward, Sir Edward Baynton. He was one of the great Wiltshire landowners and built Bromham House. This was nearly as big as the royal palace of Whitehall and contained materials savaged from Devizes Castle and a royal manor house at Corsham." This site states erroneously that Spye Park was demolished in 1964; it was demolished only after a fire destroyed the house and rot set in, and that took place in 1974.〕 The diarist John Evelyn claims that the house was built in 1654; however, Sir Edward may have substantially built upon a previously existing structure, based on eyewitness evidence after the 1868 fire. His grandson Sir Edward Bayntun (1593–1657) built Spye Park House after the destruction of Bromham House in 1645 during the civil war. He was married to Stuarta, the daughter of Sir Thomas Thynne, whose brother resided at Longleat. The house passed out of the Bayntun family when the heiress Ann Bayntun married Edward Rolt (d. 1722), of Sacombe Park, MP for Chippenham.〔(Ann Bayntun ) (b. 1689) succeeded her brother John Bayntun (1688-1716) who was the 19th in lineal descent from Sir Henry Bayntun, Knight of the Household to King Henry II. On his death, the Bayntun male line died out entirely. The two siblings were children of Henry Bayntun (1664-1691) by his wife Lady Anne Wilmot, daughter of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, the noted Restoration poet and libertine. , (Sir Edward Bayntun-Rolt, 1st Bt. ) and (Bayntun marriages ). Sir Andrew Bayntun-Rolt, 2nd Bt., remarried, but had no male issue apparently. The second page implies that Maria Barbara was his eldest daughter, and perhaps his only living child or his eldest living daughter in 1788.〕 .〔(Bayntun History :: Spye Park House )〕 She in turn eloped in 1797 aged 17, and married a mere reverend; however, she inherited her father's estate in 1816. Her son John Edward Andrew Bayntun Starky (1799–1843) inherited the estate, which was sold in 1864 to pay the debts of his son John Bayntun Starky (1834–1872) - while his grandmother, the second heiress, was still alive. In 1855, the house was bought by Major J.W.G. Spicer,〔The ( Spye Park Estate ) was bought for £100,000 by Major J.W.G. Spicer, an army officer whose investment in a Brewery had made his fortune. The Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII, had offered three times as much, but was refused by the owner John Bayntun Starkey for reasons unknown.〕 and owned by four more generations. The 17th-century house was demolished by Spicer, and rebuilt 1864-1868 in red brick. This house, considered an eyesore by Spicer's neighbours, was destroyed by fire in 1868. The house was rebuilt from 1868 to 1871, this time in the Tudor style. By 1939, the estate consisted of . In the 1930s, the owner was Captain Frank Fitzroy Spicer, MC, DSO (d. 1973), who married 1931 (as her second husband) Lady Avice Sackville-West (b. 1897), younger daughter of the 8th Earl De La Warr. Lady Avice was the former wife of the future MI5 head Stewart Menzies (d. 1968) and left him for Spicer. Despite this, Spicer and his wife were close friends of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother who visited the Spye Park estate regularly in the Fifties. The second house built by Major Spicer, the first of five generations of Spicers, was destroyed by fire in 1974. Today, no trace of the great Spye Park mansion exists. Even the foundations have been covered over with grass. According to a local history website,
The estate was sold by Simon and Rosamund Spicer, the fifth generation of the family to live on the estate to the Enthoven Family of South Africa (Nandos Chicken owners and 〔Hollard Group Hollard Insurance〕) for 8 million pounds in 2005.〔() Spye Park sold for £8m From the ''Swindon Advertiser'', first published Thursday 7 Jul 2005. Retrieved 15 December 2007.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Spye Park」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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