Wentworth Estate

The 19th-century house the "Wentworths" (now the club house for the Wentworth Club) was the home of a brother-in-law of the 1st Duke of Wellington. It was purchased in 1850 by the exiled Spanish count Ramon Cabrera, and after his death his wife bought up the surrounding lands which were later to form the nucleus of the Wentworth Estate.[1]

In 1912, builder W.G. Tarrant had started developing St George's Hill, Weybridge – a development of houses based on minimum 1-acre (0.40 ha) plots based around a golf course. In 1922 Tarrant acquired the development rights for the Wentworth Estate, getting Harry 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 – had 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 II when the need arose to build high-density housing close to Virginia Water railway station.[3]

With the outbreak of World War II, Wentworth Estate was selected as an alternative seat of government and a rural command post, offering fewer security problems and more resources than the London Cabinet War Rooms (see also Cabinet War Rooms - Military Citadels under London.[4] A subterranean bunker and tunnel system, now sealed and covered by car parks, was built near the Clubhouse. Designed by Harley Dalrymple-Hay[5], it was constructed in 1939 and consisted of two 25 feet (7.6 m) diameter parallel tunnels made from cast iron London Underground tube segments with a 12 feet (3.7 m) diameter service tunnel running between them. The bunkers were oppcupued by the GHQ Home Forces, and later the 1st Signal Regiment. The bunkers were vacated in December 1944. [6][7](See also)

Post-war development picked up considerably, and by 1960 most of the available land was already used.

Founder residents included Agatha Christie and her first husband who was a friend of one of the estate's founders. The original residents built their own homes in any style they wished. She and her husband separated while living there and she sold the house, reportedly to pay the loan she had taken out to pay for it.

• Russ Abbot – entertainer [19]
• Boris Berezovsky – oligarch[20]
• Diana Dors – actress
• Bryan Forbes – actor and film director [21]
• Sir Bruce Forsyth – entertainer [22]
• Sir Elton John – musician [23]
• Nanette Newman - actress
• Augusto Pinochet, former President of Chile[24]
• Prajadhipok, abdicated king of Thailand[25]
• Sir Cliff Richard – singer
• Sarah, Duchess of York
• Andriy Shevchenko – striker for Chelsea F.C.[16]
• Ted Heath - bandleader
• John Hay Whitney - US ambassador to the UK, publisher, art collector, philanthropist and investor [26]
• Betsey Cushing Roosevelt Whitney