Editing Hammerwood Park (section)

===The site before 1792===
The land previously comprised part of a previous estate known as '''The Bower''', probably named after a family called Atte Boure, who are listed as paying tax to [[Edward I]] in the 1290s, a substantial landholding which included parts of the parishes of [[East Grinstead]] and [[Hartfield]]. Sometime during the 1500s the owners, the Botting family, founded an [[Wealden iron industry|iron forge]] to the east of the ponds in the valley to the south of the current house (coordinates: {{coord|51.126641|0.060212|display=inline|format=dms}}). The forge may have been in existence in 1558, when Hugh Botting left "two tons of yron" in his will; it was working in 1653 but ruined by 1664. The dam has been recorded as {{convert|200|m|yd}} long.<ref>[https://archive.today/20130415223445/http://theweald.org/bk.asp?BookId=scm13d528&Xid=A&xnm=1 The Weald]</ref><ref>[http://www.wirgdata.org/searchsites.cgi Wealden Iron Research Group] Enter 'Botting Forge' in search box</ref><ref>[https://archive.today/20130416011043/http://theweald.org/bk.asp?BookId=scm13d531&xid=A&xnm=1 The Weald]</ref>

In 1693, a part of the woodland adjoining the [[Ashdown Forest]] was felled to clear the grounds of the former house on the present site.<ref name=HPparkland>{{cite web|title=The 18th century parkland|url=http://www.hammerwood.mistral.co.uk/parkland.htm|website=hammerwood.mistral.co.uk|accessdate=9 August 2015}}</ref> The estate, which is thought to have been part of a [[Deer park (England)|medieval deer park]],<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bannister|first1=Dr Nicola|title=Medieval Deer Parks And Designed Landscapes In The High Weald Historic Landscape Characterisation Analysis Stages 1&2|date=September 2009|publisher=A report to the High Weald Joint Advisory Committee|pages=14–17}}</ref> later passed to other families and in 1766 the owner paid [[window tax]] on forty-one windows, making the Bower the fifth largest out of the 150 taxable residences in East Grinstead. It seems likely that the present Bower House, a [[Tudor architecture|Tudor farmhouse]] in the village of Hammerwood, is of no direct relation. There existed a previous building on the site of what was to become Hammerwood Lodge; foundations and walls in the west of the central block of the current house have been dated to pre-1792, and it would seem likely that this was the principal dwelling of the Bower.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Small|first1=Jonathan|title=Pre-1792: origins|url=http://hammerwoodpark.co.uk/7150/|website=Hammerwood Park|access-date=8 August 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160422184151/http://hammerwoodpark.co.uk/7150/|archive-date=22 April 2016|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref name=JHU2005>{{cite book|last1=Fazio|first1=Michael W.|last2=Snadon|first2=Patrick A.|title=The Domestic Architecture of Benjamin Henry Latrobe|date=2005|publisher=JHU Press|isbn=9780801881046|pages=86–140}}</ref>