HER 15097 - Formal Garden at Nonsuch Palace, Ewell Road , Cheam

King Henry VIII began to build Nonsuch Palace on 22 April 1538, the thirtieth anniversary of his accession. The King's advisors chose a site then occupied by the village of Cuddington, with its church and manor house. These were cleared away and the owners compensated. Within two months of work beginning, the name 'Nonsuch' first appears in the building accounts. The structure was perhaps substantially complete by January 1541, but the decorations of the outside walls, which were to be the fame of Nonsuch and the explanation of Henry's purpose in its creation, were still in progress five years later. By November 1545 the work had cost £24,536 - half as much again as was spent at Hampton Court in the same period. When Henry died on 28 January 1547, the palace was still unfinished, but what little remained to be done was completed by Henry Fitzalan, twelfth earl of Arundel, after his purchase of the palace from the crown in 1556. Elizabeth I regained Nonsuch in 1592 and it remained in Royal hands, (apart from the Commonwealth), until 1670, when Charles II gave it to his erstwhile mistress, Barbara Villiers, created Baroness Nonsuch, Duchess of Cleveland. She demolished the palace in 1682-3 and broke up the parks to sell to cover her gambling debts. The site was excavated in 1959. Only small remnants of the Palace can be seen today.

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