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Our History
A Brief History of Camfield Place
Camfield Place sits within a landscape shaped over thousands of years, from prehistoric woodland clearances to the creation of a distinguished Hertfordshire country estate. The story of Camfield weaves together ancient settlement, evolving English landscape fashions, literary heritage and the lives of the families who shaped it.
Centuries of Stewardship
Early Origins
Archaeological finds show human activity here from the Bronze Age, including a palstave axe discovered near today’s Lower Lake. By the Roman period, Welwyn had grown into an important local centre and villas dotted the surrounding countryside. Through the Middle Ages, Camfield lay on the edge of the great Hatfield hunting forest, with woodland, smallholdings and lanes forming the structure of the landscape we still recognise.
A famous relic of this period is the Deer Oak, a veteran tree traditionally associated with Princess Elizabeth (later Elizabeth I), who was said to have killed her first deer beside it. Although the tree predates the story, it remains one of the estate’s most iconic features.
Nineteenth Century: Potter Family & Beatrix Potter
In 1866, the estate was purchased by Edmund Potter, industrialist, MP and grandfather of Beatrix Potter. The sales particulars describe a “family mansion” set in 78 acres of park, surrounded by pleasure grounds, shrubberies, lakes and extensive productive gardens.
Beatrix visited throughout her childhood, and Camfield became “the place she loved best in the world”. Its gardens, woodland and lakes may have inspired The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1901). Many features she sketched and wrote about —including the stable yard and the parkland views which remain recognisable today.
After the death of her grandmother, the estate was sold in 1892, but the Potter legacy remains a cherished part of Camfield’s identity.
Recent Years
From the late 20th century the estate continued to evolve, with stewardship passing down the McCorquodale family. In 2016, Tom and Tara Parker moved to Home Farm, taking on day-to-day management and beginning the next chapter of restoration, conservation and renewal—continuing a 400-year pattern of care for this unique Hertfordshire landscape.
Seventeenth–Eighteenth Century: The Birth of an Estate
The name “Camfield” derives from the Camvile/Canvile family, landholders in the area during the 13th–15th centuries. By 1601, historical records describe “a mansion-house and farm called Camfield”. Early illustrations (such as Chauncy’s c.1700 view) reveal a timber-framed manor house surrounded by orchards, formal gardens and early water features that foreshadow the modern lakes.
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In 1760, Camfield was acquired by Thomas ‘Sense’ Browne, one of the most notable land surveyors of his age and a contemporary of Capability Brown. Although Capability Brown did not work here, Browne remodelled Camfield in the fashionable naturalistic style, replacing the old manor with a modern villa and likely shaping the early parkland, walled garden and ornamental lakes that form the core of today's landscape.
Twentieth Century: From Queensborough to Barbara Cartland
By the early 20th century Camfield was a thriving small estate, valued for its landscape, sporting opportunities and proximity to London. It was owned successively by the McConnells and then by Lord and Lady Queensborough, who carried out significant improvements including glasshouses, a new entrance lodge and infrastructure works.
In 1947 the estate was purchased by the McCorquodale family. Camfield soon became home to the celebrated novelist Dame Barbara Cartland, who lived here for more than 50 years. A prominent figure in British cultural life, she entertained leading political and artistic guests, many of whom planted commemorative trees in the gardens. On her death in 2000, Barbara Cartland was laid to rest at Camfield, near the Deer Oak.
The post-war decades also saw Camfield appear in popular film and television productions, including The Avengers, and the estate remained an active mixed farm into the 1960s.
Every flower, every tree, every stone at Camfield holds a story waiting to be discovered.
— The Family