Stocks House

Stocks House was built in 1773 on the site of an earlier manor house known as La Stok which had existed since medieval times. Records from the 17th century show that the land was in the possession of Robert Duncombe, an ancestor of the Lords Feversham. In 1773, Arnold Duncombe built himself a new house.{{National Heritage List for England|num=1078055|desc=Stocks House|access-date=3 May 2017|mode=cs2}} The estate then passed successively to the Hayton, Whitbread and Gordon families.{{cite book|title=A History of the County of Hertford|editor=William Page|year=1908|series=Victoria County History|volume=2|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=43263}}

The house has had a number of literary associations. James Adam Gordon, who inherited the Stocks estate in 1832, was a friend of the Scottish author Sir Walter Scott, and it is reputed that the writer visited Gordon at Stocks House. In 1891, the house was inherited by Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon, who served as British Foreign Minister and Ambassador to the United States, from his grandfather. Lord Falloden's career never allowed him to live there, and in 1892 he sold Stocks House {{cite book|last=Lownes|first=Victor|title=Playboy Extraordinary|publisher=Granada Publishing|location=St Albans|year=1982|isbn=0-246-11793-1}} to best-selling British novelist Mary Augusta Ward and her husband Thomas Humphry Ward who made Stocks their home until Mary's death in 1920.{{cite web|title=Aldbury: Be here now|url=http://www.hertfordshirelife.co.uk/out-about/places/aldbury-be-here-now-1-1631649|website=Hertfordshire Life|access-date=3 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170503104502/http://www.hertfordshirelife.co.uk/out-about/places/aldbury-be-here-now-1-1631649|archive-date=3 May 2017|language=en|url-status = live}} Mary was the better known writer of the two, and published two best-selling novels Lady Rose's Daughter (1903) and The Marriage of William Ashe (1905), under the pen name Mrs Humphry Ward.

While the Wards lived at Stocks, it became a bustling salon of leading intellectual luminaries. Upon Ward's death, Stocks was inherited by her son, a Member of Parliament, Arnold Ward.{{cite web|url=http://spartacus-educational.com/PRward.htm |publisher=Spartacus|title=Arnold Ward|access-date=27 June 2015}} who sold Stocks to the Blezard family, who later sold it to the bachelor Arthur Brown of the Luton quaker family of timber millers.

In 1944, Stocks House became a residential school when a finishing school in England for upper-class girls, Brondesbury, moved to Stocks manor house from the manor estate in Surrey, where it had previously been located.{{cite web|url=http://site.dacorum.gov.uk/plandocs/6/41/83/53/41835326.pdf|title=Stocks Golf Club: Design and access statement|publisher=Dacorum Council |access-date=16 January 2016}} {{Dead link|date=May 2017}} The school was then dubbed Brondesbury-at-Stocks. Katharina Forbes-Dunlop, a British author, became the last headmistress of the school, some years later.{{cite web|url=http://www.gamusic.com/inspirations/inspire.html |title=Inspiration: Katharina Forbes Dunlop (Aunt Bengie) |last=Bernstein |first=Margaret |website=Growing Azalea Music |access-date=5 May 2017 |url-status = live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100419001728/http://www.gamusic.com/inspirations/inspire.html |archive-date=19 April 2010 }} In 1972 Forbes-Dunlop retired: she died at the age of 100.

File:Pool at Stocks House 120507.jpg

In 1972, Stocks House achieved some notoriety when it was purchased by American Playboy executive Victor Lownes and English Playboy Playmate Marilyn Cole for £115,000. They renovated the house and fitted it out with a private disco, games room and swimming pool and installed a massive jacuzzi - reputedly the largest in the country. The mansion was used as a training camp for Playboy bunnies and Lownes was well known for leading a "lothario" lifestyle and hosting extravagant parties at Stocks. His most notorious party lasted a full 25 hours and featured a funfair in the grounds, and guests drank champagne and cavorted with models and beauty queens.{{cite web|title=Victor Lownes, Swashbuckling Playboy Executive – Obituary|url=http://www.casinolifemagazine.com/article/victor-lownes-swashbuckling-playboy-executive-%E2%80%93-obituary|website=Casino Life Magazine|access-date=4 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170504163140/http://www.casinolifemagazine.com/article/victor-lownes-swashbuckling-playboy-executive-%E2%80%93-obituary|date=16 January 2017|archive-date=4 May 2017|url-status = live}} (originally published in [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2017/01/12/victor-lownes-swashbuckling-playboy-executive-obituary/ The Telegraph])

The parties were attended by a number of celebrities of the day including Peter Cook, John Cleese, Christopher Reeve, Jack Nicholson, Keith Moon and Tony Curtis,{{cite book|last1=Cook|first1=Judy|last2=Levin|first2=Angela|title=Loving Peter: My life with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore|date=2008|publisher=Little, Brown Book Group|isbn=9780748110261|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QsjcIbVoVBYC&q=Victor%20Lownes%20stocks%20house&pg=PT167|access-date=3 May 2017|language=en|chapter=15. Town and Country Living}} as well as Hugh Hefner, Kenny Lynch, Dai Llewellyn, Mick Jagger, Warren Beatty, Roman Polanski, Bryan Ferry and Ringo Starr. The ITN newsreader Reginald Bosanquet reportedly appeared at the events strutting around in a fez and calf-length boots. The parties attracted some comment from local residents; one local, complaining about a Hogmanay party held at Stocks, remarked: "At 3am on the first, the swimming pool was alive to the cries of naked ladies. And they were not singing Auld Lang Syne."

Despite his reputation for rowdy celebrations, Lownes was popular with villagers for his support for local charities. He donated Christmas hampers to elderly locals and supported community initiatives such as the Tring Donkey Derby, bringing to the event Playboy Bunny Girls and celebrity guests such as Miss World Silvana Suárez and the racehorse Red Rum.{{cite news|title=The Playboy who threw parties in Aldbury|url=http://www.tringtoday.co.uk/news/the-playboy-who-threw-parties-in-aldbury-1-7778466|access-date=5 May 2017|work=Tring Gazette|date=18 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170505100849/http://www.tringtoday.co.uk/news/the-playboy-who-threw-parties-in-aldbury-1-7778466|archive-date=5 May 2017|language=en}}

Lownes also owned the house at 1 Connaught Square in London, which coincidentally was once the townhouse of Mary Augusta Ward, the former owner of Stocks, who died there.

Following Lownes' ownership, Stocks was acquired by English Cricket player Phil Edmonds in the 1980s{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/columnists/simonhughes/2356024/Spinner-may-yet-turn-over-a-tidy-profit.html|title=Spinner may yet turn a tidy profit|work=The Daily Telegraph|date=1 March 2005}} and then by Bridgend Group which converted it into a hotel and spa in the 1990s.{{cite web|url=https://www.thecaterer.com/archive/imperial-hotel-is-hanovers-first-purchase|title=Imperial Hotel is Hanover's first purchase|date=1 January 2000|work=The Caterer}}

In 2004, Stocks was sold to Peter Harris, a retired horse trainer, entrepreneur and multimillionaire, for an undisclosed sum. A planning application to Dacorum to restore the historic Stocks Hotel back to a private home was made.{{cite news|url=http://www.hemeltoday.co.uk/news/more-news/village-steaming-over-redcoats-in-a-hot-tub-1-1191693|title=Village steaming over Redcoats in a hot tub|work=Hemel Today|date=18 April 2007|access-date=27 June 2015}} The extensive renovation work was undertaken by Holloway White Allom and completed in early 2008. The architect for the project was Hugh Petter, Director at ADAM Architecture. It is now a family home once again occupied by Harris's daughter Alison (former wife of deceased jockey Walter Swinburn) and her children.

File:BeHereNowcover.jpg album, Be Here Now]]

Stocks House and the village of Aldbury have been a popular choice for location shooting for music, film and television productions. In 1967 the house was used for an episode of the popular television serial The Avengers entitled "Murdersville".{{cite book|last1=Jones|first1=Mark|title=Film & TV Locations in the Chilterns and Thames Valley 1940-2014|date=2015|publisher=WP Comics Ltd.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YucqBwAAQBAJ&q=stocks%20house%20aldbury%20filming%20location&pg=PA88|access-date=4 May 2017|language=en}}{{cite web|title=The Avengers Forever: On Location|url=http://theavengers.tv/forever/locations-5.htm|website=theavengers.tv|access-date=4 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160809073747/http://theavengers.tv/forever/locations-5.htm|archive-date=9 August 2016|url-status = live}}

Some shots in the music video for the 1982 song "Our House" by Madness were filmed at Stocks House.{{cite book|last1=Reed|first1=John|title=House of Fun: The Story of Madness|date=17 November 2011|publisher=Omnibus Press|isbn=9780857127150|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e-WaAwAAQBAJ&q=Victor%20Lownes%20stocks%20house&pg=PT256|language=en}}

The music video for the 1984 song "Up Around the Bend" by the Finnish rock band Hanoi Rocks was filmed at Stocks House.{{cite book |last=Thomas |first=Justin |date=2016 |title=Hanoi Rocks ’82-’84 |publisher=Like Kustannus |isbn=978-952-01-1533-3}}

In 1997 the house and swimming pool also featured on the cover of the Oasis album, Be Here Now. For the photo shoot, a white 1972 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow was lowered into the swimming pool.{{cite web |last1=Maunder |first1=Rhys |title=Flying Spares X Oasis (Be Here Now) |url=https://www.flyingspares.com/news/homepage-featured/oasis-be-here-now.html |website=www.flyingspares.com |publisher=Flying Spares |access-date=15 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220415083635/https://www.flyingspares.com/news/homepage-featured/oasis-be-here-now.html |archive-date=15 April 2022 |language=en |date=10 December 2021 |url-status=live}}

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Category:Country houses in Hertfordshire

Category:Defunct schools in Hertfordshire

Category:Girls' schools in Hertfordshire

Category:Relocated schools

Category:Playboy

Category:Grade II listed buildings in Hertfordshire

Category:Neoclassical architecture in Hertfordshire

Category:1773 establishments in England

Category:Houses completed in 1773