Albury Park 1.33

Albury Park is a country park and Grade II* listed historic country house (Albury Park Mansion) in Surrey, England. It covers over 150acre; within this area is the old village of Albury, which consists of three or four houses and a church. The River Tillingbourne runs through the grounds. The gardens of Albury Park are Grade I listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.Pre-1890The Saxon Old St Peter and St Paul's Church, within the grounds of Albury Park, predates 1066. Albury Park was mentioned in the Domesday Book. Over the centuries the estate has changed hands many times.The grounds of Albury Park were laid out by John Evelyn, the 17th century diarist and landscape gardener between 1655 and 1677. He lived nearby at Wotton. At this time the park was owned by Henry Howard who later became the 6th Duke of Norfolk. John Evelyn's work included a yew walk, a vineyard, a terrace a quarter of a mile long, and a 160-yard tunnel, through the hill under Silver Wood. Beneath the terrace was a chamber built in imitation of a Roman bath, with niches for sculpture. He also designed a wide canal fed by the River Tillingbourne; it was drained in the early nineteenth century. Many of Evelyn's alterations to the mansion were destroyed in a fire in 1697. At that time the owner was Heneage Finch who later became the first Earl of Aylesford and Solicitor-General to Charles II. Finch rebuilt the mansion.