Mayfield House was built in 1854 by Robert Wright, after whom Wright's Hill is named. Wright moved here in 1856 from his former house at Oak Bank, Itchen Ferry. Between 1889 and 1913 Mayfield was owned by the third Baron Radstock, a Christian missionary and evangelist. His son, the fourth Baron Radstock, also lived at Mayfield until his death in 1937 when the house passed into the hands of Southampton Council who opened up the grounds as a public park. The house itself was demolished in 1956, although the stable block on Wright's Hill is still standing (image 2). Built on three sides of a courtyard, the two-storey stable block has a clock tower surmounted by a cupola and weathervane. It is Grade II listed. Lodge House, a former lodge to Mayfield Park built c.1860, survives in Weston Lane (clipping 2 below), as do a set of gate piers which formerly stood at the entrance to the estate. They are all Grade II listed.
Alderman Walter Alford played a part in the Council's acquisition of the grounds as a public park, and a fountain in the park commemorates him.
Mayfield Park
Photograph, c.1930
1. Mayfield Park
Photograph, c.1901
2. Mayfield House Stable Block, Wrights Hill
Photograph, 1941
Newspaper clippings:
see also
Further reading:
Lost Houses of Southampton, by Jessica Vale. (HS/i)
‘The Country Houses of Southampton’, by Jessica Vale in Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society, volume 39, 1983, p183, 185, 186. (HS/i)
Stories of Southampton Streets, by A. G. K. Leonard, p76-78. (HS/h)
Lord Radstock of Mayfield, by David Fountain, p53-73. (HS/t)
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