A new century brought a new world, and it was a world in which the great country estates of England could not survive. During the next fifty years the old European power system, the political and economic structures of the civilized world, and the great colonial empires were all stricken and, in some cases, dissolved.
In such a world the great country estates of England had no place. The houses were bought by the National Trust or became hotels and conference centres, and their previous owners moved into the cottages once leased to their gardeners. Those who had lived in the cottages could not afford to buy the houses they had once lived in and were forced to move to the towns for work and housing. The result of all this was the decline of village life. Horace Walpole died in 1919 and his eldest daughter Dorothy inherited the estate. Over time, parts of the estate were sold to either private owners or the local councils to provide housing for returning servicemen. Finally, Dorothy died in the late 1970s. In 1981 the house itself and its 67 acres of grounds were sold to become a conference and training centre. Since then the building has been extended, over the site of the Orangery and Chapel and the first walled garden, for delegate accommodation and training rooms.
Heckfield Place continues as a vibrant and living business. Its walls and the very boundaries that surround it speak volumes about centuries of human history and especially about an empire that rose and fell around it. Its future as a conference centre is part of a new way of living and thinking, part of a New Britain. At the beginning of a new century, the land and grounds of Heckfield Place provide an enduring link to an ancient, storied past and a hopeful bridge to a promising future.
The 20th Century and Beyond 