) A century later, in 1512, Sir John Spencer was granted licence to impark 300 a. of land and 200 a. of wood at Wicken: (fn. 79) even if these figures are notional, they suggest a considerable enlargement of the medieval park and also point to the survival of woodland in this part of the parish, as the survey made for Charles Hosier in 1717 also indicates. (fn. 80) In 1604 Robert Lord Spencer received a confirmation of the grant of 1512, which was confirmed again in 1639. (fn. 81) In about 1651, however, the 2nd earl of Sunderland disparked Wicken, when Sir Peter Temple Bt., an ancestor of the dukes of Buckingham and Chandos, purchased the deer for his new park a few miles away at Stowe (Bucks.). (fn. 82) By 1717 much of the park had been divided into closes, although a large area of lawn survived to the north of the keeper's lodge, as well as the woodland to the west, and a broad avenue which ran roughly south-east from the lodge for over a mile, through the park and the common-field arable near the Ouse to the parish boundary, crossing both branches of the road to Buckingham. (fn. 83)
Charles Hosier, who bought the Wicken estate in 1716, commissioned a detailed survey the following year, when he also built a new house adjoining the keeper's lodge in the former park. (fn. 84) Either Hosier (who died in 1750) or his immediate successor Thomas Prowse (died 1767) re-established a park around the house, on less formal (and possibly less extensive) lines than its predecessor, with stretches of grassland (some of it recovered from closes taken out of the old park), extending on all sides from the house. A broad belt of woodland was retained to the west of the mansion but the avenue was completely swept away. (fn. 85)
Few changes appear to have been made to the park between the early 19th century and the Second World War, when much of the land was ploughed up and remained in agricultural use after 1945. (fn. 86) After the war the mansion, including outbuildings and grounds, were let to a private school. (fn. 87)
There was presumably a keeper's lodge in the medieval park, which was evidently rebuilt in the early 17th century, since the surviving building, later used as stables and in modern times converted into flats, bears the Spencer arms and the date 1614 on the porch. (fn. 88) The former lodge is built of coursed rubble limestone with a plain-tile roof and brick end-stacks on stone bases. It is T-shaped in plan, of two storeys and attics, four bays wide.
Charles Hosier's new house of 1717 appears to have consisted of a seven-bay, two-storey range, in plain limestone ashlar beneath a hipped slate roof. (fn. 89) In February 1765 Thomas Prowse, an amateur architect, prepared plans for additions to the house, including three garrets and probably also the wings, and ordered the existing building to be repaired and the roof re-tiled. (fn. 90) The new roof and the shell of the new building were finished by August that year, (fn. 91) although fitting-up of rooms and work in the grounds continued until at least 1793, during which time new rides were laid out in the park and woods. (fn. 92) In 1792-3 Mrs. Prowse had the library furnished to receive her brother Granville Sharp's books. (fn. 93) One result of the rebuilding was the introduction of coal (brought by road from Northampton until the canal was built) (fn. 94) for domestic use at the house in 1766, whereas previously only wood had been burnt. (fn. 95) Wicken Park was further enlarged by Lord Penrhyn in 1913, chiefly by the addition of a third storey to the main range to accommodate visiting servants. (fn. 96)
In 1945 the mansion was described as being of no architectural merit but in good structural condition, following the alterations of 1913. (fn. 97) Both the main house and the outbuildings, including the 17th-century lodge, were altered to suit the needs of the tenants after Wicken Park became a school. (fn. 98)
MANORS AND OTHER ESTATES.
There were two manors in Wicken, later known as Wick Dive and Wick Hamon, from before the Norman Conquest, although only the latter had