In 1538, the thirtieth anniversary of his accession to the throne, Henry VIII began to build his magnificent hunting lodge, Nonsuch Palace. Henry had just acquired the manor of Cuddington, including church, village and manor house, which he promptly demolished to make way for his new dream home. The palace, richly decorated with stucco and carved slate in the Renaissance

 style, was conceived on a grand scale to celebrate the long-awaited birth of his heir, Prince Edward, and the construction must have made a considerable impact on the nearby villages of Cheam and Ewell.

The palace was built around two courtyards and was about the size of a modern football pitch. The outer courtyard was a fairly typical building of the period, but the inner courtyard was one of the most extraordinary structures in Renaissance Europe.

The upper part was timber-framed and decorated with a complex series of high-relief stucco panels, separated by carved and gilded slate.

Henry VIII died in 1547, when the building was almost complete. and Mary I sold the palace to the twelfth Earl of Arundel, Henry Fitzalan, who later, in an attempt to persuade Elizabeth I that he was her ideal man, bankrupted himself by completing the Palace and gardens. The palace passed to the Earl’s heir and son-in-law, John, Lord Lumley (whose family tombs are housed in Cheam’s Lumley Chapel, see Lumley Chapel page), who, having inherited massive debts along with the Palace, gave Nonsuch back to Elizabeth and became Keeper of the Palace.

The palace remained in royal hands until 1649, when it was confiscated after the Civil War, although it was later returned to Charles I’s wife, Henrietta Maria.

The Exchequer moved to Nonsuch at the time of the plague in 1665, and during the Fire of London the following year. Charles II gave the palace to his mistress, Barbara Villiers, Countess of Castlemaine, who was created Baroness Nonsuch. In 1682 she sold it for its building materials, to pay off her gambling debts, and the once famous palace was gradually demolished.

The palace was excavated in 1959 and the Banqueting House in the following year. Although the excavations had to be filled in, to prevent deterioration of the foundations, valuable information was gained and a large number of finds recovered, including pottery, glassware, stucco and decorative slates. A case of material from the excavation may be seen at Whitehall and architectural reconstruction drawings (made before the excavation but still giving much accurate information) are on view in several rooms of Whitehall. Of particular note is the full-size photograph over the fireplace in the tea-room, of a painting bequeathed to the Nonsuch Park Joint Management Committee. This shows Nonsuch Palace sometime between 1660 and 1682, while George, 1^st Earl of Berkeley, was Keeper of the Palace.