English: Park House, Leverington, near to Fitton End, Cambridgeshire, Great Britain.

PARK HOUSE lies in Park Field on the north side of the Gorefield Road. The first recorded owner is John Lumpkin (1655-1743), a member of a family recorded in the Leverington marriage registers in 1612. John Lumpkin was succeeded by his son Nicholas (1685-1748) and he by Nicholas II (1728- 94). The second Nicholas was D.L. for the Isle. In 1794 he owned 134 acres in Leverington and lands outside the parish also. He was succeeded as owner of Park House by his son Nicholas III (d. ante 1828), who in 1798 was obliged to mortgage the house to his brother-in-law Samuel Taylor for �2,300. He obtained a further �800 from this source two years later. By 1805 he found himself owing another �1,700, and decided to sell the property. (fn. 1) It was accordingly conveyed to trustees for sale for payment of creditors, the ultimate surplus to be returned to Lumpkin. At the auction in 1805 Samuel Taylor purchased the bulk of the property, but died before it could be conveyed to him, and accordingly, under directions in his will, Park House and about 40 acres were conveyed in trust for his son Nicholas, who went to reside there and by sundry purchases added considerably to it. Other parts of the Lumpkin property were conveyed to Samuel Taylor and Francis Taylor, two other sons. Nicholas Taylor died in 1869 leaving everything to his wife Sarah, who died three years later. In 1880 the property, about 150. acres, belonged to their son Francis Nicholas Taylor, being then in the occupation of his son Francis Nicholas Taylor. The greater part of the estate was sold in 1889 to Sir Samuel Roberts of Sheffield, who in 1919 sold it to Alfred Coates, the occupying tenant. After Coates's death it was sold in lots in 1944 when Park House with about 25 acres was purchased by Mr. G. A. Shippey of Gorefield, who subsequently purchased adjoining land to add to it. The house was empty on the outbreak of war in 1939 and some families of London evacuees who were installed in it did great damage to the interior. An attempt has since been made to repair some of the damage.
The front of the house is of 18th-century date and has been imposed upon an earlier structure. Oliver Goldsmith is reputed to have written She stoops to conquer under the shade of a fine old mulberry tree in the garden, for long pointed out to visitors but now removed. The pond in which Mrs. Hardcastle was 'draggled up to her waist like a mermaid' after her 'circumbendibus' is still pointed out. It is now within the paddock in front of the house, but when the play was written was part of the open common and therefore readily available on a dark night for such an accident as is related. It is also claimed that the play was written at Leverington rectory, where Goldsmith is reported to have stayed as a visitor, but there is no authentic evidence to support either tradition.

From: 'Wisbech Hundred: Leverington', A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 4: City of Ely; Ely, N. and S. Witchford and Wisbech Hundreds (2002), pp. 186-197. URL: <a title="http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=21916" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=21916">Link</a><img style="padding-left:2px;" alt="External link" title="External link - shift click to open in new window" src="http://s0.geograph.org.uk/img/external.png" width="10" height="10"/> Date accessed: 16 October 2009.