Abbey House Gardens is a country house garden in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, England, covering . The garden was transformed in the 1990s by the so-called Naked Gardeners: Ian and Barbara Pollard. In 2021 the property was acquired by new American owners, Whit and Kim Hanks. They plan to convert the house into a boutique hotel, while ensuring that the gardens are regularly opened to the public. During the 2022 summer season the gardens were opened from May to October on the second Saturday of each month.
Abbey House
Abbey House is a Tudor mansion built on part of the site of Malmesbury Abbey, a medieval Benedictine monastery which was closed in 1539. It is a Grade I listed building. The Tudor house was built on top of a substantial late 13th century undercroft which was part of the abbey buildings. The purpose of the medieval undercroft is not clear but it contains some fine Early English features. It was almost certainly built by Abbot Walter of Colerne (1260–1296) who undertook a substantial rebuilding programme at the abbey. The Tudor design of the house followed a characteristic half-H-shaped plan, with two protruding gabled bays at each end of the front elevation. To the east of the original Tudor house there is a substantial early 20th-century extension in the style of the 16th-century house. At the rear of the house, the windows of the medieval undercroft are visible on the ground floor level.
The Stumpe family
Abbey House was built in the 16th century as a home for the wealthy Stumpe family. William Stumpe, the founder of the dynasty, was one of England's most successful entrepreneurs in the time of Henry VIII. He made his fortune as a producer of woollen cloth. Following the closure of Malmesbury Abbey in 1539, Stumpe purchased the site. He gave a large part of the Abbey to the town as a parish church and reserved much of the rest of the site as the setting for a family home. Although we have no documentary evidence it seems likely that Stumpe began to build Abbey House in the 1540s and the building work was continued by his son, Sir James Stumpe, who inherited his father's huge fortune in 1552. James Stumpe and his wife, Lady Isabel, lived at Abbey House until his death in 1563. Queen Elizabeth I knew the Stumpes personally and borrowed money from them; at the time of James Stumpe's death the Queen owed him £100. In the 1590s William Stumpe's grandson, John Stumpe, lived at the house with his wife, Anne. A bitter argument developed between Anne Stumpe and Lady Mary Knyvett of Charlton Park. In 1595 Anne Stumpe complained to the Star Chamber that Mary Knyvett tried to kill her by sending a gunman to shoot her at Abbey House: the gunman missed but she was traumatised by the experience.
The manor of Malmesbury
By the early 1600s Abbey House was part of a large portfolio of property in the town known as the manor of Malmesbury. The lordship of the manor, and ownership of Abbey House, belonged in the early seventeenth century to the Danvers family. John Danvers, who was also the MP for Malmesbury, was a signatory to the death warrant of King Charles I. In the late 17th and early 18th century the manor was owned by Thomas Wharton and his son, Philip. They had reputations for wild living. Philip Wharton was one of the founders of the original Hellfire Club. Sir John Rushout bought the manor, including Abbey House, from the Whartons in 1743. Abbey House belonged to members of the Rushout family for 150 years until, in 1896, Lady Elizabeth Rushout broke up the manor and sold off Abbey House.
Residents in the 17th century included some remarkable people. By the time of the Civil War the tenants of Abbey House were members of the Royalist Ivie family. In 1644 the town was captured by a Parliamentarian army commanded by Nicholas Devereux, who requisitioned Abbey House. One of Devereux's senior officers, Marmaduke Pudsey, fell in love with Mary Ivie and, despite their political differences, they were married at Malmesbury Abbey on 30 September 1644. Mary's brother, Thomas Ivie was absent working for the East India Company in the 1640s and was governor of Madras, India. He returned to England and married Theodosia Garrett in 1649. She refused to move to Abbey House and wanted to live in London. They separated and she successfully sued him for maintenance payments. Ivie responded in 1654 by publishing a pamphlet denouncing his wife, titled Alimony Arraign'd. Thomas accused Theodosia of using witchcraft against him. The couple were reconciled in 1660 and Theodosia came to live at Abbey House during the 1660s. They argued again in about 1670 and Theodosia left Malmesbury for good. Thomas used his will to disinherit her.