Mr William Garret acquired the farm house and gardens and adjoining land here at Leigh in 1800. He came from a well-known Portsmouth family or brewers and merchant venturers; and his brother was Vice Admiral Henry Garrett. He played a big part in forming and maintaining the local militia during the last years of the Napoleonic wars.
Over the next seven years Garrett enlarged the estate buying farmland, parkland and part of the Ancient Forest of Bere- and set about enclosing a further 400 acres of common land to make his estate.
In 1802 he built a new house for his family and was known as a generous host. He enclosed around 400 acres of common land to create an estate.
Garrett began the landscaping of the grounds gardens and parks that form the basis of the park we know today, even converting the farm to a fashionable ferme orneee – or ornamental farm, keeping pheasants, peacocks and fancy hens, “Farm buildings , dairy embellished with old china (tiles), and pheasentry adjoining…”
The Hampshire Telegraph at the time reported that Garrett lived;
“In considerable state and he entertained parties of cricketers, being himself a cricketer of some fame besides being thoroughly well versed in field sports of all sorts”.
