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In 1535, after Mary’s death, Charles Brandon was evidently in debt to the King, and Ewelme manor (with others) was given up in recompense. Correspondence in July 1535 from 1st Baron Richard Ryche to the King indicates that the manors were in great decay, although Brandon said he had spent £1,000 on Ewelme. In reply on behalf of the King, Thomas Cromwell wrote that “Touching the decay of Ewelme and .... Whatever the Duke has spent on them it well appears in what decay they stand. The King himself viewed Ewelme when lately there”. There is nothing to indicate whether the Park was also ‘in decay’, nor whether the pales were maintained. Brandon re-conveyed Ewelme and Swyncombe manors to the Crown, and for almost 100 years the Park became the Royal Park of Ewelme. Mention of the Park during this period is very limited, which is surprising in view of its size and direct ownership and control by the Crown. Henry VIII also visited Ewelme at other times. In August 1540 a Privy Council meeting was held there, and he visited on honeymoon with Catherine Howard. I have found no reference of any visit to the Park.
In 1536, Edmund Ashfield was appointed ‘Keeper and master of the wild beasts there, with the herbage and pannage of the said park, and the browse and the windfalls there’. On 22nd June 1538 Sir Francis Bryan was made Steward of Ewelme manor and master of the deer of Ewelme Park. Edward VI gave the manor and Park to his sister Princess Elizabeth for life on 24th April 1551. From then the Keepership effectively became a hereditary distinction and office of profit in the hands of the Knollys family of Greys Court - the Earls of Banbury. Sir Francis Knollys was followed by his sons Henry and William. In 1578 Henry was granted, for life, keepership of the Park on the same basis as Edmund Ashfield (who apparently continued to live in the Lodge), as well as ‘master of the game of wild beasts and power to appoint the keeper there when there is a vacancy’.
The Lodge was probably initially built at some time between 1536 and 1583. Ashfield was living there in 1583 when he died and his will refers to at least four chambers as bedrooms, and it was possibly built by the Crown as an official residence for the Keeper. It was subsequently enlarged considerably over the years as noted later. Before his execution in 1601, the disgraced Earl of Essex was offered hospitality there by his uncle, William Knollys, which he evidently did not think it beneath his dignity to accept. A private letter dated 6th September 1600 says “my lord of Essex is, I hear, gone to Ewelme Lodge”.
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