owner. She said: “Because of confidentiality agreements we are legally bound not to make any comment on who the new owner is but we can definitely say it has been sold. We can also say there was considerable interest in this property.” However national newspaper reports have revealed it to be Mr McVeigh who is one of the longest serving and most popular merchant bankers in the City. He began trading before the Big Bang date when the stock exchange was computerised. He is now co-chairman of Schroder Salomon Smith
Barney.

On or about 950AD part of the domain of Corfe, the valley and thereabouts that is now called Encombe was given to an abbess called Aelfthryth by King Edred. It was known variously as Hennecumbe and Henycumbe in the 13th century, this probably translates as valley of the hens and we might assume hens were water hens/ducks, not chickens. After the Tudor dissolution John Zouche was granted Encombe, it having been previously leased to a John Vyncent. Zouche sold it on to a Thomas Arundell (sale.1), he got himself executed and lost the property to the crown.

It was then granted to John Bourchier who sold it on to a Robert Culliford (sale.2). The Culliford family, who came from Colyford in Devon, quietly owned Encombe until 1734, apart from a Robert Culliford who was an MP for Wareham in the mid 17th century. After Robert died the family fell on hard times and were forced by parliament to sell (sale.3).

It was purchased in 1734 by a George Pitt who gave it to his son John. They were distant relatives of William Pitt, younger and elder, who did actually spend some time there. The buildings and grounds at the time were quite low-key but probably to a greater degree built and improved to John Pitt's instruction, and retained much of the Cullifords efforts. The house proper being fully built by about 1770, it is popularly believed the house and grounds we see now were artificially leveled over many years, during both the Pitts and Scotts reigns. In 1774 John Pitt gained another estate, Kingston Maurward, on the death of his childless brother William. John survived until 1787 when the estate went to his son Morton. He was perhaps less money-minded than his father and also had an expensive wife, he found himself deeply in debt. Morton Pitt sold up in 1806 (sale.4), just after the death of Pitt the Younger, to Lord Eldon for the princely sum of £56,000. Lord Eldon, the 1st Earl, was Pitt's Lord Chancellor and needed somewhere quiet to hide away and relax. He started out in life as John Scott the younger son of a coal trader of Newcastle who became very successful. They were able to attend Grammar School, his brother William moved on to Corpus Christi, Oxford and John followed although he was only 15 and 6 years younger than his brother.
Unfortunately he fell in love with a Betty Surtees whose wealthy banker father banned them from meeting. To overcome this problem they eloped to Scotland.

It was not long however before both fathers forgave then and John was able to move on and read law. He was very successful and in 1783 entered Parliament. Under Pitt he became Solicitor-General, he was knighted, and in 1793 he became Attorney-General, in 1799 Lord Chief Justice, and in 1801 Lord Chancellor. He had always been something of a stick-in-the-mud, having opposed Catholic emancipation, parliamentary reform, almost every suggestion of change in fact. In 1831, he grew so unpopular that a mob from Poole tried to attack and burn Encombe, but were thwarted. Lord Eldon had a family upset when his eldest daughter Elizabeth ran off with the son of his landscape gardener, Humphry Repton, she being much the elder. He was soon reconciled remembering he had been this route himself; he actually took him on as an employee. Besides work on Encombe, Eldon built the new chapel at Kingston, designed by Repton. Albeit it now superseded by Street's church it contains his monument. There was a serious fire in the house in 1812. Repairs were effected that included many improvements to the body of the house.
In 1827 Lord Eldon was succeeded as Lord Chancellor by Lord Lyndhurst and able to enjoy Encombe in his retirement until his death in 1838.

His grandson succeeded as 2nd Earl who gave some thought to progressing changes to the house suggested years before by Repton. At that time the valley was relatively dry and the 2nd. Earl tunnelled through the east hill installing iron pipes and reservoirs. Any surplus water now runs to the sea via a waterfall. It was not until some while after the 3rd Earl succeeded in 1854, when he was 8 yrs old, that changes such as the north facing entrance would occur, so that the house could be entered from the drive.
He married in 1869 and spent some time improving the property, surviving until 1926. His second son Sir Ernest Scott inherited the house, and his nephew Colonel Scott inherited in 1953. More recent changes and room relocations have been undertaken, including an independent flat, to make the house more manageable. The Scott family had called in estate agents earlier this year (2002) to sell the house and estate for them.