Isaac M Rebow decided he wanted a country house at the heart of the estate.

He commissioned London architect Thomas Reynolds to design and build Wivenhoe House which because one of the most elegant homes in Essex.

Work started in June 1758 and in the mid 1770s landscape gardener Richard Woods drew up plans for the extensive lake alterations and improvement of the grounds.

By the time Woods started, the plan had changed and now included two lakes separated by a dam and surrounded by trees. The ambitious scheme was completed within five years, just before the death of Isaac Rebow.

Major-General Francis Rebow and his wife Mary expanded Wivenhoe Park and, in 1816, commissioned their friend, the artist John Constable, to create a series of paintings and drawings that remain famous today. Constable described the park in a letter during his stay: “The great difficulty has been to get as much in it as they wanted. On my left is a grotto with some elms, at the head of a piece of water; in the centre is the house over a beautiful wood.” He also painted from Wivenhoe House itself, using a window that is now in the bathroom of the Charles Gooch hotel suite. Constable’s painting of Wivenhoe Park offers a unique glimpse into the Rebow family’s country estate, depicting a landscape of peace and order beneath a dynamic sky. The painting includes grazing cows, fishermen with their nets, and Mary Rebow, the daughter of the house, riding in a donkey cart.  This painting was significant to Constable both professionally and personally, as the 100-guinea commission helped fund his wedding later that year and marked his final work before moving to London. Unique among Constable’s works, “Wivenhoe Park” was painted on-site rather than developed later in his studio. Today, visitors can walk in Constable’s footsteps, reflecting on his harmonious interpretation of the country estate. The painting currently hangs in the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.

John Gurdon Rebow was a prominent figure in Essex, serving as a Member of Parliament, a Deputy Lieutenant, and a Justice of the Peace. He was also a founding member of the Essex Archaeological Society, reflecting his interest in the region’s history and heritage. After the death of Mary Rebow in 1842, John inherited the Wivenhoe Park estate. In 1845, he married Lady Georgina Graham-Toler, an Irish aristocrat twenty years his junior, with whom he had three children. Known for his lavish lifestyle, John commissioned architect Thomas Hopper to remodel Wivenhoe House, bringing a sense of grandeur to the estate. He also enlisted William Andrews Nesfield to redesign the estate’s roads and entrances, further enhancing its prestige. Beyond these personal indulgences, he fostered a sense of community by opening the grounds for rural fêtes, school treats, and troop reviews from 1852 until his death. However, his later years were marked by turmoil; Lady Georgina was removed from his will and, in 1867, was admitted to a private mental institution near London, where she spent the remaining 33 years of her life.

After John Gurdon Rebow’s death in in 1870, his son, Hector John Rebow, inherited the estate, but due to his father’s extravagances he was left with a huge debt.

Hector then leased Wivenhoe House to Abraham Garrett in 1872 but returned to Wivenhoe Park in 1880 and was elected the Mayor of Colchester in 1884. In the same year the house survived England’s worst ever earthquake, which loosened a few chimney pots in the main building.

After the house was passed down to Charles Edmund Gooch’s son, Charles Michael Gooch, Wivenhoe House was requisitioned by the War Office during World War Two and Sir Winston Churchill inspected the tank regiment stationed here. The thundering arrival of the 2^nd Royal Tank regiment drove the herd of black fallow deer away, never to return. The regiment moved out late in 1940 to fight in Libya, where unfortunately many were captured by German and Italian forces as part of the Western Desert Campaign.

Mrs Gooch is said to have left her husband, Charles Gooch, for one of the officers! At the end of war, the pair went to live at the officer’s tea plantation abroad. Though this must have been difficult for her family, her younger sister, a school teacher in Hertfordshire, went on to marry her former brother-in-law, Mr Gooch, and lived at Wivenhoe House with him and his two sons.

In 1962 Charles Gooch sold Wivenhoe Park to Essex Country Council for £75,000 and later that year Sir Albert E Sloman was appointed the first Vice-Chancellor at the University of Essex. The first students arrived in 1964 with their first lectures held in Wivenhoe House while work continued on the main campus.

Mr Mandela visited the University of Essex and Wivenhoe House in July 1997 to accompany Graça Machel, who subsequently became his wife, and who was awarded an Honorary Degree in recognition of her work with the UN on children’s rights.

After serving for many years as a hotel and conference centre, Wivenhoe House was shut in 2010 to re-open in the summer of 2012 after a complete refurbishment as a four-star country house hotel and home of the Edge Hotel School. His Royal Highness The Duke of Kent KG opened Wivenhoe House Hotel and the Edge Hotel School on the 20th September 2012.

The Edge Hotel School offers unique degree schemes in hotel management and events management with hospitality.