People may have noticed, behind the Ball and Wicket pub in Wrecclesham, a large oval plot of land, writes Roy Waight.

This was once the home of Surrey County Cricket Club and, it is said, lent its name to the more famous Oval in Kennington. It owes its origin to one of the more colourful of Farnham’s figures, Baron Stawell.

The great cricketer ‘Silver’ Billy Beldham worked for Baron Stawell and laid out the cricket pitch. Stawell was a keen cricketer but not very good. He was always chosen to play for the Farnham team in the 1780s because, if he was not, he would not let them use his pitch.

Baron Stawell was born, an only child, in 1757 to Henry Bilson Legge, a one-time chancellor of the exchequer. Baron Stawell was the last ranger of Alice Holt and Woolmer Forest. He was very rich. Although his family home was in Hinton Ampner, he spent much time at Alice Holt Lodge until, in 1811, the government abolished the post of ranger, whereupon he retired in high dudgeon to his other house at Marelands. The old lodge was torn down and replaced with the more modest lodge that stands in Alice Holt to this day.

Lord Stawell held much of the land to the north of the forest and was happy to throw his weight around. The locals probably regarded him with a mixture of awe and dislike.

Stories about Lord Stawell are numerous: that he murdered a baby born illegitimately to his sister and secreted the body behind the fireplace of Marelands (untrue); that he was so corrupt the Commissioners of Woods and Forests decided to get rid of him (true); that he was a tyrant; and that he got his men to introduce meanders into the River Wey to make the fishing better.

He certainly kept a pack of hounds at Kennel Pond and loved hunting. He was not an amiable figure. He was apparently an intimate of the Prince Regent, not a good sign.

He pursued numerous lawsuits and quarrels throughout his life. Charity was not one of his attributes. Gilbert White wrote about the quarrels he had with locals who persistently stole firewood from the Holt.

In 1788 no tithing-man could be found willing to execute a warrant against the poachers, such was the baron’s unpopularity.

People felt, not unreasonably, that if the great Baron Stawell could cream off the bulk of the forest’s proceeds, it was unjust that the poor be denied a lesser share.

He was so unpopular that Mr Trimmer of Bury Court bought a dog and called it ‘tyrant’ so that, when he saw Baron Stawell, he could release the dog in the baron’s hearing and then call it back shouting, ‘tyrant! tyrant!’.

Stawell married the 19-year-old Mary Curzon, daughter of Viscount Curzon of Penn. They were both irascible. There is a tradition that Baron Stawell demolished his house at Hartley Mauditt to spite his wife because she wanted to live there and he did not.

Baron Stawell was a member of the House of Lords from 1780 until his death. He is not associated with any great or notable initiative in that role.

He was not preoccupied with politics, but he was a great patron of the turf. He bred the Epsom Derby winner Blucher, named after the great Prussian general. A paddock at Alice Holt Lodge was named after the horse and, after his Derby victory, the horse was retired to stud at Marelands.

Baron Stawell charged ten-and-a-half guineas for a ‘nomination’. Blucher had surprisingly little success as a racehorse sire, but one of his fillies, Favourite, was a progenitor of the double classic winner Pretender.

When Baron Stawell died in 1820, he left his fortune split between his daughter Mary, the “Hampshire Heiress”, and his nephew Heneage Legge.

Mary married John Dutton, the second Baron Shelborne. Most prominent members of the 19th-century gentry adopted the motto noblesse oblige (privilege entails responsibility). Baron Stawell was clearly an exception.

Roy Waight is chairman of the Farnham & District Museum Society. Visit here for more information.