There have been Bonds in Purbeck since 1472, when Somerset farmer William Bond leased land at Lutton. His descendants acquired land at Tyneham before Nathaniel Bond bought Creech Grange in the 1680s to establish impressive seats that within thirty years were joined by East Holme, bought by his son, Denis. Tyneham was requisitioned during World War 2 and Creech Grange was sold out of the family in the late 1970s, leaving Holme – extensively rebuilt as Holme Priory by Denis’s nephew, another Nathaniel – as the only one of the three still owned by Bonds. Today it is lived in by William Bond with his wife, Hilary, schools and children’s worker for the parish of Wareham and recently ordained deacon, and their children, Nathaniel, 22, and Lorna, 18.
They sit at the tip of a lot of history. ‘Yes and I’m very aware of it,’ says Will from the comfort of his favourite hearthside chair in the library. ‘When you inherit what I inherited, people say you’re privileged and they’re quite right, but I think the biggest privilege of all is to know where you fit in the world. There’s no need to go to look to make your mark – I am what I am and that is a great privilege.’
He is steeped in family history, most of which he has researched himself despite the best efforts of his late father, Martin, for many years a county and district councillor, to pass on the stories. ‘We’d ask Dad a question and he’d give you a lengthy history when you just wanted to know who someone was; then Dad died and we had to look things up for ourselves.’
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