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Ditton Park, Ditton Manor House or Ditton Park House was the
manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...
and private feudal
demesne A demesne ( ) or domain was all the land retained and managed by a lord of the manor under the feudal system for his own use, occupation, or support. This distinguished it from land sub-enfeoffed by him to others as sub-tenants. The concept or ...
of the lord of the Manor of Ditton, and refers today to the rebuilt building and smaller grounds towards the edge of the town of
Slough Slough () is a town and unparished area in the unitary authority of the same name in Berkshire, England, bordering west London. It lies in the Thames Valley, west of central London and north-east of Reading, at the intersection of the M4 ...
in
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. A key feature is its centuries-old
moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive ...
which extends to most of the adjoining lawns and garden. Park areas extend to the north and west of the moat. Ditton Park House and its courtyard walls, stables and observatory are
Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
on the
National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, an ...
(i.e. in the initial category).


History and architecture

Ditton Park belonged to the crown in the reign of
Queen Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". El ...
and is in the ancient parish of Stoke Poges.'Parishes: Stoke Poges', in A History of the County of Buckingham: Volume 3, ed. William Page (London, 1925), pp. 302-313. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/bucks/vol3/pp302-313 It then belonged to
Sir Ralph Winwood Sir Ralph Winwood (c. 1563 – 27 October 1617) was an English diplomat and statesman to the Jacobean court. Early life Ralph Winwood was born the son of Richard Winwood at Aynhoe in Northamptonshire, and was educated at St John's College, ...
and passed to
Ralph Montagu, 1st Duke of Montagu Ralph Montagu, 1st Duke of Montagu (24 December 1638 – 9 March 1709) was an English courtier and diplomat. Background Ralph Montagu was the second son of Edward Montagu, 2nd Baron Montagu of Boughton (1616–1684), and Anne Winwood, daughte ...
, through marriage. The direct precursor to the present house was probably built around the early 1600s and was taken down as damaged by fire in 1812. The earlier house here was crenellated or fortified by John de Moleyns in 1331. In it or a later house, then a royal residence, the infant Princess Mary passed the autumn of 1517. It was enlarged at various times and is said to have been rebuilt by Sir Ralph Winwood in the early 17th century. The small building near the south-east corner of the park, formerly a chantry, became a chapel by 1925 served by the vicar of
Datchet Datchet is a village and civil parish in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England, located on the north bank of the River Thames. Historically part of Buckinghamshire, and the Stoke Hundred, the village was eventuall ...
, since a few years later disused. Its turrets and pale
stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...
crenelations bear a resemblance to earlier
Strawberry Hill House Strawberry Hill House—often called simply Strawberry Hill—is a Gothic Revival architecture, Gothic Revival villa that was built in Twickenham, London, by Horace Walpole (1717–1797) from 1749 onward. It is a typical example of the "#Strawb ...
, a prototype of the
Gothic Revival architecture Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
. Its warm, peach colour and tall symmetry reflects a movement towards
Romantic architecture Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
common in many of the high aristocracy's folly castles erected in the early 19th century. The house for much of the rest of the century when it was erected was the English home of Charlotte Anne, the Duchess then Dowager Duchess of Duke of Buccleugh (d.1895). This supplemented homes including the Scottish castles occupied frequently by her and by her son. Ditton Park House was by 1925 occupied by Lord Wolverton. The present square mansion, to which access is obtained by a drawbridge over the moat, stood in 1925 in a wider well-wooded park of . The house and chapel were entirely rebuilt by Elizabeth, Duchess of Buccleugh (born Elizabeth Montagu also then spelt Montague) in 1812 and contains (or contained in 1925) many fittings from the former house, including the late 15th-century font, much 16th and 17th-century stained glass, and a glazed tile with a shield of arms, a fesse between six crosslets. In 1925 some 17th-century outbuildings stood. Nearby, on the Great West Road, a public house, the Montague Arms stands which is owned and operated as a
Harvester restaurant Harvester is a British casual dining restaurant chain with over 230 outlets (as of December 2015) in the United Kingdom. The first location was The George Inn, opening in 1983 in Morden, Greater London. The chain was seen before as a rival to Wh ...
, dating back to the early 19th century. In 1917 the remainder of the property, its farming tenants having long taken control through
copyhold Copyhold was a form of customary land ownership common from the Late Middle Ages into modern times in England. The name for this type of land tenure is derived from the act of giving a copy of the relevant title deed that is recorded in the man ...
of their own lands, was taken over for the
Admiralty Compass Observatory The Admiralty Compass Observatory, originally known as the Compass Branch (1842–1917) and later known as the Compass Department (1917–1968) and Compass Directorate (1968–1971) was established in 1842 to provide the Royal Navy with services f ...
, which used the house and its immediate grounds. In 1920 an area, West Park, began to be used for radio research, which extended into North Park in 1924, and these activities eventually led to the formation of the Radio Research Station. It was here in 1935 that the idea for the development of the British radar defence system was conceived, code-named Chain Home. In the late 1990s, concern was raised regarding disturbing radioactivity from the
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
burial of
radium Radium is a chemical element with the symbol Ra and atomic number 88. It is the sixth element in group 2 of the periodic table, also known as the alkaline earth metals. Pure radium is silvery-white, but it readily reacts with nitrogen (rather t ...
-based,
luminous paint Luminous paint or luminescent paint is paint that exhibits luminescence. In other words, it gives off Visible spectrum, visible light through fluorescence, phosphorescence, or radioluminescence. There are three types of luminous paints: fluoresc ...
s. The property was sold to Computer Associates in 1997 which became
CA Technologies CA Technologies, formerly known as CA, Inc. and Computer Associates International, Inc., is an American multinational corporation headquartered in New York City. It is primarily known for its business-to-business (B2B) software with a product po ...
and is now running Wedding Events.


Location

The house and whole manor was in part of the long north–south ancient parish of
Stoke Poges Stoke Poges () is a village and civil parish in south-east Buckinghamshire, England. It is centred north-north-east of Slough, its post town, and southeast of Farnham Common. Etymology In the name Stoke Poges, ''stoke'' means " stockaded (pl ...
which was in the southern extreme of the
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
county of
Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...
, before boundary reorganisations: in 1974 it was moved to
Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...
; and in 1998 full local government administrative powers were granted to
Slough Slough () is a town and unparished area in the unitary authority of the same name in Berkshire, England, bordering west London. It lies in the Thames Valley, west of central London and north-east of Reading, at the intersection of the M4 ...
Unitary Authority A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...
in that ceremonial county.


References


Further reading

* Murdoch, Tessa (ed.), ''
Noble Households ''Noble Households: Eighteenth-Century Inventories of Great English Houses'' presents transcripts of inventories of nine great country houses and four London town houses as a tribute to the late historian John Cornforth. Summary The inventori ...
: Eighteenth-Century Inventories of Great English Houses. A Tribute to
John Cornforth Sir John Warcup Cornforth Jr., (7 September 1917 – 8 December 2013) was an AustralianBritish chemist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1975 for his work on the stereochemistry of enzyme-catalysed reactions, becoming the only Nobel l ...
''. Cambridge: John Adamson, 2006, pp. 79–84


External links

{{coord, 51, 29, N, 0, 34, W, display=title Country houses in Berkshire Grade II listed houses Grade II listed buildings in Berkshire History of Slough Buildings and structures in Slough Datchet