King Edward's Place
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King Edward's Place is a country house at Foxhill near Wanborough and
Liddington Liddington is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Swindon, England. The village is about a mile beyond the south-east edge of Swindon's built-up area, close to junction 15 of the M4 motorway, which is approximately away via the B4192 ...
in
Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...
. It is currently known as PGL Liddington and is owned and operated by children's adventure holiday operator PGL. Previous names for the estate include Foxhill Stud Farm and Foxhill Manor. The house is believed to have been bought for
King Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria and ...
to entertain his long-time mistress
Lillie Langtry Emilie Charlotte, Lady de Bathe (née Le Breton, formerly Langtry; 13 October 1853 – 12 February 1929), known as Lillie (or Lily) Langtry and nicknamed "The Jersey Lily", was a British socialite, stage actress and producer. Born on the isla ...
, and has been at various times a racehorse stud yard, a conference centre, and latterly an outdoor education centre.


Construction and early use

The original house was built, most likely in 1883, by three
Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...
undergraduates, who were all members of the Marlborough Club and used the country house to host parties and shoots on weekends. It was originally known as Foxhill Stud Farm or Foxhill Manor. Records indicate its use as a stud farm by 1895, with the stud farm trainer William Robinson listed as the resident.


Use by King Edward

As
Prince of Wales Prince of Wales (, ; ) is a title traditionally given to the male heir apparent to the History of the English monarchy, English, and later, the British throne. The title originated with the Welsh rulers of Kingdom of Gwynedd, Gwynedd who, from ...
, and subsequently as King,
Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until Death and state funeral of Edward VII, his death in 1910. The second child ...
was a regular visitor to the house, and often accompanied by long-term mistress
Lillie Langtry Emilie Charlotte, Lady de Bathe (née Le Breton, formerly Langtry; 13 October 1853 – 12 February 1929), known as Lillie (or Lily) Langtry and nicknamed "The Jersey Lily", was a British socialite, stage actress and producer. Born on the isla ...
who stabled her horses at Foxhill.


Jimmy White era

The estate continued in use as a
stud farm A stud farm or stud in animal husbandry is an establishment for selective breeding of livestock. The word "stud (animal), stud" comes from the Old English ''stod'' meaning "herd of horses, place where horses are kept for breeding". Historically, ...
for racehorses. After the first world war, it was bought by financier James "Jimmy" White, who made significant improvements to the house, including the addition of a stone entrance hall and sweeping staircase, as well as a heated greenhouse. He continued to invest in the equine operations at the house, and under his ownership, the stud became the village's largest employer. White had wide-ranging business interests, often in property speculation, and had recently purchased
Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...
and the White City dog track. Whilst he was in the process of selling those assets, he found himself in considerable debt, including owing £1.7 million in tax. The growing financial pressure led to him committing suicide in his bedroom at King Edward's Place on 28 June 1927. A coroner's inquest found that the death was suicide by reason of insanity. Such was his popularity, that over 5,000 people attended his funeral. He left three notes, for the butler, his family, and the coroner. The note for the coroner read "Go easy with me, old man. I am dead from
prussic acid Hydrogen cyanide (formerly known as prussic acid) is a chemical compound with the formula HCN and structural formula . It is a highly toxic and flammable liquid that boils slightly above room temperature, at . HCN is produced on an industrial s ...
. No need to cut any deeper. – Jimmy."


Later private ownership

After White's death, the house changed ownership a number of times, before being purchased in 1932 by
Washington Singer Washington Merritt Grant Singer (1866–1934) was an American-born British heir, philanthropist and prominent racehorse owner. Biography Early life Born in Yonkers, New York he was the third child of Isabella Eugenie Boyer and sewing machine ma ...
, one of the heirs to the Singer sewing machine fortune and keen racehorse enthusiast, for his step-daughter and her husband Major Edgar Prescott Barker. On the death of Singer, his collection of 70 racehorses was brought to be stabled at King Edward's place. The house and stud stayed in the Barker family, passing to son Captain Fred Barker, who managed the stud until 1987.


Training centre

With the stud needing significant investment beyond the means of the family, it was sold to life assurance company Allied Dunbar, headquartered in nearby Swindon, to be their training centre. Allied Dunbar kept the original house and stables, and added a large, modern training centre, which opened in 1991.
Zurich Financial Services Zurich Insurance Group Ltd. is a Swiss insurance company, headquartered in Zürich, and the country's largest insurer. the group is the world's 98th largest public company according to ''Forbes'' Global 2000s list, and in 2011, it ranked 94th ...
bought Allied Dunbar in 1998, and industry changes meant that the direct sales force predominantly trained at the centre became the Zurich Advice Network in 2001, and then was demerged as the independent Openwork in 2005. Allied Dunbar and Openwork shared the facilities at King Edward's Place, but the lack of direct salesforce meant that in 2006 Zurich announced their plans to sell the entire centre to be redeveloped as a hotel. The conference centre also sold spare capacity to other organisations to use, and this was used by a range of clients including for public inquiries.


Swindon Town FC

During the Allied Dunbar and Zurich era, the grounds were also used by
Swindon Town FC Swindon Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team, known as the "Robins", currently compete in , the fourth level of the English football league system. Founded as Swindon A ...
as a training facility and centre of excellence.


Hotel

In 2008, the sale was completed to the Petersham Hotel, who paid around £12 million for the site, and converted the premises into 'The Liddington' hotel. The hotel was managed for the Petersham group by the De Vere group, under their De Vere Venues brand, but the site went into administration in 2009.


Activity centre

Children's activity holiday operator PGL bought the site from the administrators for around £10 million in August 2009. The new PGL centre opened in April 2010, creating more than 100 jobs. PGL offers adventure holidays for unaccompanied children, family adventure holidays, and school or group residential trips at the centre. The centre retains the 150 acre site of the training centre, and there a range of activity stations built around the grounds, such as towers for
climbing Climbing is the activity of using one's hands, feet, or other parts of the body to ascend a steep topographical object that can range from the world's tallest mountains (e.g. the eight thousanders) to small boulders. Climbing is done for locom ...
and
abseiling Abseiling ( ; ), also known as rappelling ( ; ), is the controlled descent of a steep slope, such as a rock face, by moving down a rope. When abseiling, the person descending controls their own movement down a static or fixed rope, in cont ...
, high and low
ropes course A ropes course is a challenging outdoor personal development and team building activity which usually consists of high elements, low elements, or some combination of the two. #Low course, Low elements take place on the ground or above the ground. ...
for activities such as giant swing and Jacob's ladder, zip wires from launch platforms, and
archery butt A butt is an archery shooting field, with mounds of earth used for the targets. The name originally referred to the targets themselves, but over time came to mean the platforms that held the targets as well. For instance '' Othello,'' V, ii, 267 ...
s for
archery Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a Bow and arrow, bow to shooting, shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting ...
. The pond areas of the grounds are used for activities such as
canoeing Canoeing is an activity which involves paddling a canoe with a single-bladed paddle. In some parts of Europe, canoeing refers to both canoeing and kayaking, with a canoe being called an 'open canoe' or Canadian. A few of the recreational ...
and raft building. A number of these activity elements, such as the towers and zip wires are visible from the roads nearby.


Listing and protection

The greenhouse on site, built by Jimmy White in 1914, is a Grade II listed building, and features on the
Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...
register.


References

{{Reflist Country houses in Wiltshire Buildings and structures in Swindon Houses completed in 1883 Borough of Swindon PGL centres