Ditton Park,Ditton Manor House orDitton Park House was themanor house and private feudaldemesne of the lord of the Manor ofDitton, and refers today to the rebuilt building and smaller grounds towards the edge of the town ofSlough inEngland. A key feature is its centuries-oldmoat 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 areGrade II listed on theNational Heritage List for England (i.e. in the initial category).[1]
Ditton Park belonged to the crown in the reign ofQueen Elizabeth I and is in the ancient parish of Stoke Poges.[2] It then belonged toSir Ralph Winwood and passed toRalph Montagu, 1st Duke of Montagu, through marriage.[3] The direct precursor to the present house was probably built around the early 1600s and was taken down as damaged by fire in 1812.[3]
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 infantPrincess 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. Winwood improved the gardens and filled in the moat.[4] The small building near the south-east corner of the park, formerly a chantry, became a chapel by 1925 served by the vicar ofDatchet, since a few years later disused.[2]
Itsturrets and palestuccocrenelations bear a resemblance to earlierStrawberry Hill House, a prototype of theGothic Revival architecture. Its warm, peach colour and tall symmetry reflects a movement towardsRomantic architecture common in many of the high aristocracy'sfolly 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 ofDuke of Buccleugh/bəˈkluː/ (d.1895).[2] This supplemented homes including the Scottish castles occupied frequently by her and by her son. Ditton Park House was by 1925 occupied byLord Wolverton.[2] 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 260 acres (1.1 km2).[2] The house and chapel were entirely rebuilt byElizabeth, 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, afesse between six crosslets.[2] In 1925 some 17th-century outbuildings stood.[2]
Nearby, on theGreat West Road, a public house, the Montague Arms stands which is owned and operated as aHarvester restaurant, dating back to the early 19th century.[5]
In 1917 the remainder of the property, its farming tenants having long taken control throughcopyhold of their own lands, was taken over for theAdmiralty Compass Observatory, which used the house and its immediate grounds.[3] 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 theRadio Research Station.[6] It was here in 1935 that the idea for the development of the British radar defence system was conceived, code-namedChain Home.[3] In the late 1990s, concern was raised regarding disturbing radioactivity from theWorld War II burial ofradium-based,luminous paints.[7]
The property was sold to Computer Associates in 1997 which becameCA Technologies and is now running Wedding Events.[8]
The manor was a detached part ofStoke Poges parish,[9] which was in the southern extreme of theEnglish county ofBuckinghamshire, before boundary reorganisations: in 1934 it was transferred to the parish ofDatchet, in 1974 Datchet became part of the borough ofWindsor and Maidenhead inBerkshire, and in 1998 the borough gainedunitary authority status in that ceremonial county.
Media related toDitton Park at Wikimedia Commons
51°29′29″N0°33′38″W / 51.49139°N 0.56056°W /51.49139; -0.56056