Burton Park, Duncton West Sussex

Image: © David Taken: 30 Jun 2010

Burton Park is believed to owe its origin to Sir William Dawtrey who held land known as Bodeketun in 1242. The property descended to Sir Edward St John of Barlavington and then to John Goring (d 1520), whose family probably built the first house on the site. The last member of the Goring family, Sir William, died in 1724 and, his sister having married Richard Biddulph of Staffordshire, Burton Park passed to that family, Richard Biddulph building a new house on the site. His nephew, John Biddulph, succeeded and in c 1828, following its partial destruction by fire, rebuilt its house to its present form and laid out pleasure grounds to its south and west. In 1835 the estate passed to Anthony Wright-Biddulph and in 1894 was bought by Sir Douglas Hall who further developed the gardens (Ford 1995) before selling in 1919 to Major and Mrs Courtlauld. They added new formal features to the gardens. The house and park were requisitioned for wartime use by the army and in 1945-6 the house, gardens and southern half of the park were sold to St Michael’s School who remained in ownership until selling in 1993 to three development companies. In 1998 the house was converted to private apartments with additional new dwellings built in its immediate grounds and in the park and Burton Park is now a listed parkland in private ownership. Credit : www.burtonpark.com

Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0