Stanwell Place gates

Image: © Alan Hunt Taken: 8 Jun 2014

The gates to this former manor house of Stanwell Place on the bend in Park Road. This manor house and its associated land was owned by the Gibbons family from 1754 until 1933. The original house was built in the 17th century and rebuilt in the early 19th century. The estate was sold to Sir John Watson Gibson in 1933. He was a civil engineer who was involved in the design and building of the Mulberry harbours for D-Day. Prior to D-Day he allowed the house to be used for meetings of the allied high command. General Eisenhower and Churchill met here on two occasions in the run up to D-Day. Part of the land was sold to the Metropolitan Water Board in 1936 which was then used for the construction of the King George VI reservoir. In 1947 the estate was sold to King Faisal II of Iraq who kept it until his assassination in 1958. The house then became derelict and was demolished in the 1960s when the estate was used for gravel extraction. The gates are the last reminder of this historic site.

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