 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(February 2016) |
| Dorton House | |
|---|---|
 | |
| General information | |
| Type | County house |
| Location | Kent |
| Owner | Royal London Society for the Blind |
Dorton House, formerly known as Wildernesse, is a Grade II listed Georgian mansion house in Seal, Kent, near Sevenoaks; until 2013 it was used as the headquarters for the Royal London Society for the Blind (RLSB) and as housing for the blind and partially sighted children who attended its school.
The house dates to the mid-eighteenth century and is Grade II listed. [1] There is a late nineteenth-century extension, and at the same time the interior was remodelled "in a very rich style, leaving little original work behind". [1] There is a further extension built when the house was a school, which is not part of the listing. [1]
An earlier house on the site was built by Sir Charles Bickerstaffe in 1669.[ citation needed ] In 1884, the house was bought by Charles Henry Mills of Hillingdon who later became 1st Baron Hillingdon.[ citation needed ] Baron Hillingdon built his own gasworks as well as a laundry and an orphanage from where he employed many of his staff. He was a philanthropist and eventually gave the allotments, recreation ground and village hall to Seal.[ citation needed ]
In 1923, Wildernesse was sold to a syndicate, becoming a Country Club and Golf Course which had, as an early brochure states, “probably the most palatial nineteenth hole in England”.[ citation needed ] After use as a sector hospital during the Second World War, Wildernesse continued as a Country Club until 1954. [ citation needed ] It was used as a children's convalescent home called Oak Bank until it was sold to the RLSB and became known as Dorton House, named after the Society's previous home in a Grade 1 listed Jacobean Mansion in Dorton, Buckinghamshire.[ citation needed ]
On the Dorton campus the RLSB ran its Nursery and Dorton College as well as a support service for the families of visually impaired children. The age range of the school was 5 to 16 and the last headteacher was Dorothea Hackman. [2]
The RLSB closed Dorton House School in 2013. [2] [3]
Dorton House served as a shooting location for the 2012 TV adaptation of Ford Madox Ford's Parade's End . [4]
Sevenoaks is a town in Kent with a population of 29,506 situated south-east of London, England. Also classified as a civil parish, Sevenoaks is served by a commuter main line railway into London. Sevenoaks is 21 miles (34 km) from Charing Cross, the traditional centre of London. It is the principal town of the Sevenoaks district, followed by Swanley and Edenbridge.
Dorton is a village and civil parish in the Aylesbury Vale district of Buckinghamshire. It is in the western part of the county, about 5 miles (8 km) north of the Oxfordshire market town of Thame.
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Sundridge is a village within the civil parish of Sundridge with Ide Hill, in the Sevenoaks district of Kent, England. The village is located on the A25 road to the east of Westerham. It lies within the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and within London’s Metropolitan Green Belt. It is approximately 21 miles south of London. Its church is Anglican and dedicated to St Mary.
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Philip James Stanhope, 1st Baron Weardale, was a British Liberal Party politician and philanthropist.
Baron Hillingdon, of Hillingdon in the County of Middlesex, was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom held by the Mills family.
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Charles William Mills, 2nd Baron Hillingdon was a British banker and Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1885 to 1892, speaking once, in 1889.
Dorton House is a Jacobean country house near the village of Dorton in Buckinghamshire, England. It was built between 1596 and 1626. It currently houses Ashfold School, an independent preparatory school. Dorton House is a Grade I listed building.
The Royal London Society for Blind People (RLSB) was a UK charity that existed for 175 years to help blind and partially sighted young people in London and the South East through a blend of sports, education, and creative and developmental services.
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Highgrove House, also known as High Grove House or High Grove, is a Grade II listed mansion in the suburban area of Eastcote, within the London Borough of Hillingdon. Originally built in 1750 by the Reverend John Lidgould, the house was rebuilt in 1881 by Sir Hugh Hume-Campbell following a catastrophic fire. Along with Haydon Hall and Eastcote House, Highgrove was one of the three main houses of Eastcote and eventually became a residential hostel for homeless families, run by the local council from the 1960s until 2007. An area of the estate was sold to the local council in 1935 by the then-owner Eleanor Warrender to become what is now Warrender Park. In 1975, the house was granted Grade II listed status on account of its special architectural character.
Hillingdon Court is a Grade II listed mansion in Hillingdon, within the London Borough of Hillingdon. Originally built in 1858 as the family home of the Mills family, the mansion has formed part of the ACS Hillingdon International School since 1978. Much of the remaining grounds came under public ownership in 1928 and have become public parkland and housing.
Radnor House Sevenoaks School is a coeducational private day school located in Sundridge in the English county of Kent.
51°17′07″N0°13′08″E / 51.2854°N 0.2189°E
