Wilton Park Estate
The Wilton Park Estate is located in Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire.
Wilton Park Estate | |
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Wilton Park at Beaconsfield in 1888 | |
General information | |
Location | Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire |
Country | England, United Kingdom |
Coordinates | 51°36′09″N 0°37′43″W |
Completed | 1779 |
Demolished | 1968 |
Client | Josias Du Pre, Governor of Madras |
Design and construction | |
Architect | Richard Jupp |
History
The Wilton park estate once belonged to the monks of Burnham Abbey. It is mentioned in 1412, with John Amond as farmer.[1]
In 1702 it was acquired by the Basill family, who built a house on the estate. Sometime between 1760 and 1770 they sold the estate to Josias Du Pre, the future Governor of Madras.[2] He commissioned the building of a mansion house on the estate, also known as the "White House", from Richard Jupp which was completed in 1779.[3]
In 1939 the house was taken over by the War Office and used as an interrogation centre for Nazi prisoners of war: German refugees working for the allies would listen into prisoners' conversations.[4] After the War the house was used by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to re-educate prisoners of war into the British way of life: between January 1946 and June 1948 approx 4,500 Germans were made to attend re-education classes there.[5] The house went on to become the home of the Army School of Administration from 1949 and also the home of the Army School of Education from 1950.[3] The Foreign Office "re-education" facility, still known as Wilton Park and still organising conferences, moved out in 1951 and is now based at Wiston House in West Sussex.[3]
A single-storey blockhouse was constructed in the grounds of Wilton Park in 1954, to provide a protected wartime headquarters for the senior Army officers of Eastern Command and London District. From 1957, alternative provision was made for the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Command and his staff as part of the Regional Seats of Government planning; but the blockhouse was retained and remained available for use by London District until the end of the Cold War.[6]
In the 1960s a School of Languages was established on the site (Colonel Gaddafi of Libya studied there at that time).[6] Although the house was demolished in 1968, the school remained on the site until April 2014.[7]
Standing sets for filming the ITV TV series Endeavour have been built at Wilton Park since 2016.[8]
References
- "Anglo-American Legal Tradition". University of Houston. Retrieved 27 January 2020.
- "Wilton Park". Beaconsfield and District Historical Society. Retrieved 19 May 2019.
- "Wilton Park Development Brief". South Buckinghamshire Council. January 2014. p. 7. Archived from the original on 2014-07-14. Retrieved 9 July 2014.
- "The Nazi prisoners bugged by Germans". BBC. 18 January 2013. Retrieved 9 July 2014.
- Arthur Lee Smith. The war for the German mind: re-educating Hitler's soldiers. p. 50.
- "Wilton Park". Subterranea Britannica. Retrieved 28 November 2014.
- "The Defence Centre for Languages and Culture (DCLC)". Defence Academy of the United Kingdom. British Ministry of Defence. Retrieved 17 November 2014.
- "Exclusive Endeavour Series 5 Set Report". Damian Michael Barcroft. Retrieved 5 March 2018.