Dorton House
 | 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
History
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]
References
- ^ a b c "Dorton House School for the Blind". Historic England. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
- ^ a b "Dorton House School". Get Information about Schools. Gov.UK. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
- ^ "Latest Kent Sevenoaks news | Kent Live". Sevenoakschronicle.co.uk. 23 February 2017. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 16 March 2017.
- ^ "Annex 1 – Major productions filmed in Kent since 2006" (PDF). Kent Film Office. Retrieved 25 January 2022.