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Barton
CourtKintbury, Berkshire
Barton Court is the manor house of Kintbury Amesbury, named after the Wiltshire Abbey which owned it throughout the Middle Ages. The present house was built in about 1680, for Jonathan Raymond and his wife, Anne, the daughter of Philip Jemmett, a wealthy London brewer, who had become one of Berkshire's landed gentry only fifteen years before. He had purchased the manor from the heirs of the Darells of Littlecote Park (Wiltshire) and it was probably in the previous house that the infamous Wild Will Darell had died in 1588, before his burial in Kintbury parish church.
The house was the home of the Raymonds and their descendants, the Dundas family, for over two hundred years. The most famous resident was Lord Amesbury who took his title from the manor. In 1875, however, the family sold up to Sir Richard Sutton Estate. The house later became the home of the Minister of Education, Lord Burnham, of "Burnham Scale" fame and then a preparatory school. By the 1960s, Barton Court was standing empty with part of the adjoining land being worked for gravel.
Fortunately, the place has since been fully restored and is currently the home of Sir Terence Conran, who has created a fine kitchen garden there.
Barton Court is
a private residence. A side view can, however, be gained from surrounding
public footpaths.