Burton House, Burton Park, Sussex
Twice destroyed by past fires, the current Burton House is a rare ancient Greek-style phenomenon from the 1820s. Now flats, the estate is criss-crossed with public footpaths.
Contents
Overview
An extremely beautiful setting makes Burton Park a hidden gem in the shadow of nearby Petworth (three miles away).
Placed squarely in the middle of a mediaeval park, Burton House sits just 50 metres from a sprawling landscaped lake that runs into other large ponds to the east and west.
The hills of Duncton and Barlavington Down rise up to the south, broken into knolls and wooded groves. The whole setting is framed by imposing and unlikely cliffs that provide panoramas of the nearby downs, as well as the sea.
Facts and figures
Burton Park's owners
Who were Burton Park’s historic owners?
Burton Park was mainly owned by the Goring (1400s-1724), then by marriage, Biddulph/Wright-Biddulph families (1724-1894).
In a quirk not uncommon in country house histories, Anthony Wright-Biddulph, the last dynastic owner of Burton Park, lived there with second wife Diana – who was daughter of a Sir Harry Goring (8th baronet).
Later ownership
Towards the end of its time as a private home it passed from Sir Douglas Hall MP to Major John Sewell Courtauld MC MP (1894-1919, 1919-1942). These two men, of relatively similar social standing, would likely have known each other through their membership at London’s Carlton Club.
After a brief period of world war two requisitioning, the house and some land were bought by St Michael’s girls’ boarding school.
Images below give a flavour of these grand former owners.
Who owns Burton Park now?
In practice, the Burton Park Estate has multiple owners since being sold by St Michael’s school, and split into flats in 1998.
Note: the agricultural land immediately adjoining Burton’s 140 acre park to the south is owned by the Barlarvington Estate (Sir Sebastian Anstruther) according to “Who owns England?”.
Burton Park and the Goring family: 1400s-1724
Burton Park was owned by the Goring family from the 1400s to 1724.
According to “Collections of Burton Park” from the West Sussex Record Office, the Gorings built the first mansion on the site during Queen Elizabeth I’s era.
This house was largely destroyed by fire in 1739, and while no images of this survive in the regional archive today, it was described by Neale’s Seats (1824) as “memorable”. It’s easy to imagine similarities this may have had with Danny House – the other prominent Goring-owned Elizabethan country house in West Sussex – or even Loseley Park in Surrey.
Despite their wealth, the Gorings didn’t make life easy for themselves.
In “Country Houses of the Sussex Downs”, Dr Sue Berry writes that the strongly catholic Goring family were treated with suspicion by the establishment during the English religious reformation of the 1500s.
According to the Catholic Record Society Lomax Papers, Sir William Goring (3rd baronet) was imprisoned in the Tower of London during the ‘Popish Plot’ hysteria of 1678-81, and fined £600 (over £100,000 in 2023) for declining to take the Oath of Allegiance to George 1st.
Despite this, the Gorings held on to a status as a regionally significant family, and distant branches thrived at Danny, Pelham House, and Wiston House (all in Sussex). Wiston House is still in Goring ownership, but not as a family home.
A Sir William Goring, 12th and possibly final Baronet (born 1933), bears the middle name “Burton”.
When was Burton Park House built?
The current Burton House was built around the remnants of a burnt-out palladian ruin in 1831.
This ruin was itself the second house to have existed on the site (the first was burnt in 1739, as mentioned).
Attempts to rebuild the earlier palladian house ended in failure when a front collapsed mid-construction, killing a bricklayer and injuring two others.
Architectural style
The house style is Neoclassical – specifically a ‘Grecian’ offshoot which was fashionable in the 1820s and 1830s.
Pevsner described this 1831 house sincerely as “a clever young man’s building… with all kinds of ornamental tricks” but also, very unfairly, as “rather heartless”.
The previous house of 1740 was designed by a more celebrated architect, but in a far colder design than the present one.
Below first is the palladian house of 1740, followed by the neoclassical greek-style house of 1831 that we see today.
Architects
Henry Bassett designed the building in its current form when he was just 28.
Burton Park was to be Basset’s single most significant work, though he was also responsible for sumptuous Italianate terraced villas in Gloucester Crescent, Camden (London).
The architect of the previous Palladian mansion was Giacomo Leoni, who worked on it at the height of his fame. Today Leoni is better known for Clandon House in Surrey, Lyme Park in Cheshire, and Moor Park in Hertfordshire. His building at Burton was described by Neal’s Seats as “imposing, elegant”, but “not one of the architects very best edifices”.
Parkland and estate size
Historic estate size (1883)
In 1883, Burton Park’s estate comprised between 1,350 and 2,999 acres. A relatively small size for supporting such an unapologetic mansion.
Ownership at this time belonged to the Wright-Biddulph family. Since the estate or family don’t feature in John Bateman’s contemporary record “The great landowners of Great Britain and Ireland”, we can assume the estate stood at less than 3,000 acres.
We know that it was listed for sale with 1,350 acres of land in 1895, but was withdrawn. By this time, owner Anthony John Wright-Biddulph (only son of Anthony G Wright (Biddulph)) was living at an unidentified house on the estate called ‘The Chalet, Burton Park’.
Present day estate size
The estate at Burton Park is 140 acres (57 hectares) according to Savills.
This includes the lake, used by residents for boating, and 15 acres (6 hectares) of private garden.
Interior
Much of the interior of the 1831 Burton House was altered with its conversion into flats. Still, tantalising early 20th century photos (above) survive from the tenure of John Sewell Courtauld MC MP.
These images display relatively simple, tasteful comfort enriched with greenery and contemporary furniture. It would not look at all out of place in a design shoot of today.
Pleasingly, these photos of Burton House at its zenith show a country house unencumbered by generations of dated antiques and accumulated heirlooms.
Pevsner was very taken by the unusual ornamental staircase that was recycled from a demolished house at Michelgrove near Arundel. It displayed leaf patterns chained-up greyhounds.
Entrance Hall
Pevsner also describes the surviving entrance hall as “plain” – though modern taste would call it airy and elegant.
Paintings
Burton Park is a country house that suffered two catastrophic fires, so it’s no wonder the early 20th century photos show a lack of statement fine art.
No documentation has been found which describes the kind of collection sale that was common for country house estates in the late 19th and early 20th century.
The fire of 1739 is described as having destroyed many old Goring family portraits. As the house had passed to the Biddulphs by this time, it’s fair to assume that any collection from that family was also affected.
What is Burton Park known for?
What was Burton Park known for?
Burton Park was known locally for being the place where the bones of an elephant were discovered. Sir Francis Biddulph, owner at the time, used this letter to describe the find –
“24th December, 1740
Dear sir,
You may depend on it for certain that the bones of an elephant were found here. They were nine feet deep in the ground and discovered in July last by some work men (sic) digging a trench in our park.
By the appearance and disposition of the earth all people judged that it had never been opened.
The first thing discovered was a large tooth, seven feet six inches in length…
..but what is very remarkable is that the teeth, bones &c did not lie close together… the larger tusks were full (sic) twenty feet apart.
The Rev Dr Langwith, minister of Petworth, has most of them…”
Dr Langwith’s conclusion is particularly endearing –
“He was here at taking them up, and reasonably concludes that they were not thrown in by hand, but buried in the universal deluge” (ie the biblical flood in the book of Genesis).
Could it have been a mammoth? Or an elephant? There is evidence for elephants in the swamps of southern England 400,000 years ago.
The surrounding area is even older than it feels, with the celebrated Roman bath and Villa at Bignor being only two miles away. A Roman hypocaust was also discovered in even nearer-by Duncton village. Could it even be tied to the Roman-era settlement? First-hand sources place Roman war elephants in Britain, and they were used for entertainment elsewhere in the empire. This is probably a romantic stretch, and the mystery will remain lost to time.
What is Burton Park known for now?
Burton Park is now famous for its exclusive countryside flats, and for being a beautiful rare example of ancient-Greek style architecture in an unlikely landscape.
In world war two the requisitioned house and park were an assembly point for the D-Day invasion. Local historian John Mayes describes seeing a mass of soldiers, kitchens, tanks and personnel carriers as a child – leaving him with the impression that now-secretive Burton Park was the centre of the world.
Little discoveries:
Burton Park’s ancient church sits just metres from the main hall. Its rustic, vernacular appearance contrasts incongruously with the manicured hall, but it’s no less of a treasure.
The carved wooden screen in front of the alter is, somehow, still coated in its original deep red paint. Elsewhere, memorials to Goring family members are reassuringly parochial.
The highlight of this church is the prominent Charles 1st coat of arms (from 1636). It transports us to a tantalising historical precipice with the inscription, “obey them that have the rule over you”. 10 years later, Charles would be arrested and imprisoned by the state. 13 years later, executed.
Visiting Burton Park
Is Burton Park open to the public?
The house and formal gardens are for the exclusive use of residents, so not open to the public. This said, the wider parkland is criss-crossed with public rights of way. The church is also typically open during daylight hours.
Visiting for free
The best way to visit for free is by walking the public footpaths and visiting the ancient church.
Nearby walks
Tap to open
Burton Park walk (7.2k/4.5 miles)
Start by parking at The Cricketers Pub in Duncton. Facing away from the pub, turn right and follow the road around a bend. Do not take the first right – this is the path you will return from.
Instead, take the second right after about 250 metres and walk through a wood. You are on the West Sussex Literary Trail! Follow this up to Burton Park country house itself, and pass it. The house will be to your right. Keep following this through another wooded area until you exit the park completely, and arrive at a B road with Burton Mill Pond clearly to your right. Here you can hunt for a geocache if that’s your thing.
Turn left, and follow the road for some time until you can turn left again (not far from an A road ahead of you). Follow this path all the way back to Burton House and go straight over where different tracks converge again at the church – but be sure to stop and take a look inside. Continue in the direction you were walking and you will pass over the lake. Keep going until you can go no further and have to choose between left and right.
Go right. After about 300 metres you will have to choose your direction again. Here you can go right to return to the start, or you can go left and immediately right again.
If you choose the latter, follow the path for another 450 metres until you can take the first right. This will take you immediately past manor farm, and back to the car park at The Cricketers Pub.
In total, this shorter walk should take approximately two hours.
Burton Park walk (11.3km/7 miles)
A longer walk adding an extra ~2.5 miles (one hour) to the route is strongly advised for its beautiful scenery. Maps to this and the other Burton Park walk are linked.
Picnic spot
On a calm day, it’s worth going fractionally off-piste at Burton Mill Pond in order to rest on the jetty over the water. In high summer, it’ll take all your restraint not to jump in.
Parking
To the south of the park, leave your car at The Cricketers pub in Duncton – which is both the start and end point for the mapped walks.
A car park by a more peaceful part of the estate can be found on Burton Park Road, opposite Burton Mill pond.
Pubs nearby
The Cricketers pub in Duncton is a former coaching inn. From the front it looks disappointingly close to an a-road, but the setting to the rear (actually the *original* front) blocks out all evidence of this, and offers a lush setting.
Nearest tea room/cafe
For a more typical tea or coffee break near Burton Park, you’ll need to travel to the nearby market town of Petworth. You’re not short of options here, but The Hungry Guest cafe is a popular (if not a little sterile) staple. Our advice: take a thermos, and enjoy a coffee break at the top of Duncton hill.
Places to visit near Burton Park
To make a long weekend of your walk around Burton Park, we recommend these nearby places make up your itinerary:
- Bignor Roman Villa (4 miles away, 15 mins by car)
- The Weald and Downland Living Museum (8 miles away, 15 mins by car)
- Petworth House (4 miles away, 10 mins by car).
Bignor Roman Villa is a spacious, authentic and low-tech excavated site – but one set in a breathtaking location on the south downs.
The Weald and Downland Living Museum is like nowhere else I have been before or since. In short, it’s an enormous 40 acre park presenting and preserving historic local buildings, which have been painstakingly dismantled, moved, and rebuilt on the site brick-by-brick.
Petworth House needs no introduction. Under the stewardship of the National Trust, it typically welcomes around 150,000 visitors each year, and is chock-full of fine art, including an unrivalled collection of Turners. The 700 acre (283 hectare) deer park was designed by ‘Capability’ Brown, and is arguably his best work. At the very least, it stands up to his more famous landscapes at Chatsworth, Harewood, and Burghley.
Sources
Websites
- Savills (apartment listing)
- Who owns England
- “Exploring Duncton”, The Bald Explorer
- Bank of England inflation calculator
Physical sources
- “Collections of Burton Park” from the West Sussex Record Office (below)
- “The great landowners of Great Britain and Ireland”, John Bateman
- “Country Houses of the Sussex Downs”, Dr Sue Berry
- “Burton Park: a centre of recusancy in Sussex”. TG Holt
- “Sussex (The Buildings of England)”, Pevsner.
Lost footpath explorer & country house-snooping cretin. Declining triathlete. Eternal hobbyist.