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Description: | There has been an estate at Ditton Park since before the Norman Conquest; in 1086 the Domesday book valued Ditton Manor at 30 shillings. In 1472, during the reign of Edward IV, the estate became Crown land and remained so until the seventeenth century. Henry VIII's daughter Mary (Mary I) spent much of her childhood here and the Keepership of the Park was granted to Anne Boleyn, though there is no evidence of her having lived there. Later the Manor became the property of the Dukes of Montagu and latterly the Dukes of Buccleuch. The current house was built in 1813-17, after a fire destroyed the old house in 1812. The architect, William Atkinson, appears to have retained the plan shape of the old building, when building the new house for the wife of the third Duke of Buccleugh. The Manor was bought by the Admiralty in 1917 for £24,000 to house their Compass Department; it was named the Admiralty Compass Observatory and employed 470 people. The Radio Research Station occupied buildings in the grounds and it was here that the development of radar took place under the leadership of Robert Watson-Watt. In 1997 Ditton Park was acquired by Computer Associates and became the company's European HQ. | Format: | image/jpeg | License: | http://www.sopse.org.uk/ixbin/hixclient.exe?a=query&p=gateway&f=generic_sitetext%2ehtm&_IXFIRST_=1&_IXMAXHITS_=1&cms_con_core_subtype%3acms_con_text_what=copyright&%3acms_sys_group=%22sopse%22 | Rights holder: | Slough Library | Subjects: | Ditton Park ; Computer Associates ; Admiralty Compass Observatory ; Ditton Manor Houses ; Offices ; Manor Houses | Temporal: | start=2008-01-01; end=2008-01-31; | Source: | Sense of place SE | Creator: | Michael Day | Identifier: | http://www.sopse.org.uk/ixbin/hixclient.... | Language: | en-GB | Format: | image/jpeg | Go to resource |
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