Plumpton Place, Lewesham, England

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.   

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

A manor house at Plumpton with two mills is mentioned in Domesday Book although the moated site dates back earlier to Saxon times. Construction of the present house was begun in 1568 for the Mascall family. In 1620, the house and land in hand was sold to Sir Thomas Springett. In 1736, it passed to Sir Thomas Pelham, whose descendants later became the earls of Chichester.

Edward Hudson purchased Plumpton Place in 1927 from the Earl of Chichester, and commissioned Sir Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944) to remodel the house and to lay out the gardens. Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932) prepared designs for planting the garden. The property then passed through various hands; Lord Manton established a stud there before the house was sold to a local solicitor and then to Jimmy Page, a pop musician. The property changed hands again in 1983, the owners undertaking restoration and further alteration of the house and commissioning Penelope Hobhouse to advise on the gardens. Although the main structural elements of Lutyens' layout remain intact, Jekyll's planting has not survived. The property remains (1998) in private ownership.