Witley Court, Droitwich, England

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

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

Witley was purchased by Thomas Foley, the son of a Stourbridge nail manufacturer, from the Russells of Strensham in 1655. The Foleys retained ownership until 1835 when Witley was bought by the trustees of the eleventh Lord Ward (created first Earl of Dudley 1860), under whom, when he came of age, Witley was transformed into a 'Victorian palace'. His descendant sold the property in 1920, after the death of his wife in a bathing accident, to Sir Herbert Smith (died 1943), a Kidderminster carpet manufacturer, who put Witley up for sale in 1938, the year after the house was consumed in a great fire. It was purchased by a firm of demolition contractors who by 1945 had removed much of the non-structural fabric from the house and felled many of the mature trees in the park. The post-war years also saw the piecemeal sale of the parkland and farms from the estate. In 1972 the house and surrounding grounds were taken into state Guardianship, and a large-scale programme of restoration works instigated in the later 1990s was in progress in 1997.