Addington Palace, (also known as Addington Place), Addington Village, England

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

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

Originally part of the manor of Addington with records dating back to the Saxon period, the property was recorded in the Domesday Survey of 1086 and was later (1509-1547) owned by Henry VIII and used as a hunting park. Between 1544 and 1768 the manor was owned by the Leigh family until it was purchased by Alderman Barlow Trecothick in 1768. Construction of a new house started in 1772 but was not completed until 1780, five years after the death of Barlow Trecothick. In 1781 Barlow's nephew, James Ivers Trecothick, commissioned Lancelot Brown (1716-1783) to design a parkland setting for the new house. Details of Brown's work are unclear but A P Driver's plan of 1802 is thought to give an idea of the scope of Brown's work. Driver's plan does not include individual details of the many parkland trees, but instead describes areas as 'Parkland with trees'.

In 1807 the site was purchased by the Church of England and the name of the house was changed from Addington Place to Addington Palace in keeping with its new status as a summer residence for the archbishop of Canterbury. Under the influence of successive archbishops the layout of the grounds underwent further development and refinement and by 1829 a terrace garden to the east of the house had been created (Loudon 1829) and a Rhododendron Walk from a Swiss Lodge to the north (Shorrucks nd).

In 1898 the Church of England sold the house and land to Frederick Alexander English who extended the house, and also the gardens to the east of the house. After the death of English in 1909 the estate was spilt up, part being sold to the Addington Golf Club and part to a group of businessmen who formed the Addington Palace Golf Club. The remainder was sold for residential development. In 1930 an area to the south, now known as Addington Park, was sold to Croydon Corporation to be used as a public park.

It is evident from the 1934 edition of the Ordnance Survey 6" map that many trees were removed during construction of the golf courses, and housing had by then started to encroach into the park. In 1951 the freehold of the mansion and the Addington Palace Golf Club was sold to the Corporation of Croydon and between 1951 and 1996 the mansion was leased to the Royal School of Church Music. The site is currently (2001) leased to a private company who are developing the house and grounds for greater public use.