HISTORY TIMELINE

house frontage cropped

1086

Doomsday Book – mention of St Peter’s Church, Cornwell.

1509–1597

The Annesley family live at Cornwell.

1636–1828

The Penyston family live and farm at Cornwell.

1677

Discovery of prehistoric bones on Cornwell land.

The first dinosaur bone was discovered in a limestone quarry at Cornwell village, near Chipping Norton in 1676. It was analysed by Robert Plot, a naturalist and the first professor of chemistry at Oxford University, who concluded that it was a thigh bone of one of the giant humans mentioned in the Bible. It has since been identified as a scrotum belonging to a Megalosaurus.

1750s

Fairmeadow Penyston added the Georgian frontage to the existing manor house.

1923

Joshua Bower purchased Cornwell Manor.

1937

Lt Col Godfrey Anthony Gillson and his wife Priscilla buy Cornwell Manor.

1939–1944

Clough Williams-Ellis re-landscapes the gardens, adds the ballroom, swimming pool, pond, and ‘viewing’ gates. He also remodels the village and modernises all the cottages and houses on the estate.

1941

Priscilla Gillson lends the house to the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) as a respite centre for female volunteers and wounded soldiers.

1944-1959

Robert Crichton-Stuart lives at Cornwell Manor.

1959

Peter and Claire Ward buy Cornwell Manor.

2008

Alexander Ward inherits Cornwell Manor and currently lives there with his family.