Milton Court
| Milton Court | |
| Surrey | |
|---|---|
 View of the front of Milton Court | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ15144934 |
| Location: | 51°13’54"N, 0°21’8"W |
| Town: | Dorking |
| History | |
| Built 1611 to 20th century | |
| By: | Unknown and William Burges |
| Country house | |
| Information | |
| Owned by: | Unum Group |
Milton Court, at the far west of the town of Dorking, is a 17th-century country house in Surrey.
The house was expanded and substantially rebuilt by the Victorian architect William Burges and is a Grade II* Listed Building, including the attached forecourt walls, balustrading, terrace, piers, urns and stone-carved ball finial.[1]
The estate was originally a priory, and was granted to George Evelyn, father of the diarist John Evelyn, at the Reformation. Evelyn was already lord of the manor of adjoining manor of Wotton where the family established still grander and more expensive Wotton House, today a hotel.
In the nineteenth century, the Milton Court estate was bought by Lachlan Mackintosh Rate, a wealthy lawyer, banker and philanthropist. He employed William Burges to undertake substantial rebuilding.[2] Working in an ornate Jacobean style, Burgess added twenty rooms, with elaborate fireplaces and ceilings. Perhaps the most successful is the famed Flower room, formerly Mrs Rate's boudoir. Nicholas Pevsner describes it as "a picturesque seven-bay house with shaped gables".[3]
The house is now the UK headquarters of the health insurance company Unum, which has worked to restore the house and its interior decoration.[4]
References
- ↑ National Heritage List 404964: Milton Court
- ↑ Lyall, Milton Court, p.4
- ↑ Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England: Surrey, 1962; 1971 Penguin Books ISBN 978-0-300-09675-0page 368
- ↑ Lyall, Milton Court, Introduction
- Cattermole, Paul, A History of Milton Court & Part of the Manor of Milton (2011) Unum Limited
- Lyall, Sutherland, Milton Court - Heritage Regained (1993) Unum Limited
- Mordaunt-Crook, J William Burges and the High Victorian Dream (1981) John Murray
- Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England: Surrey, 1962; 1971 Penguin Books ISBN 978-0-300-09675-0
- The Victorian Web, William Burges: An Overview (2007)