History of Stoke Poges where Stoke Park Club is located
– According to a local historian Lionel Rigby, the earliest known owner of the manor of Stoke and Ditton (Stoke Park estate) was Siret the Saxon, vassal of King Harold.
– After the Norman Conquest at the end of the 11th century, Siret was forced out of the manor and William Fitz Ansculf from Picardy was granted a tenancy.
– 1750 is considered as a key date in the development of Stoke Park, stated the club’s website. However, the history of the Stoke Park estate dates back to the Domesday Book (book was completed in 1086). In 1813, the owner of what was then called the Mansion House (the present Stoke Park Club) and the Manor House wrote what he called an historical and descriptive account of Stoke Poges.
– Henry Hastings, the 3rd Earl, had to sell the property in 1581 to the Crown, due to hardship. He was the last person to inherit Stoke Park in a line of descent that had continued for 515 years since 1066, the year when his ancestors had forced the Saxon prince Siret from his lands.
– The estate was used as private property until 1908. It was turned into the UK’s first country club by Nick Lane Jackson, founder of the Corinthian Sporting Club (Corinthian Football Club). He was fondly known as Pa.
– In 1928, Sir Noel Mobbs bought the Club from Pa Jackson, and he transformed it in 1929.
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