Scadbury History

History of Scadbury Manor

The table below sets out a brief timeline of Scadbury Manor (key dates and names of owners) from Medieval times to the present day.

In the attached downloadable document more complete details are given: a full chronology.

This chronology is based on established historical facts about Scadbury Manor. You are free to use it: please acknowledge the source if you do.

Click on the link for the full chronology of History of Scadbury Manor

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Brief Chronology

Dates Owner Notes
c.13th cent – c.1345 De Scathebury family  Little known of them, their names appear in deeds
c.1345-1369+ Hadresham Christina de Hadresham & husband Nicholas Herying owners 1345; John de Hadresham purchases Scadbury from them 1369.
c.1369-1424 Unknown Just prior to the Walsingham purchase it was in the hands of a Thomas Dale, who evidently received it from an Alan Everard.
1424-1660 Walsingham family Also owned the Manor of Chislehurst from 1611.
1660-1736 Bettenson family In residence at Scadbury until death of Edward Bettenson in 1733; inherited by his three sisters.
1736-1742 John Selwyn Owned Scadbury Manor but never in residence.
1742-1893 Townshend family (Lords Sydney from 1783) Hon. Thomas Townshend acquired Scadbury 1742, and the Frognal estate 1749.
1893-1983 Marsham-Townshend family Robert Marsham-Townshend in residence at Frognal House 1893-1914. The Frognal estate sold 1915/17. His son Hugh & grandson John living at Scadbury Park mansion, 1904-1975 with one gap c.1912-19. The mansion destroyed Jan 1976.
1983- London Borough of Bromley Purchased from the Marsham-Townshend family. Scadbury Park Nature Reserve opened 1985.

Owners of the Scadbury estate

Above is a list of the families that owned the Scadbury estate, albeit they were not always in residence. They also maintained houses in London and would have spent time there too. The main residence at Scadbury would have been a house on the moated island – probably until c.1733 when Sir Edward Bettenson died. From that date the island has been unoccupied. The owners of Scadbury from the mid 18th century were the Townshends, who soon started to add to their land holdings in the area. In 1749 they purchased Frognal which abuts Scadbury to the north, and in subsequent years added several more properties such as St Pauls Cray Manor, and land in Sidcup, Chislehurst and Blackfen. From the Selwyns they had also inherited the Matson estate (just outside Gloucester) which they later leased to tenants. The Townshends lived at Frognal House rather than Scadbury, i.e. from c.1749 until the death of Robert Marsham-Townshend in 1914. Scadbury itself was re-occupied by the family in 1904 when Hugh Marsham-Townshend & family moved into Scadbury Park mansion, a house near the island that had previously been occupied by the estate managers. The Matson estate was sold in 1912 and then Frognal was transferred to the government after 1915. This left just the Scadbury estate in Marsham-Townshend hands, where it remained until the death of the last resident owner Major John Marsham-Townshend in 1975.