Set within 150 acres of rolling Wiltshire countryside is The King Edward’s Place. At the heart of the estate today, as over one hundred years ago, is King Edward’s House – a Victorian pile built in the late 1800s with a glamorous and sometimes mysterious past.

The house stands in the charming village of Wanborough an important Roman settlement, perched on the downlands about 4 miles from Swindon, Wiltshire’s largest town.

Originally called Foxhill Manor, the house was built by three Oxford undergraduates who shared a passion for the races and kept horses at the nearby Foxhill stables. The undergraduates were members of the Marlborough Club and used the country house retreat to host weekend parties, card games and shoots. Records show the estate was turned into a stud farm around 1895 and the name changed to King Edward’s Place at the turn of the century.

King Edward VII, son of Queen Victoria, succeeded to the throne in 1901 at the age of 60. He was a frequent visitor to the house as King and earlier as Prince of Wales. By Victorian standards the house is small. There was no room for wives, but mistresses were more easily accommodated. Lillie Langtry’s horses were kept at Foxhill stables and she is rumoured to have regularly accompanied the Prince of Wales on his jaunts to the estate. It remains a mystery whether the King granted the change of name the royal seal of approval. It could just be a nickname that stuck.

After the First World War, King Edward’s Place was bought by Jimmy White, the flamboyant financier and entrepreneur. Jimmy White was born in Rochdale and by the time he was 19, he had left his job as a bricklayer and bought a circus for £100. From these humble beginnings he went on to make his fortune.

As well as many industrial interests, Mr White financed several London theatres and he is still remembered in the village for his wild, showgirl parties. The stud flourished under his ownership to become one of the village’s largest employers. But on 28 June 1927, Jimmy White’s extravagant life came to an abrupt end with his suicide. At the time of his death he was in the process of buying Wembley Stadium and the White City dog track, but his dealings with the oil industry were ruining him. His last few West End shows had also proved disastrous and his financial empire was in danger of collapse. Jimmy White died intestate; the only things he had left to give away were eight racehorses, three farms and King Edward’s Place.

The history of the house is chequered between 1927 and 1932 when it changed hands several times. Robert Graham Fothergill owned the estate for a short time and his famous racehorse, Panther, bought from Argentina, could often be glimpsed exercising in the paddocks.

In 1932 King Edward’s Place was rescued from a succession of short-term, unsuccessful owners by Major Edgar Prescott Barker and his wife. Mrs Barker was the step-daughter of Washington Singer, a member of the Singer sewing machine family and racehorse fanatic. King Edward’s Place was the ideal home for the 70 racehorses left to Mrs Barker after her step-father’s death.

During the Second World War, food for the nation was deemed more important than the sport of kings and Mrs Barker was forced to plough up the paddocks to plant corn.

When the war was over, King Edward’s Place became a boarding stud and the business thrived.

In 1962, their son, Captain Fred Barker, took control of the house and the stud. He worked hard to maintain the stud and spent enormous amounts of money on stallions which he hoped would bring to King Edward’s Place the recognition it deserved. But he was always unlucky. A King Edward’s Place stallion never produced a Derby winner.

Twenty years later and Captain Barker needed to invest £500,000 to keep the stud going. Disillusioned with the horse racing business and without adequate funds, he made the painful decision to sell up.

In 1987, the entire estate of King Edward’s Place was sold to Allied Dunbar (now Zurich Insurance Services) and developed as a purpose-built residential conference and training centre.

In 2008 the privately owned Petersham Hotel Group acquired King Edward’s Place. The original focus of the estate, King Edward’s House remains within the grounds and is an ideal venue for private retreats and exclusive use weddings. The purpose-built conference and training venue has been developed into a hotel and renamed ‘The Liddington’.

The Liddington Hotel becomes the third property in the group, alongside The Petersham Hotel in Richmond, Surrey and The Elvetham Hotel in Hartley Wintney, Hampshire.