1889 - Dunns and Rothschilds

Sir Philip Dunn owned Stowell Park after the Second World War. He is remembered in the village through the Sir Philip Dunn Ground, where the Wilcot Cricket Club now play.

He was married to Lady Mary Dunn – first in the early 1930s, and then again, after a divorce and some intervening marriages, in 1969. John Betjeman wrote to her about her youth: ‘Loveliest of all, you, with your freckles and smile’. Ramsay MacDonald, the Prime Minister, poured out his soul to her.

Their daughter Lady Rothschild lived at Stowell until her death in early 2019.

His other daughter, Nell Dunn, lived for a while in the village and wrote compelling books about urban poverty. Her husband, Jeremy Sandford, author of Cathy Come Home, also lived briefly in Wilcot.