Barton Manor, Whippingham

The manor of Barton is mentioned in Domesday Book as having been held of King Edward by Bolla, and as having passed at the Conquest into the hands of the Norman, Fitz Stur, with whose family it remained until the reign of Henry III., when it passed by marriage to Walter de Insula. About 1282, John de Insula, rector of Shaltteet, and Peter de Winter, rector of Godshill, founded and endowed at Barton an oratory of Augustines for six priests and a clerk. This Barton Priory was dedicated to the Holy Trinity, and placed under the patronage of the Bishop of Winchester; but about the middle of the 15th century it was suppressed, and its lands granted by Bishop Waynflete to Winchester College, with…

Mr & Mrs F C Tillett bought the Barton Manor estate and farmed it for some 30 years, together with their son, Ivor. At the time, the estate was said to be around 725 acres. However, it was also reported that around 1938/1939, Sir Peter Drummond Macdonald KBE and his wife Lady Jean Macdonald (daughter of Douglas Cochrane, 12th Earl of Dundonald), lived on the Barton Manor estate. Sir Peter was a Canadian-born Conservative Party politician. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for the Isle of Wight for 35 years from 1924 to 1959. In 1952, by which time Ivor Tillett owned the estate in his own right, he and his wife relocated to Devon. Barton Manor was put up for sale as a vacant possession.