There had been a house on the site since 1711, but when the estate was built by Herbert Samuel Leon in 1883 he greatly enlarged the existing house. The mansion was due for demolition after the estate was sold in the 1930s to a developer but Admiral Sir Hugh Spencer looking for a site for the code-breakers bought it in 1938 recognising its excellent transport links to Oxford, Cambridge, London and the cities of the North, purchased it from the developer.
During The second world war many of the rooms within the mansion were used as offices by the senior staff of the unit.
Pete's Favourite Things 