History
The current manor was originally built in 1678 by Sir William Pritchard on land bought from the Napier family on the site of an older medieval manor. In 1704 the manor passed to the Uthwatts, his relatives, and extended the house over time. It was originally the manor of Little Linford as well as of Great Linford.
In 1972 the Manor was bought by Milton Keynes Development Corporation to be an arts centre but was closed in 1984.
In 1984/85 Harry Maloney bought the manor and converted it into a residential recording studio. The main studio housed a 52 channel SSL recording/mixing desk, and was one of the first UK studios to invest in digital recording. Accommodation for artists and producers was offered upstairs in the manor house. A second studio was built in one of the Pavillion Houses opposite the manor (now returned to community arts use). The Pavillion Studio housed a customised vintage analogue Neve desk. Accommodation for artists using this studio was in one of the Alms Houses next to the church in the manor park.
Under Harry Maloney's directive in the mid 1980's through to the early 1990's, Paul Ward acted as Technical Manager, Mandie Emmings Bookings/Studio Manager, Steve Groom house maintenance and gardens, and Gordon Bonnar (formerly of the band 'Heavy Pettin') inhouse recording engineer.
The surrounding parkland remains open to the public and is now owned by Milton Keynes Parks Trust.
In 1993 Pete Winkelman bought the manor, and continued using the property as a recording studio, but his priority was to go to overseeing the Milton Keynes Dons football team and the building of the Milton Keynes football stadium. Over this time the manor became less used for music recording. Pete Winkelman now uses the manor as his family home and is a main organiser of the Great Linford Waterside Festival held over a long weekend every summer in the manor park.
Read more about this topic: Linford Manor
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