History
Welford Park is built on the site of a monastic grange that belonged to Abingdon Abbey from Anglo-Saxon times. After the dissolution of the monasteries, King Henry VIII used the site for a hunting lodge. Later it was granted to Sir Thomas Parry, Comptroller of the Household by Queen Elizabeth I. It was his main residence, but his son moved the family to Hamstead Marshall. Welford was then used as a dower house for his mother, who is buried in the adjoining church.
The existing house dates from about 1652 and was built for Richard Jones, the grandson of Sir Francis Jones, Lord Mayor of London in 1620, who had purchased the property in 1618. The house was remodelled by the architect Thomas Archer about 1700, which resulted in an additional storey and a facade decorated with ionic columns. The interior was again altered in 1840.
The house remains in the ownership of James Puxley, a local landowner and former High Sheriff of Berkshire, who is a distant relative of the Jones family.
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