Avington Park

Avington Park was granted to Edmund Clerk by Henry VIII. It was bought in 1664 by George Rodney Brydges, who married the infamous Anna Maria Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury and was a Groom of the Bedchamber to Charles II. It passed to his son George William Brydges who carried out the major remodelling. He had no children and left most of his estate to Henry Brydges, 2nd Duke of Chandos, after which it descended to his son, the courtier James Brydges, 3rd Duke of Chandos, who improved the gardens and parkland. The estate then descended to the 3rd Duke's only surviving daughter, Lady Anne Elizabeth Brydges, who married Richard Temple-Grenville, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos and in turn…