Building work was started on Bailbrook House in 1790 by John Eveleigh for wealthy lawyer Dr Denham Skeet. However, due to the impact of the intervening wars, building was not completed until the early part of the 19th century.
Over the years the mansion house has been owned and lived in by many wealthy people, with one tenant being Lady Isabella King, who devoted her time to charitable and benevolent work, notably helping street beggars to ‘save the innocent and the unprotected from the dangers attendant on idleness and poverty.’
Initiatives included a knitting school and a button-making school for children and a widows of the armed forces. The charity was honoured in 1817 when Queen Charlotte visited Bailbrook House with her son the Duke of Clarence, who later became King William IV.
Amongst other patrons and visitors were three bishops, two duchesses, two marchionesses and William Pitt the Younger, who often stayed at the house.
A new extension was built in the 1970s by the Post Office, which converted the buildings to a training college and subsequently a college for air traffic controllers.
In 2012 Hand Picked Hotels purchased Bailbrook House, a grade II listed property, along with Bailbrook Court and 20 acres of private grounds. In 2013, the original mansion house was restored and refurbished, along with full refurbishment of Bailbrook Court.
