Step back in time with our ‘Then and Now’ feature, where vintage postcards from the Barry Cuff Collection meet modern-day reality. Explore the past and present on the same page, and see the evolution of familiar local places. ‘Now’ images by Courtenay Hitchcock
Duntish Court, sitting just a mile from Buckland Newton village church, was a large Palladian-style country residence designed c. 1760 by Sir William Chambers for Fitzwalter Foy. Supposedly it had been on the short-list when the Royal Family were looking for an estate for the Prince of Wales in 1862, being overlooked for Sandringham instead. Following the death of the head of the family, John Holford, in a road accident in 1940 – shortly after his escape from France via Dunkirk – the estate had been underused. It was used during WWII as training headquarters for the Auxiliary Units in Dorset, and the house was demolished in 1965. The 18th century landscape and pleasure ground survives, including a lake, cascade and a grotto. The original ha-ha survives, as does a garden house, and significant late 18th and 19th century tree planting remains.
