Preston Manor and Brighton 

From tenant farmer to landed gentry

In 1794 Preston Manor was purchased by William Stanford, son of a local tenant farmer.  At this time the Preston Manor estate stretched for miles into Brighton and Hove and down to the seafront.

As Lord of the Manor William soon became a well-known figure within the Sussex landed gentry. With the development of Brighton as a popular seaside destination, he was able to sell his produce to the town, and between 1803-1804 was awarded a contract by the Town Commissioners to clear night-soil from the street. 

When William died in 1841 he was considered to be ‘the richest private individual in Sussex and to have died worth more than half a million of money’.

Preston Manor estate remains intact

William’s eldest son (also William) continued to lead the traditional life of a country squire.  He resisted the temptation to sell land for building and Preston Manor remained a sizeable, wealthy estate. 

He was 44 when he died and the estate passed to his daughter Ellen.  Ellen was only six years old when she inherited in 1854.  She was made a Ward of Chancery and her fortune was put into a trust administered by Court trustees.  She was made tenant-for-life of the estates and was empowered to grant leases but could not sell land outright.

William’s will had ensured that the income of Preston Manor estate came from rentals and short-term leases and not land sales.

The estate changes and so does the shape of Brighton

When Ellen married Vere Fane Benett of Pythouse, Wiltshire in 1867 she inherited some of his debts.  She looked to the sale of her land in Brighton and Hove to help her husband which meant finding a way round the strict enforcements made in her father’s will.  In 1871 the Stanford Estate Act was passed which allowed Ellen to grant building agreements with the option to purchase the freehold within seven years.

From then the Stanford estate began to change dramatically.  By 1884, 550 acres had been sold and some of the finest houses in west Hove began to appear, with the addition of grand roads, drives and avenues.

To offset the sale of a lot of the estate Ellen instructed the trustees to buy new freeholds in Wiltshire, Sussex and London. The value of the Stanford estate grew, and when Ellen and her second husband Charles Thomas returned to settle at Preston Manor in 1905, it became the main residence for themselves, their family, and their 17 servants.

An elegant Edwardian home

Charles Thomas-Stanford was elected Mayor of Brighton in 1910 and so began many years of local and national public and civic duty.  In 1911, 1,000 guests were invited to a garden party at Preston Manor, and future guests included Rudyard Kipling, the Crown Prince of Sweden and Queen Victoria’s daughter Princess Beatrice.

Charles was Conservative and Unionist MP for Brighton between 1914 and 1922.  He was a man of great social standing and concerned himself with issues such as employment conditions of children, food supply to the wounded Indian soldiers in the Royal Pavilion and coal shortages in Brighton.

In 1922 Charles bought Lewes Castle and donated it to the Sussex Archaeological Society in trust for the nation.

In 1925 Charles and Ellen were given the Honorary Freedom of Brighton and, four years later, Charles was created a baronet in recognition of his years of public service.

Ellen and her son John argued bitterly for many years.  John grew selfishly and overly concerned that his inheritance of Preston Manor was being frittered away on lavish entertaining.  For this reason Ellen started to make plans to sell Preston Manor to Brighton Corporation and when she and Charles both died in 1932 the house became the property of the town.

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