This article by Stephen Gilburt was first published by The Enfield Society in newsletter 199, Autumn 2015.
Old Park, with its Iron Age hill fort, is first mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. In the early 17th century a ranger’s lodge was erected on the 230 acre estate. In 1660 Charles II granted the estate to George Monk, Duke of Albemarle. After the estate reverted to the crown, William III granted it to the Earl of Rutland in 1688.
In 1735 the estate was sold to Samuel Clayton and the house was occupied by members of the Clayton family until 1809. It was subsequently occupied by Rev. T. Winchester Lewis and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Isaac Walker of Arnos Grove. Their daughter Elizabeth married the antiquarian Edward Ford (1814-1893), who was the co-author of A history of Enfield in 1873, with George Hodson, vicar of Enfield. Edward and Elizabeth’s son John Walker Ford more than doubled the size of the house and also wrote a history of Bush Hill Park in 1904.
In 1922 Hugh Rawlinson Ford arranged the sale of the house and estate to Bush Hill Park Golf Club. The golf club made a number of alterations to the house, including the insertion of picture windows. However the locally listed house still retains many attractive earlier features, including a decorative plaster ceiling and a trompe l’oeil ceiling painting at the top of the staircase. The neighbouring stable block is also locally listed.