Botleys Mansion
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| Botleys Mansion | |
|---|---|
 Botleys Mansion | |
| Location | Chertsey, Surrey |
| Coordinates | 51°22′26.1″N 0°32′1.8″W / 51.373917°N 0.533833°W |
| OS grid reference | TQ 02142 64884 |
| Built | 1760s |
| Architect | Kenton Couse |
| Architectural style | Palladian |
| Owner | Bijou Wedding Venues |
Listed Building – Grade II* | |
| Official name | Botleys Park Hospital |
| Designated | 9 July 1972 |
| Reference no. | 1029181 |
  Location of Botleys Mansion in Surrey | |
Botleys Mansion (previously known as Botleys Park)[1][2][3] is a Palladian mansion house in the south of Chertsey, Surrey, England, just south of St Peter's Hospital. The house was built in the 1760s by builders funded by Joseph Mawbey and to designs by Kenton Couse. The elevated site once bore a 14th-century manor house seized along with all the other manors of Chertsey from Chertsey Abbey, a very rich abbey, under Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries and today much of its land is owned by two hospitals, one public, one private, and the local council authority. The remaining mansion and the near park surrounding were used for some decades as a colony hospital and as a private care home. The building is owned and used by a wedding venues company.
It is a Grade II* listed building.[4]
The building standing today was built c.1765[4] as a replacement of an old manor.[5][6] The mansion's ownership was transferred often throughout its history.[7]
The House and the surrounding 344 acre estate was purchased by Surrey County Council in late 1929 for a reported sum of £31,000 (equivalent to £1,702,707 in 2025).[2] A psychiatric facility known as the Botley's Colony was established at the House during the 1930s. The plan for the new layout of the new buildings was by the architects J.M. Sheppard & co circa 1935.[4]
The Metropolitan Asylums Board was dissolved in 1930 and responsibility for caring for the mentally deficient was passed to the (local government) Councils.[8] Surrey County Council decided set up new buildings to house patients while the mansion housed the hospital staff becoming designated from 1932 Botley's Park hospital, which specialised in patients with psychiatric disorders.[9] It was reported in 1931 that the Surrey County Council had voted approximately £440,000 (equivalent to £25,914,496 in 2025) for the expansion of the Botleys Colony, which would allow it to accommodate up to 1,500 patients.[1]
The first section of the new hospital was opened on 24 June 1939 by Lady Henriques, wife of then chairman of the Council Sir Philip Henriques.[9] In September of the same year, many of the hospital's patients were moved to Murray House in nearby Ottershaw so that Botleys could receive wounded soldiers from the war. During this time, the mansion was adapted into a nurses' home.[10]
The mansion was damaged by fire in 1994 and within two years, most of the nurses' home closed down.[11] It was restored by P&O Developments between 1996 and 1997.[4]