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Cowdray House
Cowdray House in Sussex is a 16th-century Tudor mansion which was badly damaged by fire in 1793. Construction began in the 1520s after Sir David Owen demolished a 13th-century manor house on the site and was completed by William Fitzwilliam in 1542. Though owned by the Viscount Cowdray, the building is maintained by the Cowdray House Trust, a charity established in 1996. In the early 20th century the ruins were opened to the public, however their continued decay meant that in the 1980s the site was closed for safety reasons. After a multi-million pound restoration project lasting two years, Cowdray House was reopened to the public in 2007.
History
The Bohun family owned Coudreye, and in 1273 Sir John Bohun began building a manor house there. The estates descended with the family until the late 15th century. When the Bohun line became extinct in the late 1490s Sir David Owen inherited the family property through his marriage to the daughter of the last John Bohun.[1] Beginning in around 1520, Owen set about demolishing the 13th-century manor house at Coudreye and building a grand house for himself. Owen did not live to see Cowdray completed, and died in 1535.[2]
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