There are records of a small farm on the site now occupied by The Retreat going back hundreds of years, and a large house being built as early as 1678, but our story begins with Rev. John Craven, resident of nearby Barton Court. Craven is thought to have built the original house around 1763 as a dower house for his mother Elizabeth.

A local historian, Clive Williams OBE, believes that the Craven family was the inspiration for the Crawford family of ITV's Downton Abbey.

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John Craven's mother died in 1778 and was buried in Kintbury Church, 2 miles from Elcot. Craven's wife's cousin, the young Anne Whitley, ultimately inherited Elcot Park.  She soon afterwards married Charles Dundas, Baron Amesbury, who became the owner of the estate. 

The Dundas Arms, in nearby Kintbury is named in his honour.

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Anthony Bushby Bacon - a Welsh industrialist and a member of one of Britain's richest families - purchased the estate from Charles Dundas in 1815, and set about creating Elcot Park as we know it today, building the house that is now the historic heart of The Retreat.

Anthony Bacon was a keen gardener and horticulturalist, and built a revolutionary kitchen garden. He pioneered the use of water-heated hothouses to grow exotic species - he was the first person in Britain to use this method to successfully grow pineapples. According to the 1834 edition of the Gardener’s Magazine, Elcot Park should be “celebrated as the scene in which the mode of heating hot-houses by hot water was displayed."

The famous hothouses were 320 feet long and their remains can still be seen in The Retreat's walled garden.

Anthony Bushby Bacon's name lives on, as the name of one of our suites, and in The Bacon Arms, a pub in Newbury town centre.

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It has often been said that Capability Brown designed the grounds of Elcot Park, for two reasons - firstly, the grounds show signs of his work. Secondly, he had designed nearby Benham Valance, while others have pointed out that he had died before the current house was built, and that maps of the time do not show any landscaped gardens. 

It is more likely that Anthony Bushby Bacon, who built the current house, and was familiar with Benham Valance, designed the park in Brown's style, as he was keen to be considered one of the Berkshire’s landed gentry.

To further add to the mystery, a hotel brochure from the 1960s states that Elcot Park was planned and laid out by the royal gardener, Sir William Paxton, in 1848.

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When Anthony Bushby Bacon died in 1827 it became clear that Elcot Park was financed by mortgages and he had no other assets. Although his son eventually purchased Elcot in 1831, the auction of exotic plants and farming equipment was needed to raise money. This was insufficient to clear his debts, and the estate was put up for sale. 

Anthony Bushby Bacon is remembered at The Retreat, with a suite named in his honour, and our brasserie, named after his year of birth.

Some of his exotic trees remain, including a magnificent Cedar of Lebanon.

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In 1844, Elizabeth, Lady Shelley purchased Elcot Park, 22 years after the death of her son, the famous Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, whose portrait takes pride of place above the fireplace in our reception. She lived there with her daughters, Hellen and Mary.

Elizabeth died just two years later but her daughters remained at the house until the last of them died in 1887. 

Percy's widow, Mary Shelley - author of Frankenstein - continued to visit Elcot for some years, and a letter written at the house, about her life with Percy, still exists.

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After the last of the Shelley sisters died, Elcot Park was let to a number of military families before being sold to Sir Richard Vincent Sutton, 6th Baronet, in 1899.

For the first few decades of the twentieth century the estate was let to various tennants, including, for 25 years, a prominent JP by the name of Richard Plaskett Thomas who held substantial tea plantations in India.

From 1936 to 1938 the Newbury Agricultural Show was held at Elcot Park - the show is now held at the Newbury Showground each year.

During the second world war, American soldiers were accommodated at Elcot, and when The Retreat was created in 2020, numerous artifacts from this time were discovered. 

After the war the Newbury Agricultural Show returned, and became so established it was known as The Elcot Show. The photo above was taken at an Elcot Show in the early 50s, just before the show moved to it's modern day location at Newbury showground.

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Lady Helen De Crespigny had tried for many years to obtain an alcohol license for Elcot Park, which by the late 1940s the property was trading as Elcot Park Hotel & Country Club.

Mrs Edith Weston bought the tenancy in 1949 and linked Elcot with her other family business in London (The Surrey Restaurant in Surrey St, London WC2). Mrs Weston ran the hotel as a successful business until 1952 when it went into liquidation. 

Elcot Park then remained empty for some years.

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In the early 1960s, Harold Sterne purchased Elcot Park and turned it into a modern, thriving hotel and a popular local attraction.

Elcot Park became known for its modern food and entertainment, and by the late 1960s had become a popular local night spot and a destination for holidaymakers from across the world.

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The owners fully embraced the swinging sixties and Elcot Park developed a reputation as a party venue, appealing to a younger clientele at weekends. A brochure from the late 1960s says "Dinner Dances are held on most Saturday evenings and a discotheque is in preparation for younger guests."

The hotel attracted popular bands of the time - one guest recently mentioned seeing the flower-power band Edison Lighthouse at Elcot, just as their famous hit "Love Grows Where My Rosemary Grows" was entering the charts.

The discotheque was demolished in the 1980s buy many locals hold fond memories of Elcot Park discos!

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Many local residents have fond memories of a large pond within the grounds. Records and memories are hazy, but by all accounts the pond was still there during the 70s and 80s...

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In October 1987, the UK was hit by a cyclone, with hurricane-force winds causing terrible damage across much of the country. One of the casualties of The Great Storm was Elcot House's original conservatory.  The photo above shows the replacement, which has itself been replaced with our Orangery.

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In the late 1980s, after 200 years of private ownership of Elcot Park came to an end when the hotel was purchased by Resort Hotels, and a few years later by Jarvis Hotels, who later merged with Ramada and marketed the hotel as The Mercure Newbury Elcot Park Hotel.

In the early 1990s a large extension was added to Anthony Bushby Bacon's house and for some years a Sebastian Coe Health Club operated from the hotel.

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After several years of negotiation, The Signet Collection, headed by Hungerford resident Hector Ross purchased Elcot Park, re imagining it into The Retreat. 

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At the beginning of December, 2022, just as we began our first Christmas season, The Times and The Sunday Times named The Retreat as Britain's Best Hotel in their annual list of Britain's Top 100 Places to Stay. 

"This extraordinary accolade was a welcome surprise and is wonderful recognition of our vision coming to life. We are all about our people and this award is a real testament to The Retreat team's incredible efforts." - Hector Ross, Founder of The Signet Collection.