West Horsley main facade and back view of house (photos: C.A. Stanford)
Acquired: 1538
Henry VIII acquired West Horsley Place upon the attainder for treason of its former owner, the Marquis of Exeter. An inventory of the time notes that it was large house with many rooms, including a hall, a great chamber, a dining chamber, a waiting chamber, a joined parlor and a chapel (Colvin, 285). Henry visited the house several times and paid for maintenance and repair expenses. These note the existence of a gallery next to the king’s bedchamber.
After Henry’s death, Edward VI granted the house to one of his courtiers, Sir Anthony Browne. It was considerably rebuilt in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but traces of the sixteenth-century house can be seen at the back and interior of the bulding.