Acquired: 1509 (by inheritance)
The manor of Ditton was a royal holding that received some repairs and attention early in the reign of Henry VIII, especially ca. 1517 when Princess Mary resided there as a baby. In later years the manor was granted to Anne Boleyn as part of her dowry. There is no evidence she ever visited there, but particulars of repair work undertaken by James Nedeham, the Surveyor of the King’s Works, date to 1537, at which point Jane Seymour had become queen and apparently planned a visit to the site.
Repairs to Ditton were kept up during the later Tudor monarchs though there is little evidence to confirm actual royal visitation. Ditton apparently became part of the Honour of Hampton Court (an amalgamation of properties to form an extensive hunting forest, as the king was very fond of hunting). The house was destroyed in a fire in 1812 and replaced by a neogothic construction. The existing moat follows that of the sixteenth century manor house.