History of Duffield House

Duffield House was built in the late 1860s. The first occupier was William Cooper, a tenant of the Penn family who were descendants of the founder of Pennsylvania. In 1869 Edward Coleman bought the land, having succeeded the Penn as Lord of the Manor of Stoke Poges. Ownership passed to Algernon Gilliat in 1872, who was the Church Warden of St Giles the Church associated with Grays Elegy. The room now called the Display Room was then the family chapel. During World War II, the house was requisitioned as a military administrative headquarters. In 1947 ICI bought the house to provide a Management Centre for ICI Paints and in 2008 AkzoNobel acquired ICI Paints and now Duffield House is an AkzoNobel conference and events facility, which provides in-house conference facilities during the week and is utilised as a commercial events facility during weekends.