Pendley has accumulated over 1,700 years of history – from:

Ancient Britons and Romans, who settled this area at least some 1,700 years ago, to England's last great heathen King, the warlike and impressively vigorous, Penda, who seems to have given his name to this area, sired a child when he was aged 77 and died, in battle, aged 80;

The Anglo-Saxon nun, Eddeva, via William the Conqueror's half-brother, Robert, to Sir Robert Whittingham, who demolished mediaeval Pendley and built the first manor house in its place;

The Verneys and the sixteenth century's changeable politics to the Andersons, who facilitated the initially illicit union which was to produce US President, George Washington;

The Harcourts who, in the end, didn't care about Pendley and let the old manor house be destroyed, and the trade-wealthy Grouts with their illegitimate heir, Lawrence Williams, who secured his family's fortune by marrying into his own family and then buying Pendley;

His son, JG – supervisor of the building of the new manor house, a successful agriculturalist who also shepherded his brother's children and, so, secured the future of Pendley for a century – to Dorian, the last of the Williams' line at Pendley;

The short-term ownership of David Evans and the Grass Roots Partnership to the current owner, Vinu Bhattessa, who's turned the place into a hotel and conference centre.

Along the way, Pendley Manor acquired some peacocks, a famous Shakespeare Festival, a couple of ghosts and a host of stories. Many of these are unrecorded but some, at least, have come down to us through the ages – and these are told within this book.