The hunting lodge was built in the 1660s and enjoyed a generally peaceful life in the ownership of a once-wealthy family whose fortunes declined and whose treatment at the hands of the taxman meant its ownership had to be relinquished. The National Trust took possession of Ashdown House in the 1950s and restored it from the somewhat dilapidated condition it was in at that time. This is one of the less well-known of the NT holdings and one of the best.
