In about 1770 Thomas Bowles of Abingdon enclosed land on Milton Hill about 1.5 miles south of the village as a park and had Milton Hill House built there. His son Thomas (died 1837) enlarged both the park and the house. The library was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott for John Samuel Bowles. It remained the Bowles family seat until 1905 when it was sold by Col. Thomas John Bowles It is now a DeVere hotel and Spa.