Divine Mercy College

A Charitable foundation was formed to purchase, with a mortgage, the Grade I listed 17th-century country house with out-buildings and a park designed by Capability Brown on the banks of the River Thames.

The main house in neoclassical style, sometimes attributed to Christopher Wren, with interiors by James Wyatt was used for the library, a museum, the chapel and refectory and kitchens with administrative offices on the upper floors.

The teaching staff consisted of lay women and men - some of them university teachers from pre-war Poland - and the small community of exiled Polish Marian fathers headed initially by Jarzębowski (1897-1964), also a writer, historian and Antiquarian.

[4] With the general fall in school rolls during the mid-1980s, Divine Mercy College did not escape the decline and was obliged to finally close its doors to pupils in 1986.

The property was sold after a unilateral decision by the Marian Fathers in 2010 despite controversy, lawsuits and an extended campaign to save the Grade I listed asset and its valuable museum collection for the newly greatly expanding Polish community in the UK, following Poland's accession to the European Union.