The Rossway Park estate, which dates from the 17th century and was then known as Rothway,[1] was bought by Robert Sutton from Highgate in 1802.

[2] Charles Stanton Hadden, a coffee planter operating in Ceylon, acquired the estate in 1863, demolished the original mansion and built a new house which was completed in 1867.

[3] In 1903 the property passed to Major-General Charles Hadden, a British Army officer who became Master-General of the Ordnance.

[2] It then passed to the general's son, Major Adrian Hadden Paton, in 1949 and remained in the hands of the Hadden Paton family[4]: 58  until 1998 when it was acquired by Khoo Kay Peng, chairman of MUI Group, which owned a majority stake in the retail chain Laura Ashley.

The present building dates from 1867 and was designed by the English architect Robert Evans in the Palladian style.