The estate was later sold to the Earls of Dudley, who undertook a second massive reconstruction in the mid-19th century, employing the architect Samuel Daukes to create one of the great palaces of Victorian and Edwardian England.
In 1937 a major fire caused great damage to the court, the estate was broken up and sold and the house was subsequently stripped of its fittings and furnishings.
The church was given a baroque interior in 1747, when he commissioned James Gibbs to incorporate paintings and furnishings acquired at the auction of the contents of Cannons House.
[7] In 1920 Witley Court was sold by the 2nd Earl to Sir Herbert Smith, 1st Baronet, a Kidderminster carpet manufacturer.
[8] Sir Herbert maintained only a skeleton staff to manage the house whilst he and his family were away, and many areas were left unused.
Although only one wing of the house was gutted by the fire and the rest of it was almost intact, the insurance company declined to cover the major damage, so Sir Herbert resolved to sell the property.
[10] A video made in 1967 by the band Procol Harum for their song "A Whiter Shade of Pale", used Witley Court as the location.
In 2003 Witley Court's owners, the Wigington family of Stratford-upon-Avon, who had acquired it in 1953 for £20,000, placed the freehold for sale on eBay for £975,000.
Thomas Foley (IV) may have used Henry Flitcroft to add Palladian service wings in the mid-eighteenth century.
[1] In the early nineteenth century, Thomas Foley (VII) used John Nash to design the enormous North and South porticos.
This saw the encasement of the mansion's central block and wings with Bath stone and the creation of lavish interiors in a revival French Renaissance style.