| Dorton House (now Ashfold School) | |
| Type: | House (now school) |
| Map Relief: | yes |
| Coordinates: | 51.8196°N -1.016°W |
| Location: | Dorton, Buckinghamshire |
| Built: | 17th century with later alterations |
| Architecture: | Jacobean |
| Owner: | Ashfold School Trust |
| Designation1: | Grade I |
| Designation1 Offname: | Ashfold School |
| Designation1 Date: | 25 October 1951 |
| Designation1 Number: | 1124266 |
| Designation2: | Grade II listed building |
| Designation2 Offname: | Stable block at Ashfold School |
| Designation2 Date: | 26 February 1985 |
| Designation2 Number: | 1311471 |
| Designation3: | Grade II listed building |
| Designation3 Offname: | Walls surrounding kitchen garden, with summerhouse at Ashfold School |
| Designation3 Date: | 26 February 1985 |
| Designation3 Number: | 1332807 |
| Designation4: | Grade II listed building |
| Designation4 Offname: | Gardener's cottage at Ashfold School |
| Designation4 Date: | 26 February 1985 |
| Designation4 Number: | 1124267 |
| Designation5: | Grade II listed building |
| Designation5 Offname: | Dorton Spa Farmhouse |
| Designation5 Date: | 26 February 1985 |
| Designation5 Number: | 1158469 |
Dorton House is a Jacobean country house near the village of Dorton in Buckinghamshire, England. It was built between 1596 and 1626. It currently houses Ashfold School, an independent preparatory school. Dorton House is a Grade I listed building.
Historic England gives a build date for the house of the early 17th century, noting a datestone for 1626 on an external soffit. Elizabeth Williamson and Nikolaus Pevsner, in their revised Buckinghamshire volume of the Buildings of England, give a rather later date of 1675. Both attribute the house to Sir John Dormer.
The house was sold in 1783 to Sir John Fletcher and remained in his family until 1928 when it was sold to Major Michael Beaumont who served as a British soldier, Conservative Member of Parliament for Aylesbury, Justice of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire.
The Royal London Society for the Blind purchased the house in 1939, as a school, before they moved to Wildernesse at Dorton House in Seal, Kent, in 1955.
In 1955 the house was purchased by James Harrison and turned into Ashfold preparatory school.
Ashfold School is a co-educational independent day and boarding preparatory school for about 270 pupils aged from 3 to 13 years. Actor brothers Edward and James Fox attended the school when it was near Haywards Heath in West Sussex.[1]
The house is in a Jacobean Style and is in a horseshoe shape. The house was built from bricks made from local clay fired at the bottom of Brill Hill.