Dunford House was the home of Richard Cobden, the Victorian statesman and liberal proponent of Free Trade. It still contains a lively record of Cobden’s interests and activities – promoting education for all, leading the Anti-Corn Law League, campaigning for Free Trade and the ending of the colonial relations.
Cobden’s vision led to the idea of the Great Exhibition of 1851, for which he was a Royal Commissioner, Dunford’s solarium was designed by Joseph Paxton the creator of Crystal Palace. Much of Cobden’s library and personal gifts remain as testimony to a lively activist who was at heart a home man.
When you are on a conference at Dunford you are among these treasures, soak up the atmosphere and enjoy the heritage. Part of the house is the old farmhouse where Cobden was born, then you can move into the Drawing and Music rooms where he, his wife and children entertained. Not a grand man, but he loved nothing better than “the wooded parts of Sussex”.
1952 - Building a future
In January of 1952, the National Council of YMCA’s had accepted the endowment of Dunford House for general educational purposes. Over the next decade, Dunford House established its reputation as a centre for critical thinking, new ideas and action. A new emphasis developed around the relationship between industry, training and education.
By the 1970’s use by commercial groups for training Senior Managers, encouraged development of the property. This has continued and today Dunford House is a popular Conference and Training venue with a variety of different organisations from the Voluntary Sector, Local Authorities, Health Organisations, while remaining the National Training Centre for the YMCA providing up to date facilities in the ambience of an historic country house.
Richard Cobden 1804-1865
