Place Name
Selsdon Park was originally a Tudor mansion which was sold in 1805 to George Smith MP, who resigned and renovated the buildings to include 11 bays, outbuildings and castellated towers. By 1925 it was converted into an hotel, which came to national attention 45 years later as the place where Selsdon Man a new more radical, free-market agenda-supporting voter was dreamt-up by Ted Heath’s team. The name Selsdon was first recorded sometime around AD880 as Selesdune this was named after a Saxon – or possibly a Jute – landholder and meaning Seli’s Hill. An alternative suggestion is that it comes from the Old English words sele meaning a dwelling or hall and dūn meaning hill. It was being spelt as Selysdon in 1247 and Sellesdon in 1286.
