Ditcham Park was developed beside an ancient entrenchment on the chalk lands of the South Downs on the Hampshire side of the county border. The lands are first mentioned in Domesday Book ending up in 1545 in the hands of John and Margaret Cowper. These consisted of two farms, Old Ditcham and Sunwood Farm, and large areas of wooded slopes and high down land. Richard Cowper left the estate in 1762 to his cousin John Cole.