The following is an abridged version of the history of Huntley Manor, originally written by Dace Ground in the Bermuda National Trust book 'Paget Parish'.

Huntley Manor on Tanglewood Lane has the most colourful history of all of the grand Victorian houses.

Built on some 12 acres of hilltop land on the south side of Middle Road, Paget, it is accessed by Tanglewood Road, which was once its driveway.

In 1891 a Welshman from the Leicestershire Regiment, Lt. Col. Colwyn William Vulliamy, married Lilian Isabel Gosling, the daughter of Edmund Hinson Gosling, and purchased the land in 1893.

The house, named 'Glasbury' after the Vulliamy home in Radnorshire, Wales, was completed in 1900.

With its battlements, red-tiled roof, narrow leaded windows and stepped gables, 'Huntley Manor' was in the late Victorian baronial revival style — fashionable for substantial country houses in Britain.

No concessions were made to Bermudian stylistic traditions, although the house was built of Bermuda stone, and records exist of advice from Reginald Gray to Colwyn's brother in Radnorshire as to the prevailing winds and other pertinent local details.

The plaster work was of a high standard, and the high ceilings and large rooms gave an instant impression of grandeur.

Until 2009, the separate tall, square tower, with views of Hamilton and the Great Sound, added a grand but eccentric element to the house.

The tower was narrow, with 60 steps to the top. In 2010 a large addition was being built around the tower.

The Vulliamys sold their splendid Bermuda home in 1909 to Louis F. Payn of Chatham, New York, who changed the name to Paynhurst, and planted many decorative palms and trees in the grounds.

By 1928 it was owned by Isabel Merson Manson, an American. Then known as Huntley Towers, the house became a guest house for "select clientele".

During the 1930s, girls from Wildcliff Junior College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania stayed at Huntley Towers to avoid the northern winter.

The Second World War was the most interesting period in the house's history.

Nationals of enemy countries who were resident in Bermuda became a matter of serious concern after ship movements involving Bermuda were broadcast on Berlin Radio.

It was decided to use Huntley Towers to intern female enemy nationals, some of whom were wives of Bermudians.

A machine gun was mounted in the tower, and the house was surrounded by a double barbed wire fence. Under military control day and night, a guard was supplied by the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps, which was quartered in the stables.

The first seven women were interned there in June, 1940, and eventually the number fluctuated between 20 and 30, some from Bermuda, and others off an enemy ship.

Captivity included good accommodation, newspapers, radio, and escorted trips to Hamilton.

A group of Italian seamen were lodged in the tower and kept well away from the women. In September, 1943 the war with Italy ended, and the Italian seamen were released, followed shortly by the local civilian internees.

In 1944 Huntley Towers was sold to Henry Dunkley of Dunkley's Dairy, who ran a chicken farm there. Three years later, he sold the property to Alec Mitchell, the brother of Sir Harold Mitchell of Marshall's Island.

Post-war taxes in Britain sent a number of wealthy people out to Bermuda, and after five years Mr Mitchell bought the Astor Estate at Ferry Reach and sold the renamed Huntley Hill to an English couple, Walter and Helena Bickley, who sub-divided more than seven acres to the south and east of the house into building lots.

The house itself changed hands several more times. In 1964 a lease was assigned to the inventor Sir Charles Denniston Burney.

In 1980 it was sold to Norman Budgeon, a wealthy English metallurgist, who renamed the house Huntley Manor, filled it with antiques from his castle in Switzerland, and lived there in exotic style with his companion until his death in 1995.

In 2002, it was bought by a company owned by Edward Lawrence and his wife Michele, who have developed the property into apartments while maintaining the style of the house, battlements and all.