King's College Cambridge coat of arms

Whipperley Manor includes today's Stockwood Park. Like Farley Manor it originated in a grant of land by King Henry II (1154 to 1189) to the Hospital of Holy Trinity, Satingfeld in Picardie [France] in 1156. In 1331 the manor was taken over by the Crown when the master failed to appear to claim it. In 1447 religious houses in England controlled by foreign interests were dissolved and Whipperley was granted to King's College, Cambridge. By 1552, however, Whipperley was once more a manor in the hands of the Crown, though Saint Albans Abbey had tried to claim it in 1505.

 
Crawley coat of arms

George Rotherham, who was tenant of Dallow Manor, also leased Whipperley Manor on a 92 year lease from 1522. Rotherham's son, also George was granted the manor by the Crown in 1554. In 1640 Thomas Rotherham sold a detached part of the manor described as a capital or mansion house known as Stockwood alias Whipperley along with New Close, Woodfield Close, Ponds Close, Stockwood Close, Woodyard Close, Slipp Close and Highwood Close to Richard Norton. Whipperley Manor is not mentioned in surviving records after this date. Luke Norton held Stockwood until at least 1658 but by 1707 it had passed to Richard Crawley and remained in the Crawley family into the 20th century. The present Stockwood House, now a part of Luton Museum, was built by John Crawley about 1740.