The event that had the greatest effect on the town in the Tudor period was the re-building of Cowdray House, which commenced in the 1520s. Sir David Owen, illegitimate son of Owen Tudor and uncle to Henry VII, began construction of the building that is now in ruins beside the River Rother, on the site of the former building called Coudreye, which he had acquired upon the death of his wife Mary Bohun. Her family had built the original house there between 1273 and 1284, after they abandoned their original castle on St Ann's Hill. The rebuilding continued after 1529, when Sir David Owen's son sold it to Sir William Fitzwilliam.