Edgcote House Northamptonshire (Now Oxfordshire), England

Edgcote House is an 18th-century country house of two storeys plus a basement and a nine bay frontage.[2] It is built of local ironstone with dressings of fine grey stone.[2] Features include a carved mahogany staircase, and a drawing room decorated in a Chinese style. It is a Grade I listed building.

In 1543 the Edgcote estate, which had previously belonged to Anne of Cleves, was bought from the Crown by William Chauncy, MP for Northamptonshire and High Sheriff of Northamptonshire for 1579. By 1742 it had descended to Richard Chauncy, a London merchant, who commissioned the architect William Jones to build the present house in 1747–52 to replace a previous building.[2][3] His son William Henry Chauncy caused the village of Edgcote to be resited to improve his view sometime before 1788. The estate then passed to his unmarried sister Anna Maria Chauncy and from her to Thomas Carter, Richard Chauncy’s great-nephew, and from him to a distant cousin, Julia Frances Aubrey, who was married to William Cartwright. They moved in in 1847 and the Cartwrights remained in possession until 1926, when they were obliged to sell it to the Courage family. It has since been bought by businessmsn David Allen.

The 1,700-acre (690 ha) park was laid out in the 18th century and features a lake fed by the River Cherwell and the remains of a Roman villa.[4] The house is heated by heat energy extracted from the lake.[5]

BBC Television used the house in its 1995 television adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. The estate may be adversely affected by the proposed HS2 high speed railway line.

The manor and advowson of Edgecote, Northants. was acquired in 1535 by Thomas Cromwell,
Vicar-general and chief minister of Henry VJII. After his mishandling of the marriage of Henry to Anne of Cleves in 1539 and his inability to support a case for divorcing her, Cromwell fell into disfavour. Although created Earl of Essex in April 1540, he was accused in June; arrested in July, and executed at the end of that month. His property escheated to the Crown. Anne escaped the fate of her predecessors by agreeing to an anullment of the marriage. In compensation she was declared Henry's adopted sister and was granted a pension with the life interest in many estates. One of them was the Manor of Edgecote. Ham House. She did not make use of Edgecote as in 1543 it was demised to William Chauncey at a reserved annual rent of E43.6.8d. He obtained a grant of the reversion fee in 1546(1), and again in 1551, (the 4th year of Edward VI) with reversion to his son Tobias. lived at Paulerspury. Northants. He married Joan, daughter of John Bustard of East Adderbury Manor House(2). It is clear from the valuation of €1, 337 put on his goods and chattels in the following Inventory that he was well off. He was a Justice of the Peace and served as Sheriff of Northampton in 1579/80, and had permanent lodgings in London. As son-in-law of the Bustards he was no stranger to the Banbury region, His loan of €20 to Mathew Knight of the Reindeer Inn family indicates a further connection with the townW. In Edgecote church a fine alabaster tomb bears his recumbent figure in plate armour with a tilting helmet at his head and a lion at his feet and beside him his wife Joan. The ledge of the tomb is inscribed "Here lye intombed Willia' Cha'ncye esquire lord and pauone of this man'or who deceasedye VIth of Aprill An0 d'ni 1585 and Joane His wife who died the 7th of May an0 d'ni 1571". There are eight shields of arms including his own: Or, three chevrons engrailed, gules, granted in 1546. Parlours, Drawing Chamber, the Great New and Green Lodging Chambers, Nursery. Study, also the Chapel with a room for the parson. On the upper floor were rooms over the gate and over the enuy, a small room over the Hall, a Great Chamber over the Parlour and others over the nursery and the bolting house. Possibly on the ground floor were rooms for his brother, John Chauncey, Mrs.Kircam, the maids, husbandmen and hinds, a brushing chamber and the armoury. On the domestic side were the Great and Nether Kitchens, buttery, pantry. dairy, rooms for making and storing cheese,houses for brewing, stilling, spinning and sifting flour; also a kiln house and a house for the water cistern. In the farming section were the cowhouse,stables, hog yard,wool house, two mil1s.a lodge and wooden hovels. Thomas Cromwell's chief addition to the building was the Great Kitchen which had two enormous stone chimneys with wide flat arches in front of them. According to John Bridged41 who saw the place in the early 18th century "in some rooms are doorcases and windows like chapel-windows; and in one room above stairs which is flagged there are over the chimney the ten quarterings of the family in one shield in stonework, as also the same coats in different shields; on the side of the arms towards the top are Mars and Venus with Cupid standing by her, and below are the statues of Apollo and Vulcan. This works the- 1598l-d was evidently added by Tobias Chauncy (d. 1607). As to the furniture there were 8 pieces of tapestry in the two great chambers, 3 carpets, 9 tables and only 6 chairs, 15 cupboards, 16 presses and chests, 22 large furnished bedsteads and 16 lesser beds. Table ware comprised 670 ounces of silver plate worth €178 and pewter worth €11. Queen for six months, Anne lived afterwards for 17 years. residing mainly in Richmond Palace and William Chauncey was the son of John Chauncey of the Tower, Northampton (d. 1528) and previously Edgecote House in 1585 had at least 36 rooms. The principal ones were the Hall, Great and Little In 1752 the house was demolished by Richard Chauncy and replaced by the present mansion.

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