Ufton Court, Berkshire, England===Architecture==Parts of the house date from 1474, including the basis of the great hall and the screens passage complete with the original 'pantry and buttery' doors, although, at Ufton, there was a proper kitchen beyond. From 1568, the place was modified and extended by Elizabeth, Lady Marvyn, a prominent Roman Catholic, including the installation of a magnific...
Coworth House, Berkshire, England= Coworth House , located in Sunningdale, near Ascot is a late 18th Century house recently gutted and rebuilt for use as a hotel. ===History===Cowarth House was a new house at the time of the American Declaration of Independence and contemporary with Captain Cook's third and last world voyage, being first built in 1776. It is named for and situated in the Hamlet...
Swallowfield Park, Berkshire, England=The present house at Swallowfield Park , was erected in 1689 by Henry Hyde, the 2nd Earl of Clarendon, for his wife, the Swallowfield heiress, Flower Backhouse. She was the daughter of William Backhouse, the famous alchemist and inventor, whose family had owned the estate since the late 16th century. Their old Tudor mansion had replaced the previous 'castle...
Bostock House & Bostock Hall, Cheshire, England=The manor of Bostock became the seat of a family who were tenants of the Vernon family, although there are no accuraterecords from the 11th and 12th centuries. This family then took the name of their home styling themselves as ‘de Bostock’. The exact location of the early settlement is not known, but the original Bostock Hall is situated about a m...
Welford Park, Berkshire,England= Welford Park was originally the site of a monastic grange that was granted to Abingdon Abbey way back in Saxon times. The house was known as 'Farm Court' and was run on behalf of the monks by a bailiff.After the Dissolution, King Henry VIII used the place for a time as a hunting lodge. Later, in 1546, it was granted on a long-term lease to Sir Thomas Parry Senio...
Highcliffe Castle, Dorset, England= Highcliffe Castle , situated on the cliffs at Highcliffe, Dorset, was built between 1831 and 1835 by Charles Stuart, 1st Baron Stuart de Rothesay in a Gothic Revival style on the site of High Cliff house, a Georgian Mansion designed for the 3rd Earl of Bute ( a founder of Kew Gardens) with the gardens laid out by Capability Brown.[1] The design, by William Do...
Hulton Hall, Lancashire, England= Hulton Hall was put on the open market following 1000 years of Hulton ownership, which saw the family grow in status and wealth.It also saw the building and demolition of three Hulton Halls, all constructed next to the upper lake.But who were the Hultons, who gave their name not just to the estate, but to three neighbouring villages as well? It is documented th...
Sunninghill Park, Berkshire, England= Sunninghill Park is a country house and estate of some 665 acres (2.69 km2; 1.039 sq mi), located north of Cheapside, in the civil parishes of Sunninghill and Ascot and Winkfield, adjoining the south-western boundary of Windsor Great Park in the English county of Berkshire. It was the official residence of the Duke of York from 1990 until 2004.SUNNINGHILL P...
Sunningdale Park (Northcote House), Berkshire, England===BRIEF HISTORY OF SUNNINGDALE PARK=====Early History===Although there is little evidence of local Stone-Age settlements, the light and sandy soil lacked the flints used for tools, there are many Bronze-Age barrows in the area.In Roman tomes the trees, heath and undergrowth covering Sunningdale formed part of Windsor Forest. The main highwa...
Garsington Manor, Oxfordshire, England=Garsington Manor, in the village of Garsington, near Oxford, England, is a Tudor building, best known as the former home of Lady Ottoline Morrell , the Bloomsbury Group socialite. The house is currently owned by the family of Leonard Ingrams and has been the setting for an annual summer opera season, the Garsington Opera up until 2011 when the opera reloca...
Historic Buildings of Rutland (now East Midlands) ==England Image right - Tolthorpe Hall >===== Image by Davecrosby uk - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wiki Commons =====See Historic Buildings of Britain and Ireland - Main Page The object of this project is to provide information about historic buildings in the county of Rutland (East Midlands), with links to sub-projects for specific buildings as app...
Stanlake Park, Berkshire, England=The present house dates from the latter part of the 16th century. A wing was added on the south-west in the 18th century, when the house was considerably renovated, while in recent years further additions have been made to the south of the house, a central entrance porch built, and the building generally restored and modernized. The Elizabethan building was H-s...
Vanbrugh Castle, London, England= Vanbrugh Castle is the house designed and built by John Vanbrugh for his own family, located on Maze Hill on the eastern edge of Greenwich Park in London, to the north of Blackheath, with views to the west past the Royal Naval Hospital at Greenwich down to the Thames reaching as far as the Houses of Parliament.The castle was designed and built after Vanbrugh ha...
South Hill Park, Berkshire, England=Over the years the various owners of South Hill Park have made their mark on its Grade II listed building. These links with the past are particularly important in the context of a new town where any connection with history is at a premium.===The Early Years===Before the 1600s the area of South Hill Park was part of Windsor Forest. This was a mixture of heath ...
84 Plymouth Grove/Elizabeth Gaskell's House, Lancashire, England= Pictured right before restoration 84 Plymouth Grove, now known as Elizabeth Gaskell's House , is a Grade II* listed neoclassical villa in Manchester, England,[1] which was the residence of William and Elizabeth Gaskell from 1850 till their deaths in 1884 and 1865 respectively. The Gaskell household continued to occupy the villa a...
Silwood Park, Berkshire, England=The independent manor of Sunninghill seems to have emerged in the mid-14th century and it was purchased by a leading local man, John de Sunninghill in 1362. His manor house was probably in Silwood Park. By Tudor times it was known as ‘Eastmore’ and this was probably from where Prince Arthur, the eldest son of King Henry VII, wrote a letter to All Souls’ College,...
Historic Buildings of Nottinghamshire ==England Image right - Kelham Hall >===== Image Geograph © Copyright David Hallam-Jones and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons Licence . =====See Historic Buildings of Britain and Ireland - Main Page The object of this project is to provide information about historic buildings in the county of Nottinghamshire, with links to sub-projects for specific...
Friar Park, Oxfordshire, England Friar Park is a 120-room Victorian neo-Gothic mansion in Henley-on-Thames once owned by eccentric lawyer Sir Frank Crisp and purchased in January 1970 by musician George Harrison .===Overview===Since the early 1970s, the property has become synonymous with the former Beatle's home studio, known as FPSHOT. Harrison biographer Alan Clayson has described the Friar ...
Brimstage Hall, Cheshire, England==HISTORY===1175 TO 1350==Expert opinions suggest Brimstage Hall was built sometime between 1175 and 1350, though nobody is quite sure of why, or for whom, it was built. The original house was compact and fortified, enclosed in a moat and high embankment.==1398==The first recorded occupant of the Hall was Sir Hugh Hulse and his wife Marjory, who were granted lic...
Houghton Lodge, Hampshire, England=Built in 1793 by the Bearnards (Motto=bear)Only recently have we discovered that the architect was John Plaw, a disciple of Nash, who designed the Brighton Pavilion. The house, originally symmetrical on all four sides (unlike many later buildings in the vernacular) stood apart from the stables and was originally thatched. It is, in fact, timber framed and the ...
Fletchers House - Oxfordshire Museum, Oxfordshire, England====Fletcher's House===In 1279 Adam Bennet held a house, oven, 2 selds, and a forge at the corner of Park Street and Brown's Lane. (fn. 27a) In 1468-9 Thomas Fletcher was paying 6d. for a large vacant plot there which extended north to Harrison's Lane. (fn. 28a) In 1526 a house there belonged to another Thomas Fletcher , and in 1581 was ...
Historic Buildings of Lincolnshire Image right - Grimsthorpe Castle >===== Image by Wehha - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, WIKI ==EnglandThe object of this project is to provide information about historic buildings in the county of Lincolnshire, with links to sub-projects for specific buildings as appropriate. GENi profiles of people associated with those establishments can be linked to this project ...
Forde Abbey, Dorset (& Somerset), England=Forde Abbey is a privately owned former Cistercian monastery in Dorset, England with a mailing address in Chard, Somerset. The house and gardens are run as a tourist attraction while the 1,600-acre (6.5 km2) estate is farmed to provide additional revenue. Forde Abbey is a Grade I listed building.===History===Between 1133-36, wealthy nobleman Richard de ...
Starborough Castle, Surrey, England= Starborough Castle , known historically as Sterborough Castle, is a Neo-Gothic garden house of dressed sandstone near the eastern boundary of Surrey, built in 1754 by Sir James Burrow. It occupies the north-eastern portion of an artificial island south of the River Eden, roughly 3 km to the south-west of Edenbridge. It is a Grade II* listed building and sche...
Deepdene Estate, Surrey, England= Deepdene was an estate and country house occupying the south-east of Dorking, Surrey, England, the aspects of it that remains being a large minority of its woodland garden which is listed and interwoven among Dorking Golf Course.===History of the estate===A hillside manor that descended from earlier Earls of Surrey throughout the Middle Ages to the 23rd Earl of...