The Chilterns is home to some of England’s oldest and most spectacular historic houses, all of which boast famous residents and visitors. If you’re looking for a day out steeped in history after the confines of lockdown, intriguing stories and beautiful architecture here are some of the best examples of historic manor houses you can visit in the region.
Hughenden Manor
This charming property, the home of one of Britain’s most influential prime ministers, sits 1½ miles north of High Wycombe. When Benjamin Disraeli bought the Hughenden estate in 1848, he acquired an enhanced social status that was a key part of his credentials for high political office. In this era, landowners and inherited wealth ruled.
Disraeli’s time at Hughenden saw him transform from rebel to leader, becoming PM twice and being ennobled as Earl of Beaconsfield. As you go in, look out for the mahogany letterbox, from Disraeli’s London home, and the brass and cast-iron stove which helped him to cope with regular chest complaints. Outside the house, it’s well worth taking a stroll in the gardens at the back and front of the property
Cliveden House
Cliveden, now owned by the National Trust, was home for over 300 years to an earl, three countesses, two dukes, a prince of Wales and the Viscounts Astor. The house is now a luxury hotel and you can visit the ground floor by timed ticket tours on selected days, but the gardens are open to the public.
The parterre boasts carpets of spring bulbs, while other highlights include the Long Garden, the orientally inspired Water Garden – the pagoda was once red, but is now a slightly disappointing green – and the Rose Garden.
Greys Court
The intriguing Greys Court near Henley-on-Thames juxtaposes a comfortable family home with fragments of a larger estate from centuries past. The place to begin may be the outbuildings, particularly the 16th-century Well House, where you can see a rare surviving example of a vertical treadmill which a donkey turned by walking.
While the house has passed through the ownership of six families in half a millennium, its current appearance owes much to the Brunners, the most recent owners, who reversed some of the changes which their predecessors had made.
Stonor Park
Home to the Honourable William and Lady Ailsa Stonor, this is one of England’s oldest manor houses; the estate has been in the hands of the same family for 850 years.
A collection of the family’s surviving medieval correspondence has been published and provides a fascinating source for medieval historians. The E-shaped Georgian exterior conceals a much older collection of buildings, never completely rebuilt, including a medieval hall. Beyond the house and chapel, the wider estate includes the site of a prehistoric stone circle.
Waddesdon Manor
Sitting in the midst of the small village of Waddesdon, seven miles to the east of Wotton, is the best known of all England’s Rothschild houses. It was the creation of Ferdinand de Rothschild (1839–1898), who settled in England after his early life in Paris, Frankfurt and Vienna, and bought many art treasures from aristocratic families who had lost money during the agricultural depression of the 1870s.
The house provides such a thorough demonstration of exquisite, expensive taste – from paintings to carpets to porcelain to rolltop desks – that every visitor will have their own personal highlights.