Ashdown House (Oxfordshire)

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Ashdown House from the west

Ashdown House (with the surrounding Ashdown Park ) is a country house from the 17th century in the municipality Ashbury in the English county of Oxfordshire . Until 1974 the house belonged to the county of Berkshire , to which the nearby village of Lambourn still belongs.

history

Ashdown House is associated with the "winter queen" Elizabeth of Bohemia , the sister of Charles I of England . It is said that William Craven, 1st Earl of Craven (1608–1697) had Ashdown House built for her along with his home in Hamstead Marshall , but she died in 1662 before construction began.

Ashdown House from the northwest

The builder of the country house is unknown, but it is believed that Craven commissioned Captain William Winde to build a Dutch-style mansion as a hunting lodge and retreat from the plague. The house offers 740 m² of living space, a large staircase in the middle, reception rooms, connecting salons and living rooms, a kitchen, a dining room and eight bedrooms. The property includes two lodges, three farms and approximately 40 acres of land. The country house stands lonely in the middle of a park-like property and gardens, which can be overlooked from the roof. In the background you can see forests and pastures. Nearby are a large group of sarsen stones and Alfred's Castle , a hill fort from the Iron Age .

There was at least one wooded area in Ashdown Park before the house was built. The Glastonbury Abbey had the basic rule of Ashbury to the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539 held. A deer park was set up for the abbey in the south of the municipality. The rounded area, which is typical for medieval deer parks, is enclosed by an old containment. The containment was surmounted by a picket fence , probably made of split oak stakes. The deer park is probably identical to the Aysshen Wood , which an inventory list of the community from 1519 shows as 168 hectares in size. The former deer park is now the Upper Wood of Ashdown Park.

Despite a few changes over the centuries, the country house remained largely as it was built until it was requisitioned by the Royal Army during World War II . This occupation left the country house in an almost neglected condition. The National Trust had owned the country house since 1956 when Cornelia Craven, Countess of Craven , donated it to him. The house is leased and has been renovated by the last tenants. In 2010 Pete Townshend leased the property for 41 years and a major restoration began in 2011. Only the stairwell and the roof are open to the public; from up there you can see far into the Berkshire Downs . The neighboring woods of Ashdown Park are also open to the public. The country house can be visited from April to October on Wednesday and Saturday guided tours.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Berkshire History: Ashdown Park . Nash Ford Publishing. 2002. Archived from the original on January 29, 2008. Retrieved on February 11, 2015.
  2. ^ A b William Henry Page, Peter H. Ditchfield (Editor): A History of the County of Berkshire in Victoria County History . Volume 4. pp. 503-512
  3. ^ David Nash Ford: Ashbury . In: Royal Berkshire History . David Nash Ford. 2004. Retrieved February 11, 2015.
  4. ^ A b Oliver Rackham: Trees and Woodland in the British Landscape in Archeology in the Field Series . JM Dent & Sons, London 1976. ISBN 0-460-04183-5 . P. 144
  5. ↑ Davies, Helen: Ashdown House: a model of refinement , Timesonline.co.uk. May 3, 2009. Retrieved June 4, 2010. 
  6. ↑ Mikhailova, Anna: Talkin '' bout my National Trust generation , Timesonline.co.uk. May 30, 2010. Retrieved June 4, 2010. 
  7. ↑ Slade, Jane: Pete Townshend's palace fit for a king (of rock) . Daily Express. July 7, 2010. Retrieved February 11, 2015.
  8. ^ Ashdown House: Facilities . National Trust. Archived from the original on January 23, 2008. Retrieved February 11, 2015.
  9. ↑ Ashdown House: What to see & do . National Trust. Archived from the original on January 23, 2008. Retrieved February 11, 2015.

literature

  • William Henry Page, Peter H. Ditchfield (Editors): A History of the County of Berkshire in Victoria County History . Volume 4. 1924. pp. 503-512
  • Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England , Chapter: Berkshire . Penguin Books, Harmondsworth 1966. pp. 72-73
  • Oliver Rackham: Trees and Woodland in the British Landscape in Archeology in the Field Series . JM Dent & Sons, London 1976. ISBN 0-460-04183-5 . P. 144

Web links

Commons : Ashdown House (Oxfordshire)  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 51 ° 32 ′ 10.3 "  N , 1 ° 35 ′ 46.7"  W.