Taplow Court

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Taplow Court, front

Taplow Court is a Victorian- style property in Taplow , a village in England to the east of Maidenhead , around 35 km west of London . It is on a hill above the Thames . The property is currently listed as "Grade II" .

prehistory

The so-called. "Taplow Barrow" an Anglo-Saxon Hill grave from the seventh century is located on the premises of the property close to the church and above by grade I listed Maidenhead Bridge . The grave was opened in 1883. The grave goods now belong to the British Museum , replicas are on display in Taplow Court . The quality of the grave goods is said to be second only to that of the Sutton Hoo excavation in 1939.

history

Even before the time of the conquest of Britain in 1066 by the Normans , there was a manor house on the site. Harold , Earl of Wessex and Kent, who later became King of England, gave it to his follower Asgot.

After his victory over Harold's army in the Battle of Hastings, William the Conqueror gave it to his half-brother Odo , Bishop of Bayeux , who leased it to his relatives, the de Turvilles. Merton Monastery bought the property in 1197, but the monks apparently left it to be run by administrators . The right of 1252 to breed rabbits there is documented.

Due to the dissolution of the English monasteries as part of the separation of the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church , the property came into the possession of the English crown in 1539, which continued to be managed by administrators. In 1604, Sir Henry Guiltford was appointed lifelong administrator before leasing the property in 1614. Unfortunately, the house burned down completely two years later. It was rebuilt shortly afterwards, presumably by Thomas Hampson, head of the Statute Office, who bought the property in 1629.

Taplow Court, back side

During the English Civil War , the house was damaged by both troops because both sides believed that Hampson had supported the other. Once repaired, it looked essentially the way you can see it today. In 1642 Hampson was made a baron .

Around 1700, George Hamilton, 1st Earl of Orkney , bought the house and land from Sir Dennis Hampson. Hamilton, the fifth son of an old Scottish aristocratic family, had served with honors under William III in Ireland and Flanders . As a reward, he initially received the hand of the former royal mistress Elizabeth Villiers and later the earliest dignity . At about the same time as Taplow Court, he bought the neighboring Cliveden .

In the absence of male heirs, the property was inherited three times in the female line, of which the first heiress, Anne, Cliveden sold to the Prince of Wales . In 1831 Thomas John Hamilton inherited the property from his grandmother. He immediately had it renovated in the English style and built the Norman Memorial Hall, which is still the center of the building today.

Taplow Court, north elevation

In 1852 Hamilton sold the estate to his neighbor, Charles Pascoe Grenfell, whose family had made a fortune with copper mines in Cornwall . Grenfell ordered an extensive renovation of the house and after its first architect, NJ Cottingham, drowned, he hired Scottish country house architect William Burn. Burn added a fourth floor, extended the house south, and built extensive servants' quarters. He gave the house its present-day Victorian-Jacobean look.

At the age of eleven, William Henry Grenfell inherited the estate from his grandfather in 1867. Grenfell was an outstanding athletic all-rounder, including rowing and swimming. In 1906, at the age of 50, he fought at the so-called Olympic Intermediate Games for England. It is primarily thanks to him that the 1908 Summer Olympics took place in London . His squash court still provides the official dimensions for international squash fields.

In addition to his sporting activities, he was also tirelessly politically active. He was a member of parliament and private secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer and sat on numerous boards and committees . He was ennobled in 1905 for his sporting and political achievements. Through his wife, Ethel Priscilla Fane, he was given access to the highest social circles in England. She hosted Friday-Monday parties, extravagant costume balls, and garden parties that drew visitors to Taplow Court, including the royal family.

Taplow Court, interior view

During the First World War , Taplow Court supported hundreds of nurses at the neighboring Canadian Red Cross Hospital in Cliveden. During the Second World War , the girls of St Steven's College, Folkestone, were placed in Taplow Court. After the war that the Grenfells had spent in Hertfordshire , the property was rented to the "British Telecommunications Research". In 1963, Plessey Electronics bought the house and 85 acres of land. The first computers and telecommunications equipment were developed here.

Current usage

The house and the associated park have been a listed building since 1987. Since 1988 the property " Sōka Gakkai International of the United Kingdom" belongs to a new religious movement with origins in Japan . It hosts religious, educational and cultural events in Taplow Court. Soka Gakkai International opens the house to the public on special days, especially Sundays in early summer, and offers free tours.

literature

  • Jacky Law: A guide to Taplow Court and its grounds . SGI-UK, Taplow 1994, OCLC 50795259 .
  • Taplow Court: home of Plessey Telecommunications Research Ltd., Maidenhead, Berkshire . Plessey Telecommunications Research Ltd., Maidenhead, Berkshire 1985, OCLC 500556268 .
  • James Joseph Sheahan: History and Topography of Buckinghamshire: Comprising a General Survey of the County, Preceded by an Epitome of the Early History of Great Britain . Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, London 1862, ISBN 978-0-85609-001-1 , pp. 852 ff . ( limited preview in Google Book search). (Reprint 1971)
  • Elizabeth Williamson, Nikolaus Pevsner: Buckinghamshire . In: Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England . Yale University Press, New Haven 1994, ISBN 978-0-300-09584-5 , pp. 690 ff .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Taplow Court, Taplow - 1000607. In: Historic England. Retrieved December 4, 2019 .
  2. a b T.G. Allen, Chris Hayden, Hugo Anderson-Whymark, Roger Ainslie: From Bronze Age enclosure to Anglo-Saxon settlement: archaeological excavations at Taplow hillfort, Buckinghamshire, 1999-2005 . Oxford Archeology, Oxford 2009, ISBN 978-1-905905-09-6 .

Coordinates: 51 ° 31 ′ 53.5 "  N , 0 ° 41 ′ 41"  W.