Nuneham House is an eighteenth century villa in the

Palladian Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...

style, set in parkland at

Nuneham Courtenay Nuneham Courtenay is a village and civil parish about SSE of Oxford. It occupies several miles close to the east bank of the River Thames. Geography The parish is bounded to the west by the River Thames and on other sides by field boundaries. ...

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire ( ; abbreviated ''Oxon'') is a ceremonial county in South East England. The county is bordered by Northamptonshire and Warwickshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, and Wiltshire and Glouceste ...

, England. It is currently owned by

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

and is used as a retreat centre by the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University. In September 2016 the house and a thousand acres of surrounding parkland and farmland, including the village of Nuneham Courtenay, were put up for sale in three separate lots for a total of £22 million. Turner Nuneham Courtenay

History

The house was built in 1756 on the site of an earlier property and surrounding village by

Stiff Leadbetter Stiff Leadbetter (c. 1705 – 18 August 1766) was a British architect and builder, one of the most successful architect–builders of the 1750s and 1760s, working for many leading aristocratic families. Career Leadbetter's career began when he ...

for

Simon Harcourt, 1st Earl Harcourt Simon Harcourt, 1st Earl Harcourt, (1714 – 16 September 1777), known as Viscount Harcourt between 1727 and 1749, was a British diplomat and general who became Viceroy of Ireland. Biography Harcourt was born in Oxfordshire, the son of Hon ...

. Interiors were designed by James Stuart and Lancelot "Capability" Brown designed the landscaped grounds. It is a

Grade II* listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. Lord Harcourt demolished the original village of Nuneham Courtenay in the 1760s in order to create a landscaped park around his new villa, removing the existing village in its entirety, rebuilding it and diverting the main Oxford to London road (now the A4074).

Oliver Goldsmith Oliver Goldsmith (10 November 1728 – 4 April 1774) was an Anglo-Irish people, Anglo-Irish poet, novelist, playwright, and hack writer. A prolific author of various literature, he is regarded among the most versatile writers of the Georgian e ...

wrote of the demolition of the village and destruction of its farms to clear land to become this wealthy man's garden Rowley, 1978, page 132 in his poem '' The Deserted Village''. Published in 1770, it expresses a fear that the destruction of villages and the conversion of land from productive agriculture to ornamental

landscape garden The English landscape garden, also called English landscape park or simply the English garden (, , , , ), is a style of "Landscape architecture, landscape" garden which emerged in England in the early 18th century, and spread across Europe, r ...

s would ruin the

peasant A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasan ...

ry. Goldsmith gave his ''Deserted Village'' the pseudonym ''"Sweet Auburn"'', but did not disclose the real village to which it refers. However, he did indicate it was about from London and it is widely believed to have been Nuneham Courtenay. The house was altered by Henry Holland in 1781–2, including the heightening of the wings. In 1789, the 2nd Earl Harcourt re-erected the Carfax Conduit building in a prominent position in the park. It had had to be moved from Carfax in the centre of

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

, where it was an obstacle to traffic. At about the same time, a church with a wide tower with a domed roof was built about a mile north of the house.

Later developments

In 1904, after the death of Sir William Harcourt, Nuneham House passed to his son,

Lewis Harcourt, 1st Viscount Harcourt Lewis Vernon Harcourt, 1st Viscount Harcourt (born Reginald Vernon Harcourt; 31 January 1863 – 24 February 1922), was a British Liberal Party politician who held the Cabinet post of Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1910 to 1915. Lor ...

, known by many as "Loulou". He had recently married Mary Ethel Burns, a niece of American financier and banker,

J. P. Morgan John Pierpont Morgan Sr. (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. As the head of the banking firm that ...

. The estate inherited by the young couple was in need of major renovation, which they could not afford. Morgan established a £52,000 ($260,000) line of credit at his

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

bank for his niece, which he told her did not need to be repaid. The Harcourts used these funds to renovate the old buildings and grounds. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Nuneham House and its surrounding parkland was requisitioned by the

Air Ministry The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force and civil aviation that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the ...

and became RAF Nuneham Park, a P.R.I.U. or photographic reconnaissance interpretation unit. Photographs taken by aircraft from

RAF Benson Royal Air Force Benson or RAF Benson is a Royal Air Force (RAF) List of Royal Air Force stations, station located at Benson, Oxfordshire, Benson, near Wallingford, Oxfordshire, Wallingford, in South Oxfordshire, England. It is a front-line st ...

and other airfields over enemy territory were examined here by RAF officers as well as small contingents from the Army, Royal Navy and the USAAF.

Nissen hut A Nissen hut is a prefabricated steel structure originally for military use, especially as barracks, made from a 210° portion of a cylindrical skin of corrugated iron. It was designed during the First World War by the Canadian-American-British e ...

s and other, larger buildings were erected adjacent to the mansion, including a camp cinema which villagers were welcome to attend. The RAF station continued after the war in the same role until the mid-1950s, when the added buildings and roadways were demolished and the estate handed back to the Harcourt family, who sold it to Oxford University. The 1780 painting of the Earl and Countess Harcourt by Joshua Reynolds was accepted as payment to the Government in lieu of inheritance tax and was then allocated to the

Ashmolean Museum The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street in Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University ...

in 2010. The

Harcourt Arboretum Harcourt Arboretum is an arboretum owned and run by the University of Oxford. It is a satellite of the university's botanic garden in the city of Oxford, England. The arboretum itself is located south of Oxford on the A4074 road, near the vill ...

, part of the tree and plant collection of the

University of Oxford Botanic Garden The University of Oxford Botanic Garden is the oldest Botanical garden, botanic garden in Great Britain and one of the oldest scientific gardens in the world. The garden was founded in 1621 as a physic garden growing plants for medicinal resear ...

, occupies part of what were the grounds of Nuneham House. The landscaped parkland and pleasure gardens surrounding the house are listed Grade I on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.NUNEHAM COURTENAY
/ref> The estate includes the privately owned, two-storey Old Rectory, built in 1759 on the northern boundary by the first Earl. It was Grade-II listed in 1963 as part of the "Nuneham Courtney Park and Garden".Eight of the biggest country house sales in Britain in 2020
/ref>

References

Sources

*
English Heritage; Images of England, detailed architectural description
*

External links

{{commons category, Nuneham House
Official website - Global Retreat CentreNuneham House entry from The DiCamillo Companion to British & Irish Country Houses"View of Nuneham Courtenay from the Thames" (1787)
— painting by

Joseph Mallord William Turner Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 177519 December 1851), known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist. He is known for his expressive colouring, imaginative landscapes and turbu ...

(1775–1851) at Tate Online Buildings by Stiff Leadbetter Country houses in Oxfordshire Grade I listed parks and gardens in Oxfordshire Grade II* listed buildings in Oxfordshire Grade II* listed houses Houses completed in 1756 South Oxfordshire District