Bere Court is an

English country house image:Blenheim - Blenheim Palace - 20210417125239.jpg, 300px, Blenheim Palace - Oxfordshire An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a Townhou ...

. It is a historic

Grade I 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, H ...

listed building. The house is located southwest of

Pangbourne Pangbourne is a village and civil parish on the River Thames in the West Berkshire unitary area of the county of Berkshire, England. Pangbourne has shops, churches, schools and a village hall. Outside its nucleated village, grouped developed are ...

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...

where it was once the

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were usually held the lord's manorial courts, communal mea ...

History

The house was originally built in the 13th century as the manor house for

. The only remaining parts of the original house are the medieval cellars. Pangbourne came under the control of the Abbots of Reading and the house became one of their main manors. In his role as Abbot of Reading,

Hugh Faringdon Hugh Faringdon, (died 14 November 1539), earlier known as Hugh Cook, later as Hugh Cook alias Faringdon and Hugh Cook of Faringdon, was an English Benedictine monk who presided as the last Abbot of Reading Abbey in the town of Reading in B ...

was residing at Bere Court in 1539 when he was arrested for high treason during the dissolution of the monasteries, ostensibly for providing funds to rebels. While he was taken to the

Tower of London The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic citadel and castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamle ...

, apparently his death sentence was passed without a formal trial, and he was

hanged, drawn, and quartered To be hanged, drawn and quartered was a method of torturous capital punishment used principally to execute men convicted of high treason in medieval and early modern Britain and Ireland. The convicted traitor was fastened by the feet to a h ...

in the courtyard of Reading Abbey on 14 November 1539.Wainewright, John. "Blessed Hugh Faringdon." The Catholic Encyclopedia
Vol. 7. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. In 1613 the house was acquired by Sir John Davis, who had been part of the Duke of

Essex's Rebellion Essex's Rebellion was an unsuccessful rebellion led by Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, in February 1601 against Queen Elizabeth I of England and the court faction led by Sir Robert Cecil to gain further influence at court. Background Robert ...

in 1601, had been convicted, and sentenced to death, but then pardoned. The estate was purchased in 1671 by John Breedon, onetime

High Sheriff of Berkshire The High Sheriff of Berkshire, in common with other counties, was originally the King's representative on taxation upholding the law in Anglo-Saxons, Saxon times. The word Sheriff evolved from 'shire-reeve'. The title of High Sheriff#United King ...

. The current form of the house is his family's work. It was remodeled over the course of the 18th century into its current red brick Georgian design. During the time the Breedons owned the house they occasionally rented it out. One of the renters was

George Spencer-Churchill, 6th Duke of Marlborough George Spencer-Churchill, 6th Duke of Marlborough (né Spencer; 27 December 1793 – 1 July 1857), styled Earl of Sunderland until 1817 and Marquess of Blandford between 1817 and 1840, was a British nobleman, politician, and peer. The great-gra ...

who had been born at nearby Bill Hill. The Breedons finally sold the house in the 1890s. As of 2024 it is a private residence.

References

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External links

Royal Berkshire History – Bere Court

Historic England – Bere Court and Bere House
Grade I listed buildings in Berkshire Grade I listed houses Country houses in Berkshire West Berkshire District

History

See also

References

External links