Chiseldon House Hotel in

Chiseldon Chiseldon is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The village lies on the edge of the Marlborough Downs, a mile south of junction 15 of the M4 motorway, on the A346 between Swindon and Marlborough. The larg ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...

, England, is a building of historical significance and is listed in the National Heritage Register. It was built as a villa in the early 19th century for the Browne family and continued to be used as a private residence until 1964, when it was converted to a hotel. It is now a country house hotel and restaurant with facilities for special events, particularly weddings.

The Browne family

Chiseldon house was built in 1840 by William Ruddle Browne (1787–1848). He was born in the

area in 1787; his father William Browne owned a prosperous farm in the White Horse Vale. He trained to be a farmer and in 1822 he married, but his wife died in childbirth ten years later. After this he became a land agent and steward. In 1840 he built Chiseldon House and occupied the property with his brother John Browne (1791–1853) and his wife Ann. At the end of 1840 William married a second time, at the age of 53: his new wife was Ann Nicolson Lee who was 22 years his junior. The couple had two daughters and one son. Their son William Edward Nicolson Browne inherited the house when he was 21 years of age in about 1868. After the death of William Ruddle Brown in 1848, the other members of the Browne family continued to live there. John died in 1853. William Edward Nicholson Browne was born in 1847, a year before his father's death. He was educated as a lawyer at

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 was called to the Bar in 1871. In the same year he married Catherine Bagley of London. He lived at Chiseldon House for some years but frequently leased out the property.

Later residents

One of the tenants of the house was Arthur Tremayne Buller (1850–1917) who was a land agent. He married Elinor Louisa Leyborne Popham in 1891, and shortly after, the couple moved into Chiseldon House and lived there for about ten years. In 1901, William Edward Nicolson Browne – who still owned the property – put it on the market. The next resident was Lieutenant Lancelot Shute Tristram of the

Welch Regiment The Welch Regiment (or "The Welch", an archaic spelling of "Welsh") was an infantry regiment line infantry, of the line of the British Army in existence from 1881 until 1969. The regiment was created in 1881 under the Childers Reforms by the am ...

. Soon after he left, the wealthy widow Annie Sharpe Waud. and her daughter Irene Winifred Waud came to live at the house. Annie sold the property in 1920 but her daughter appears to have remained there and become the housekeeper for the subsequent owners. The most notable owner during this period was Gerald England Tunnicliffe (1890–1969) who took up residence in the 1920s''Kelly's Directory of Wiltshire for 1927'' shows that Gerald Tunnicliffe lived at Chiseldon House. and remained there for the next 40 years. He was born in 1890 in London. His father was John England Tunnicliffe who was a solicitor and partner in the firm Maude and Tunnicliffe on The Strand. Gerald was also educated to be a solicitor and worked in his father's firm. In 1928 he married Mary Williams in Kensington. He seems to have bought Chiseldon House as a country residence at first, but later retired there. He sold the house in 1964.

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* {{coord, 51, 30, 53.9, N, 1, 43, 50.4, W, type:landmark_region:GB-SDN, display=title Country houses in Wiltshire Grade II listed buildings in Wiltshire Grade II listed houses Hotels in Wiltshire Houses completed in 1837 Regency architecture in England Country house hotels