Faringdon House is a

Grade I listed 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 ...

14,510 square feet house in

Faringdon Faringdon is a historic market town in the Vale of White Horse, Oxfordshire, England, south-west of Oxford, north-west of Wantage and east-north-east of Swindon. Its views extend to the River Thames in the north and the highest ground visib ...

, Oxfordshire, England. It was built in about 1770– for the Poet Laureate Sir Henry James Pye. It became the country home of

Lord Berners Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt-Wilson, 14th Baron Berners (18 September 188319 April 1950), also known as Gerald Tyrwhitt, was a British composer, novelist, painter, and aesthete. He was also known as Lord Berners. Biography Early life and education B ...

, who inherited it in 1918. He moved to Faringdon House in 1931, along with his companion,

Robert Heber-Percy Robert Vernon Heber-Percy (5 November 1911 – 29 October 1987), known for much of his life as "the Mad Boy", was "an English eccentric in the grand tradition". Early life Heber-Percy was born in 1911, the fourth and youngest son of Algernon ...

, nearly 30 years his junior and known as the Mad Boy. In 1942, Heber-Percy married Jennifer Ross, the only child of Sir Geoffrey Fry, 1st Baronet, and they had a daughter, Victoria, although the ''

ménage à trois A () is a domestic arrangement or committed relationship consisting of three people in polyamorous romantic or sexual relations with each other, and often dwelling together. The phrase is a loan from French meaning "household of three". ...

'' lasted only two years before Jennifer and their daughter moved to her parents' home, Oare House in Wiltshire. Berners was notorious for his eccentricity, dyeing pigeons at Faringdon in vibrant colours and at one point entertaining Penelope Betjeman's horse Moti to tea. There were paper flowers in the garden and the interior of the house was adorned with joke books and joke notices, such as "Mangling Done Here". Lord Berners died in 1950, and Heber-Percy inherited the house. In 2014 it was owned by the writer

Sofka Zinovieff Sofka Zinovieff (born 1961) is a British author and journalist. Early life Zinovieff was born in London. Her parents were Peter Zinovieff and Victoria Gala Heber-Percy. Her paternal grandparents were White Russians who had left Soviet Russia ...

, the granddaughter of Heber-Percy. In September 2017, it was listed for sale at a price of £11.5 million.http://search.savills.com//content/assets/properties/gblhchlac150171/LAC150171_LAC17002815.PDF

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Faringdon House Houses completed in 1785 Grade I listed houses in Oxfordshire Faringdon Country houses in Oxfordshire