Greys Court is a Tudor

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 ...

and

garden A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate bot ...

s in the southern

Chiltern Hills The Chiltern Hills or the Chilterns are a chalk escarpment in southern England, located to the north-west of London, covering across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire; they stretch from Goring-on-Thames in the south- ...

Rotherfield Greys Rotherfield Greys is a village and civil parish in the Chiltern Hills in South Oxfordshire. It is west of Henley-on-Thames and just over east of Rotherfield Peppard (locally known as Peppard). It is linked by a near-straight minor road to ...

, near

Henley-on-Thames Henley-on-Thames ( ) is a town status in the United Kingdom, town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish on the River Thames, in the South Oxfordshire district, in Oxfordshire, England, northeast of Reading, Berkshire, Reading, west of M ...

in the county of

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 England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. Now owned by the

National Trust The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...

, it is located at , and is open to the public.

Overview

As ''Redrefield'' it was the principal manor of the six manors

held Held may refer to: Places * Held Glacier People Arts and media * Adolph Held (1885–1969), U.S. newspaper editor, banker, labor activist *Al Held (1928–2005), U.S. abstract expressionist painter. *Alexander Held (born 1958), German television ...

in 1086 (as listed in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

)Roy Martin Haines, « Grey, John de (d. 1214) », ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004. by the Norman knight

Anchetil de Greye Anchetil de Greye (c. 1046 – after 1086) was a Norman chevalier and vassal of William FitzOsbern, 1st Earl of Hereford, one of the great magnates of early Norman England, and one of the very few proven companions of William the Conqueror known to ...

(c.1052- post-1086), ancestor of the prominent

Grey family The Grey family () is an English family, descending from the Anglo-Norman de Greye family. The patriarch of the family was Anchetil de Greye, a Norman chevalier and vassal of William FitzOsbern, 1st Earl of Hereford, one of the few proven com ...

. The mainly Tudor-style house has a courtyard and gardens. The

walled garden A walled garden is a garden enclosed by high walls, especially when this is done for horticultural rather than security purposes, although originally all gardens may have been enclosed for protection from animal or human intruders. In temperate c ...

s contain old-fashioned

rose A rose is either a woody perennial plant, perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred Rose species, species and Garden roses, tens of thousands of cultivar ...

s and

wisteria ''Wisteria'' is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae (Leguminosae). The genus includes four species of woody twining vines that are native to China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, southern Canada, the Eastern United States, and nor ...

, an ornamental vegetable garden,

maze A maze is a path or collection of paths, typically from an entrance to a goal. The word is used to refer both to branching tour puzzles through which the solver must find a route, and to simpler non-branching ("unicursal") patterns that lead ...

(laid to grass with brick paths, dedicated by Archbishop

Robert Runcie Robert Alexander Kennedy Runcie, Baron Runcie, (2 October 1921 – 11 July 2000) was an English Anglican bishop. He was the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1980 to 1991, having previously been Bishop of St Albans. He travelled the world widely ...

on 12 October 1981) and ice house. Within its grounds are the fortified tower built ''circa'' 1347, the only remains of the

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...

, overlooking the gardens and surrounding countryside, as well as a Tudor wheelhouse. The house remains furnished as a family home, with some outstanding 18th-century plasterwork interiors. It is a

Grade I 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 ...

History

John de Grey, 1st Baron Grey de Rotherfield John de Grey, 1st Baron Grey de Rotherfield Knight of the Garter, KG (9 October 1300 – September 1359) was an English people, English soldier and courtier. John was the son and heir of Sir John de Grey of Rotherfield, by Margaret, daughter of ...

, one of the original founder

Knights of the Garter The Most Noble Order of the Garter is an order of chivalry founded by Edward III of England in 1348. The most senior order of knighthood in the British honours system, it is outranked in precedence only by the decorations of the Victoria ...

, was granted a license to crenellate his Rotherfield house in 1346, when he also considerably enlarged the group of buildings and added a castle around 1347. The estate passed to the Crown in 1485 and was granted to Robert Knollys in 1514 for an annual rental of a red rose, remaining in the Knollys family until 1642, during which time the current house and its associated buildings were constructed. Sir William Paul bought the house in 1686 and it passed via his son William's daughter's dowry to

Sir William Stapleton, 4th Baronet Sir William Stapleton, 4th Baronet ( 1698–1740), of Rotherfield Greys, Oxfordshire, was an English Jacobite and Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1727 to 1740. Early life Stapleton was brought up on Nevis in the British Leew ...

in 1724. Between 1935 and 1937 the house was occupied by Evelyn Fleming, mother of the author

Ian Fleming Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British writer, best known for his postwar ''James Bond'' series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., and his ...

. In 1937 the house was bought from the Stapletons by Sir

Felix Brunner Sir Felix John Morgan Brunner, 3rd Baronet (13 October 1897 – 2 November 1982) was a British people, British Liberal Party (UK), Liberal Party politician and business owner. He was the maternal uncle of Katharine, Duchess of Kent. Biography Th ...

and his wife Lady Brunner (''née'' Elizabeth Irving), the granddaughter of the

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literatur ...

actor-manager Sir

Henry Irving Sir Henry Irving (6 February 1838 – 13 October 1905), christened John Henry Brodribb, sometimes known as J. H. Irving, was an English stage actor in the Victorian era, known as an actor-manager because he took complete responsibility ( ...

. In 1969 the family donated the property to the

, where Lady Brunner continued to live until her death in 2003.

Filming location

The house has been used as a

filming location A filming location is a place where some or all of a film or television series is produced, instead of or in addition to using sets constructed on a movie studio backlot or soundstage. In filmmaking, a location is any place where a film crew wi ...

for ''

Downton Abbey ''Downton Abbey'' is a British historical drama television series set in the early 20th century, created and co-written by Julian Fellowes. It first aired in the United Kingdom on ITV (TV network), ITV on 26 September 2010 and in the United St ...

'', ''

Agatha Christie's Poirot ''Agatha Christie's Poirot'', or simply ''Poirot'' (), is a British mystery drama television programme that aired on ITV from 8 January 1989 to 13 November 2020. The ITV show is based on many of Agatha Christie's famous crime fiction series, wh ...

'', and ''

Midsomer Murders ''Midsomer Murders'' is a British Mystery fiction, mystery television series, adapted by Anthony Horowitz and Douglas Watkinson from the novels in the ''Chief Inspector Barnaby'' book series created by Caroline Graham (writer), Caroline Graham. ...

''.

References

External links

Greys Court information
from the National Trust *
Information
from

Culture24 Culture24, originally the 24 Hour Museum, is a British charity which publishes websites, ''Culture24'', ''Museum Crush'' and ''Show Me'', about visual culture and heritage in the United Kingdom, as well as supplying data and support services to ...

A bird's-eye view of Greys Court Rotherfield Greys in the 17th or 18th century
from

Scran Scran is a Scottish online resource for educational use by the public, schools, further education and higher education. It presents nearly 490,000 (still and moving) images and sounds contributed by museums, galleries, archives and the media. It ...

AboutBritain.com information

Photos of Greys Court, Oxfordshire
petergoodearl.co.uk

by Michael W. Cook {{Museums and galleries in Oxfordshire Elizabethan architecture Gardens in Oxfordshire Manor houses in England Grade I listed houses in Oxfordshire Country houses in Oxfordshire National Trust properties in Oxfordshire South Oxfordshire District Historic house museums in Oxfordshire Henley-on-Thames Mazes Grey family residences

Overview

History

Filming location

See also

References

External links