Ockwells Manor is a

timber-framed Timber framing () and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy Beam (structure), timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and Woodworking joints, joined timbers with joints secure ...

15th century

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 ...

in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

of Cox Green, adjoining

Maidenhead Maidenhead is a market town in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in the county of Berkshire, England. It lies on the southwestern bank of the River Thames, which at this point forms the border with Buckinghamshire. In the 2021 Census, ...

, in the English county of

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 ...

. It was previously in the parish of

Bray Bray may refer to: Places France * Bray, Eure, in the Eure ''département'' * Bray, Saône-et-Loire, in the Saône-et-Loire ''département'' * Bray-Dunes, in the Nord ''département'' * Bray-en-Val, in the Loiret ''département'' * Bray-et-Lû ...

. The manor used to own most of the land that is now

Ockwells Park Ockwells Park is a park, part of which is a local nature reserve, in Cox Green, Berkshire, Cox Green, Berkshire, England. The nature reserve is owned by the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. Geography and site The park is in size. The na ...

. Ockwells is an early example of a manor built without fortifications, which Sir

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (195 ...

called "the most refined and the most sophisticated timber-framed mansion in England". It preserves a superb set of contemporary heraldic

stained glass Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...

in the hall. Many of its

bargeboard A bargeboard or rake fascia is a board fastened to each projecting gable of a roof to give it strength and protection, and to conceal the otherwise exposed end grain of the horizontal timbers or purlins of the roof. The word ''bargeboard'' is pr ...

s and other exterior timbers are run with rich mouldings and carved. Herringbone brickwork provides the infill.

History

The manor was originally given, in 1283, to Richard le Norreys, the chief cook to Queen Eleanor. It passed down through the Norreys family, ending up in the possession of Sir John Norreys,

Keeper of the Wardrobe The King's Wardrobe, together with the Chamber, made up the personal part of medieval English government known as the King's household. Originally the room where the king's clothes, armour, and treasure were stored, the term was expanded to des ...

to Henry VI, who started re-building the manor in 1446. In the windows of the great hall, Sir John inserted beautiful stained glass, proudly showcasing his Lancastrian connections by displaying the

arms Arms or ARMS may refer to: *Arm or arms, the upper limbs of the body Arm, Arms, or ARMS may also refer to: People * Ida A. T. Arms (1856–1931), American missionary-educator, temperance leader Coat of arms or weapons *Armaments or weapons **Fi ...

of his friends at Court: * the King * the Queen * the Duke of Warwick *

Duke of Somerset Duke of Somerset, from the county of Somerset, is a title that has been created five times in the peerage of England. It is particularly associated with two families: the Beauforts, who held the title from the creation of 1448, and the Seymours ...

Duke of Suffolk Duke of Suffolk is a title that has been created three times in the peerage of England. The dukedom was first created for William de la Pole, who had already been elevated to the ranks of earl and marquess, and was a powerful figure under Henr ...

Bishop of Salisbury The Bishop of Salisbury is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of Salisbury in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers much of the counties of Wiltshire and Dorset. The Episcopal see, see is in the Salisbur ...

James Butler, 1st Earl of Wiltshire James Butler, 5th Earl of Ormond, Earl of Wiltshire (24 November 1420 – 1 May 1461) was an Anglo-Irish nobleman and soldier. Butler was a staunch Lancastrian and supporter of Queen consort Margaret of Anjou during the Wars of the Roses. He w ...

*Sir John Wenlock, Baron Wenlock * Baron Mortimer of Chirk * Sir William Laken *Sir Richard Nanfan *Sir John Langford *John Purye *Richard Bulstrode *

Abingdon Abbey Abingdon Abbey (formally Abbey of Saint Mary) was a Order of St. Benedict, Benedictine monastery in Abingdon-on-Thames in the modern county of Oxfordshire in the United Kingdom. Situated near to the River Thames, it was founded in 675 AD and was ...

The Norreys family lived there until 1517. At that time, Sir John's great-grandson, also Sir John, had to surrender the estate in return for a pardon after having murdered a certain John Enhold of

Nettlebed Nettlebed is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire in the Chiltern Hills about north-west of Henley-on-Thames and south-east of Wallingford. The parish includes the hamlet of Crocker End, about east of the village. The 2011 Census r ...

. Ockwells was then owned by Sir John's uncle, Sir Thomas Fettiplace. It passed through the Fettiplace family, before being owned by the Day family. In 1942 Ockwells' owner, Sir Edward Barry, wished to sell the estate to 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 ...

for £75,000.

James Lees-Milne (George) James Henry Lees-Milne (6 August 1908 – 28 December 1997) was an English writer and expert on country houses, who worked for the National Trust from 1936 to 1973. He was an architectural historian, novelist and biographer. His extens ...

, Secretary of the Country Houses Committee of the National Trust, could not justify this sum, and therefore the property was never handed over to the Trust. Lees-Milne revisited Ockwells in 1973 with architectural historian

John Cornforth Sir John Warcup Cornforth Jr., (7 September 1917 – 8 December 2013) was an AustralianBritish chemist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1975 for his work on the stereochemistry of enzyme- catalysed reactions, becoming the only Nobel l ...

, who commented that the property is an 'over-restored fake' and deemed it too unimportant for the National Trust.

Notes

Sources and external links

Royal Berkshire History: Ockwells Manor
Buildings and structures in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Grade I listed buildings in Berkshire Country houses in Berkshire Hall houses {{Berkshire-struct-stub