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Tottenham House is a large
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
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 ...
in the parish of
Great Bedwyn Great Bedwyn is a village and civil parish in east Wiltshire, England. The village is on the River Dun about southwest of Hungerford, southeast of Swindon and southeast of Marlborough. The Kennet and Avon Canal and the Reading to Taunt ...
,
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 ...
, about five miles southeast of the town of
Marlborough Marlborough or the Marlborough may refer to: Places Australia * Marlborough, Queensland * Principality of Marlborough, a short-lived micronation in 1993 * Marlborough Highway, Tasmania; Malborough was an historic name for the place at the sou ...
. It is separated from the town by
Savernake Forest Savernake Forest stands on a Cretaceous chalk plateau between Marlborough and Great Bedwyn in Wiltshire, England. Its area is approximately . Most of the forest lies within the civil parish of Savernake. It is privately owned by the Marquess o ...
, which is part of the Tottenham Park estate. The site of the house was part of the much larger Savernake Forest, and in the
Middle Ages 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 global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
was controlled by the heads of the Esturmy family. In the 15th century, the land passed by marriage to the House of Seymour of nearby
Wulfhall Wulfhall or Wolfhall is an early 17th-century manor house in Burbage parish, Wiltshire, England. It is north-east of Burbage village, and about south-east of Marlborough. A previous manor house on the same site, at that time in the parish of G ...
, about one mile to the south. The original house was probably built in about 1575 by
Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford, 1st Baron Beauchamp, KG (22 May 1539 – 6 April 1621), of Wulfhall and Totnam Lodge in Great Bedwyn, Wiltshire, of Hatch Beauchamp in Somerset, of Netley Abbey, Hampshire, and of Hertford House, Ca ...
, a nephew of
Queen Jane Seymour Jane Seymour (; 24 October 1537) was Queen of England as the third wife of King Henry VIII from their marriage on 30 May 1536 until her death the next year. She became queen following the execution of Henry's second wife, Anne Boleyn, who was ...
, when it was known as Totnam Lodge. The present house incorporates parts of the earlier houses on the site built by the Seymours. In 1675, the estate passed to Lady Elizabeth Seymour, who married
Thomas Bruce, 2nd Earl of Ailesbury Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the ...
, thus bringing the house into the Bruce family. In 1721, Elizabeth Seymour's son and heir,
Charles Bruce, 3rd Earl of Ailesbury Charles Bruce, 3rd Earl of Ailesbury (later styled Aylesbury) and 4th Earl of Elgin (29 May 1682 – 10 February 1747), of Ampthill, Bedfordshire and Savernake Park, Wiltshire, styled Viscount Bruce of Ampthill from 1685 to 1741, was a British ...
, rebuilt Totnam Lodge to the design of his brother-in-law, the pioneering Palladian architect
Lord Burlington Earl of Burlington is a title that has been created twice, the first time in the Peerage of England in 1664 and the second in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1831. Since 1858, Earl of Burlington has been a courtesy title used by the duk ...
, and parts of the grounds, including the kitchen garden, were laid out by
Capability Brown Lancelot "Capability" Brown (born c. 1715–16, baptised 30 August 1716 – 6 February 1783) was an English gardener and landscape architect, a notable figure in the history of the English landscape garden style. Unlike other architects ...
between 1764 and about 1770, commissioned by
Thomas Brudenell-Bruce, 1st Earl of Ailesbury Thomas Brudenell-Bruce, 1st Earl of Ailesbury, Order of the Thistle, KT (30 April 1729 – 19 April 1814), styled The Honourable Thomas Brudenell until 1747 and known as the Lord Bruce between 1747 and 1776, was a British courtier. Background an ...
. The house underwent a number of further rebuilds, and the current house, containing more than one hundred rooms, mostly dates from the 1820s, having then been remodelled by Charles Brudenell-Bruce, 1st Marquess of Ailesbury, who in 1818 (while still Earl of Aylesbury) had added a new range of stables designed by Thomas Cundy. The Bruce family lived in the house until 1946. Thereafter it was used as a preparatory school until 1994, and then leased to a charity until 2005, after which it was unoccupied for some ten years, apart from a period in 2006, when the band
Radiohead Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon-on-Thames, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band members are Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Gre ...
recorded part of their album ''
In Rainbows ''In Rainbows'' is the seventh studio album by the English rock band Radiohead. It was self-released on 10 October 2007 as a download, followed by a retail release internationally through XL Recordings on 3 December 2007 and in North America t ...
'' at the house. It was then leased for 150 years to a US-based consortium with the intention of creating a luxury hotel and golfing centre, but the consortium went bankrupt in 2008. In 2014, the house was sold for £11.25m to an undisclosed buyer who had plans to turn it back into a private home, after which it was sold to billionaire
Chris Rokos Christopher Charles Rokos (born 21 September 1970) is a British billionaire hedge fund manager. He is the founder of Global macro, macro hedge fund Rokos Capital Management and a former founding partner of Brevan Howard, Brevan Howard Asset Man ...
, who had similar plans. Planning applications made at the end of 2024 indicated significant renovations were planned.


Early history

The site of Tottenham House was known by 1200 as Tottenham Wood, a part of the much larger
Savernake Forest Savernake Forest stands on a Cretaceous chalk plateau between Marlborough and Great Bedwyn in Wiltshire, England. Its area is approximately . Most of the forest lies within the civil parish of Savernake. It is privately owned by the Marquess o ...
, and was under the control of the Esturmy family. The land passed to the
Seymour family The House of Seymour or St. Maur, is the name of an old English family in which several titles of nobility have from time to time been created, and of which the Duke of Somerset is the head. Origins The family was settled in Monmouthshire in th ...
by the marriage of Maud Esturmy to Roger II Seymour in the 15th century. It was probably
Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford, 1st Baron Beauchamp, KG (22 May 1539 – 6 April 1621), of Wulfhall and Totnam Lodge in Great Bedwyn, Wiltshire, of Hatch Beauchamp in Somerset, of Netley Abbey, Hampshire, and of Hertford House, Ca ...
(1539–1621), son and heir of the 1st Duke, of nearby
Wulfhall Wulfhall or Wolfhall is an early 17th-century manor house in Burbage parish, Wiltshire, England. It is north-east of Burbage village, and about south-east of Marlborough. A previous manor house on the same site, at that time in the parish of G ...
, who in about 1575 built the first house, known as Totnam Lodge, and enclosed its surrounding land to form a deer park. Wulfhall was partly demolished, and the building materials used to construct Tottenham House. The house was still known as the Lodge in 1623, in which year the parish register of Great Bedwyn records the baptism of the 1st Earl's great-granddaughter Frances Seymour, the daughter of Sir Francis Seymour (c. 1590 – 1664) (later created
Baron Seymour of Trowbridge Baron Seymour of Trowbridge was a title in the Peerage of England. It was created on 19 February 1641 for Francis Seymour, a younger son of Edward Seymour, Lord Beauchamp, for his support of Charles I in Parliament. It became a subsidiary title ...
), which was performed "at the Lodge in the Great Parke by Henrie Taylor, Vicar of Great Bedwin".
John Seymour, 4th Duke of Somerset John Seymour, 4th Duke of Somerset and 3rd Marquess of Hertford (before 164629 April 1675) was an English peer and MP. Life He was a younger son of William Seymour, 2nd Duke of Somerset, and Lady Frances Devereux. He was the only one of the ...
(1629–1675), an uncle, inherited the estate in 1671 on the death of his nephew the 3rd Duke, and in 1672 he rebuilt Totnam Lodge and redesigned the deer park, which at that date included long tree-lined walks and a deer
chase Chase or CHASE may refer to: Businesses * Chase Bank, a national American financial institution * Chase UK, a British retail bank * Chase Aircraft (1943–1954), a defunct American aircraft manufacturer * Chase Coaches, a defunct bus operator in ...
. The 4th Duke of Somerset bequeathed the unentailed Seymour estates to his niece Elizabeth Seymour, the wife of
Thomas Bruce, 2nd Earl of Ailesbury Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the ...
(1656–1741), thus passing some of the Seymour estates to the Bruce family. In 1721 Elizabeth Seymour's son and heir,
Charles Bruce, 3rd Earl of Ailesbury Charles Bruce, 3rd Earl of Ailesbury (later styled Aylesbury) and 4th Earl of Elgin (29 May 1682 – 10 February 1747), of Ampthill, Bedfordshire and Savernake Park, Wiltshire, styled Viscount Bruce of Ampthill from 1685 to 1741, was a British ...
, rebuilt Totnam Lodge to the design of his brother-in-law, the pioneering Palladian architect
Lord Burlington Earl of Burlington is a title that has been created twice, the first time in the Peerage of England in 1664 and the second in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1831. Since 1858, Earl of Burlington has been a courtesy title used by the duk ...
.
Henry Flitcroft Henry Flitcroft (30 August 1697 – 25 February 1769) was a major English architect in the second generation of Palladianism. He came from a humble background; his father was a labourer in the gardens at Hampton Court. Flitcroft began his career a ...
was the executant architect. The 3rd Earl added wings to Burlington's block in the 1730s, and also built in 1743 a Banqueting House in the park to the design of Burlington (demolished in 1824).
Thomas Brudenell-Bruce, 1st Earl of Ailesbury Thomas Brudenell-Bruce, 1st Earl of Ailesbury, Order of the Thistle, KT (30 April 1729 – 19 April 1814), styled The Honourable Thomas Brudenell until 1747 and known as the Lord Bruce between 1747 and 1776, was a British courtier. Background an ...
inherited the estate in 1747 from his uncle, Charles Bruce, 3rd Earl of Ailesbury in 1747. Parts of the grounds, including the kitchen garden, were laid out by
Capability Brown Lancelot "Capability" Brown (born c. 1715–16, baptised 30 August 1716 – 6 February 1783) was an English gardener and landscape architect, a notable figure in the history of the English landscape garden style. Unlike other architects ...
from 1764 to c 1770, commissioned by Thomas Brudenell-Bruce. In 1818, Charles Brudenell-Bruce, 2nd Earl of Ailesbury, added stables to the design of Thomas Cundy II. In 1823–26 he enlarged and remodelled the house, again to the designs of Thomas Cundy.


Description of present house


Modern use

The Ailesbury family lived in the house, sharing it during the Second World War with the US Army, until 1946. Thereafter it was used by Hawtreys Preparatory School until 1994 when Hawtreys merged with
Cheam School Cheam School is a mixed preparatory school located in Headley, in the civil parish of Ashford Hill with Headley in Hampshire. Originally a boys school, Cheam was founded in 1645 by George Aldrich. History The school started in Cheam, Surre ...
, Newbury. It was then leased for ten years to the Amber Foundation, a charity which helped unemployed troubled young people to rebuild their lives, but its work there ended due to cuts in government support. In 1966, the house was designated as
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 ...
, while the small octagonal
folly In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but suggesting through its appearance some other purpose, or of such extravagant appearance that it transcends the range of usual garden buildings. Eighteenth-cent ...
building (c. 1720) in the deer park, and the stable block (1819) were designated Grade II*.
David Brudenell-Bruce, Earl of Cardigan David Michael James Brudenell-Bruce, 9th Marquess of Ailesbury (born 12 November 1952), styled The Hon. David Brudenell-Bruce until 1974 and Earl of Cardigan between 1974 and 2024, is a British peer. Biography Early life David Brudenell-Bruce ...
owned 49% and his son Thomas James Brudenell-Bruce, Viscount Savernake owned 51%. Between 2011 and 2017, the impoverished Earl was involved in a bitter legal battle with the trustees.Simon de Bruxelles, 'Penniless earl claims jobseeker's allowance after ex-wife's entire £1.5m estate goes to the children', ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'', March 07, 2013, No. 70826, p. 3
In 2006 the house, with its 50-horse stable block, outbuildings and some farmland, was leased for 150 years to a consortium of Golf Club Investment Holdings, Conduit Investments, and (as operator) the Buena Vista Hospitality Group of
Orlando Orlando commonly refers to: * Orlando, Florida, a city in the United States Orlando may also refer to: People * Orlando (given name), a masculine name, includes a list of people with the name * Orlando (surname), includes a list of people wit ...
, Florida, with the intention of creating a luxury hotel, conference, spa, and golfing centre. Full
planning permission Planning permission or building permit refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. House building permits, for example, are subject to buil ...
was obtained, with the co-operation of the local Planning Authority and
English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...
, and an investment in the project of £50 million was announced. However 18 months later, before starting any building work, the consortium failed during the recession, and the lease ended. In 2014, the trustees sold the house and 800 acres for £11.25m to an undisclosed buyer, which was believed to be multi-millionaire property developer
Jamie Ritblat James Ritblat (born 1967) is a British businessman. Ritblat worked for British Land, the company acquired by his father Sir John Ritblat, until 1995 when he left to start his own business, Delancey, of which he is the chairman and chief execut ...
after overcoming a legal challenge from the Earl of Cardigan. In November 2014 the Earl was reported in the ''Daily Telegraph'' newspaper to be living with his second wife and baby daughter in an unheated lodge in the grounds of Tottenham House on a £71-a-week jobseeker's allowance while training to be a lorry driver. He is still theoretically the hereditary Warden of Savernake Forest and has stated he was: "put on this earth to take care of Savernake and I will never let it go". He was due to benefit from the sale proceeds and would still own jointly with the trustees 3,700 acres, mainly woodland, in Savernake Forest. In 2017 he was able to remove both trustees from office, and restore his family’s income. As of 2017, the house had been unoccupied since 2005. Plans were submitted in December 2017 to return the house, stables, outbuildings, and park to a family residence.


In popular culture

The house featured as the boys' school in the 1995 film ''
A Feast at Midnight ''A Feast at Midnight'' is a 1994 British comedy family film directed by Justin Hardy and starring Christopher Lee, Freddie Findlay, Robert Hardy, Samuel West, Edward Fox and Julie Dreyfus. The film is notable for being the feature film debut of ...
'', starring
Christopher Lee Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee (27 May 1922 – 7 June 2015) was an English actor and singer. In a career spanning more than sixty years, Lee became known as an actor with a deep and commanding voice who often portrayed villains in horr ...
. In 2006, the band
Radiohead Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon-on-Thames, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band members are Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Gre ...
recorded part of their 2007 album ''
In Rainbows ''In Rainbows'' is the seventh studio album by the English rock band Radiohead. It was self-released on 10 October 2007 as a download, followed by a retail release internationally through XL Recordings on 3 December 2007 and in North America t ...
'' at the house. In 2013, the house and Savernake estate were used as the location for a short film commissioned by electronica pioneers
Goldfrapp Goldfrapp were an English electronic music duo from London, formed in 1999. The duo consisted of Alison Goldfrapp (vocals, synthesiser) and Will Gregory (synthesiser). Despite favourable reviews and a short-listing for the Mercury Prize, thei ...
to promote the song 'Drew' from their album ''
Tales of Us ''Tales of Us'' is the sixth studio album by English electronic music duo Goldfrapp, released on 6 September 2013 by Mute Records. In June 2013, the duo embarked on the Tales of Us Tour to promote the album. Background and release Goldfrapp ...
''. Shot in black and white by film editor Lisa Gunning, the internal and external aspects of the house and surrounding forest feature extensively in the five-minute film. In 2015, the house featured in season 6 of the romantic-drama TV series, ''
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 ...
''. The house, in the show called Dryden Park, is the rather run-down estate of Sir Michael Reresby; Thomas Barrow visits Dryden Park in 1925 to interview for a job as a man servant.


References


Further reading

* Lennon, Ben, Burlington, Brown and Bill
''The Landscaping of Tottenham Park and Savernake Forest in the Eighteenth Century''


External links

Houses completed in 1826 Country houses in Wiltshire Gardens in Wiltshire Georgian architecture in Wiltshire Grade I listed houses Grade I listed buildings in Wiltshire Brudenell-Bruce family 1826 establishments in England Thomas Cundy (junior) buildings {{coord, 51.374, -1.643, display=title, region:GB_scale:10000