Ashdown House (also known as Ashdown Park) is a 17th-century country house in the civil parish of Ashbury in the English county of Oxfordshire. Until 1974 the house was in the county of Berkshire, and the nearby village of Lambourn remains in that county.
It is a Grade I listed building [1] and the grounds are included in the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens at Grade II*. [2]
Ashdown House is associated with the "Winter Queen" Elizabeth of Bohemia, the older sister of Charles I. Along with his house at Hamstead Marshall, it is said that William, the first Earl of Craven built Ashdown for her, but she died in 1662 before construction began. [3]
Although the architect is uncertain, it is thought that Craven commissioned Captain William Winde to build the Dutch-style mansion as a hunting lodge and refuge from the plague. The building also acted as a grandstand to watch a hunt within the park.[ citation needed ]
The house features 8,000 square feet (740 m2) of living space, a large central staircase, reception rooms, interlinking drawing and sitting rooms, a kitchen, a dining room and eight bedrooms. The property includes two lodges, three cottages and a hundred acres of land.[ citation needed ]
The house was originally built at the junction of the four rides in Craven's hunting park – the four avenues no longer survive as they once did, but portions of them remain. The house is isolated, and the view from the roof includes park-like grounds and gardens, and beyond, woods and pastures. Nearby is a large group of sarsen stones and Alfred's Castle, [4] a scheduled Iron Age hillfort. [5]
At least one of the woods of Ashdown Park predates the house. Glastonbury Abbey held the manor of Ashbury until the Dissolution of the monasteries in 1539. [6] A deer park was established for the Abbey in the south of the parish. [7] It is bounded by an ancient embankment enclosing a rounded area characteristic of Medieval deer parks. [8] The embankment would have been topped by a park pale, probably of cleft oak stakes. [8] The park may equate to the Aysshen Wood that a terrier of the parish in 1519 recorded as covering 415 acres (168 ha). [6] The former deer park is now the Upper Wood of Ashdown Park. Ashdown Park is a Site of Special Scientific Interest. [9]
Although a few alterations were made to the house, the building remained largely as-built until it was requisitioned for use by the army during World War II. The occupation left it in a near derelict state. [10] The National Trust has owned Ashdown House since 1956 when it was donated to the trust by Cornelia, Countess of Craven (wife of William Craven, 4th Earl of Craven). [11] The house is tenanted, and has been renovated by recent lease holders.
In 2010 Pete Townshend bought a 41-year lease on the property [12] [13] and in 2011 a structural renovation was begun. Public access is restricted to the stairs and roof, with broad views of Berkshire Downs. There is also public access to the neighbouring Ashdown Woods. [14] [15] Admission to the house is by guided tour on Wednesdays and Saturdays from April to October.
Reading Abbey is a large, ruined abbey in the centre of the town of Reading, in the English county of Berkshire. It was founded by Henry I in 1121 "for the salvation of my soul, and the souls of King William, my father, and of King William, my brother, and Queen Maud, my wife, and all my ancestors and successors." In its heyday the abbey was one of Europe's largest royal monasteries. The traditions of the Abbey are continued today by the neighbouring St James's Church, which is partly built using stones of the Abbey ruins.
Sandhurst is a town and civil parish in the Bracknell Forest borough in Berkshire, England. It is in the south eastern corner of Berkshire, and is situated 32 miles (51 km) west-southwest of London, 3 miles (4.8 km) north west of Camberley and 5 miles (8.0 km) south of Bracknell. Sandhurst is known worldwide as the location of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Despite its close proximity to Camberley, Sandhurst is also home to a large and well-known out-of-town mercantile development. The site is named "The Meadows" and has a Tesco Extra superstore and a Marks & Spencer, two of the largest in the country. A large Next clothing and homeware store is open on the site of the old Homebase.
Barkham is a village and civil parish in the borough of Wokingham in Berkshire, England, located around 2 miles (3.2 km) southwest of the town of Wokingham.
Uffington is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire, about 4 miles (6.4 km) south of Faringdon and 6 miles (10 km) west of Wantage. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 783. Lying within the historic county boundaries of Berkshire, in 1974 it was transferred for local government purposes to Oxfordshire under the Local Government Act 1972. Uffington is most commonly known for the Uffington White Horse hill figure on the Berkshire Downs in the south of the parish.
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Inkpen is a village and civil parish in West Berkshire, 3.5 miles (5.6 km) southeast of Hungerford, most of the land of which is cultivated fields with scattered woodland once part of a former forest of Savernake. Inkpen has boundaries with Wiltshire and Hampshire, including parts of Walbury Hill, the highest point in South East England, and Inkpen Hill.
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Ashbury is a village and large civil parish at the upper end (west) of the Vale of White Horse. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire. The village is centred 7 miles (11 km) east of Swindon in neighbouring Wiltshire. The parish includes the hamlets of Idstone and Kingstone Winslow. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 506.
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Alfred's Castle is a small Iron Age hill fort, situated at grid reference SU277822, behind Ashdown Park in the civil parish of Ashbury in Oxfordshire. It lies 2–3 km south of the Ridgeway and is protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.
Long Wittenham is a village and small civil parish about 3 miles (5 km) north of Didcot, and 3.5 miles (5.6 km) southeast of Abingdon. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it from Berkshire to Oxfordshire, and from the former Wallingford Rural District to the new district of South Oxfordshire.
Watchfield is a village and civil parish in the Vale of White Horse in on the edge of southwest Oxfordshire, southern England, about 3 miles (4.8 km) southeast of Highworth in neighbouring Wiltshire. Watchfield is about 1 mile (1.6 km) north of the village of Shrivenham. Both villages used to be on the main road between Oxford and Swindon, which is now the A420 road. The Vale of White Horse was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes administratively transferred it to Oxfordshire.
Moulsford is a village and civil parish in South Oxfordshire. Before 1974, it was in the county of Berkshire, in Wallingford Rural District, but following the Berkshire boundary changes of that year it became a part of Oxfordshire. Moulsford is on the A329, by the River Thames, just north of Streatley and south of Wallingford. The west of the parish is taken up by the foothills of the Berkshire Downs, including the Moulsford Downs. Moulsford Bottom and Kingstanding Hill are traditionally associated with King Alfred and the Battle of Ashdown.
In medieval and Early Modern England, Wales and Ireland, a deer park was an enclosed area containing deer. It was bounded by a ditch and bank with a wooden park pale on top of the bank, or by a stone or brick wall. The ditch was on the inside increasing the effective height. Some parks had deer "leaps", where there was an external ramp and the inner ditch was constructed on a grander scale, thus allowing deer to enter the park but preventing them from leaving.
Garford is a village and civil parish about 4 miles (6.4 km) west of Abingdon. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire. The parish is bounded by the River Ock to the north, by two tributaries of the Ock to the south, and by field boundaries and the road between Kingston Bagpuize and West Hanney to the west. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 229.
Benham Park is a mansion in the English ceremonial county of Berkshire and district of West Berkshire. It is 2 miles (3.2 km) west of Newbury within 500m of a junction of the A34 trunk road Newbury bypass outside the town side, in the Marsh Benham locality of Speen, a village within and outside the Newbury bypass. The house is a Grade II* listed building and park is Grade II.
Eaton Hastings is a village and civil parish beside the River Thames about two-and-a-half miles (4 km) north-west of Faringdon. It was in Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire. Eaton Hastings was once larger than it is today, when it can be seen as an all-but-deserted medieval village. The 2001 Census gave the parish population as 81.
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51°32′10″N1°35′47″W / 51.5362°N 1.5963°W
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