Brightwell Manor is a country house in the village of Brightwell-cum-Sotwell, Oxfordshire, England. [1] The back dates to around the mid-seventeenth century, or possibly earlier as there is a date of 1605 on the rear. The front was built in the mid-eighteenth century. [2] It has been a Grade II listed building since 1952. It is owned by British former prime minister Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie. [3] [4]
In 1933, the house was purchased by William Ralph Inge, a theologian thrice-nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. [1] [5] Inge, known as the ’’Gloomy Dean’’ on account of his pessimistic views, including supporting eugenics and opposing democracy, served as Dean of St Paul's Cathedral from 1911 to 1934. [6] [7] His wife wrote in her diary "It is a most attractive house but rather small." and that she had written to Paul Edward Paget and his partner John Seely (later John Seely, 2nd Baron Mottistone) about adding to it. [8] They wanted £2,000, and she wrote that "We really must try to cut them down a bit." [8] William Inge died there in 1954 (and is buried next door in the churchyard), and the family owned the house until 1971, when his sons sold it. [1] From 1971, it had been owned by the same family, until former Prime Minister Boris Johnson agreed to buy it in February 2023 for a reported £4 million. [1] [9]
In 1952, Brightwell Manor was Grade II listed by English Heritage. [10] The house probably dates back to the mid-17th century, and the front is mid-18th century. [10] An extension was added by Inge in the 1950s. [9] Pevsner describes Brightwell as a "plain late 18th century brick box", but notes the dating of 1605 on the earlier, rear portion of the house. [11] [lower-alpha 1]
Brightwell Manor has nine bedrooms and is 8,128 square feet (755 m2) in total. [1] [9] The house sits in five acres (2.0 ha) of grounds, with a moat fed by a natural spring surrounding it on three sides. [9] The study includes a mural painted by the neo-Romanticist George Warner Allen. [9]
William Ralph Inge was an English author, Anglican priest, professor of divinity at Cambridge, and dean of St Paul's Cathedral. Although as an author he used W. R. Inge, and he was personally known as Ralph, he was widely known by his title as Dean Inge. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature three times.
Brightwell-cum-Sotwell is a twin-village and civil parish in the Upper Thames Valley in South Oxfordshire. It lies between Didcot to the west and the historic market town of Wallingford to the east. In 1974 it was transferred from Berkshire to the county of Oxfordshire, and from Wallingford Rural District to the district of South Oxfordshire.
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Charles Buckeridge was a British Gothic Revival architect who trained as a pupil of Sir George Gilbert Scott. He practised in Oxford 1856–68 and in London from 1869. He was made an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1861.
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Sir Michael Molyns was a 16th-century English politician.
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