Greys Court is a Tudor country house and gardens in the southern Chiltern Hills at Rotherfield Greys, near Henley-on-Thames in the county of Oxfordshire, England. [1] Now owned by the National Trust, it is located at grid reference SU725834 , and is open to the public.
As Redrefield it was the principal manor of the six manors held in 1086 (as listed in the Domesday Book) [2] by the Norman knight Anchetil de Greye (c.1052- post-1086), ancestor of the prominent Grey family. [2]
The mainly Tudor-style house has a courtyard and gardens. The walled gardens contain old-fashioned roses and wisteria, an ornamental vegetable garden, maze (laid to grass with brick paths, dedicated by Archbishop Robert Runcie on 12 October 1981) and ice house. Within its grounds are the fortified tower built circa 1347, the only remains of the medieval castle, overlooking the gardens and surrounding countryside, as well as a Tudor wheelhouse.[ citation needed ]
The house remains furnished as a family home, with some outstanding 18th-century plasterwork interiors. It is a Grade I listed building. [3]
John de Grey, 1st Baron Grey de Rotherfield, one of the original founder Knights of the Garter, 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.[ citation needed ]
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 in 1724.[ citation needed ]
Between 1935 and 1937 the house was occupied by Evelyn Fleming, mother of the author Ian Fleming. [4]
In 1937 the house was bought from the Stapletons by Sir Felix Brunner and his wife Lady Brunner (née Elizabeth Irving), the granddaughter of the Victorian actor-manager Sir Henry Irving. In 1969 the family donated the property to the National Trust, where Lady Brunner continued to live until her death in 2003.
The house has been used as a filming location for Downton Abbey , [5] Agatha Christie's Poirot , [6] and Midsomer Murders . [7] [8]
Oxfordshire 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 Gloucestershire to the west. The city of Oxford is the largest settlement and county town.
Henley-on-Thames is a town and civil parish on the River Thames, in the South Oxfordshire district, in Oxfordshire, England, 9 miles (14 km) northeast of Reading, 7 miles (11 km) west of Maidenhead, 23 miles (37 km) southeast of Oxford and 37 miles (60 km) west of London, near the tripoint of Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. The population at the 2021 Census was 12,186.
Greenway, also known as Greenway House, is an estate on the River Dart near Galmpton in Devon, England. Once the home of the author Agatha Christie, it is now owned by the National Trust.
Catherine Carey, after her marriage Catherine Knollys and later known as both Lady Knollys and Dame Catherine Knollys,, was chief Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Elizabeth I, who was her first cousin.
Watlington is a small market town and civil parish about 7 miles (11 km) south of Thame in Oxfordshire, near the county's eastern edge and less than 2 miles (3 km) from its border with Buckinghamshire. The parish includes the hamlets of Christmas Common, Greenfield and Howe Hill, all of which are in the Chiltern Hills. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 2,727.
The Knollys family, Knolles or Knowles, is an English noble family descended from Sir Thomas Knollys, Lord Mayor of London, possibly a kinsman of the celebrated general Sir Robert Knolles. The next distinguished member of the family was Sir Francis Knollys or Knowles, English statesman, son of Sir Robert Knollys, or Knolles, a courtier in the service and favour of Henry VII and Henry VIII. Robert had also a younger son, Sir Henry, who took part in public life during the reign of Elizabeth I and who died in 1583. Lettice Knollys was pronounced the most prominent member of the family, from her birth in 1543 until her death in 1634.
William Knollys, 1st Earl of Banbury, KG, PC was an English nobleman at the court of Queen Elizabeth I and King James I.
Rotherfield Greys is a village and civil parish in the Chiltern Hills in South Oxfordshire. It is 2 miles (3 km) west of Henley-on-Thames and just over 1 mile (1.6 km) east of Rotherfield Peppard. It is linked by a near-straight minor road to Henley.
Rotherfield Peppard is a village and civil parish in the Chiltern Hills in South Oxfordshire. It is centred 3 miles (5 km) west of Henley-on-Thames, 4+1⁄2 miles (7 km) north of Reading, Berkshire and 1 mile (1.6 km) southwest of Rotherfield Greys. The 2011 Census recorded the parish population as 1,649. The area includes Peppard Hill, which is 1⁄2 mile (800 m) west of the centre of the village and adjoins Sonning Common. Peppard Common is public woodland and meadow in between in a ravine. The far east of the parish is a golf course and the far west is Kingwood Common which is also wooded common land. In 1951, Elizabeth Goudge (1900–1984), novelist and winner of the Newberry Award for Best Children's Book, moved to Rotherfield Peppard, where she lived until her death. A blue plaque, unveiled in 2008, identifies her home.
Sir Francis Knollys, KG of Rotherfield Greys, Oxfordshire was an English courtier in the service of Henry VIII, Edward VI and Elizabeth I, and was a Member of Parliament for a number of constituencies.
Dorney Court is a Grade I listed early Tudor manor house, dating from around 1440, located in the village of Dorney, Buckinghamshire, England. It is owned and lived in by the Palmer family.
Harpsden is a rural and semi-rural village and civil parish immediately south of Henley-on-Thames in South Oxfordshire, Oxfordshire, England. Its scattered centre is set 0.5 miles (0.80 km) from the east border which is the River Thames, marking a short boundary with Berkshire. The parish extends 5 miles (8.0 km) inland and borders Rotherfield Peppard to the west, that is, next to its main sections of woodland in the southern extreme of the Chiltern Hills including an SSSI area of ancient woodland. The village has neither a railway station nor shops, but has the main road from Reading to Henley, both of which have grown substantially since World War II into centres of trade, education and general meeting places, such as by their increased number of cafés and restaurants.
Sir Robert Knollys was an English courtier in the service and favour of Henry VII and Henry VIII.
Dorothy Bray, Baroness Chandos was an English noblewoman, who served as a Maid of Honour to three queens consort of King Henry VIII of England; Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, and Catherine Parr. From 1541 to 1543, she had an affair with the latter's married brother, William Parr, 1st Marquess of Northampton.
Dorothea Elizabeth Irving, Lady Brunner, OBE, JP, was a British actress, the daughter of actors H. B. Irving and Dorothea Baird, and the granddaughter of Victorian era stage star Henry Irving. Her older brother was the Hollywood set designer and art director Laurence Irving. Elizabeth Irving was the Chairman of the National Federation of Women's Institutes (W.I.) and in 1955 founded the Keep Britain Tidy Group, acting as President of the Group for 19 years from 1966.
Elizabeth Knollys, Lady Leighton, was an English courtier who served Queen Elizabeth I of England, first as a Maid of Honour and secondly, after 1566, as a Gentlewoman of the Privy Chamber. Knollys was the grand-niece of Queen consort Anne Boleyn, which made her a cousin once removed of the Queen. Elizabeth married Sir Thomas Leighton of Feckenham in Worcestershire in 1578. He served as Governor of Jersey and Guernsey.
Sir Felix John Morgan Brunner, 3rd Baronet was a British Liberal Party politician and business owner. He was the maternal uncle of Katharine, Duchess of Kent.
Joyce Grove is a country house built in a Jacobethan style in Nettlebed, Oxfordshire, England. It was formerly owned by Sue Ryder (charity) which, until March 2020 operated its Nettlebed Palliative Care Facility at Joyce Grove at Nettlebed in Henley-On-Thames, Oxfordshire. Joyce Grove is located approximately 67 kilometres (42 mi) west of London.
Sir William Stapleton, 4th Baronet, of Rotherfield Greys, Oxfordshire, was an English Jacobite and Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1727 to 1740.
Rotherfield Greys Castle, initially known as Retherfield Castle, is a 14th-century fortified manor house built in Rotherfield Greys, Oxfordshire. Only the ruins of a single tower and a section of curtain wall survives, of which is associated with Greys Court, a Tudor country house. The castle is owned by the National Trust.
