West Woodhay House is a Grade I listed building in the parish of West Woodhay, West Berkshire, UK. [1]
West Woodhay House is a Grade I listed building in the parish of West Woodhay, West Berkshire, UK. [1]
The house was erected in 1635 and is attributed to Inigo Jones, although it is likely to have been designed and built by Edward Carter. [2] East facing, it looks over a lawn and an ornamental lake beyond. It has two storeys of red brick with a central hall and projecting end wings. The porch has a rounded arch, which is flanked by Ionic pillars. Over the porch doorway is the date 1635 with the motto, Nisi Dominus aedificet Frustra, a shortened version of Psalm 127, verse 1: Without the Lord, he builds in vain, which, slightly altered, is also the motto of the city of Edinburgh. [3]
The poet and politician Sir Benjamin Rudyerd lived in the house and died there in 1658. [4]
In the eighteenth century, West Woodhay House was owned by William Sloper, MP, followed by his son William Sloper, who lived there with the soprano Susannah Cibber following her estrangement from her husband and accompanying lawsuit. [5]
The house passed into the hands of the Cole family and was inherited by the notorious prankster Horace de Vere Cole on the death of his grandmother in 1906. He was unable to afford its upkeep so he sold it in 1912 to his uncle, Alfred Clayton Cole, later Governor of the Bank of England. [6]
William Horace de Vere Cole was an eccentric prankster born in Ballincollig, County Cork, Ireland. His most famous prank was the Dreadnought hoax where he and several others in blackface, pretending to be an Abyssinian prince and his entourage, were given a tour of the Royal Navy ship HMS Dreadnought.
Bucklebury is a village and civil parish in West Berkshire, England, about 5 miles (8 km) north-east of Newbury and 1–3 miles (1.6–4.8 km) north of the A4 road. The parish has a population of 2,116, but the village is much smaller. Bucklebury Common, with an area of over 1 square kilometre (0.39 sq mi), is one of the largest commons in the ceremonial and historic county of Berkshire.
East Woodhay is a village and civil parish in Hampshire, England. The village is approximately 5.5 miles (9 km) south-west of Newbury in Berkshire. At the 2011 census the parish had a population of 2,914.
Yattendon is a small village and civil parish 7 miles (11 km) northeast of Newbury in the county of Berkshire. The M4 motorway passes through the fields of the village which lie 0.5 miles (800 m) south and below the elevations of its cluster. The village is privately owned and is "part of the 9,000 acre estate owned by the Iliffes, former press barons", part of the Yattendon Group.
Farnborough is a village and civil parish in West Berkshire, about 4 miles (6.4 km) south of Wantage. The village is 720 feet (220 m) above sea level on a ridge aligned east – west in the Berkshire Downs. It is the highest village in Berkshire.
South Fawley is a small village in the civil parish of Fawley in the English county of Berkshire. According to the Post Office, South Fawley Farm's population as taken at the 2011 Census was included in the civil parish of Chaddleworth. Much of the remainder of the village was included in the civil parish of Fawley. It is situated off the A338 between Great Shefford and Wantage, just south of its counterpart Fawley, or North Fawley, in the West Berkshire district.
Tollard Royal is a village and civil parish on Cranborne Chase, Wiltshire, England. The parish is on Wiltshire's southern boundary with Dorset and the village is 6 miles (10 km) southeast of the Dorset town of Shaftesbury, on the B3081 road between Shaftesbury and Sixpenny Handley.
Brimpton is a mostly rural village and civil parish in West Berkshire, England. Brimpton is centred 4.5 miles (7.2 km) ESE of the town of Newbury.
West Woodhay is a rural scattered village and civil parish in West Berkshire, England. At the 2011 census it had 59 households.
Buckland is a village and large civil parish about 4 miles (6.4 km) northeast of Faringdon in the Vale of White Horse District. Buckland was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 588. Outside the village the civil parish includes the small settlements of Carswell and Barcote to the west, Buckland Marsh to the north, and the modern development of Gainfield on the southern boundary.
Anne de Vere Chamberlain was the wife of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. A successful businessman when they married, he credited her with encouraging him into political life, and rising to the premiership.
Milton is a village and civil parish about 3 miles (5 km) west of Didcot and a similar distance south of Abingdon. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 1,290.
William Sloper of West Woodhay House, Berkshire, England was an English officeholder and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1715 and 1743.
General Sir Robert Sloper KB was Commander-in-Chief, India.
Carswell Manor is a Jacobean country house at Carswell in the civil parish of Buckland in the English county of Oxfordshire. It is just north of the A420 road between Swindon and Oxford.
Linton Park, formerly Linton Place or Linton Hall, is a large 18th-century country house in Linton, Kent, England. Built by Robert Mann in 1730 to replace a much earlier building called 'Capell's Court' The estate passed through the ownership of several members of Mann's family before coming into the Cornwallis family. The house was enlarged to its current size in 1825.
Coleshill is a village and civil parish in the Vale of White Horse district of Oxfordshire, England. Coleshill was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire. The village is beside the River Cole, which forms both the western boundary of the parish and also the county boundary with Wiltshire. Coleshill is about 3 miles (5 km) west of the market town of Faringdon, about 2 miles (3 km) east of the Wiltshire town of Highworth. The village is on the B4019 road that links the two towns. The 2011 Census recorded the population of the parish as 156.
Tidcombe is a small village in Wiltshire, England, on the eastern edge of the county, near Hampshire. It is about 9 miles (14 km) southeast of Marlborough and 7 miles (11 km) southwest of Hungerford, Berkshire. With few inhabitants, it forms part of the civil parish of Tidcombe and Fosbury, which has a parish meeting.
West Woodhay Down is a 1.5-hectare (3.7-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Berkshire and Hampshire. It is lowland Calcareous grassland with a northwest facing bank, and forms part of the northern slopes of Walbury Hill and Combe Hill. The site was formerly included as part of Inkpen and Walbury Hills SSSI.
Alfred Clayton Cole was a City of London merchant and director of the Bank of England, serving as Governor of the Bank of England from 1911 to 1913.