Hughenden Manor

07/06/2021

Hughenden Manor is a Victorian mansion located in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England.

The house was erected in the late 18th century and was the country home of the English minister Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881), 1st Earl of Beaconsfield.

Origins & History

After it's confiscation, the lands remained in the hands of the Crown, until King Henry I of England (c.1068-1135) gave the lands to his chamberlain and treasurer, Geoffrey de Clinton (c.1083-1134). Clinton, whose main home was in Kenilworth, Warwickshire, had the lands tenanted by Geoffrey de Sancto Roerio, who resultantly changed his surname to the Anglicised Hughenden.

After passing through that family, with successive Kings having to confirm the gift of the lands, the manor returned to the Crown in the 14th century.

In 1539, the Crown granted the manor and lands to Sir Robert Dormer (1551-1616), and it passed through his family until 1737, when it was sold by Philip Dormer Stanhope (1694-1773), 4th Earl of Chesterfield to Charles Savage, Governor of the Bank of England from 1745 to 1747.

After passing through his extended family following a series of deaths and resultant will bequests, by 1816 the manor and lands were owned by John Norris (c.1770-1845), a distinguished antiquary and scholar.

Isaac D'Israeli (1766-1848), the father of Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881), British Prime Minister, had for some time rented the nearby Bradenham Manor and, following Norris's death in 1845, bought the manor and lands from his executors in 1847.

The purchase was supported with the help of a loan of £25,000 from Lord Henry Bentinck (1804-1870) and Lord Titchfield. This was because at the time, as Disraeli was leader of the Conservative Party, "it was essential to represent a county," and county members had to be landowners.

Taking ownership of the manor on the death of his father in 1848, Disraeli (1804-1881) and his wife Mary Anne Disraeli, 1st Viscountess of Beaconsfield (1792-1872), alternated between Hughenden and several homes in London.

Lady Beaconsfield died in 1872, and Disraeli in 1881; both were buried in a vault adjacent in the churchyard of St Michael and All Angels Church which is situated downhill from the main house, to the east.

Disraeli had no children; he left Hughenden to his nephew, Coningsby Disraeli (1867-1936). However, as Coningsby was only 14 at the time, his trustees rented out the property until he came into his inheritance in 1888.

When Coningsby Disraeli (1867-1936) died in 1936, his widow left Hughenden, and the following year Disraeli's niece sold the house to W H Abbey, who vested it, with the remaining contents and 189 acres, in the Disraelian Society.

During the Second World War (1939-1945), the basement at Hughenden Manor was used as a secret intelligence base code-named "Hillside". The UK Air Ministry staff at the manor analysed aerial photography of Germany and created maps for bombing missions, including the "Dambusters" raid.

In 1947, the Abbey family and the Disraelian Society turned over Hughenden Manor to the National Trust, and in 1955, it was designated a Grade I listed building.

The gardens are also listed Grade II on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.

It's decorated as it might have been at the time it was occupied by Disraeli. It contains a collection of memorabilia including family portraits, Disraeli's own furnishings, a library including a collection of Disraeli's novels and one written and signed by Queen Victoria (1819-1901) along with many of the books he inherited from his father, Isaac D'Israeli (1766-1848).

The park and woodlands total almost 1,500 acres. The formal garden which was designed by Lady Beaconsfield (1792-1872), has been restored to a similar condition to when occupied by the Disraelis.

The long terrace at the rear of the house is decorated with Florentine vases. An obelisk on a nearby hill, visible from the house, was erected by Mary Anne (1792-1872) in 1862 in memory of her father-in-law.

Architecture 

The present house was built towards the end of the 18th century and was of a stuccoed and unassuming design. However, in 1862 the Disraelis had the house remodelled by the architect Edward Buckton Lamb (1806-1869). Under Lamb's hand, classical Georgian features were swept away as he "dramatised" the house.

Lamb worked in a hybrid baronial form of Gothic architecture, with exposed and angular juxtaposing brickwork surmounted by stepped battlements with diagonal pinnacles.

The uppermost windows of the thirteen bayed garden facade were given unusual pediments, appearing almost as machicolations.

The house is of three floors and the reception rooms are all on the ground floor, most with large plate glass windows giving onto the south-facing terrace overlooking a grassy parterre with views over the Hughenden Valley.


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