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Historic manor full Of Chilterns charm
Nether Winchendon House is situated in a beautiful valley at the foot of the Chilterns. It has passed by family descent for over 400 years and remains a family home to this day.
Nether Winchendon House is an enchanting medieval and Tudor manor house overlaid in the Strawberry Hill Gothick style. It sits on lawns leading down to the River Thame in this pretty secluded Buckinghamshire village.
The grounds comprise about seven acres of garden with fine rare trees, herbaceous borders, shrubs and bulbs. The house is listed Grade 1 and is lived in by the present owner, Robert Spencer Bernard, and his wife, Georgianna, and their family. The house contains fine family portraits of the owner's forbears since the beginning of the 17th century and good English furniture spanning the 17th to 19th centuries. Since 1956 it has been open to the public who are welcomed into a home in which the family live.
Georgianna said of the house: "We are very privileged to live here. It's just the most amazing place, just like a fairy story. To sum the house up in three words I would describe it as being enchanting, romantic and enigmatic."
The property is shown in the Domesday Book (1086) as having been the property of Walter Giffard, newly created Earl of Buckingham, and, before the Norman Conquest, the property of Queen Edith, wife of King Edward the Confessor. It was valued at 12 together with a mill worth 20 shillings and four score eels!
The house dates from the middle of the 12th century. The Giffard family gave the Manor of Nether Winchendon as an endowment to nearby Notley Abbey which they founded for Augustinian canons from Arras in 1162.
The property remained vested in the Abbot of Notley until the Dissolution of the Monasteries when it passed to the Crown and then by grant of King Edward VI to the Russell family, then of Chenies and later of Woburn. There is a fine Flemish tapestry in the dining room of King Henry VIII and Sir John Russell, which was made for him to commemorate his installation as a Knight of the Garter in 1539.
The Great Hall is believed to date from the reign of King John (1199-1215). It now has a high vaulted ceiling in the Strawberry Hill Gothick fashion and is the family's drawing room.
The dining room was built on by Sir John Daunce, the last tenant of the Abbot of Notley, in about 1530 as his parlour. His son married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas More, Lord Chancellor of England and author of Utopia, who was executed in 1535. This room has fine oak linenfold panelling and a carved oak frieze, commissioned by Sir John and displaying his portrait and initials. Subsequently, the panelling was painted white to celebrate the Restoration of King Charles II to the throne in 1660.
In 1559 the Manor of Nether Winchendon was bought from the Russells and conveyed to the Tyringham family. The last Tyringham, Mrs Jane Beresford, having no direct heir, left the property to her cousin, Sir Francis Bernard, Bt (1711-1779). He was the last British Governor of Massachussetts Bay Province. Towns in Massachussetts were named after him: Bernardsville, Bernardston, Bernard and Winchendon. Sir Francis left his American library to Harvard University from which one of his sons, Sir Thomas Bernard Bt, graduated.
Sir Thomas was treasurer of the London Foundling Hospital in the chapel of which he is buried. He framed the constitution of the British Institution and became its first treasurer. Another of the governor's sons, Sir Scrope Bernard, Bt, lived at Nether Winchendon. He was Member of Parliament for Aylesbury and later for St Mawes in Cornwall, Under-Secretary at the Home Office under Lord Grenville and Black Rod in Ireland. He married the daughter of a London banker and one of their daughters married into the Spencer family.
With his wife's fortune he was able at the end of the 18th century to embellish the house from its former timber and stone to the fashionable Strawberry Hill Gothick style. His work entailed lowering the pitch of some of the roofs and crenellating the house with battlements, having first obtained a parliamentary licence to fortify his home. The house is a wonderful, successful and unique mixture of architectural periods, styles and fashions. He planted much of the woodland at Chequers and died at his London home, 50 Pall Mall, in April 1830 and he is buried in the family vault at Great Kimble.
The direct Bernard line died out in 1935 with the death of Colonel Francis Tyringham Higgins Bernard, who built and gave The Bernard Hall to the next door village of Cuddington. Once again the property passed to a cousin, John Churchill Spencer, who assumed the additional surname of Bernard. John Spencer Bernard, as he then became, died in 1977 and was the father of the present owner.
Within the grounds is the Apple House, an 18th century building designed specifically for storing apples through the winter months until spring. Its intrinsic charm lies in its simplicity. It is a square building almost 12ft high with ventilated windows on three sides and a door on the other. It stands on brick piers about a foot off the ground to provide a good airflow so that a cool temperature is maintained.
The roof is made from local red clay tiles. It is easily seen from the road that leads to the gates of Nether Winchendon House in a field called Home Close. Apples were a valuable source of vitamin C and much used to make puddings when there was no other fruit available. Currently the Apple House needs to be restored to its former beauty before it collapses and donations are currently being sought.
Restoration to preserve such an old house is ongoing. In keeping with its historic features the stone used for the recent renewal of the entrance gate piers was some 145 million years old. Although the house is structurally sound nearly all of the window casements will need to be replaced, many of which have lead-lights and rare heraldic stained glass as well as fine examples of Dutch and Flemish glass. The Tower also requires attention to restore it to the garden room folly for which it was intended when Sir Scrope Bernard originally designed it in the Strawberry Hill Gothick style.
Being such a beautiful house with stunning grounds set in an idyllic location, Nether Winchendon House has been used many times for motion pictures, including James Bond: Tomorrow Never Dies; Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason; Midsommer Murders, Inspector Morse; Miss Marple and Kavanagh QC – to name just a few!
Venues at Nether Winchendon House are also available for wedding breakfasts and receptions, which can be held either in the magnificent high vaulted barn set in its own bridal garden and orchard or in a marquee on the East Lawn surrounded by romantic English country-garden flowers.
Members of the public can also enjoy the interior delights of the house – rooms are available in the West House and a delightful Lodge Cottage can be hired for holiday lets as well as weekend breaks or nights away.
Nether Winchendon House is one of the very rare houses which has passed by family descent for almost 450 years! Robert and Georgianna hope that their son, Edmund, will be able to continue family occupation for a further generation as it is very much a family home.
With 22 rooms, 10 of which are bedrooms, Georgianna explained the house is fairly easy to keep clean. "We use every room in the house, if we didn't it would be a real shame. It's a house that needs to be lived in by a family or it would just feel dead, so we open up the shutters every day to get some energy flowing throughout.
"We have one cleaner but we don't clutter the house up with lots of ornaments so it doesn't need endless dusting," she added.
With so many rooms to choose from Georgianna said her favourite has to be the state room. "It looks out over the east lawn and has a fireplace, window seat and large gothic-shaped window. It's a lovely bedroom and you can see the red kites circling the skies and gaze at the river.
"The pantry also houses an interesting rare gatelegged round table that is 7ft in diameter and is sometimes shown to the public when giving a tour."
She added: "The house really links to the environment its sitting in, and so because of that the garden isn't too fussy. We like to maintain its character and try not to introduce too many elements. The landscape is just as powerful as the house."
Nether Winchendon House is open to the public every afternoon from May 1-29 & August 27. Groups are welcome at any time subject to prior written agreement. The village fete will be held in the grounds on Saturday, June 9 at 2pm. The garden is also open for the NGS (see page 33 for details).
For further details see www.netherwinchendonhouse.co.uk or telephone 01844 290101.
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