Rebuild the dream
A ruined mansion worthy of Midsomer Murders and a Thames-side Repton landscape make waves on the market
HISTORICALLY overshadowed by the dominating presence of Brightwell Park on its northern boundary, nowadays, the main claim to fame of the pretty south Oxfordshire village of Brightwell Baldwin, at the foot of the Chilterns between Oxford and Henley-on-thames, is probably its role as the setting for multiple episodes of Midsomer Murders.
As intriguing as any of the series’s storylines, however, is the history of the ruined mansion that abuts the 18th-century former coach house and stables, which now serve as the main estate house—all currently for sale, together with Brightwell Park’s other estate houses, farm buildings and 135 acres of ancient woods and parkland, at a guide price of £8 million to £10 million through savills (020–7016 3780).
According to local records, the village name is of Anglo-saxon origin, the ‘bright well’ being the clear stream that was dammed to create the lake in the park, with the Baldwin element added in the 14th century when Baldwin de Bereford became Lord of the Manor. Thereafter, the Brightwell Baldwin estate passed through a number of influential families, among them the Cottesmores, the Parkes and the Carletons. In 1754, it came down to the Lowndes stone family, when Francis Lowe left it to his daughter, Catherine, who had married William Lowndes stone in 1744.
At this time, there existed an Elizabethan manor house, although no trace of it remains. That house burned down in 1787 and was swiftly replaced, in about 1790, by a new, square, stone-built house, thought to have been designed by James Wyatt for Lowndes stone’s son, also William. The ice house, the two Grade Ii-listed Georgian lodges, the bridge and the kitchen garden are all thought to date from that time.
During the second World War, the mansion was used to house two prep schools, before being largely demolished in 1947. The part that remains—the present Dower House— has been converted into three flats, below which is a massive ground floor, unused for more than 70 years.
The Grade Ii-listed former coach house and stables that make up the present, sixbedroom, main estate house, also known as Brightwell Park, form three sides of a cobbled courtyard separated from the Dower House by garages with courtyards to either side. Both the mansion ruins and the Dower House are unlisted and there is now the opportunity to create one magnificent country house with outstanding views to the Chilterns over Brightwell’s glorious parkland—certainly the project of a lifetime, but not one for the faint of heart.
It is to the credit of Oxfordshire District Council that, despite the lack of a traditional ‘big house’ at the heart of the estate, one of the county’s most beautiful parks and its former estate village have been preserved for future generations, having been mostly designated a Conservation Area in July 1990 —an area extended to include all the historic parkland in October 1993.
The character of the parkland, which slopes down towards the former fishponds and the stream that traverses it, reflects the 18thcentury landscaping scheme thought by some to have been laid out by Humphry Repton, although no Red Book exists. The area, comprising 75 acres of grazed parkland, 21 acres of woodland and 29 acres of pasture, includes a mix of formal and informal tree planting, the crowning glory of which is
a 200-year-old cedar avenue that meanders through the park and is reputed to be one of only two of its style and age remaining in the country.
For Mark Mcandrew of Strutt & Parker (020–7318 5172)—joint agents with Knight Frank (020–7861 1065) in the sale of the Coombe Park estate at Whitchurch-on-thames, Oxfordshire, at a guide price of £10m— the 125-acre Thames-side estate within its Repton landscape is ‘a completely faded glory… a place that time forgot’.
Created by James Gardiner, scion of a Bristol family, which derived its wealth from sugar and slavery, on his return from the East Indies in 1865, the heart of the estate was a grand, 18th-century mansion, the main part of which was demolished after the Second World War, with the former servants’ wing and coach house adapted to form the principal estate residence. This was extended and refurbished in 1982 to create the still imposing, 13,368sq ft main house, which is now said to be ‘in poor order’, having remained unoccupied for more than four years; it has four main reception rooms, six bedrooms, five bathrooms and an indoor swimming pool.
Reflecting Coombe Park’s ownership by the Howard family of racehorse owners and breeders from 1898 until after the Second World War, which saw the estate expand to 670 acres in 1920, is a complex of period stud buildings, cottages and offices, and a range of 10 stables and outbuildings, together with a large traditional brick barn. Shades of Edwardian splendour are evoked by the picturesque brick-and-tile boathouse on the leafy banks overhanging the Thames.