Georgian grace
JANET GLEESON visits Milton Manor near Abingdon; a resplendent 17th-century house that has been owned by the same family for 250 years
Janet Gleeson visits Milton Manor for an education in elegant 18th- century living and Strawberry Hill Gothic
The first glimpse of Milton Manor is unexpected and alluring. On the fringes of the pretty redbrick village from which the house takes its name, you turn past the pub and church, and suddenly, there across a tree-fringed serpentine lake, stands an elegant surprise: the mellow, perfectly symmetrical brick and stone-pillastered classical facade of Milton Manor. Inside, you feel as if you are on a journey to a di erent, more harmonious world. Little has changed here since the late 18th century. ‘Show me another small manor house with a Strawberry Hill Gothic library, a chapel, handpainted Chinese wallpaper and a brewery,’ says Suzanne von Pflügl, sister of the present incumbent, Anthony Mockler Barrett, proudly.
Historic yet homely
The family home in which Suzanne grew up is classified by Historic England as one of the most important houses in Oxfordshire. But, more emphatically, it is also a much loved family home, one that invariably charms all who enter. Lucy Worsley, the TV presenter, historian and chief curator at Historic Royal Palaces, worked here after leaving Oxford. She helped with guided tours, washing up and looking for various lost papers, and still talks fondly of Milton. ‘Just the sort of o beat, eccentric and magical place I love,’ she later wrote. ‘She enjoyed
dressing up for re- enactments, and the gin,’ quips Anthony.
Georgian makeover
The central block, built in the 1660s, is thought to have been designed by Inigo Jones for the Caltons, one of Berkshire’s wealthiest families. During the Caltons’ tenure, William of Orange and Peter the Great of Russia stayed here. Suzanne and Anthony’s ancestor, Bryant Barrett, bought the house a century later. As Laceman to George III, Barrett was self-made and had grown rich supplying the royal household with gold and silver regalia from a shop on the Strand. A Catholic convert, he had married well, and needed a house that endorsed his elevated status. Milton caught his eye, although by then the house was in a serious state of disrepair. ‘The condition was so terrible he thought about demolishing it, although instead he Georgianised the building, replacing casement windows with new sashes, adding on two flanking wings and also completely remodelling the interior,’ Suzanne explains.
The entrance to Bryant Barrett’s renovated house is a large hall opening from a central corridor with elegant arches. The chimney piece, a staggeringly extravagant baroque confection, featuring a pair of bare-breasted muses, supporting the arms of the Calton family, is one of the few remnants of the earlier building. ‘ When my parents lived here after the war, they found it in one of the bedrooms covered in thick layers of paint. I remember a man from the village starting to clean it and becoming so involved, he worked late into the night,’ Suzanne recalls vividly.
Newly uncovered treasure
Other treasures have emerged from Milton’s past. Three years ago, when the Antiques Roadshow was filming at Caversham nearby, a guide took a 17th- century stumpwork box that had been found in an attic. ‘ We found it in my mother’s day, all wrapped in tissue paper and a blanket. We don’t know where it came from, but expert John Foster was amazed by its pristine condition and said it was