Draft revised June 2006

The Badgemore Estate

The Medieval Estate    Land at Badgemore was severed from the large royal manor of Bensington before the Norman Conquest, presumably by Crown grant; in 1086 it was assessed at 5 hides, the typical holding of an Anglo-Saxon thegn.[1] The estate lay west of the later town around the modern Badgemore park, extending northwards up the Wallingford road or Fairmile; in the 14th century it also included houses (or perhaps only their gardens) at the extreme western edge of the market place, presumably in the Gravel Hill area.[2] The overlordship was granted before 1086 to Henry de Ferrers (or Ferrières), whose family, later earls of Derby, retained it until their fall in 1266. Thereafter overlordship descended with the honor of Derby to the earls (and later dukes) of Lancaster, presumably lapsing on Duke Henry's accession to the throne in 1399.[3]

The Henley area in 1797, showing Badgmore House and Henley Park
(R. Davis, Map of Oxfordshire)

The tenant in 1086 was one Ralph,[4] whose successors adopted the surname 'of Badgemore', and presumably lived there. The estate may have become fragmented by the early 13th century, when William of Badgemore successfully claimed fragments of a knight's fee and various parcels of land (each between a yardland and a hide or so) against several other Badgemore landholders. In 1208 he surrendered a knight's fee to John de Grey (d. 1214), bishop of Norwich, who made small payments to the other occupiers and returned two hides to William, to be held of Grey and his heirs. Also included were half the lordship or demesne, and the 'ancient court', possibly a mansion house rather than a manorial court.[5] The Badgemore family's holding was not mentioned later, and the knight's fee remained with the Greys, passing apparently in parcels to the bishop's sister Hawise (fl. 1227 x 40) and her son Robert, to Robert's brother Walter (d. 1255), archbishop of York, and to Robert's son Sir Walter de Grey (d. 1268), who in 1246 confirmed Hawise's share to the archbishop for life.[6] Thereafter the reunited fee descended with the family's Rotherfield Greys manor until at least the early 15th century, being often described as a half part of Rotherfield manor;[7] it may, however, have become separated soon after, when descriptions of the manor ceased to mention Badgemore.[8]

The Badgemore Estate from 1710     Nothing further is known until around 1710, when Richard Jennings, master builder of St Paul's cathedral, bought an estate at Badgemore and reputedly built the later Badgemore Court or House, where he was living at his death in 1719.[9]  John Raine, high sheriff of Oxfordshire in 1746--7, lived there in the 173os and 1740s,[10] but by the 1750s ownership seems to have passed to the non-resident Adams family, who leased the house and land to Captain John Stephens (d. 1777).  About 1785 the estate passed to Joseph Grote (d. 1814), one of a London family of merchants and bankers of Dutch origin who were related to the Adamses by marriage.  Grote moved to Badgemore, serving as high sheriff and as a commissioner for Henley bridge, although much of the land, by then comprising some 210 a. around Badgemore House, was leased to local farmers.[11] His half-brother George lived there regularly from 1814, but following his death the estate was sold, most of it to E.F. Maitland of Park Place. Maitland kept much of the land, but in 1833 sold the house and around 45 a. to Charles Lane, a barrister and JP.[12]

Lane died in 1878,[13] and in 1883 the house and land were bought by Richard Ovey (1856--1902), one of a long-established Henley family who played a prominent role in local life. Ovey greatly extended the house, and in 1890 acquired Hernes (in Rotherfield Greys), to which the family moved around 1902; they retained ownership of Badgemore until the 1920s, however, when the house and residual estate were sold to Augustas Vlasto.[14] Vlasto built a new house but found the estate's running costs too high, and in the 1940s was succeeded by W.H. McAlpine (d. 1950), chairman of the McAlpine civil engineering firm. The McAlpines retained land at Badgemore until shortly before 1971 when, with 120 a. of surrounding wood- and parkland, it was converted into a golf course.[15]

Badgemore House and Park    Though the medieval Badgemore estate may have had a chief house or 'court', no site has been identified. Possibly it stood near the modern Badgemore House, just west of Henley: the 13th-century estate certainly included that area, adjoining the main Wallingford road (the Fair Mile) on the north.[16]

No later references to a house are known before the early 18th century, when Richard Jennings is said to have replaced an existing farmhouse with the later mansion, re-using bricks employed in the construction of St Paul's cathedral and brought to Henley by river.[17] Joseph Grote (d. 1814) extended the house, adding reception rooms, a library, and a dining room, and by 1788 it had reached its later size.[18] In the mid 19th century it was a substantial brick building of one, two, and three storeys, with tall sash windows throughout, and a west front which included a fan-lighted doorway and two projecting polygonal bays. The core appears to have been the south-west corner, which may well have incorporated the house built by Jennings.[19] Grote also re-landscaped the gardens, which in 1788 included irregular walks through woodland west of the house, and an outlying Grecian 'temple' or summer house in more distant woodland to the north-east. More formal features north of the house, adjoining an orangery, were perhaps the remnants of earlier landscaping. In the early 19th century the house's 40 a. of pleasure grounds were much admired for their ‘grateful air of seclusion’, combined with fine vistas from the summer house.[20]

In 1884 the house was enlarged and extensively remodelled for Richard Ovey by the architect John Norton (d. 1904),[21] and after the Oveys moved to Hernes it was leased to various military or professional people, among them Admiral R.J. Meade, 4th earl of Clanwilliam (d. 1907), and Frederick Lowenadler.[22] A few fittings, including overmantels and book cupboards, may have been transferred to Hernes during that period.[23] Augustas Vlasto, who bought the property from the Oveys in the 1920s, subsequently built a new house immediately to the north, and for a time the old house remained vacant. During the Second World War it was requisitioned, and soon afterwards it was demolished following a fire.[24] Badgemore Park Golf Club was established in the surrounding wood- and parkland in 1971, landscaped by the golf architect Robert Sandow.[25] A former stable block north-east of the house, built by Richard Ovey, was subsequently converted into a clubhouse, while Vlasto's house was converted into offices; the orangery was demolished.[26]

Henley Park

A park belonging to Henley manor was created apparently before 1272, possibly by Richard, earl of Cornwall, who was later said to have imparked at least some of it.[27] Like its modern successor, it occupied high ground north-west of the town, north of the Dorchester road: pasture between Henley park and Assendon common was mentioned c. 1421,[28] and in 1499 the park lay west of woods and other demesne lands belonging Phyllis Court.[29] The park's original extent is not known, though in 1300 and 1313 it included 60 a. of poor-quality arable, presumably in addition to pasture and woodland.[30] In 1381 only pasture within the park was mentioned (worth 20s.), and in 1384--5 the park may have been associated with 60 a. of woodland and 50 a. of arable on the manor, neither of which were recorded earlier; the park itself was not explicitly mentioned, however.[31] Apparently it was still being extended in 1296--7, when 23s. rent was lost for lands in Henley park 'inclosed this year'. Park income was not separately itemised, though a total of 66s. 8d. was received that year from the park, pannage, and unspecified arable and pasture,[32] perhaps all within the park pales.

The park seems to have retained a clear identity in the 1580s when it was settled on the earl of Huntingdon with Henley manor, and later sold to John Alford. Alford’s son Henry sold it in 1616 to Sir Robert Meller or Miller, owner of Filetts or Phyllis Court, whose son Sir John (d. 1650) sold it to Sir Bulstrode Whitelocke with Filetts in 1637--8;[33] thereafter it remained part of the reunited Henley and Filetts manors until the 20th century. In 1621 it comprised 'woods, coppices, and woody grounds',[34] and at the time of Whitelocke’s purchase included timber valued at £1,000, held with neighbouring woodland (including Hales wood) which had earlier belonged to the Phyllis Court estate. Whitelocke was at that time repairing and restocking his nearby park at Fawley, and presumably saw no need to restock Henley park, which seems to have been treated solely as managed woodland. The park remained part of the combined Henley woods until 1672, when Whitelocke settled it on his son William with the manor. William subsequently converted much of the woodland to arable without his father’s knowledge, leasing the park for £2,000 to John Cawley, rector of Henley, and to John Taylor, with permission to clear the woods; a licence for grubbing 100 a. was obtained the same year,[35] and by 1724 Henley park and Hales wood formed a single large inclosure estimated at 400 a., comprising woodland or former woodland.[36]

The Henley area in 1797, showing Badgmore House and Henley Park
(R. Davis, Map of Oxfordshire)

The lease to Cawley was renewed in 1678, by which time there was a house:[37] possibly it had been newly built since clearance of the woodland, since no house or park lodge was mentioned earlier. Thereafter the house and its land became a gentleman’s residence, leased by lords of Henley manor to various occupants. Cawley’s widow still lived there in 1724, and Sambrook Freeman’s widow (d. 1806) in the 1780s and 1790s. George III paid her an impromptu visit there in 1785, having often visited the family at Fawley Court.  Later occupants included members of the Freeman and Strickland families, the historian Henry Hallam (in 1840--1), and, from the 1840s, J.W. Newell Birch (d. c. 1863),[38] followed by a succession of resident gentry.[39]

Birch ‘much improved’ the house, which in 1852 was a ‘modern neat mansion' with beautiful views, 'pleasantly situated on a hill’.[40] By c. 1900 there was again an adjoining deer park, south-east of the house near No Man's Hill;[41] the integrity of the original park had been lost by the 19th century, however, when Birch occupied the house with only 20 a. of land, and the surrounding arable and pasture closes were let to local farmers.[42] An imitation barrow was erected as a folly a kilometre or so south of the house in 1731, by John Freeman of Fawley Court, but was destroyed in 1974.[43]

Friar Park Estate

Friar Park lodge

Friar Park, a large detached house set in extensive grounds just west of the town, was built in 1889 for the wealthy London solicitor Frank (later Sir Frank) Crisp;[44] its name derived from Friars field, one of the closes acquired for the site, which in the 1840s formed part of the estate of Frederick Hodges of Bolney Court (in Harpsden).[45] The house, a bizarre and eccentric mélange of French Flamboyant Gothic incorporating towers, pinnacles, and large traceried windows, was based probably on Crisp's own designs, adapted by the architect M. Clarke Edwards, and includes punning references to friars in its carved terracotta front and elsewhere. The grounds, landscaped over twenty years, were equally eclectic, featuring a variety of gardens based on exotic, historical, or literary models, among them an Alpine rock garden complete with miniature Swiss mountains, caves, and underground lakes.[46]

Following Crisp's death in 1919 the house and land were sold to Percival Victor David (later a baronet), who still lived there in 1939.[47] Before the 1950s it was acquired with around 30 a. by the Salesian Sisters of St John Bosco, a Catholic teaching-order which ran a school there until the late 1960s;[48] soon afterwards it became the home of the rock musician George Harrison (d. 2001), famous as a member of the Beatles.