Mapledurham House
LocationMapledurham, Oxfordshire, England
Coordinates51°29′5.28″N 1°2′7.80″W / 51.4848000°N 1.0355000°W / 51.4848000; -1.0355000
Builtc.1585
Governing bodyMapledurham Estate
Listed Building – Grade I
Official nameMapledurham House
Designated24 October 1951
Reference no.1368944
Mapledurham House is located in Oxfordshire
Mapledurham House
Location of Mapledurham House in Oxfordshire

Mapledurham House is an Elizabethan stately home located in the civil parish of Mapledurham in the English county of Oxfordshire. It is a Grade I listed building, first listed on 24 October 1951.[1][2]

History and architecture

The manor of Mapledurham was bought in 1490 by Richard Blount of Iver however the current house was started by Sir Michael Blount (c1530-1610) and has remained in the Blount-Eyston family to this day.[2][3][4] Building was started around 1585, at the time of the Spanish Armada,[2] in the classic Elizabethan E-shape. It includes a late 18th-century chapel built in the Strawberry Hill Gothic style for the recusant Roman Catholic owners of the house.

Prior to the Catholic Emancipation, the owners would hide priests in its priest holes, some of which were only discovered in the 21st century, and secretly celebrate Mass with a makeshift altar hidden inside a writing desk.[4] The estate covers much of the village including Mapledurham Watermill and part of the church.

Anne of Denmark stayed at Mapledurham in August 1612 as a guest of Sir Richard Blount, before meeting James VI and I at Woodstock Palace.[5]

Art and Literary associations

The poet Alexander Pope was a frequent visitor to the house as he was enamoured of Teresa and Martha Blount.[6] The house and surrounding village were used for the filming of the 1976 film of The Eagle Has Landed and also for several television series, including Midsomer Murders.[7] It is also reputed to have been the inspiration for E. H. Shepard's illustrations of Toad Hall for Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows, although this is also claimed by Hardwick House, Fowey Hall Hotel,[8] Foxwarren Park[9] and Fawley Court.[10]

Noise complaints

Sight-seeing helicopter flights run from the estate, with up to 70 short flights per day, caused complaints about noise levels, with one local resident describing it in 2013 as like being "in Vietnam during a high intensity attack". A representative of the estate responded by saying that they had taken account of the complaints by reducing the number of helicopter flight days from 20 to 10 per year.[11][12]

References

  1. ↑ Explorer Map 159 - Reading (Map). Ordnance Survey. 2006.
  2. 1 2 3 "Mapledurham House - 1368944". Historic England. Archived from the original on 22 October 2015. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  3. ↑ "Mapledurham's History". Mapledurham Estate. Archived from the original on 20 September 2019. Retrieved 20 September 2019.
  4. 1 2 Thompson, Damian (1 June 2011). "Mapledurham: the Catholic country house that's still yielding up its secrets". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 3 June 2011.
  5. ↑ John Nichols, Progresses of James the First, vol. 2 (London, 1828), p. 460.
  6. ↑ Matthew, H. C. G.; Harrison, B., eds. (23 September 2004), "The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography", The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. ref:odnb/2691, doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/2691, retrieved 6 April 2023
  7. ↑ "Mapledurham and the Hollywood watermill". Visit Midsomer County (South Oxfordshire District Council). Archived from the original on 20 October 2015. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
  8. ↑ Directory, Cornwall Marine. "Cornwall Marine Directory - Fowey". www.cornwallmarine.com. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  9. ↑ "Foxwarren Park, near Cobham, Surrey". www.victorianweb.org.
  10. ↑ "RBH Biography: Kenneth Grahame (1859-1932)". www.berkshirehistory.com.
  11. ↑ "Mapledurham House sightseeing helicopters prompt row". BBC News. 9 May 2013. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
  12. ↑ "Villagers angry as helicopter flights resume". Higgs Group. 7 May 2013. Archived from the original on 12 November 2014. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
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