Ardington House (18th century) Wantage The house was built in 1719 - 20 by Edward Clarke whose family had been lords of the manor since the 17th century. Ardington remained in the hands of the Clarke family until 1831 when it was purchased by Robert Vernon, a wealthy horse dealer and art collector. Externally Ardington House has changed little since it was first built in the early 18th century. The architect was probably Thomas Strong, whose father was one of Sir Christopher Wren's most important master masons, and some of the details of Ardington House reflect the style developed by Wren and his team. The tall building has three storeys and its pleasing proportions resembles an early Georgian town house. The brickwork is unusually fine and there is an attractive contrast between the grey brick walls and the red-brick window surrounds. http://www.ardingtonhouse.com
	Aynho Park (17th century) Banbury House restored in 1680 by Sir John Soane after being burned in the Civil War - impressive scenery and views. Home of the Cartwright family. http://www.banburytown.co.uk/guide/
	Blenheim Palace (18th century) Woodstock Building began in 1705, and there is an inscription on the East Gate that declares that: "Under the auspices of a munificent sovereign this house was built for John Duke of Marlborough, and his Duchess Sarah, by Sir J Vanbrugh between the years 1705 and 1722. And this Royal manor of Woodstock, together with a grant of £240,000, towards the building of Blenheim was given by Her Majesty Queen Anne and confirmed by Act of Parliament..." In the summer of 1712 all work on Blenheim Palace ceased. Following the death of Queen Anne in 1714, the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough negotiated with the unpaid artisans and suppliers alike and the Palace was completed at their own expense. Birthplace of Winston Churchill. http://www.blenheimpalace.com/
	Broughton Castle (14th-16th century) Banbury In about 1300 Sir John de Broughton built his Manor House in a sheltered site at the junction of three streams and surrounded it with a substantial moat. The greater part of his house and the moat remains today. In 1377 the house was bought by William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, Chancellor of England and founder of New College at Oxford. Sir Thomas Wykeham obtained a licence to 'crenellate and embattle' in 1406: he added the battlemented work to the gatehouse, thus giving the medieval house a military appearance. In 1554 Richard Fiennes completed a reconstruction in the 'Court' style of Edward VI. He raised the roof line to accommodate two floors above the Great Hall, building the two staircase projections to the south and adding - on the foundations of the medieval kitchens - two splendid rooms which form the West Wing (The Oak Room and the Great Parlour). After his death in 1573 his son Richard, continued the embellishment of the interior, recording the date 1599 on the magnificent plaster ceiling in the Great Parlour. (Photo courtesy of Mark Fiennes - who did all the photographs in the guide book to the Castle.) http://www.broughtoncastle.demon.co.uk/
	Buscot Park (18th century) Faringdon Buscot Park was built by Edward Loveden Loveden between 1779 and 1783. The house is a dignified example of the late eighteenth-century taste for Italianate country houses, inspired by the architecture of the great Renaissance architect, Andrea Palladio. It now houses the Faringdon Art Collection. The Faringdon Collection, which can be viewed at Buscot Park in Oxfordshire and our London property, is the result of a century of collecting works of art by the Lords Faringdon. It includes paintings by Rembrandt, Reynolds, Rubens, van Dyck and Murillo, and there is a small but important collection of drawings. British art, especially of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, is particularly well represented in the Collection, with some outstanding works by the Pre-Raphaelite artists Burne-Jones and Rossetti, and the present Lord Faringdon continues to acquire new works by contemporary artists. http://www.buscot-park.com
	Buscot Old Parsonage (18th century) Buscot, Faringdon Built in 1703 of Cotswold stone, the house is set on the banks of the Thames and has a small garden. http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/places/ http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/scripts/
	Chantry House (15th century) Henley-on-Thames A late-medieval, timber-framed, Grade I Listed church hall, formerly a school, which dates back to early 15th century. http://www.oxtowns.co.uk/henley/todo.html
	Chastleton House (17th century) Chastleton, Moreton-in-Marsh One of England's finest and most complete Jacobean houses. Chastleton House is filled not only with a mixture of rare and everyday objects, furniture and textiles collected since its completion in 1612, but also with the atmosphere of 400 years of continuous occupation by one family. The gardens have a typical Elizabethan and Jacobean layout with a ring of fascinating topiary at their heart and it was here in 1865 that the rules of modern croquet were codified. Since acquiring the property, the Trust has concentrated on conserving it rather than restoring it to a pristine state. As Chastleton House is relatively fragile and the access roads are quiet and narrow, the maximum number of visitors is restricted to 175 a day. Admission is by timed ticket. We regret that on Saturdays and during peak holiday periods, visitors who have not booked in advance may face disappointment. http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk
	Farington House (18th century) Faringdon The present house was begun about 1780, near the site, north of All Saints' Church [qv], of the old house which had been heavily damaged during the Civil War. It has two storeys and five bays; over the attic storey, a hipped roof interrupted by the pediment. The interior, not open to the public, has a "fine" entrance hall and some "elegant" stucco work. Part has been converted into flats. A striking feature is the flock of coloured fantail pigeons. The orangery and the park (with lake, summer house and monolithic Egyptian statue made for the Great Exhibition of 1851) are occasionally opened to the public. http://www.faringdon.org/hyfaringdonhouse.htm
	Fawley Court Historic House and Museum (15th-19th century) Henley-on-Thames After the Norman Conquest, Fawley manor was a reward from William I to his brother-in-law, Walter Gifford, one of the leading compilers of the Doomsday Book. The Normans policed their new country by putting reliable and powerful men in the manors of England, and Sir William de Sakeville was "one Knight's fee in Fawley" from 1079. The Sackvilles built a fortified manor house in the 12th century and today part of this exists in the fine stone arches springing from central pillars in the basement. The family held Fawley for nearly 400 years until the 1470's when the manor passed in marriage to Thomas Rokes, who was created Sheriff of Buckinghamshire by Henry IV. http://www.marians-uk.org/fawleycourt.html
	Greys Court (14th century) Henley-on-Thames This picturesque house, mainly Tudor in style, has a beautiful courtyard and one surviving tower dating from 1347. The house has an interesting history and was involved in Jacobean court intrigue. It has been the home of the Brunner family since the 1930s and the interior, with some outstanding 18th-century plasterwork, is still furnished as a family home. Outside are a Tudor wheelhouse, walled gardens full of old-fashioned roses and wisteria, and an ornamental vegetable garden. http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk
	Kingston Bagpuise House (17th-18th century) Abingdon While originally built about 1660, the house seen today is largely the result of remodelling in the early 1700's when extensive work was done to both its exterior and interior. http://www.kingstonbagpuizehouse.org.uk/
	Mapledurham House & Watermill (16th century) Reading Mapledurham ("the maple tree enclosure") appears in Doomsday as two manors, Mapledurham Gurney belonging to William de Warenne, while Milo Crispin, Lord of the honour of Wallingford, owned the smaller Mapledurham Chazey. The larger manor takes its name from Gerard de Gournay, to whom it passed as a marriage portion. It passed again by marriage in about 1270 to the Bardolfs, who were here for about 120 years, until the death in 1395 of Sir Robert Bardolf, esquire of the body to Edward III and Richard II and builder of the aisle, which bears his name. The manor passed in 1416 to his widows nephew, William Lynde, whose grandson sold it in 1490 to Richard Blount of Iver; it has belonged to his descendants ever since. In 1588 Sir Michael raised a loan of £1,500 for the purpose, it is believed, of building the present House, an altogether grander one which better expressed his status as a high official of Elizabeth I. It was completed by his son Sir Richard in 1612. http://www.mapledurham.co.uk
	Milton Manor House Abingdon Milton Manor is a tall classically inspired mid-17th century red-brick house. The estate was purchased in the mid-16th century by a London goldsmith and the present house was probably built by his descendant, Paul Carlton, shortly after his marriage in 1659. The architect is not known but it may well have been the London builder, John Jackson, who moved to Oxford in the 1630s to superintend the construction of the Canterbury Quadrangle at St John's College. http://www.touruk.co.uk/houses/houseoxf_milton.htm
	Minster Lovell (15th century) Witney Ruins of a 15th century manor house on the banks of the Windrush. http://www.dursley-cotswolds-uk.com/
	Nuffield Place (20th century) Henley-on-Thames The house and its contents are a rare survival of a complete upper-middle class home of the 1930's http://www.nuffield-place.com/
	Rousham House/Garden (17th century) Steeple Aston, Banbury Uncommercialised 17th century house, with art collection, fine dovecote and rare William Kent landscaped gardens. The gardens at Rousham Park are unique. They are the only gardens designed by William Kent that remain - nearly 300 years later - much as he planned them. http://www.rousham.org/
	Stonor House (17th century) Henley-on-Thames Stonor, open to the public, has been the home of the Stonor family for more than 800 years and a centre of Catholicism throughout - including all the dark days following the Reformation. The House is hidden in a fold of the Chilterns five miles from the Thames at Henley. There is an outstanding display of family portraits, tapestries, bronzes and ceramics. A 14th century chapel of flint and stone with an early brick tower, where Mass continues to be celebrated completes the main buildings. The beautiful Italianate walled garden sits behind the House on a gently rising slope. The surrounding park grows out of the surrounding beechwoods and fields. It offers stunning views, and supports a herd of fallow deer. http://www.stonor.com
	Sulgrave Manor (16th century) Sulgrave Sulgrave Manor is the ancestral home in England of George Washington's family. The property is situated in the beautiful rural village community of Sulgrave, near to Banbury and about 30 miles from both Stratford-upon-Avon and Oxford. It was bought by Lawrence Washington, a wealthy wool merchant and Mayor of Northampton, when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries. Lawrence's descendants lived for over 120 years (1539 - 1659) in the home that he built. http://www.stratford.co.uk/sulgrave/
	Victorian Manor House (19th century) Burford In Cotwsold Wildlife Park. The Gothic Style Manor House is set in the midst of 120 acres of gardens and parkland; it was built in 1804 to replace a previous Jacoban residence. Parts of the house are open to visitors. The former dining-room is now a brass rubbing centre and the drawing-room is used for meetings and lectures. The old library and conservatory, linked to the drawing-room, now provide attractive settings for a bar and dining area. http://www.cotswoldwildlifepark.co.uk/manor_house.htm
	Wroxton Abbey (17th century) Banbury A Jacobean house with a 1727 garden which was partly converted to the serpentine style between 1731 and 1751. There is a serpentine lake, a cascade, a rill and a number of follies by Sanderson Miller: a Gothic Dovecot, the Drayton Arth and the Temple-on-the-Mount. W A Nesfield advised on a formal flower garden on the south side of the house. A knot garden has been added in the twentieth century and was illustrated by Blomfield as an example of a 'modern garden'. He wrote that 'Nothing can be more beautiful than some of the walks under the apple trees in the gardens of Penshurst'. 56 acres. (NOTE: The website for Wroxton Abbey seems to be primarily an advertisement for a CD-ROM of the Abbey -- check guide books for visiting information.) http://www.wroxtonabbey.org/index1.html