Ashdown House, Oxfordshire facts for kids
Ashdown House, also known as Ashdown Park, is a beautiful old country house built in the 1600s. It's located in Ashbury, a small area in Oxfordshire, England. Before 1974, it was part of Berkshire county. This amazing building is considered a very important historical site, known as a Grade I listed building. Its gardens are also special, listed as Grade II* in the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.
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History of Ashdown House
Ashdown House has a cool connection to a royal figure called the "Winter Queen," Elizabeth of Bohemia. She was the older sister of King Charles I. People say that William, the first Earl of Craven, built Ashdown House especially for her. However, she sadly passed away in 1662, even before the house was finished.
Who Built Ashdown House?
We're not totally sure who designed Ashdown House. But many believe that William Craven asked Captain William Winde to build it. It was designed in a Dutch style. The house was meant to be a hunting lodge, a place where people could stay while hunting. It was also planned as a safe place to go if there was a plague outbreak. The building was even used like a grandstand, where people could watch hunts happening in the park.
What's Inside Ashdown House?
Ashdown House is quite large, with about 8,000 square feet (740 m2) of living space. It has a big main staircase, several rooms for entertaining guests, and connecting drawing and sitting rooms. There's also a kitchen, a dining room, and eight bedrooms. The property includes two smaller buildings called lodges, three cottages, and a huge area of land – about a hundred acres!
Ashdown House's Surroundings
The house was originally built where four paths met in William Craven's hunting park. These paths, or avenues, aren't quite the same today, but parts of them still exist. Ashdown House is quite isolated, meaning it's far from other buildings. From the roof, you can see beautiful park-like grounds, gardens, woods, and fields. Close by, you can find a large group of ancient sarsen stones. There's also Alfred's Castle, which is an Iron Age hillfort and a protected historical site.
The Ancient Woods of Ashdown Park
Some of the woods around Ashdown Park are even older than the house itself! A long time ago, Glastonbury Abbey owned the land of Ashbury. They had a deer park in the southern part of the area. This park was surrounded by an old dirt wall, which would have had a fence, probably made of wooden stakes, on top. This deer park might be the same as the "Aysshen Wood" mentioned in old records from 1519, which covered about 415 acres (168 ha). Today, this old deer park is known as the Upper Wood of Ashdown Park. The entire Ashdown Park area is now a Site of Special Scientific Interest, meaning it's protected for its special natural features.
Ashdown House Today
Over the years, Ashdown House had a few small changes. But it stayed mostly the same until World War II. During the war, the army used the house, and it was left in a very damaged state.
In 1956, Cornelia, Countess of Craven, gave Ashdown House to the National Trust. The National Trust is an organization that looks after historic places and natural spaces. Since then, people who rent the house have helped to fix it up and make it beautiful again.
In 2010, Pete Townshend, a famous musician, bought a long-term lease for the property. He started a big renovation project in 2011. Today, visitors can go inside the house to see the stairs and go up to the roof for amazing views of the Berkshire Downs. You can also explore the nearby Ashdown Woods. If you want to visit the house, you can take a guided tour on Wednesdays and Saturdays from April to October.
See also
- Battle of Ashdown
- Museum of Oxford
- List of National Trust properties in England
