Brightwell Manor

Brightwell Manor is a country house in the village of Brightwell-cum-Sotwell, Oxfordshire, England.[1] The back dates to around the mid-seventeenth century, or possibly earlier as there is a date of 1605 on the rear. The front was built in the mid-eighteenth century.[2] It has been a Grade II listed building since 1952.

Brightwell Manor seen from the village churchyard in 2008

History
Brightwell Manor and grounds in 2008

In 1933, the house was purchased by William Inge, a theologian thrice-nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.[1][3] Inge was a eugenicist who did not believe in democracy.[4] His wife wrote in her diary "It is a most attractive house but rather small." and that she had written to Paul Edward Paget and his partner John Seely (later John Seely, 2nd Baron Mottistone) about adding to it.[5] They wanted £2,000, and she wrote that "We really must try to cut them down a bit."[5] William Inge died there in 1954 (and is buried next door in the churchyard), and the family owned the house until 1971, when his sons sold it.[1] Since 1971 it has been owned by the same family, until former Prime Minister Boris Johnson agreed to buy it in February 2023 for a reported £4 million.[1][6]

In 1952, Brightwell Manor was Grade II listed by English Heritage.[7] The house probably dates back to the mid-17th century, and the front is mid-18th century.[7] An extension was added by Inge in the 1950s.[6] Pevsner describes Brightwell as a "plain late 18th century brick box", but notes the dating of 1605 on the earlier, rear portion of the house.[8][lower-alpha 1]

Brightwell Manor has nine bedrooms and is 8,128 square feet (755 m2) in total.[1][6] The house sits in five acres (2.0 ha) of grounds, with a moat fed by a natural spring surrounding it on three sides.[6] The study includes a mural painted by the neo-Romanticist George Warner Allen.[6]

Notes
  1. Pevsner, following the geographic divisions of the historic counties of England, covers Brightwell-cum-Sotwell in the Berkshire rather than the Oxfordshire volume of the Buildings of England series.[8]

References
  1. Neate, Rupert (17 February 2023). "Boris Johnson 'agrees to buy' £4m nine-bed Georgian manor house (with moat)". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 February 2023.
  2. "Brightwell Manor: A Grade II Listed Building in Brightwell-cum-Sotwell, Oxfordshire". BritishListedBuildings.co.uk.
  3. "DR. INGE BUYS A HOUSE.; ' Gloomy Dean' Acquires Brightwell Manor Dating From 1603". New York Times. 15 October 1933. Retrieved 18 February 2023.
  4. Grimley, Matthew (3 January 2008). "Inge, William Ralph". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/34098. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  5. Fox, Adam (1960). Dean Inge. J. Murray. pp. 236–237.
  6. Churchill, Penny (7 November 2019). "An Oxfordshire country house so beautiful that one famous visitor whipped out his cheque book and tried to buy it on the spot". Country Life. Retrieved 17 February 2023.
  7. Historic England. "Brightwell Manor (Grade II) (1368887)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 17 February 2023.
  8. Tyack, Geoffrey; Bradley, Simon; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2010). Berkshire. Pevsner Architectural Guides: The Buildings of England. New Haven, US and London: Yale University Press. p. 210. ISBN 978-0-300-12662-4.

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