Chenies Manor House
Encyclopedia
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
, southern England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, a Grade I Listed Building, known formerly as Chenies Palace, was owned by the Cheyne family who were granted the manorial rights in 1180. The current house was built around 1460 by Sir John Cheyne. His widow, Lady Agnes Cheyne, left the manor house
Manor house
A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...
in a contested will
Will (law)
A will or testament is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his/her estate and provides for the transfer of his/her property at death...
to her niece, Anne Semark, wife of Sir David Phelip in 1494.
It is believed Chenies passed to the Semark family, of Thornhaugh Northamptonshire to re-promote the family at court. The Sapcote family was on the side of Richard at Bosworth. Phelip married Ann Semark after Bosworth, Phelip had a close friendship with the Cecil's of Burghley, the Cecil's and Semark were kin.
Additions were made to the house in 1526 by John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford
John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford
John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford, KG, PC, JP was an English royal minister in the Tudor era. He served variously as Lord High Admiral and Lord Privy Seal....
and in 1560 it was restyled by Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford
Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford
Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford, KG was an English nobleman, soldier and politician and godfather to Sir. Francis Drake.-Early life:...
, who had made it his principal home. Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
was entertained here, as was Queen Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
in 1570. The manor remained in the possession of the Russells until 1954 and is now the Macleod Matthews family home.
It is open to the public at limited times, being still used as a private house most of the time. It includes a medieval well, a dungeon and a reputed priest hole
Priest hole
"Priest hole" is the term given to hiding places for priests built into many of the principal Catholic houses of England during the period when Catholics were persecuted by law in England, from the beginning of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I in 1558....
. In 2004 the British TV series, Time Team
Time Team
Time Team is a British television series which has been aired on Channel 4 since 1994. Created by television producer Tim Taylor and presented by actor Tony Robinson, each episode features a team of specialists carrying out an archaeological dig over a period of three days, with Robinson explaining...
, undertook an archeological dig here. It is noted for its surrounding gardens, including an extensive physic garden and two maze
Maze
A maze is a tour puzzle in the form of a complex branching passage through which the solver must find a route. In everyday speech, both maze and labyrinth denote a complex and confusing series of pathways, but technically the maze is distinguished from the labyrinth, as the labyrinth has a single...
s (one open, the other with high hedges), set in an estate village overlooking the Chess
River Chess
The River Chess is a chalk stream which springs from Chesham, Buckinghamshire and runs through Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire, in south-eastern England. The Chess, along with the Colne and Gade, gives rise to the name of the district of Three Rivers, in which it forms its confluence with the...
valley.
The architectural historian, Nikolaus Pevsner
Nikolaus Pevsner
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner, CBE, FBA was a German-born British scholar of history of art and, especially, of history of architecture...
, described the manor house as: "Beautifully mellow under the trees by the church, and archaeologically a fascinating puzzle." Twenty three individual cut brick chimneys distinguish the house and are echoed throughout the village.
From the village green a private gravel drive leads invitingly up to the Manor House. Immediately outside the gates is the parish church
Parish church
A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....
of St Michael, together with the large private Bedford Chapel.
The manor has been used many times in television programmes such as To Play the King
To Play the King
To Play The King is a 1993 BBC television serial, the second part of the House of Cards trilogy. Directed by Paul Seed, the serial was based on the Michael Dobbs novel of the same name and adapted for television by Andrew Davies...
and also Midsomer Murders
Midsomer Murders
Midsomer Murders is a British television detective drama that has aired on ITV since 1997. The show is based on the books by Caroline Graham, as originally adapted by Anthony Horowitz. The lead character is DCI Tom Barnaby who works for Causton CID. When Nettles left the show in 2011 he was...
. It has also been used for scenes in dramatizations of classic period novels such as by Jane Austen
Jane Austen
Jane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature, her realism and biting social commentary cementing her historical importance among scholars and critics.Austen lived...
and more recently the TV serial Little Dorritt
Little Dorrit (TV serial)
Little Dorrit is a 2008 British television serial directed by Adam Smith, Dearbhla Walsh, and Diarmuid Lawrence. The teleplay by Andrew Davies is based on the serial novel of the same title by Charles Dickens, originally published between 1855 and 1857....
, based on the eponymous book by Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
, in 2008.