Greys Court is a Tudor

Tudor architecture

The Tudor architectural style is the final development of medieval architecture during the Tudor period and even beyond, for conservative college patrons...

 country house and associated gardens, located at , at the southern end of the Chiltern Hills

Chiltern Hills

The Chiltern Hills form a chalk escarpment in South East England. They are known locally as "the Chilterns". A large portion of the hills was designated officially as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1965.-Location:...

 at Rotherfield Greys

Rotherfield Greys

Rotherfield Greys is a village and civil parish in the Chiltern Hills in South Oxfordshire. It is west of Henley-on-Thames and just over east of the village of Rotherfield Peppard....

, near Henley-on-Thames

Henley-on-Thames

Henley-on-Thames is a town and civil parish on the River Thames in South Oxfordshire, England, about 10 miles downstream and north-east from Reading, 10 miles upstream and west from Maidenhead...

 in the English

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...

 county of Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....

. It is owned by the National Trust

National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty

The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, usually known as the National Trust, is a conservation organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland...

 and is open to the public.

The name derives from an old connection to the Grey family, descendants of the Norman knight Anchetil de Greye

Anchetil de Greye

Anchetil de Greye was a vassal of William the Conqueror, whom he accompanied in the Norman conquest of England.-Life:Anchetil de Greye is specifically named in the Domesday Book of 1086...

. The estate or manor of Rotherfield Greys upon which Greys Court is situated is specifically mentioned in the Domesday Book

Domesday Book

Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

.

The mainly Tudor styl] house has a beautiful courtyard and gardens. The walled garden

Walled garden

A walled garden is specifically a garden enclosed by high walls for horticultural rather than security purposes, though traditionally all gardens have been hedged about or walled for protection from animal or human intruders...

s are full of old-fashioned rose

Rose

A rose is a woody perennial of the genus Rosa, within the family Rosaceae. There are over 100 species. They form a group of erect shrubs, and climbing or trailing plants, with stems that are often armed with sharp prickles. Flowers are large and showy, in colours ranging from white through yellows...

s and wisteria

Wisteria

Wisteria is a genus of flowering plants in the pea family, Fabaceae, that includes ten species of woody climbing vines native to the eastern United States and to China, Korea, and Japan. Aquarists refer to the species Hygrophila difformis, in the family Acanthaceae, as Water Wisteria...

, an ornamental vegetable garden, 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...

 (laid to grass with brick paths, dedicated by Archbishop Robert Runcie

Robert Runcie

Robert Alexander Kennedy Runcie, Baron Runcie, PC, MC was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1980 to 1991.-Early life:...

 on 12 October 1981) and ice house. Within the gardens is a medieval fortified tower of 1347, the only remains of the previous castle

Castle

A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...

, giving extensive views of the gardens and surrounding countryside. Also to be found within the gardens is a Tudor wheelhouse, where a donkey

Donkey

The donkey or ass, Equus africanus asinus, is a domesticated member of the Equidae or horse family. The wild ancestor of the donkey is the African Wild Ass, E...

 operated a treadmill

Treadmill

A treadmill is an exercise machine for running or walking while staying in one place. The word treadmill traditionally refers to a type of mill which was operated by a person or animal treading steps of a wheel to grind grain...

 to haul water from a well.

The house itself has an interesting history, and the interior, with some outstanding 18th-century plasterwork, is still furnished as a family home. Greys Court was for a time owned by Sir Francis Knollys

Francis Knollys (the elder)

Sir Francis Knollys , of Greys Court, in Oxfordshire, KG was an English courtier in the service and favour of Henry VIII, Edward VI and Elizabeth I of England, and was a Member of Parliament for a number of constituencies....

, treasurer to Elizabeth I, and jailer of Mary, Queen of Scots. In 1937 the house was bought by Sir Felix Brunner (1897–1982) and his wife Lady Elizabeth Brunner

Elizabeth Irving

Dorothea Elizabeth Irving OBE, JP was a British actress, the daughter of actors H. B. Irving and Dorothea Baird, and the grand-daughter of Victorian era stage star Henry Irving. Her older brother was the Hollywood set designer and art director Laurence Irving...

, the grand-daughter of the Victorian era

Victorian era

The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...

 actor-manager Henry Irving

Henry Irving

Sir Henry Irving , born John Henry Brodribb, was an English stage actor in the Victorian era, known as an actor-manager because he took complete responsibility for season after season at the Lyceum Theatre, establishing himself and his company as...

. In 1969 they donated the property to the National Trust, with the family continuing to live in the house until the death of Lady Brunner in 2003.

External links

• Greys Court information at the National Trust
• Information from Culture24
• A bird's-eye view of Greys Court Rotherfield Greys in the 17th or 18th century from Scran
  Scran
  Scran is a Scottish online resource for educational use by the public, schools, further education and higher education. It presents 360,000 images and sounds contributed by museums, galleries, archives and the media...
  
  
• AbouBritain.com information
• TourUK information
• Gardens-Guide information
• Photographs
• Castles Abbeys and Medieval Buildings information by Michael W. Cook