Bradenham is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

, England. It is near

Saunderton Saunderton is a village in the Saunderton Valley in the Chiltern Hills, Buckinghamshire, England, in the civil parish of Bledlow-cum-Saunderton. The village consists of three main areas: a linear settlement along Bledlow Road about southwest ...

, off the main A4010 road between

Princes Risborough Princes Risborough () is a market town in Buckinghamshire, England, about south of Aylesbury and north west of High Wycombe. It lies at the foot of the Chiltern Hills, at the north end of a gap or pass through the Chilterns, the south end ...

and

High Wycombe High Wycombe, often referred to as Wycombe ( ), is a market town in Buckinghamshire, England. Lying in the valley of the River Wye surrounded by the Chiltern Hills, it is west-northwest of Charing Cross in London, south-southeast of Ayl ...

Village

The village name is

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

and means 'broad enclosure', referring to the fact that the village sits in a broad valley among the surrounding

Chiltern Hills The Chiltern Hills is a chalk escarpment in England. The area, northwest of London, covers stretching from Goring-on-Thames in the southwest to Hitchin in the northeast - across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, and Bedfordshire. ...

. In the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

of 1086, the village was recorded as ''Bradeham''. The Parish Church of St Botolph was restored in 1863 by G.E. Street and the south door dates from the early

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

period. The rectory on the main road is from the 18th century. The houses around the village green are mainly brick and flint, but include the distinctive 18th century

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...

ed 'White House' with pointed windows and castellations. The whole village of Bradenham has been owned by the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

since 1956. They market it under the name Bradenham Village. In front of the manor house is a small, slightly sloping cricket pitch which is used by Bradenham Cricket Club. Village news and activities are documented in the monthly "Contact" magazine, which covers Bradenham plus the nearby villages of

Bledlow Ridge Bledlow Ridge is a village in the civil parish of Bledlow-cum-Saunderton in Buckinghamshire, England. In 2004 the population was 940. It is situated in the Chiltern Hills, about 4 miles SSW of Princes Risborough and on the road between the High ...

West Wycombe West Wycombe is a small village famed for its manor houses and its hills. It is three miles west of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England. The historic village is largely a National Trust property and receives a large annual influx of touri ...

Radnage Radnage is a village and civil parish in the Buckinghamshire district of Buckinghamshire, England. It is in the Chiltern Hills about two miles north east of Stokenchurch and six miles WNW of High Wycombe. The parish is set in folds of the Chilte ...

and Piddington.

Royal Air Force

RAF High Wycombe RAF High Wycombe is a Royal Air Force station, situated in the village of Walters Ash, near High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England. It houses Headquarters Air Command, and was originally designed to house RAF Bomber Command in the late 1930s ...

is inside the village, to the north-east. The Strike Command Operations Centre (STCOC) formerly the Primary War Headquarters (PWHQ) bunker was built by

RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

Strike Command on the National Trust land to the north east of the village between 1983 and 1985, in spite of opposition including a

peace camp Peace camps are a form of physical protest camp that is focused on anti-war and anti-nuclear activity. They are set up outside military bases by members of the peace movement who oppose either the existence of the military bases themselves, the a ...

Manor house

Bradenham is the location of a grand red brick

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...

, which in the 13th century was a property belonging to the

Earl of Warwick Earl of Warwick is one of the most prestigious titles in the peerages of the United Kingdom. The title has been created four times in English history, and the name refers to Warwick Castle and the town of Warwick. Overview The first creation c ...

. The house was fit for royalty, as in 1566 Queen

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". El ...

was entertained here by Lord Windsor. The current manor house was substantially built by

Sir Edmund Pye, 1st Baronet Sir Edmund Pye, 1st Baronet ( – 1673) was an English landowner, Scrivener and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1661 to 1673. Pye was the son of Edmund Pye, of Leckamsteed, Buckinghamshire and of St Martin's Ludgate, London, scriv ...

around 1670 with tall

sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned window (architecture), paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double gla ...

s, steep roofs and slim brick chimneys. In the 19th century it was the home of

Isaac D'Israeli Isaac D'Israeli (11 May 1766 – 19 January 1848) was a British writer, scholar and the father of British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli. He is best known for his essays and his associations with other men of letters. Life and career Isaac wa ...

who died there in 1848 and is buried in the churchyard. His son

Benjamin Disraeli Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, (21 December 1804 – 19 April 1881) was a British statesman and Conservative politician who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He played a central role in the creation o ...

, who became the prime minister, lived there for part of his early life. In the later

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...

, the house was turned into a

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...

for local young gentlemen. Bradenham Manor is currently leased by the National Trust to

Grant Thornton Grant Thornton is the world's seventh-largest by revenue and sixth-largest by number of employees professional services network of independent accounting and consulting member firms which provide assurance, tax and advisory services to private ...

UK LLP as the firm's National Training Centre. It is well known for its gardens. It featured as the 'Wargames Headquarters' in the 1967 film, ''

The Dirty Dozen ''The Dirty Dozen'' is a 1967 American war film directed by Robert Aldrich and starring Lee Marvin with an ensemble supporting cast including Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, John Cassavetes, Richard Jaeckel, George Kennedy, Ralph M ...

''.

Notable people

Joseph Brooksbank Joseph Brookbank, Brooksbank, or Brookesbank (born 1612) was an English cleric and schoolmaster. Life Brookbank was the son of George Brookbank of Halifax, West Yorkshire, Halifax; at Michaelmas term 1632, when he entered Brasenose College, Oxford ...

, Anglican clergyman, was the incumbent vicar at Bradenham, 1650 – *

, former Prime Minister *

Giovanni Battista Falcieri Giovanni Battista Falcieri (known as “Tita”) (1798–1874) was the personal servant of Lord Byron and was present at his death in Missolonghi in 1824. He later accompanied Benjamin Disraeli on his tour of the Orient, before becoming the valet o ...

, valet and servant to Isaac D'Israeli and

Lord Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and h ...

* Philip Rose

References

External links

Bradenham Village information at the National Trust
{{authority control Civil parishes in Buckinghamshire National Trust properties in Buckinghamshire Villages in Buckinghamshire Wycombe District