The Manor House is a 17th-century country house hotel in

Castle Combe Castle Combe is a village and civil parish within the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Wiltshire, England. The village is around north-west of Chippenham. A castle once stood in the area, but was demolished centuries ago. The vi ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

in the south of England.

History

The Manor House is noteworthy for several reasons throughout history. Its land is the site of a

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 ...

castle settlement which hosted a number of Lords, the most famous of whom was

Sir John Oldcastle ''Sir John Oldcastle'' is an Elizabethan play about John Oldcastle, a controversial 14th-/15th-century rebel and Lollard who was seen by some of Shakespeare's contemporaries as a proto-Protestant martyr. Publication The play was originally p ...

, the figure on which the character of

Sir John Falstaff Sir John Falstaff is a fictional character who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare and is eulogised in a fourth. His significance as a fully developed character is primarily formed in the plays ''Henry IV, Part 1'' and '' Part 2'', wh ...

is based in the late 16th-century

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

play '' Henry IV, Part 1''. It was the home of English geologist and political economist

George Poulett Scrope George Julius Poulett Scrope FRS (10 March 1797 – 19 January 1876) was an English geologist and political economist as well as a Member of Parliament and magistrate for Stroud in Gloucestershire. While an undergraduate at Cambridge, th ...

in the 19th century. He lived at the Manor House from the start in 1821 of his first marriage until the death of his wife Emma (the great-granddaughter of Sir Robert Long) in 1866; his wife's family had owned the land since the 14th century.Page, L.E.. ed. 1970-1990. ''Dictionary of Scientific Biography.'' New York: Scribner, p. 261. Scrope had the house heavily rebuilt between 1826 and 1830. He was also responsible for the creation of the formal gardens, where a summerhouse incorporates fragments of medieval stone, and a 15th-century church bell-cote shelters a garden seat. The gardens to the east of the house were remodelled in Italian style by a later owner, E. C. Lowndes, who made further alterations to the house in the 1870s. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, the New Zealand Forestry Officers used the Manor House as their headquarters, while a part of it was used as a hospital. In 1947, the owner of the Castle Combe estate sold the houses of the estate, and the Manor House became a country club. After 18 months, the club left the premises, and the house was shortly thereafter sold to Bobbie Allen, an amateur hotelier, and her husband (the Major). Over time, they established the Manor House as a country house hotel, run almost as a club. One source indicates that the conversion to a hotel occurred shortly after the war. A quite glamorous clientele ensued. Certain of the London hotels would refer guests in search of authentic England to the Manor House. Bobbie Allen was a horsewoman, and the grounds of the Manor House were known for their suitability for riding. Mrs. Allen was from Lancashire and was known for her directness. She wrote a book about her experiences, ''From Claridge's to Castle Combe'', self-published in 1968, which reflects her character and the post-War era of the community and the hotel. After many years, the Allens sold the Manor House to Mr. and Mrs. Oliver Clegg who, in 1988, sold it to the corporation which now owns the property. By the time it was listed as a Grade II building in 1960, it was already operating as a hotel. Some sources state that

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...

wrote at least some of her memoirs, ''

The Downing Street Years ''The Downing Street Years'' is a memoir by Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, covering her premiership of 1979 to 1990. It was accompanied by a four-part BBC television series of the same name. History Thatcher' ...

'', in the manor's Full Glass bar.

References

External links

* Hotels in Wiltshire Castle Combe Country houses in Wiltshire Grade II listed buildings in Wiltshire Grade II listed hotels Country house hotels {{UK-hotel-struct-stub