Phyllis Court is a private members club in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England, situated by the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

. The Club was founded in 1906 and is located in a

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

-style building set within its own grounds, close to the town centre. It overlooks the finish line of the Henley Royal Regatta and is also slightly downstream (and on the opposite bank) from

Leander Club Leander Club, founded in 1818, is one of the oldest rowing clubs in the world, and the oldest non-academic club. It is based in Remenham in Berkshire, England and adjoins Henley-on-Thames. Only three other surviving clubs were founded prior t ...

and upstream of

Remenham Club The Remenham Club is a private members club near the village of Remenham on the Berkshire bank of the River Thames near Henley-on-Thames, on the reach of the river that plays host to the annual Henley Royal Regatta. It was formed in 1909 by ...

and

Upper Thames Rowing Club Upper Thames Rowing Club is an English rowing club. It has a large clubhouse at Remenham in Berkshire, on the River Thames near the town of Henley-on-Thames and is set back by its lawn frontage from the first half of the course of Henley Ro ...

. There is a rowing club on the river at Phyllis Court, the Phyllis Court Rowing Club, for recreational rowing.

History

The original building on this site dates from 1301. It was the

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 ...

of Henley-on-Thames and was known as ''Fillets Court''. Queen Anne, the consort of

King James I James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until hi ...

, visited the house in 1604. In 1643,

Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three K ...

built a wall which still edges the garden near the river. In the mid 17th century, Phillis Court was the home of Sir Bulstrode Whitelocke (1605–1675), parliamentarian and

Lord Keeper of the Great Seal The Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England, and later of Great Britain, was formerly an officer of the English Crown charged with physical custody of the Great Seal of England. This position evolved into that of one of the Great Officers of S ...

, who before his death gave it up to his son

William Whitelock Sir William Whitelock KC (27 December 1636 – 22 November 1717) was an English barrister and Tory politician. His name is also spelt Whitelocke (which was preferred by his father) and Whitlock. Early life Whitelock was the second son of Si ...

, later

Tory A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. The ...

member of parliament for the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

. In 1689, William of Orange, on his way to London, held his first court here. Sir

died at the house in 1717. The property later belonged to Edward Cooper, who sold Phillis Court to

Sambrooke Freeman Sambrooke Freeman FRSA (aka Sambrook Freeman, c.1721–1782) was a member of the prominent Freeman family of Fawley Court near Henley-on-Thames, England.Sambrooke Freeman of Fawley Court. In Roger Kendal, Jane Bowen, and Laura Wortley, ''Geniu ...

, the owner of

Fawley Court Fawley Court is a country house, with large mixed-use grounds standing on the west bank of the River Thames at Fawley in the English county of Buckinghamshire. Its former deer park extended east into the Henley Park area of Henley-on-Thames, Ox ...

nearby, in 1768. In 1939, the clubhouse was requisitioned by

HM Government ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd , image = HM Government logo.svg , image_size = 220px , image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg , image_size2 = 180px , caption = Royal Arms , date_es ...

for the duration of 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 ...

. It was first used as a

WAAF WAAF may refer to: * w3af, (short for web application attack and audit framework), an open-source web application security scanner * Women's Auxiliary Air Force, a British military service in World War II ** Waaf, a member of the service * WAAF (AM ...

Officers' mess The mess (also called a mess deck aboard ships) is a designated area where military personnel socialize, eat and (in some cases) live. The term is also used to indicate the groups of military personnel who belong to separate messes, such as the o ...

for the Central Interpretation Unit at

RAF Medmenham RAF Medmenham is a former Royal Air Force station based at Danesfield House near Medmenham, in Buckinghamshire, England. Activities there specialised in photographic intelligence, and it was once the home of the RAF Intelligence Branch. Durin ...

. Later it housed a top-secret unit making important photographic mosaics and models of the future Allied landing beaches in France and planning many raids including the " Dambusters". The clubhouse ended the war on a more peaceful note being used by the American Red Cross as a rest centre for war-weary airmen. On 6 November 1998, Queen Elizabeth II visited the Club before travelling upriver by boat to open the

River and Rowing Museum The River & Rowing Museum in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England, is located on a site at Mill Meadows by the River Thames. It has three main themes represented by major permanent galleries, the non-tidal River Thames, the international ...

List of chairmen of the council

The following have been chairmen of the council for Phyllis Court:

References

{{reflist

External links

Phyllis Court Club website
Buildings and structures completed in 1301 1906 establishments in England Organizations established in 1906 Cultural infrastructure completed in 1837 Clubs and societies in Oxfordshire Country houses in Oxfordshire Buildings and structures on the River Thames Gentlemen's clubs in England Henley Royal Regatta Henley-on-Thames