![Tottenham House front](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/Tottenham_House_front.jpg)
Tottenham House is a large
Grade I
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
listed
English country house in the parish of
Great Bedwyn
Great Bedwyn is a village and civil parish in east Wiltshire, England. The village is on the River Dun about southwest of Hungerford, southeast of Swindon and southeast of Marlborough.
The Kennet and Avon Canal and the Reading to Taunton ...
,
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 ...
, about five miles southeast of the town of
Marlborough
Marlborough may refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Marlborough, Wiltshire, England
** Marlborough College, public school
* Marlborough School, Woodstock in Oxfordshire, England
* The Marlborough Science Academy in Hertfordshire, England
Austral ...
. It is separated from the town by
Savernake Forest
Savernake Forest stands on a Cretaceous chalk plateau between Marlborough and Great Bedwyn in Wiltshire, England. Its area is approximately .
Most of the forest lies within the civil parish of Savernake. It is privately owned by the Earl of C ...
, which is part of the Tottenham Park estate.
The site of the house was part of the much larger Savernake Forest, and in the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
was controlled by heads of the Esturmy family. In the 15th century, the land passed by marriage to the
House of Seymour
Seymour, Semel or St. Maur, is the name of an English family in which several titles of nobility have from time to time been created, and of which the Duke of Somerset is the head.
Origins
The family was settled in Monmouthshire in the 13th cen ...
of nearby
Wulfhall
Wulfhall or Wolfhall is an early 17th-century manor house in Burbage parish, Wiltshire, England. It is north-east of Burbage village, and about south-east of Marlborough. A previous manor house on the same site, at that time in the parish of G ...
, about one mile to the south. The original house was probably built in about 1575 by
Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford
Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford, 1st Baron Beauchamp, KG (22 May 1539 – 6 April 1621), of Wulfhall and Totnam Lodge in Great Bedwyn, Wiltshire, of Hatch Beauchamp in Somerset, of Netley Abbey, Hampshire, and of Hertford House, Cannon R ...
, a nephew of
Queen Jane Seymour
Jane Seymour (c. 150824 October 1537) was Queen of England as the third wife of King Henry VIII of England from their marriage on 30 May 1536 until her death the next year. She became queen following the execution of Henry's second wife, Anne ...
, when it was known as Totnam Lodge. The present house incorporates parts of the earlier houses on the site built by the Seymours. In 1675, the estate passed to Lady Elizabeth Seymour, who married
Thomas Bruce, 2nd Earl of Ailesbury
Thomas Bruce, 2nd Earl of Ailesbury (later styled Aylesbury) and 3rd Earl of Elgin (1656 – 16 December 1741), styled Lord Bruce between 1663 and 1685, was an English politician and memoirist. He was the son of Robert Bruce, 2nd Earl of Elgin, ...
, thus bringing the house into the Bruce family.
In 1721, Elizabeth Seymour's son and heir,
Charles Bruce, 3rd Earl of Ailesbury
Charles Bruce, 3rd Earl of Ailesbury (later styled Aylesbury) and 4th Earl of Elgin (29 May 1682 – 10 February 1747), of Ampthill, Bedfordshire and Savernake Park, Wiltshire, styled Viscount Bruce of Ampthill from 1685 to 1741, was a British ...
, rebuilt Totnam Lodge to the design of his brother-in-law the pioneering Palladian architect
Lord Burlington
Earl of Burlington is a title that has been created twice, the first time in the Peerage of England in 1664 and the second in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1831. Since 1858, Earl of Burlington has been a courtesy title used by the duk ...
, and parts of the grounds, including the kitchen garden, were laid out by
Capability Brown between 1764 and about 1770. The house underwent a number of further rebuilds, and the current house, containing more than one hundred rooms, mostly dates from the 1820s, having then been remodelled by
Charles Brudenell-Bruce, 1st Marquess of Ailesbury
Charles Brudenell-Bruce, 1st Marquess of Ailesbury (14 February 1773 – 4 January 1856), styled The Honourable Charles Brudenell-Bruce from birth until 1776, Lord Bruce from 1776 to 1814 and The Earl of Ailesbury from 1814 to 1821, was a Britis ...
, who in 1818 (while still Earl of Aylesbury) had added a new range of stables designed by
Thomas Cundy.
The Bruce family lived in the house until 1946. Thereafter it was used as a
preparatory school until 1994, and then leased to a charity until 2005, after which it was unoccupied for some ten years, apart from a period in 2006, when the band
Radiohead recorded part of their album ''
In Rainbows
''In Rainbows'' is the seventh studio album by the English rock band Radiohead. It was self-released on 10 October 2007 as a pay-what-you-want download, followed by a physical release internationally through XL Recordings and in North America ...
'' at the house. It was then leased for 150 years to a US-based consortium with the intention of creating a luxury hotel and golfing centre, but the consortium went bankrupt in 2008. In 2014, the house was sold for £11.25m to an undisclosed buyer who had plans to turn it back into a private home.
Early history
![Tottenham House about 1790](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/Tottenham_House_about_1790.JPG)
The site of Tottenham House was known by 1200 as Tottenham Wood, a part of the much larger
Savernake Forest
Savernake Forest stands on a Cretaceous chalk plateau between Marlborough and Great Bedwyn in Wiltshire, England. Its area is approximately .
Most of the forest lies within the civil parish of Savernake. It is privately owned by the Earl of C ...
, and was under the control of the Esturmy family. The land passed to the
Seymour family
Seymour, Semel or St. Maur, is the name of an English family in which several titles of nobility have from time to time been created, and of which the Duke of Somerset is the head.
Origins
The family was settled in Monmouthshire in the 13th cen ...
by marriage of Maud Esturmy to Roger II Seymour in the 15th century.
It was probably
Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford
Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford, 1st Baron Beauchamp, KG (22 May 1539 – 6 April 1621), of Wulfhall and Totnam Lodge in Great Bedwyn, Wiltshire, of Hatch Beauchamp in Somerset, of Netley Abbey, Hampshire, and of Hertford House, Cannon R ...
(1539–1621), son and heir of the 1st Duke, of nearby
Wulfhall
Wulfhall or Wolfhall is an early 17th-century manor house in Burbage parish, Wiltshire, England. It is north-east of Burbage village, and about south-east of Marlborough. A previous manor house on the same site, at that time in the parish of G ...
, who in about 1575 built the first house, known as Totnam Lodge, and enclosed its surrounding land to form a
deer park.
Wulfhall was partly demolished, and the building materials used to construct Tottenham House.
The house was still known as the Lodge in 1623, in which year the parish register of Great Bedwyn records the baptism of the 1st Earl's great-granddaughter Frances Seymour, the daughter of
Sir Francis Seymour (c. 1590 – 1664) (later created
Baron Seymour of Trowbridge
Baron Seymour of Trowbridge was a title in the Peerage of England. It was created on 19 February 1641 for Francis Seymour, a younger son of Edward Seymour, Lord Beauchamp, for his support of Charles I in Parliament. It became a subsidiary title ...
), which was performed "at the Lodge in the Great Parke by Henrie Taylor, Vicar of Great Bedwin".
John Seymour, 4th Duke of Somerset
John Seymour, 4th Duke of Somerset and 3rd Marquess of Hertford (before 164629 April 1675) was an English peer and MP.
He was the only surviving son of William Seymour, 2nd Duke of Somerset, and Lady Frances Devereux. In 1656, he married Sara ...
(1629–1675), an uncle, inherited the estate in 1671 on the death of his nephew the 3rd Duke, and in 1672 he rebuilt Totnam Lodge and redesigned the deer park, which at that date included long tree-lined walks and a deer
chase
Chase or CHASE may refer to:
Businesses
* Chase Bank, a national bank based in New York City, New York
* Chase Aircraft (1943–1954), a defunct American aircraft manufacturing company
* Chase Coaches, a defunct bus operator in England
* Chase Co ...
.
The 4th Duke of Somerset bequeathed the
unentailed Seymour estates to his niece Elizabeth Seymour, the wife of
Thomas Bruce, 2nd Earl of Ailesbury
Thomas Bruce, 2nd Earl of Ailesbury (later styled Aylesbury) and 3rd Earl of Elgin (1656 – 16 December 1741), styled Lord Bruce between 1663 and 1685, was an English politician and memoirist. He was the son of Robert Bruce, 2nd Earl of Elgin, ...
(1656–1741), thus passing some of the Seymour estates to the Bruce family. In 1721 Elizabeth Seymour's son and heir,
Charles Bruce, 3rd Earl of Ailesbury
Charles Bruce, 3rd Earl of Ailesbury (later styled Aylesbury) and 4th Earl of Elgin (29 May 1682 – 10 February 1747), of Ampthill, Bedfordshire and Savernake Park, Wiltshire, styled Viscount Bruce of Ampthill from 1685 to 1741, was a British ...
, rebuilt Totnam Lodge to the design of his brother-in-law the pioneering Palladian architect
Lord Burlington
Earl of Burlington is a title that has been created twice, the first time in the Peerage of England in 1664 and the second in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1831. Since 1858, Earl of Burlington has been a courtesy title used by the duk ...
.
Henry Flitcroft
Henry Flitcroft (30 August 1697 – 25 February 1769) was a major English architect in the second generation of Palladianism. He came from a simple background: his father was a labourer in the gardens at Hampton Court and he began as a joiner by t ...
was the executant architect. The 3rd Earl added wings to Burlington's block in the 1730s, and also built in 1743 a Banqueting House in the park to the design of Burlington (demolished in 1824). Parts of the grounds, including the kitchen garden, were laid out by
Capability Brown from 1764 to c 1770.
In 1818,
Charles Brudenell-Bruce, 2nd Earl of Ailesbury, added stables to the design of
Thomas Cundy II
Thomas Cundy the younger (1790 – 15 July 1867) was an English architect, son of another architect of the same name. He joined his father's practice and ultimately succeeded his father as surveyor of the Grosvenor Estate, and held the posit ...
. In 1823–26 he enlarged and re-modelled the house, again to designs of Thomas Cundy.
Modern use
The Ailesbury family lived in the house, sharing it during the Second World War with the US Army, until 1946. Thereafter it was used by
Hawtreys Preparatory School until 1994 when Hawtreys merged with
Cheam School, Newbury. It was then leased for ten years to the Amber Foundation, a charity which helped unemployed troubled young people to rebuild their lives, but its work there ended due to cuts in government support.
In 1966, the house was designated as
Grade I listed, while the small octagonal
folly
In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but suggesting through its appearance some other purpose, or of such extravagant appearance that it transcends the range of usual garden buildings.
Eighteenth-cent ...
building (c. 1720) in the deer park, and the stable block (1819) were designated Grade II*.
David Brudenell-Bruce, Earl of Cardigan
David Michael James Brudenell-Bruce, Earl of Cardigan (born 12 November 1952), is the heir apparent to the marquessate of Ailesbury, and its subsidiary titles. These include Earl of Cardigan, which he currently uses as his courtesy title.
Bio ...
owned 49% and his son Thomas James Brudenell-Bruce, Viscount Savernake owned 51%. Between 2011 and 2017, the impoverished Earl was involved in a bitter legal battle with the trustees.
[Simon de Bruxelles, 'Penniless earl claims jobseeker's allowance after ex-wife's entire £1.5m estate goes to the children', '']The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'', March 07, 2013, No. 70826, p. 3
In 2006 the house, with its 50-horse stable block, outbuildings and some farmland, was leased for 150 years to a consortium of Golf Club Investment Holdings, Conduit Investments, and (as operator) the Buena Vista Hospitality Group of
Orlando
Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures re ...
, Florida, with the intention of creating a luxury hotel, conference, spa, and golfing centre. Full
planning permission
Planning permission or developmental approval refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. It is usually given in the form of a building per ...
was obtained, with the co-operation of the local Planning Authority and
English Heritage
English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses.
The charity states that i ...
, and an investment in the project of £50 million was announced. However 18 months later, before starting any building work, the consortium failed during the recession, and the lease ended.
In 2014, the trustees sold the house and 800 acres for £11.25m to an undisclosed buyer which was believed to be multi-millionaire property developer
Jamie Ritblat after overcoming a legal challenge from the Earl of Cardigan. In November 2014 the Earl was reported in the ''Daily Telegraph'' newspaper to be living with his second wife and baby daughter in an unheated lodge in the grounds of Tottenham House on a £71-a-week jobseeker's allowance while training to be a lorry driver. He is still theoretically the hereditary Warden of Savernake Forest and has stated he was: "put on this earth to take care of Savernake and I will never let it go".
He is due to benefit from the sale proceeds and will still own jointly with the trustees 3,700 acres, mainly woodland, in Savernake Forest.
As of 2017, the house had been unoccupied since 2005. Plans were submitted in December 2017 to return the house, stables, outbuildings and park to a family residence.
In popular culture
The house featured as the boys' school in the 1995 film ''
A Feast at Midnight
''A Feast at Midnight'' is a 1994 British comedy family film directed by Justin Hardy and starring Christopher Lee, Freddie Findlay, Robert Hardy, Samuel West, Edward Fox and Julie Dreyfus. The film is notable for being the feature film debut o ...
'', starring
Christopher Lee.
In 2006, the band
Radiohead recorded part of their 2007 album ''
In Rainbows
''In Rainbows'' is the seventh studio album by the English rock band Radiohead. It was self-released on 10 October 2007 as a pay-what-you-want download, followed by a physical release internationally through XL Recordings and in North America ...
'' at the house.
In 2013, the house and Savernake estate were used as the location for a short film commissioned by electronica pioneers
Goldfrapp
Goldfrapp are an English electronic music duo from London, formed in 1999. The duo consists of Alison Goldfrapp (vocals, synthesiser) and Will Gregory (synthesiser).
Despite favourable reviews and a short-listing for the Mercury Prize, their ...
to promote the song 'Drew' from their album ''
Tales of Us
''Tales of Us'' is the sixth studio album by English electronic music duo Goldfrapp, released on 6 September 2013 by Mute Records. In June 2013, the duo embarked on the Tales of Us Tour to promote the album.
Background and release
Goldfrapp ...
''. Shot in black and white by film editor
Lisa Gunning
Lisa Gunning is an English film director, editor and writer.
She began her career in 1990s, following her graduation from University College London, where she studied English. In 1998, she met director Anthony Minghella while working on a spot f ...
, the internal and external aspects of the house and surrounding forest feature extensively in the five-minute film. In 2015, the house featured in season 6 of the romantic-drama TV series, ''
Downton Abbey
''Downton Abbey'' is a British historical drama television series set in the early 20th century, created and co-written by Julian Fellowes. The series first aired in the United Kingdom on ITV on 26 September 2010 and in the United States o ...
''. The house, in the show called Dryden Park, is the rather run-down estate of Sir Michael Reresby; Thomas Barrow visits Dryden Park in 1925 to interview for a job as a man servant.
References
Further reading
* Lennon, Ben, Burlington, Brown and Bill
''The Landscaping of Tottenham Park and Savernake Forest in the Eighteenth Century''
External links
{{commons category-inline
Houses completed in 1826
Country houses in Wiltshire
Gardens in Wiltshire
Grade I listed houses
Grade I listed buildings in Wiltshire
Brudenell-Bruce family
1826 establishments in England
Thomas Cundy (junior) buildings