Braziers Park is a

Grade II* 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 ...

country house and estate on the edge of Ipsden - a small village near Wallingford, Oxfordshire, England - housing a secular intentional community and the School of Integrative Social Research. It has also been used as a film location for large- and small-budget films. The house once belonged to Ian Fleming's family, and the room that was once Fleming's nursery is now a library.

History

Braziers Park was built in the late 17th century (with a datestone of 1688), and modelled in the Strawberry Hill Gothic style of architecture by Daniel Harris on behalf of Isaac George Manley (1755–1837) in 1799. As a teenager, Manley had been a naval officer with

Captain Cook James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean and ...

on the first voyage of the Endeavour 1768–71; and was later Vice Admiral of the Red, and as commander of captured the French corvette ''Legere'' in 1796. He was made a Rear Admiral in 1809. In 1839, Frances Eliza (Fanny) Grenfell (1814–91), later a biographer, was living at Braziers Park with her sisters, and was visited by novelist Charles Kingsley (1819–75), then a

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

undergraduate. Kingsley later fictionalized this meeting as that of Argemone with Lancelot Smith in his first novel ''

Yeast Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and at least 1,500 species are currently recognized. They are estimated to constit ...

'' (1848). Despite Fanny having taken a vow of chastity with her sisters at Braziers Park, she and Kingsley married in Bath in 1844. Valentine Fleming, Member of Parliament for Henley, made substantial changes to the house when he bought it in 1906. His son Ian Fleming, the novelist, briefly lived at the house when very young. Braziers Park left side

Sir Ernest Moon (1854–1930), counsel to the Speaker of the House of Commons, bought the house from Fleming in 1911, and his widow Lady Moon sold the house to Norman Glaister (1883–1961) in 1950. Glaister set up the School of Integrative Social Research, which still exists at the site. Glaister had been involved in the

Grith Fyrd Grith Fyrd was a radical alternative educational movement in England during the 1930s. It created two permanent work camps, one at Godshill in Hampshire and the other at Shining Cliff in Derbyshire, which took in unemployed men and tried to use t ...

barter for work system. The School, which in part functioned as a

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

, aimed “to explore the dynamics of people living in groups, to develop better methods of interpersonal communication and to find new ways of combining knowledge to make it more meaningful.” An important member of the community was Robert Glynn Faithfull (died 1996), who had met Glaister through the

Order of Woodcraft Chivalry The Order of Woodcraft Chivalry is a scouting-like movement operating in the United Kingdom, which was founded in 1916 by Ernest Westlake. It was inspired by Ernest Thompson Seton's Woodcraft Indians, and Seton was its honorary Grand Chieftain. Wh ...

and who was viewed by the community as one of Glaister's successors. Faithfull was an academic at the

University of Liverpool , mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning , established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...

who studied the

Italian renaissance The Italian Renaissance ( it, Rinascimento ) was a period in Italian history covering the 15th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Europe and marked the trans ...

and had been in British espionage 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 ...

. He was married to Baroness Eva Erisso, a former ballerina. Their daughter, the singer and actress

Marianne Faithfull Marianne Evelyn Gabriel Faithfull (born 29 December 1946) is an English singer and actress. She achieved popularity in the 1960s with the release of her hit single " As Tears Go By" and became one of the lead female artists during the British I ...

, spent some of her early life in the community.

Mick Jagger Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the lead vocalist and one of the founder members of the rock band the Rolling Stones. His ongoing songwriting partnershi ...

of the Rolling Stones came to stay with Marianne Faithfull at Braziers Park after his release from prison in 1967 as her then boyfriend. In her autobiography she described Braziers Park as a “mixture of high

utopian A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia'', describing a fictional island society ...

thoughts and randy sex”. Marianne's half-brother Simon Faithfull grew up at Braziers Park.

Braziers Park today

Braziers Park is now home to around 20 people, some of whom live communally, and runs educational courses. In August 1996 the first of the annual Braziers International Artists' Workshop was held. It is the site of the annual Wood music festival that began in May 2008. Braziers is also a registered "LAND Learner" site under the UK Permaculture Association.

References

Notes

Other sources

Admiral J.G. Manley. Obituary, The Gentleman's Quarterly, 1837

Causley, C. (1851) ''Yeast''. John W. Parker
* Faithfull, M. (2007) ''Memories, Dreams & Reflections''. Fourth Estate.
Hill, A. (2006) Isaac Manley. 2006

braziersworkshop.org

External links

Braziers ParkBraziers listed at Historic EnglandBraziers on FacebookBraziers on TwitterBraziers on YouTube
{{Authority control Houses completed in the 17th century Houses completed in the 18th century Country houses in Oxfordshire Further education colleges in Oxfordshire Gothic Revival architecture in Oxfordshire Grade II* listed buildings in Oxfordshire Grade II* listed houses Intentional communities in the United Kingdom Adult education in the United Kingdom