Joyce Grove is a country house built in a Jacobethan style in

Nettlebed Nettlebed is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire in the Chiltern Hills about northwest of Henley-on-Thames and southeast of Wallingford. The parish includes the hamlet of Crocker End, about east of the village. The 2011 Census recor ...

Oxfordshire, England Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

. It is owned by Sue Ryder National Charity which, until March 2020 operated its Nettlebed Palliative Care Facility at Joyce Grove at Nettlebed in Henley-On-Thames, Oxfordshire. Joyce Grove is located approximately west of London. Completed in 1908,Nikolaus Pevsner, Jennifer Sherwood, ''The Buildings of England: Oxfordshire'', Oxfordshire (1974) Penguin ed. p. 405 Joyce Grove is a large Jacobethan style building designed by Charles Edward Mallows (1864–1915) for Robert Fleming (1845–1933), founder of Robert Fleming and Co. merchant bank. Joyce Grove is listed Grade II on the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, a ...

History

Lodge at entrance to Sue Ryder Hospice (geograph 5331873)

As early as 1637 Joyce Grove, named for Cornet

George Joyce Cornet George Joyce (born 1618) was a low-ranking officer in the Parliamentary New Model Army during the English Civil War. Between 2 and 5 June 1647, while the New Model Army was assembling for rendezvous at the behest of the recently formed ...

, was sold to James Thompson of Wallingford. By 1840, Joyce Grove was registered as a freehold estate of 33 acres belonging to John Toovey. London businessman H. H. Gardiner purchased Joyce Grove estate in 1894. Joyce Grove estate, including a William and Mary style manor house dating from 1725, was incorporated into the main Nettlebed estate in 1895. In 1903, Robert Fleming purchased the Nettlebed Estate which included 2000 acres, cottages, clayworks, and Joyce Grove estate with its manor house and land. Shortly after purchasing Joyce Grove, Robert Fleming tore down the older manor house and in its place he commissioned Charles Edward Mallows of Bedford and London to build a replacement. The main construction material was red brick with Bath stone dressings. The house was completed in 1908. The huge building and its grounds provided many jobs for residents of Nettlebed as gardeners, servants, and grooms. On November 14, 1913, a fire damaged the roof and the mansion was rebuilt and enlarged. Robert Fleming's grandson, Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond novels, spent much of his childhood at Joyce Grove. At Robert Fleming's death in 1933, his son Philip Fleming inherited the entire Nettlebed estate including Joyce Grove. In 1937, Philip gave Joyce Grove to Peter Fleming, his nephew. The next year, Peter donated it to St Mary's Hospital, who used it as a convalescent home. By the 1950s, St Mary's Hospital had partnered with

Royal Berkshire Hospital The Royal Berkshire Hospital (RBH) is a large NHS hospital in the town of Reading in the English county of Berkshire. It provides acute hospital services to the residents of the western and central portions of Berkshire, and is managed by the R ...

to train nurses at Joyce Grove. Sue Ryder Charity purchased Joyce Grove mansion and estate from St Mary's and opened Joyce Grove as the Nettlebed Palliative Care Hospice, in 1979. In November 2011 Sue Ryder Charity announced that the hospice was for sale and that they intended to vacate the building in 2013 when palliative care was to be transferred to Townlands Community Hospital in Henley-on-Thames. However, the project was delayed due to the re-structure of the

NHS The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

, so the transfer of palliative services is now scheduled to take place in May 2016. In December 2014 Sue Ryder announced that they would no longer be moving to 'Townlands' and would continue providing care at Nettlebed Hospice.

Movie and television location

Joyce Grove has been a filming location for British television shows, documentaries and one movie. Joyce Grove was Deverill Hall in the episode "Right Ho, Jeeves" from ''Jeeves and Wooster'', a 1992 TV series. Stock footage of Joyce Grove was used in the 2000 biographical documentary "Ian Fleming: 007's Creator". In the "Midsomer Murders" TV series, Joyce Grove was Bledlow Manor for the 2008 episode "Blood Wedding". Joyce Grove was shown as the exterior of Meadowbrook School for the 2009 TV series episode "''

Agatha Christie's Poirot ''Poirot'' (also known as ''Agatha Christie's Poirot'') is a British mystery drama television programme that aired on ITV from 8 January 1989 to 13 November 2013. David Suchet starred as the eponymous detective, Agatha Christie's fictional Her ...

'':

Cat Among the Pigeons ''Cat Among the Pigeons'' is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 2 November 1959, and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in March 1960 with a copyright date of 1959. The UK ...

" and also as Hunterbury House for the 2003 TV series episode "'' Agatha Christie's Poirot'':

Sad Cypress ''Sad Cypress'' is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in March 1940 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. The UK edition retailed at ei ...

". Filming of the documentary "The Real Casino Royale" was done at several locations including Joyce Grove. In the 2013 movie

The Imitation Game ''The Imitation Game'' is a 2014 American historical drama film directed by Morten Tyldum and written by Graham Moore, based on the 1983 biography '' Alan Turing: The Enigma'' by Andrew Hodges. The film's title quotes the name of the game c ...

, about World War II code breaker

Alan Turing Alan Mathison Turing (; 23 June 1912 – 7 June 1954) was an English mathematician, computer scientist, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher, and theoretical biologist. Turing was highly influential in the development of theoretical co ...

, Joyce Grove was used for exterior shots of Bletchley Park. It will feature in HBO's new UK-based fantasy/super hero show ''

The Nevers ''The Nevers'' is an American science fiction drama television series created by Joss Whedon for HBO. The series is produced by HBO and Mutant Enemy Productions with executive producers including Whedon, Philippa Goslett, Doug Petrie, Jane Es ...

''.

References

External links

{{commons category-inline Country houses in Oxfordshire Grade II listed buildings in Oxfordshire Grade II listed houses Houses completed in 1908 Jacobean architecture in the United Kingdom South Oxfordshire District