Oakley Court
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Oakley Court is a
Victorian Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
country house set in overlooking 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 ...
at Water Oakley in the
civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...
of Bray in the
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
county of Berkshire. It was built in 1859 and is currently a hotel. It is a Grade II* listed building that has been often used as a film location.


Overview

The Court was built in 1859 for Sir Richard Hall Say who married Ellen Evans of Boveney Court in 1857. He was appointed High Sheriff of Berkshire in 1864 and Justice of the Peace in 1865. In 1874 Oakley Court was sold to Lord Otho FitzGerald, then to a John Lewis Phipps and in 1900 to
Sir William Beilby Avery Sir William Beilby Avery, 1st Baronet (26 April 1854 – 28 October 1908"Death of Sir W.B. Avery, Bart." in ''The London Philatelist'', Vol. XVII, No. 203, November 1908, pp. 256-7.) was a British philatelist who was entered on the Roll of Disting ...
of Avery Scales. In 1919 Ernest Olivier purchased the property together with of Berkshire woodland for £27,000.


Sir Richard Hall-Say

Richard Hall-Say built Oakley Court in 1859 two years after his marriage. He was born as Richard Hall in 1827. His father was Richard Hall, a merchant, but it was his mother Harriet Say that brought to him his great wealth. She was the daughter and co-heir of Robert Say who owned Pennington Hall near Manchester. When her uncle, the Rev. Henry Say who had no direct heirs, died in 1855, Richard inherited and took the additional name of Say to become Richard Hall-Say. In 1857, he married Ellen Evans, who was the only child of Edward Evans of Boveney Court in Windsor. The couple had six children, two boys and four girls. Their eldest daughter Mary Violet Hall-Say married the Rev Arthur Henry Austen Leigh who was the great nephew of Jane Austen. In about 1874, the Hall-Say family sold Oakley Court to Lord Otho Fitzgerald.


Lord Otho Fitzgerald

Otho Fitzgerald lived in Oakley Court from 1874 until his death in 1882. He was born in 1827 in London and was the third son of the Duke of Leinster. He entered the army and served in the Royal Horse Guards. He was elected as a Member of Parliament and was appointed to several official positions in the Queen's Household. He was an amateur photographer and several of his photographs are in the Royal Collection. He was also a musical composer and wrote a piece called "The Spirit of the Ball". In 1861 at the age of 34 he married Ursula, widow of the 1st Baron Londesborough and daughter of Vice-Admiral Charles Orlando Bridgeman. The couple had two children. The Fitzgeralds entertained at Oakley Court, their guests including Napoléon, Prince Imperial of France and Lilly Langtry. Lady Augusta Fane in her memoirs recalls a water party held at Oakley Court where Lilly Langtry was present. Otho died in 1882 and his wife Ursula died a year later. Oakley Court was rented out for the next ten years and then in 1894 John Lewis Phipps bought the house.


John Lewis Phipps

John Lewis Phipps was born in 1872 in London. His father was Richard Leckonby Hothersal Phipps of Leighton House in Westbury, Wiltshire. His grandfather was John Lewis Phipps (1801-1870) a coffee merchant and Member of Parliament. In 1889 John's father died and he inherited the family fortune. When he bought Oakley House in 1894 he was only 22 years old. Two years before this he had married Mary Jane Davis and they had one son John Nigel Phipps who was born in 1893. The Phipps sold the house to Sir William Avery in 1908.


Sir William Avery Baronet

William Bielby Avery was born in 1854 in Birmingham He was a member of a dynasty of steelyard and scale makers whose business,
W & T Avery W & T Avery Ltd. (later GEC Avery) was a British manufacturer of weighing machines. The company was founded in the early 18th century and took the name W & T Avery in 1818. Having been taken over by GEC in 1979 the company was later renamed int ...
, manufactured weighing machines.Anita McConnell, ''Avery, Thomas (1813–1894)'', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, May 2005 In 1881 he assumed control of the company with his brother and they further developed the company and invented improvements to the machines. In 1891 he retired as managing director but retained a seat on the Board. He was on the board of directors of A Darracq and Company (1905) and Commonwealth Oil Corporation of Australia and other major businesses. He became a philatelist and had a celebrated stamp collection. His first wife Anna Louisa Avery died in 1902 and he married Suzanna Mathilde Crets in Paris in the same year. In 1906 “The Gardener’s Chronicle” published an article about the Oakley Court garden which can be seen
here
William died in 1908 and Lady Avery remarried in 1911. The house was rented for several years and then in 1916 was put on the market. The property was bought by Ernest Oliver.


Film set

In August 1949, Oakley Court became home to the British film production company Hammer Films. Hammer shot five films there, including ''The Man in Black'' and ''The Lady Craved Excitement'', before moving to the adjacent Down Place - what subsequently became
Bray Studios Bray Productions was a pioneering American animation studio that produced several popular cartoons during the years of World War I and the early interwar era, becoming a springboard for several key animators of the 20th century, including the ...
- the following year. While the bulk of Hammer's best known horror movies were filmed at Bray in the late 1950s and early '60s, the studio continued to make occasional use of Oakley Court as an exterior location, for example in ''
The Brides of Dracula ''The Brides of Dracula'' is a 1960 British supernatural horror film produced by Hammer Film Productions. Directed by Terence Fisher, the film stars Peter Cushing, David Peel, Freda Jackson, Yvonne Monlaur, Andrée Melly, and Martita Hunt. ...
'' (1962), ''
The Reptile ''The Reptile'' is a 1966 horror film made by Hammer Film Productions. It was directed by John Gilling, and starred Noel Willman, Jacqueline Pearce, Ray Barrett, Jennifer Daniel, and Michael Ripper. Plot summary In the 20th century in the fic ...
'' (1966), and ''
The Plague of the Zombies ''The Plague of the Zombies'' is a 1966 British horror film directed by John Gilling and starring André Morell, John Carson, Jacqueline Pearce, Brook Williams, and Michael Ripper. The film's imagery influenced many later films in the zombie ...
'' (1966). Other films shot there over the years include the William Castle horror-comedy '' The Old Dark House'' (1963); ''Witchcraft'' (1964); ''
And Now the Screaming Starts! ''And Now the Screaming Starts!'' is a 1973 British gothic horror film directed by Roy Ward Baker and starring Peter Cushing, Herbert Lom, Patrick Magee, Stephanie Beacham and Ian Ogilvy. It is one of the few feature-length horror stories by A ...
'' (1973); the cult independent horror film '' Vampyres'' (1974); the mystery farce ''
Murder by Death ''Murder by Death'' is a 1976 American comedy mystery film directed by Robert Moore and written by Neil Simon. The film stars Eileen Brennan, Truman Capote, James Coco, Peter Falk, Alec Guinness, Elsa Lanchester, David Niven, Peter Sellers, M ...
'' (1976); and the Peter Cook and Dudley Moore comedy, ''
The Hound of the Baskervilles ''The Hound of the Baskervilles'' is the third of the four crime novels by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle featuring the detective Sherlock Holmes. Originally serialised in ''The Strand Magazine'' from August 1901 to April 1902, it is se ...
'' (1978).
Freddie Francis Frederick William Francis (22 December 1917 – 17 March 2007) was an English cinematographer and film director. He achieved his greatest successes as a cinematographer. He started his career with British films such as Jack Cardiff's '' Sons and ...
was inspired by Oakley Court's exteriors and long wished to set a film there; his '' Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny, and Girly'' (1970) was written specially to take advantage of the unique landscaping and architecture. It was used as the location for Dr. Frank N. Furter's castle (called The Frankenstein Place) in ''
The Rocky Horror Picture Show ''The Rocky Horror Picture Show'' is a 1975 musical comedy horror film by 20th Century Fox, produced by Lou Adler and Michael White and directed by Jim Sharman. The screenplay was written by Sharman and actor Richard O'Brien, who is also ...
'' (1975). During filming, actress
Susan Sarandon Susan Abigail Sarandon (; née Tomalin; born October 4, 1946) is an American actorMcCabe, Bruce"Susan Sarandon, the 'actor'" ''Boston Globe''. April 17, 1981. Retrieved January 21, 2021. and activist. She is the recipient of various accolades, ...
, who played Janet Weiss, came down with pneumonia because neither Oakley Court or Bray Studios had heating or bathrooms, because, at the time, Oakley Court was in horrible condition. In 1995, it was featured as the "Laxton Grange Hotel" in the British television series ''
Pie in the Sky Pie in the sky, an idiom meaning an impossible or unlikely idea or plan as well as an empty wish or promise. Pie in the sky may refer to: * ''Pie in the Sky'' (TV series), a UK television series about a police officer turned restaurateur * ''Pie ...
'' starring Richard Griffiths. On many web resources, it is erroneously credited as being St Trinian's School in the original St Trinian's film series, but a comparison between the films and the actual building show a quite different architecture and overall design: Easneye House in Hertfordshire. Historical notes available from the hotel, however, indicate that some parts of the St Trinian films were filmed in the grounds, for example ''
The Wildcats of St Trinian's ''The Wildcats of St Trinian's'' is the fifth British comedy film set in the fictional St Trinian's School. Directed by Frank Launder, it was released in 1980. The film pokes fun at the British trade union movement which had been responsible ...
'' (1980).


References

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External links


Royal Berkshire History: Oakley Court

Oakley Court Hotel
Bray, Berkshire Buildings and structures in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Buildings and structures on the River Thames Country houses in Berkshire Gothic Revival architecture in Berkshire Grade II* listed buildings in Berkshire Grade II* listed houses Hotels in Berkshire Houses completed in 1859 Country house hotels