Rowneybury House from the air (geograph 4882967)

Rowneybury House is a house in

Sawbridgeworth Sawbridgeworth is a town and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England, close to the border with Essex. It is east of Hertford and north of Epping. It is the northernmost part of the Greater London Built-up Area. History Prior to the Norman ...

, Hertfordshire,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The property on which Rowneybury stands was part of Pishiobury before being divided in the 1880s. It was owned by Hertfordshire County Council and used as a home for children with learning disabilities. The original property had two upper floors, and a cellar under the majority of the main building. After laying empty for several years, it was purchased from the Council and renovated. In 1999, the property was purchased by the footballer David Beckham and his wife Victoria for £2.5 million. The property became dubbed "Beckingham Palace" by the press as a portmanteau of their surname and Buckingham Palace. They spent around £3 million on refurbishment, including a maze designed by James Gardner, in the grounds. In 2001, Victoria Beckham made a

virtual tour A virtual tour is a simulation of an existing location, usually composed of a sequence of videos, still images or 360-degree images. It may also use other multimedia elements such as sound effects, music, narration, text and floor map. It is dis ...

of the mansion available online. The property was put up for sale by the Beckhams in 2013. The house, with 17 acres of grounds, was bought by the insurance tycoon Neil Utley, chairman of

Hastings Direct Hastings Insurance Services Ltd is a UK personal lines insurance broker servicing customers via smartphone mobile app, online, and by phone. The company provides car, bike, van and home insurance, as well as a range of ancillary products and servi ...

, and Narmali Utley for £11.35 million in 2014. Rowneybury Cottage, near the entrance to the estate on Harlow Road, is a Grade II listed building. This

timberframe Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...

d house, dating from the late 16th-century to early 17th-century, was listed in 1981.

References

Country houses in Hertfordshire Orphanages in the United Kingdom Houses completed in 1930 Victoria Beckham David Beckham Sawbridgeworth {{Hertfordshire-geo-stub