Farley Hall is a large 18th-century Grade I
listed country house in the English village of
Farley Hill, in the civil parish of Swallowfield, Berkshire.
The Hall was built in 1720s for Charles Lannoy.
Plans for the landscaping were drawn up by the landscape gardener
Charles Bridgeman
Charles Bridgeman (1690–1738) was an English garden designer who helped pioneer the naturalistic landscape style. Although he was a key figure in the transition of English garden design from the Anglo-Dutch formality of patterned parterres ...
. Formal gardens covering over 50 acres (20 hectares) have now been largely lost to agricultural and commercial development.
The house stands in parkland on high ground overlooking a lake and is built in brick in two storeys to a rectangular plan. The centre and oldest part has seven bays and is connected on each side by two bay links to four bay pavilions.
The 1750 acre (700 hectare) estate is bordered on three sides by tributaries of the
River Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, s ...
(the Whitewater, Blackwater and Loddon). Within the grounds is a traditional working farm, a livery facility, a dairy farm, a commercial partridge, pheasant and mixed bird shoot and a range of residential and commercial properties.
The livery yard opened in February 2010 and is run by Gavin Crossley, formerly of the
Household Cavalry. The Farley Hall Horse Trials became a new fixture in the
British Eventing calendar in 2014.
The estate is currently owned by
the fifth Viscount Bearsted and his family. Lady Bearsted (Dr Caroline Sacks) runs a medical practice from the Hall.
References
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Houses completed in 1729
Grade I listed buildings in Berkshire
Country houses in Berkshire
Grade I listed houses
1729 establishments in England
Swallowfield