St Leonard's Hill was a large

mansion A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word ''manse'' originally defined a property l ...

near

Clewer Clewer (also known as Clewer Village) is an ecclesiastical parish and an area of Windsor, in the ceremonial county of Berkshire, England. Clewer makes up three wards of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, namely Clewer North, Cle ...

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...

History

The house, originally known as Forest Court, was built by

Thomas Sandby Thomas Sandby (1721 – 25 June 1798) was an English draughtsman, watercolour artist, architect and teacher. In 1743 he was appointed private secretary to the Duke of Cumberland, who later appointed him Deputy Ranger of Windsor Great Park, wh ...

for Countess Waldegrave in the 1760s. She named it Gloucester Lodge following her marriage to the

Duke of Gloucester Duke of Gloucester ( ) is a British royal title (after Gloucester), often conferred on one of the sons of the reigning monarch. The first four creations were in the Peerage of England and the last in the Peerage of the United Kingdom; the curre ...

in 1766. The house was bought by

William Harcourt, 3rd Earl Harcourt Field marshal (United Kingdom), Field Marshal William Harcourt, 3rd Earl Harcourt, (20 March 1743 – 17 June 1830) was a Kingdom of Great Britain, British nobleman and British Army officer. He served as an ''aide-de-camp'' to George Keppel, 3r ...

in 1781 and, after remaining in the Harcourt family for over a century, it was acquired by

Sir Francis Barry, 1st Baronet Sir Francis Tress Barry, 1st Baronet, (8 June 1825 – 28 February 1907) was an English businessman who made his fortune from a copper mine in Portugal. Late in his life he became a Conservative Party politician, and sat in the Commons from 189 ...

in 1872. Barry made substantial alterations in the

Châteauesque Châteauesque (or Francis I style,Whiffen, Marcus, ''American Architecture Since 1780: A guide to the styles'', The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1969, p. 142. or in Canada, the Château Style) is a revivalist architectural style based on the ...

style and renamed it St Leonard's Hill. Following the death of Lady Barry in 1924 the house was largely demolished.

References

{{coord, 51.4682, -0.6510, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Country houses in Berkshire Demolished buildings and structures in Berkshire British country houses destroyed in the 20th century