Englefield House
| Englefield House | |
|---|---|
Englefield House
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| General information | |
| Type | Stately home |
| Architectural style | Elizabethan |
| Location | Englefield, Berkshire, England |
| Country | England |
| Construction started | 1558 |
| Owner | Richard Benyon |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | three |
| Website | |
| Englefield Estate | |
Englefield House is an Elizabethan country house with surrounding estate at Englefield in the English county of Berkshire, owned by the Benyon family. The gardens are open to the public all year round on particular weekdays and the house by appointment only for large groups.
The present house was erected before 1558. There were substantial alterations by Thomas Hopper in the 1820s.
Englefield House was the home of the Englefield family, supposedly from the time of King Edgar. Sir Thomas Englefield was the Speaker of the House of Commons. In 1559, the house was confiscated from Thomas Englefield's grandson, Sir Francis Englefield, a servant of the Catholic Queen Mary, for "consorting with [the] enemies" of the new Protestant monarch, Elizabeth I.
Popular local tradition is that the Queen granted Englefield to her spymaster, Sir Francis Walsingham, although there is no evidence of this. After a succession of short-lived residents, the estate was eventually purchased by John Paulet, 5th Marquess of Winchester, famous for his Civil War defence of Basing House in Hampshire. He retired to Englefield at the Restoration and is buried in the parish church. From his Paulet descendants, the house passed, through marriage, to the Benyon family. Numerous members of the Benyon family have also been Members of Parliament, including the current occupant of the main house of the estate, Richard Benyon. Recent descent has been: Lord Francis Paulet (d. 1696); Francis Paulet (d. 1712); Anne Paulet (d.1729); Powlett Wright the elder (d.1741); Powlett Wrighte the younger (d. 1779); Nathan Wrighte (d. 1789) (descendants of Sir Nathan Wright(e) (1654–1721), Lord Keeper of the Great Seal); Richard Benyon the younger (d. 1796); Richard Benyon De Beauvoir (d. 1854); Richard Fellowes Benyon (d. 1897); James Herbert Benyon (d. 1935); Sir Henry Benyon, Bt. (d. 1959); Vice-Admiral Richard Benyon (d. 1967) and Sir William Benyon (d. 2014).
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