Squerryes Court is a late 17th century manor house that stands just outside the town of Westerham in Kent. The house, which has been held by the same family for over 280 years, is surrounded by extensive gardens and parkland and is a grade I listed building.
The site has been inhabited for at least 800 years. According to the Domesday Book, in 1086 the Manor of Westerham was held by Earl Eustace de Boulogne, granted to him by William the Conqueror. Before that it was held by Earl Godwin under Edward the Confessor.
A substantial timber-framed hall house stood on this site before the present house was built between 1681 and 1685. From before 1272 it was owned by the Squery family, whose arms were A squirrel browsing on a hazelnut, until Sir Thomas Squery died in 1439. His daughter Margaret inherited, and on her death in 1448 the estate went to her son William Crowmer. The land changed hands many times; in the 1680s, the previous house was torn down and the present house built by Sir Nicholas Crispe. The house is set on a terrace and has a two-storey central block of seven bays under a steep, hipped slate roof with pedimented gables and dormers. It is a compact, oblong house, constructed of mellow orange brick. The original building was built flanked by two small wings forming a forecourt, but these were demolished and replaced in the 19th century. The replacement wings were themselves torn down after the Second World War and only the main block now remain.
In 1700, the property was sold by Sir Nicholas's son to Edward Villiers, 1st Earl of Jersey. The third earl sold it in 1731 to John Warde, whose great uncle Sir Patience Warde had been Lord Mayor of London in 1680. Subsequently, his father also achieved that office as well as becoming one of the first Governors of the Bank of England.
The building, which is in early Georgian style, houses a fine collection of Old Master paintings from the Italian, 17th century Dutch and 18th century English schools, together with furniture, porcelain and tapestries, all of which were acquired or commissioned by the family in the 18th century. Items connected with General James Wolfe, victor of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham and a friend of the Warde family, are also on display.
The house and gardens were open to the public for tours from 1952 until September 2012, when the Warde family moved into the house.