Mapledurham House

Mapledurham House

Location	Mapledurham, Oxfordshire, England
Coordinates	51°29′5.28″N 1°2′7.80″W / 51.4848000°N 1.0355000°W / 51.4848000; -1.0355000Coordinates: 51°29′5.28″N 1°2′7.80″W / 51.4848000°N 1.0355000°W / 51.4848000; -1.0355000
Built	c.1585
Governing body	Mapledurham Estate

Listed Building – Grade I
Official name: Mapledurham House
Designated	24 October 1951
Reference no.	1368944
Location of Mapledurham House in Oxfordshire

Mapledurham House is an Elizabethan stately home located in the civil parish of Mapledurham in the English county of Oxfordshire. It is a grade I listed building, first listed on 24 October 1951.^[1]^[2]

History and architecture

The property was first held by Michael Blount^[2] and has remained in the Blount-Eyston family to this day.^[3] Building was started around 1585, at the time of the Spanish Armada,^[2] in the classic Elizabethan E-shape. It includes a late 18th century chapel built in the Strawberry Hill Gothic style for the recusant Roman Catholic owners of the house. Prior to the Catholic Emancipation, the owners would hide priests in its priest holes, some of which were only discovered in the 21st century, and secretly celebrate Mass with a makeshift altar hidden inside a writing desk.^[3] The estate covers much of the village including Mapledurham Watermill and part of the church.

Art and Literary associations

The poet Alexander Pope was a frequent visitor to the house as he was enamoured of two daughters of the Blount family. The house and surrounding village were used for the filming of the 1976 film of The Eagle Has Landed and also for several television series, including Midsomer Murders.^[4] It is also reputed to have been the inspiration for E. H. Shepard's illustrations of Toad Hall for Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows, although this is also claimed by Hardwick House.

Noise complaints

Sight-seeing helicopter flights run from the estate, with up to 70 short flights per day, caused complaints about noise levels, with one local resident describing it in 2013 as like being "in Vietnam during a high intensity attack". A representative of the estate responded by saying that they had taken account of the complaints by reducing the number of helicopter flight days from 20 to 10 per year.^[5]^[6]

Gallery

Mapledurham House
The Church at Mapledurham House
Majestic Tree
"The Marriage of Figaro"

References

↑ Explorer Map 159 - Reading (Map). Ordnance Survey. 2006.
1 2 3 "Mapledurham House - 1368944". Historic England. Archived from the original on 22 October 2015. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
1 2 Thompson, Damian (1 June 2011). "Mapledurham: the Catholic country house that's still yielding up its secrets". The Daily Telegraph.
↑ "Mapledurham and the Hollywood watermill". Visit Midsomer County (South Oxfordshire District Council). Archived from the original on 20 October 2015. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
↑ "Mapledurham House sightseeing helicopters prompt row". BBC News. 9 May 2013. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
↑ "Villagers angry as helicopter flights resume". Higgs Group. 7 May 2013. Retrieved 9 May 2013.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mapledurham House.

Museums and galleries in Oxfordshire

City of Oxford	Ashmolean Museum Bate Collection of Musical Instruments Christ Church Picture Gallery Modern Art Oxford Museum of the History of Science Museum of Oxford Oxford University Press Museum University of Oxford Botanic Garden Oxford Castle Oxford University Museum of Natural History Pitt Rivers Museum Science Oxford The Story Museum

Region	Abingdon County Hall Museum Ashdown House Banbury Museum Benson Veteran Cycle Museum Blenheim Palace Bloxham Village Museum Broughton Castle Buscot Park Bygones Museum Champs Chapel Museum of East Hendred Charlbury Museum Chastleton House Chipping Norton Museum Churchill and Sarsden Heritage Centre Cogges Manor Farm Combe Mill Didcot Railway Centre Dorchester Abbey Museum Greys Court Hook Norton Brewery Museum Hook Norton Village Museum Kelmscott Manor Mapledurham House Mapledurham Watermill Oxford Bus Museum Oxfordshire Museums Resource Centre The Oxfordshire Museum Pendon Museum Project Timescape River and Rowing Museum Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum Stonor Park Swalcliffe Barn Swinford Museum Thame Museum Tolsey Museum Tom Brown's School Museum Vale and Downland Museum Wallingford Museum Waterperry Museum of Rural Life Witney and District Museum

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